I’m NOT an Australian.

I’m officially NOT an Australian. I have a New Zealand passport and I’m entitled to a British one too.  As I sit here in my Brisbane home on Australia Day, I’m officially a ‘Resident on a Special Category Visa’. That’s Aussie legal talk for ‘Kiwi’.  To my homeland, I’m a ‘Non-resident’.

There is a stereotype that Kiwis in Australia live off government payments and enjoy the land of milk and honey, just lazing about, and that’s before we mention sheep. Kiwis have their own thoughts on Australians and sheep too  So let’s just look at my profile for a minute as someone who’s NOT an Australian:

Emigrating here with my husband, we threw our money into two businesses.  One business supports other Australian small businesses by helping to keep their technology running, and therefore helps to keep their business running.  The other business supports people in Australia in their dream to own and run their own business.  We enjoyed the First Home Buyer’s Grant to build a home here in Brisbane. The Baby Bonus helped us financially when our two girls were born, and the Family Assistance Office tops up our bank account to help cover childcare expenses.  Today, I’ve ironed school uniform for our eldest who loves the Australian education system and her amazing teachers, and childcare is helping our youngest learn & explore, while freeing me to be involved in our businesses.

Over the last 3 days, I’ve logged 20 hours of unpaid work, volunteering to help our community during Brisbane’s wild weather. The weekend forecast is for more of the same. This is nothing in comparison to what some of the SES crews in my region have been logging this week.

My Australia Day morning was spent offering assistance to other SES groups, communicating with my wonderful crews who had offered their time, and assisting the SES & local councils put contingency plans in place in case more heavy rain does fall. For everyone involved, this was unpaid.  My afternoon was spent watching my daughter learn to ride her bike, watching the kids in the swimming pool at my parent’s home (who are also Kiwis), and catching up on some badly needed sleep.  There has been no BBQ, no alcohol (due to battling a headache already) and no lamb on the menu – I have not been near a supermarket so we’re surviving on whatever is in the freezer.

Does any of this make me Un-Australian?  Does any of this fit the stereotype of the Kiwi dole bludger?

I’m not asking for a medal. I’m not raising up my profile or my day so you can pat me on the back and tell me what a wonderful person I am.  I’m highlighting my life here in Australia to challenge you to rethink what it means to be an Australian.

The New Zealand and Australian cultures really don’t clash that much, unless you are talking about sporting teams.  When you think BBQs, backyard cricket and thongs are all Australian, Kiwis are doing the same thing every summer in their jandals.  Except they don’t get First Homebuyer Grants or Baby Bonuses.  So I’m fortunate that there’s really nothing from my upbringing or my culture that has been challenged by moving to a new country.  For all intents and purposes, I could be an Australian (except for my funny accent, apparently).  But I haven’t even investigated the process of citizenship as all it seems to offer me is the right to vote and, frankly, politics is not my thing.

Yet I don’t mind shouting ‘Happy Australia Day’.  I love the climate here, I love the friends we made and I love the Queensland lifestyle. I love this country that I’ve adopted, with its good bits and its bad bits. I guess it’s kind of like marriage!

I think ‘being Australian’ is an attitude.  It’s the person that says ‘I’m going to give it everything I can to build a great life for my family.  I’m going to help and support other people, whether they are my neighbour, my workmate or my favourite charity. I’m going to constantly put myself in situations where I can help to bring out the best in people. And I’m going to do it with a smile on my face, without taking myself too seriously sometimes, with hugs when they are needed and with stern words when they are needed too.’  I think being Australian is about enjoying life and wanting to contribute to this country, in whatever small way.

I also think that it’s important to retain your family history and heritage. Though I don’t have a Maori bloodline, I still love the culture that I was taught about during my childhood, and I respect both the native culture of my homeland and the English background of my mother.  Culture seems to be a touchy subject in Australia.  Ideas and traditions that aren’t ‘Australian’ are being practiced in homes across the land by immigrants and Australian children of immigrants.  I believe that you have a right to retain your cultural heritage, but the land of Australia has laws that you must follow too.  Surely part of the greatness of being in a different country is experiencing that country’s culture?  So on this point, I think tolerance is key – the tolerance of embracing the cultural melting pot that immigrants bring and the tolerance of accepting and adopting the Australian way of life when you move here. It’s a two-way street.  I’m just so thankful that in this land we can be free to express ourselves and follow our own religions (or not) without persecution or censorship (mostly), unless we’re being detrimental to others.

So, here endeth a rant from this non-Australian, on Australia Day 2012.  Whoever you are, and whatever your background or culture, I hope that Australia Day has been a time of relaxation and mateship for you.

