You say you want a DVD player that plays discs from Europe, Asia and every other continent? Well, you won't find one at Future Shop but there are countless on offer at the Pacific Mall - the largest Asian mall in North America. That's right, most DVD players you find at the major retailers are shipped deliberately set to reject DVDs that were not purchased in North America. So if you buy a DVD on a trip to say England or France, there’s a very good chance you're not going to be able to play it on that Wal-Mart special. Or on that expensive Sony player either. You need what’s called a “region-free” DVD player. Pacific Malls has got them - and guess what, they don't cost any more than the deliberately limited ones do. In fact, you might even save a few bucks.

Ok, so where is this Pacific Mall? Is it hard to get to? Naw, it's easy. From York, just go east along Steeles until you reach Kennedy - and there you are. The gadget Mecca of Toronto awaits you. Want a 1GB memory card for your camera for under $100? You'll find it here. How about a 100 in 1 Game Boy Advance cartridge that somehow packs 100 games that you would normally have to buy individually into one cartridge? Yeah, you can find it here. And how cool is that? Instead of schlepping around a box full of games with you, you can just carry one little compact Game Boy Advance SP with one cartridge neatly tucked into it - and that's it.

Oh yeah, and you'll save some money. Actually, you save quite a bit of money. This is so amazing that it should be illegal! Actually, it probably is. But I'll leave that between you and your conscience.

So, any other quasi-legal ways I can save money? Well yeah! DVDs are so cheap at the Pacific Mall that you might be left wondering just how do they do it. But again, this is something between you and your Student Loan Officer. Or let’s say you'd like to unlock your phone so that you can switch from one company to another and keep the same phone. That can be arranged at the Pacific Mall. Or perhaps you're more of a do-it-yourselfer. Well then, you might be interested in certain cables and software on offer which allow you to connect your cell phone to your PC to unlock it - and perform many other interesting functions as well. I now have a new mode on my Nokia cell phone called "Field Test" which gives me very detailed information on signal strength and available signals that previously was only available to technicians. Hey, it's not for everyone, but if you want it, it's there.