-SCuffy.

 

The only thing that’s constant, is change.

Before you go and get all excited, it is not a New Year’s Resolution of mine to write more blog posts, even if it should be.  After housework, mummy duties and work, I occassionally like to spend an hour doing nothing but watching mindless TV, but that rarely happens, so my blog posting is waaay down in the priorities list.  Not to mention that I’ve discovered the time black hole that is Pinterest.  Saying that, I had to chuckle at someone else on Twitter who moaned that her brain is full of writing ideas UNTIL she sits down at her computer for some allocated writing time.  I often feel like that.  So tonight I’m foregoing an early (pre 10am) night in bed, to get some thoughts out of my brain.  Here’s hoping that will make for a better night’s sleep, instead of a night of processing what I’ve just written.

Today, our franchise global CEO of 13 years stepped down.  With his lovely new wife, he’s purchased his own franchise territory and is also working on another IT project.  This is good news and I’m happy to see people have taken it that way. This is life. Life changes. An organisation, any organisation, is more than just one person with a title (Hello, Apple, Steve Jobs?).  Yes, he was great to work with. Yes, he knew his stuff. But he’s made a decision to change his life and this should be (and is being) applauded.  The franchise will continue with the rest of the management team in place and some new blood at the helm.  Much like it did when the original founders stepped down.

So many people are scared of change.  I’m scared of uncertainty. I can handle making a decision to change, and to try something that’s not guaranteed. Then I’m actually doing something.  I hate being in limbo when you can’t make a decision until something else pans out, or you are at the hands of someone else’s decision (which is why I no longer rent).  But too many people have the same life they’ve had for the past 15 years and they are still unhappy.  If life isn’t working out for you, change it! And if the change doesn’t work out, change it again! No, I’m not advocating 10 different careers in 3 months, but don’t think that any decision you make is really that permanent.  So change jobs, fly to Canada, try to cook Japanese .. what’s the worst that could happen?  I admire people who have the courage to move off rusty nails.

Life is too short to be unhappy. Make it your life and really live it.

-SCuffy

 

‘Fitting’ Rooms

Tags

clothes, fitting rooms, Retail, shops

Today, Kerr Alexandra (@Kerr_alexandra) tweeted “Probably my most favorite fitting room sign ever!”, with a pic that referenced makeup and fake tans. I’m guessing this is the bane of many retailers, who end up with smudged and stained goods back on their racks that nobody wants to buy. I’m also guessing that model’s makeup scarves hanging in the fitting room may be lost on most of the general public too, though they are intended for the express purpose of keeping ones makeup on one and not on one’s new clothes when changing outfits.

It got me thinking though. What would be the best signs ever to see in a women’s fitting room? How about a retailer who addressed body issues head-on with some positive statements? Surely if you felt good in a fitting room, you’d be more likely to make a purchase?

Here are some of my suggestions:
Stop. Breathe. You are beautiful.
Size doesn’t matter. What you do with your life does.
Clothes are your external expression of the beauty that’s inside you.

Right about now, I run out of ideas, but you get my drift. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

So come on retailers, who’s up for the challenge? Even better – instead of retailers racking up bad publicity for targeting young girls with overly sexualised advertising, let’s see a young girls clothing chain take this on and run with it. Our young girls need positive reinforcement about their bodies, and you’ll have their credit-card wielding mums racing their daughters to your door.

-Scuffy.

It’s not you, it’s your content

Tags

Twitter

Today, my twitter account @CTAspley was unfollowed. Publicly.
The person who unfollowed me sent a tweet that mentioned my name, and said as I’d unfollowed them first, they would reciprocate. Boo hoo.

The impact of this is that I became aware of the unfollowing, and anyone that they follow also saw that I’d unfollowed that person. After that sentence, do you still follow me? If you use twitter, that probably made sense.

Does this put a black mark against my name in the twitter world as someone who unfollows? Do I care?

Here’s the thing. I unfollow people. I currently follow over 1,000 people and I just can’t handle that amount of information on a constant basis. I’ve decided to do a bit of a cull.

If I unfollow you, please don’t take it personally. I tend to follow most of my new followers, unless they are a) blatantly spam bots b) tweet content that is repetitive c) tweet to sell services or products not applicable to me/my country or d) tweet how to make money or gain new followers easily. If you pass those tests, I’ll generally follow you for a while to see what your content is like.

In the future, I may unfollow you, usually for one of the same reasons above. It’s not because I don’t Ike you. It’s usually because your content topics are not relevant to me OR you haven’t engaged me in an actual conversation. Some people that I follow are not in my industry or market segment and do not have children. But if I’ve mentioned that it’s been a tough week, they’ll message me and agree and wish me a better weekend. Also, some people who’s content I am interested in, don’t follow me back. Thats ok too. I don’t want to miss out on what they have to say.

If I unfollow you, please don’t take it personally. It just didn’t work out. Is everyone in the real world your friend too? To publicize an unfollow just reeks of sour grapes. I don’t do #teamfollowback, I just don’t see the point. for me, twitter is about content, not numbers.

Similarly, if you unfollow me, that’s ok. I can handle it. I’m a big girl. Not everyone in the real world wants to be my friend either. Not everyone wants to hear about technology, small business, working from home & wrangling small children. I get that I’m not everyone’s cup of tea, and I’m alright with that.

The story ended with a handshake and best wishes. I told the person in question that their topics weren’t relevant to me and I wished them well for the future. They respected my option to unfollow and likewise wished me well. No animosity at all, just like it should be. So I’m still left wondering as to what the point of their tweet was.

Twitter. It’s a strange old follow/unfollow world.

-Scuffy

How to save yourself after accidentally deleting an email folder on your iPhone

Tags

delete, email, exchange, folder, iphone, outlook

In the tradition of ‘physician, heal thyself’, I’ll come clean and confess to a slight user error with my iPhone. I will also let you in on the secret of how I recovered from it, which you may also be able to do WITHOUT calling your IT department.

So, this iPhone thing is all new to me. I’m usually an early adopter, but my HTC phone was still under contract when the first iPhone came out and then I procrastinated about the iPhone vs Windows Phone debate so I managed to launch straight into a 4S.  Setting it up was rather straighforward – until I tried to add another email account.  Said second email account is on a server that isn’t mine, and all I had was a wedmail address & the login details.  I can figure this out, surely.

Well, partway through, I got confused. See, if you add a New Mailbox into an existing account, that New Mailbox has an icon that makes it look just like a folder. And if you already have an existing folder with exactly the same name, and you decide to delete the New Mailbox cause you’ve put it in the wrong place, you may accidentally delete your folder. Even when it warns you that you are deleting the contents too, you click ok, cause you think you are deleting the new, incorrect Mailbox. Ooops.

If that whole last paragraph lost you completely – ignore it.  Pretend for a moment that you’ve just managed to accidentally delete an entire folder out of your email account including it’s contents, on your iPhone.  Ooops.

Having such great connectivity meant that my iPhone had already told my actual mailbox on our Microsoft Exchange email server that yes, I really did want to delete that folder and all of it’s contents.  Gulp.  However, my saving grace was my Microsoft Outlook offline storage file (OST).  Sitting dormant on my powered-off laptop, this little gem of a file had not talked to my server yet and had no idea that I wanted to delete that folder. And all of it’s contents.  So, here’s the magic trick:

I started up my laptop with it connected to the LAN and I logged in.  (It was quicker to do this connected than to wait for the laptop to realise it had no network and had to used my local info.)   I then DISABLED my Wi-Fi connection and UNPLUGGED my LAN cable.  The I started Outlook.  Outlook was sad that it had no connection to the Exchange server, but it happily displayed the cached, offline copy of my mailfile, including my deleted folder. And all of it’s contents.  #joy!

In Outlook, I then made a COPY of this folder (and it’s contents) to another location within my mailfile and gave it a new name.  Then I plugged in my LAN cable.

Outlook greeted the Exchange server, received the request to delete the orginal folder and sent back a request to please create a new folder in a new location with this new name and a copy of all of the contents, which is just what I had done when my Outlook client was disconnected.  Ta da!!

The folder still lives and so does it’s contents.

Now, don’t roll your eyes at me if you’re a seasoned Exchange Administrator because I’ve just posted something that’s sooo 1997.  This workaround did the trick nicely, is fairly straightforward to do, and might help somebody someday.  Unless they start their Outlook client when they are connected to the network and synchronise the deletion first. That would be bad. Then they might need to call their IT department.

-SCuffy 

 

My love/hate relationship with Monday

Tags

hate, kids, life, love, monday

After having dinner, getting the kids to bed & doing the dishes, I forced myself to go back into the office and finish today’s bookwork before I wrote this post. I did get it finished too, apart from one bill I have to yell at Sensis about.  My aim is to have the books up-to-date each Monday and I didn’t want to start Tuesday with that hanging over me.  All I really wanted to do though was write.  The term is ‘eating frogs’ – referring to doing what you don’t want to do, first, then enjoying your pleasant task afterwards.  Frog eaten, commence writing (it’s 21:41). Oh the life of a Work at Home Mum.

So many people on Twitter had a rough day today. I had a love/hate thing going on:

Hated -

- Getting out of bed

- Paying bills

- Bookwork

- Having to cook dinner

- Having to do the dishes

Loved - 

- Being able to get out of bed

- Having money to pay the bills (this week!)

- That it was OUR bookwork

- That there was food in the fridge to cook

- That dirty dishes meant full tummies

- Hearing about Miss 6′s day at school

- Blowing raspberries on Miss 2′s belly and hearing her cackle. Not laugh, not chuckle, actually cackle.

Overall, I guess today was more Love than Hate. Silver linings and all that. Bring on Tuesday.

-SCuffy

 

BigPond ADSL – Your ADSL Service Cancellation Notice email

Tags

bigpond, cancellation, email, fake, I.T, identity theft, notice, scam, security, telstra

Disturbing email doing the rounds over the long Easter weekend in Australia, pretending to be from BigPond. I’m blogging about this in the hope that you’ll find this entry if you receive that email and Google it first.  It’s a scam, and a very clever one.

First the details: sender address ebilling@bt.com (that’s your first alarm bell-bt.com is not a bigpond or telstra domain name)

Subject: Your ADSL Service Cancellation Notice (second alarm bell – I am not and have never been a BigPond ADSL customer)

Text: Dear BigPond User,

Telstra BigPond is sending you this e-mail to inform you that our service to you could be suspended. This might be due to either one of the following reasons:

1. You have changed your billing address.

2. You have Submitted incorrect information during bill payment process. (third alarm bell – bad english & capital letter in middle of sentence)

3. Your credit/debit card has expired.

4. You didnt update your bigpons profile. (fourth alarm bell-missing apostrophe and now bigpond has lost its capitals)

According to above(more bad english), and to ensure that your service is not interrupted, we request you to confirm and update your billing information now BY CLICKING HERE. (another alarm bell-Telstra will never ask you to do this and definately never in capitals)

If you have already confirmed your billing information then please disregard this message as we are processing the changes you have made.

Regards,

Telstra

Billing Department

Thanks for your co-operation

Accounts Management As outlined in our User Agreement, Telstra (r) will periodically send you information about site changes and enhancements.

OK, so there are a few things in there to make you question the email, but the real surprise is the lengths they have gone to with the fake website, and what they have the cheek to ask you for.  When you click on the link, you are taken to a page that looks very much like a Telstra website:

The logo is there and the links at the bottom even point to pages on the real Telstra website.  But the big alarm bell here is this statement: “This is a secure page. Telstra has implemented SSL security technology designed to prevent unauthorised people from reading this page, or the information you send to us via this page.”  Ah no, actually that page is not secured by an SSL certificate, as the address at the top does not appear as https:// and there’s no little golden locked padlock showing in my browser.

So let’s see how far we can push this thing?  Enter a username & password – just anything, make it up .. and you get to page 2 – Thank you for confirming your identity.  And now the fun begins. They want your name, credit card details, billing address, phone number, home phone, date of birth and drivers license number.  Excuse me? I don’t think so.

So we make up some more fake info and submit it, and we get a short confirmation page which then redirects us to the real Telstra website.

Apart from wondering how on earth it can validate a completely made-up username and password, there are elements in there to really make you think it is legitimate.  The site is hosted by e3event.com which is in Indian company.  I’ve forwarded this email to Telstra to get their comment, but I’m betting my money it’s a fake. And if it is, it’s a good one.

The best scammers know that instead of spending their time trying to break technology’s security measures, they just need to take advantage of our human nature and gain our trust. With a few chosen words and a carefully placed logo, we believe they are Telstra and we’re going to lose our internet connection. The easiest way for them to gain access to your personal information is for them to to ask you for it. 

Another concern is the timing of this. It was reported to a few Computer Troubleshooters franchisees as appearing over the Easter long weekend, which was a 5 day public holiday in Australia this year due to the ANZAC Day commemoration.  The billing departments of all corporations were closed (internet providers only run technical support on weekends) and who wants to be without their internet for 5 days because you decided to wait & phone Telstra to check it out first?

So, now you’ve been warned, and you’ve seen why I think this is a scam. I’ll let you know Telstra’s reply when I get it (hopefully tomorrow – at 9pm their privacy department isn’t open).

-SCuffy

Help Christchurch from your kitchen – become part of Baked Relief

Tags

baked relief, christchurch, earthquake, eqnz

To my friends in Christchurch, my colleagues, my school mates,  I need to tell you about a great concept that will help the people of this great city to recover.

In Brisbane’s recent floods, Danielle Crismani realised that homemade food would warm people’s hearts. She didn’t realise that as well as the joy of the recipients, the home bakers themselves would be filled with joy from just being able to contribute, many with young children at their feet.

Danielle started sending tweets with a #bakedrelief hashtag, allowing people to monitor what food was needed and where.  And people started cooking.  And emergency services workers and displaced residents were thrilled to have more than an army ration pack or a sausage in bread.

Since then, Baked Relief has grown to so much more than that in Brisbane.  It’s become a phenomenon and covered by the media.  And then Queensland was hit by Cyclone Yasi.  Baked relief was needed again and far north Queensland started baking.

When I saw the devastation in Christchuch, I knew Baked Relief would be needed there too, and so did Danielle. She has been working tirelessly to get contacts on the ground to support a wave of homemade goods to people who need them. And by need I mean more emotionally than physically.

I know that jittery feeling that stays with you and peaks with every aftershock.  I don’t know how it actually feels to be so relieved at finding loved ones or have your world on hold because you still haven’t found them.  But I do know how it feels to be so thankful that your house is still standing when others have lost so much.

I know that many of you are without stable, clean water supplies or sewerage.  That’s ok – be with your families and focus on survival right now.

But when the time is right (and it will be soon), if you do have access to power, water and ingredients, I’d love for you to start cooking too.  Here’s how it works:

1. Visit www.twitter.com
2. You dont need to sign up for an account if you just want to read the messages
3. Type ‘bakedreliefnz’ in the search bar
4. Then you’ll see every current request for help or information for drop off points
5. Sweet and savoury foods are needed, preferably finger foods, nothing that needs heating
6. Cut into individual servings and the whole lot wrapped together in glad wrap
7. With a note in the wrap stating what it is, when it was baked and a list of ingredients (important for allergies).

Baked Relief is about rapidly empowering individuals to contribute.  A dozen muffins can shine a huge light into someone’s dark day or lift the spirits of a tired rescue worker.  You can learn more about Danielle’s work at www. bakedrelief.org

You don’t need to be USAR trained, a policeman or a council worker to make a difference to the people who need it the most.  I’d love you to send me a message when you’ve delivered your first contribution because I know that my hometown is full of everyday, ordinary heros.

 

My thoughts on the Mud Army

Tags

army, mud, mud army, qldfoods

The Mud Army was a term being used by the media to descibe the volunteers that helped thousands of Brisbane residents prepare for and recover from the flooding from the Brisbane River (after the Toowoomba flash floods Mon 10 Jan 2011).  Like mud, the name just stuck.

I had the privilege of being part of the ‘uniformed division’ of the Army in my SES orange overalls.  After watching the news of our regional Queensland towns being flooded, and just wanting to get out to help them, I (along with hundreds of others) was needed in my own backyard.  The weather forecast had not been good, but I had no idea that I’d ever see the Brisbane River get so high.  I also had no idea that the general public would roll up their sleeves and help.

To me, the Mud Army is not a label which is limited to the Brisbane City Council-registered volunteers.  Did you fill a sandbag? Did you help someone evacuate? Did you carefully pull sodden possessions out of someone’s home? Did you check on a neighbour, a friend, a complete stranger? Did you cook sausages or drive down the street handing out cold drinks? Did you get in your own car and just drive? Did you join up with other friends, businesses or community groups?  Then in my books you’re an honaray member of the Mud Army, whether you were in the council areas of Brisbane, Ipswich, Toowoomba, Lockyer Valley, Emerald, Condamine, Rockhampton … anywhere across 75% of our beautiful state where the rivers just couldn’t contain their contents.

These fantastic people deserved an identity, so I thought it would be great if they had a t-shirt – something to wear with pride to say they were part of something great.  So I posted on the Today Show’s facebook page.  And someone read it.  And someone took notice.  And Cam mentioned it to Premier Anna Bligh who loved the idea.  And before I knew it, the Today Show had everything organised.  Wow.

I’m blown away that a simple idea like this was embraced and made a reality.  I love that the proceeds will go to the Flood Relief Fund.  I think this is an opportunity for those who couldn’t be part of the Army to show their support of the volunteers and contribute to the Relief Fund at the same time.  One one hand, I wish I had enough cash to give all of the volunteers their own tshirt for free .. but that amount of money would do significantly more good in the Flood Relief Fund instead.

 To the Mud Army, it was a pleasure to serve alongside you.  You served the homeowners with enthusiasm, determination and most of all, respect and no job was too hard or beneath you.  

Who knows when the Mud Army’s tour of duty will end?  Some say that Brisbane had had all of the focus.  I think the response here was necessary due to the sheer size of the impact (including the central business district of our state’s capital) and it’s proximity to volunteer help.  I know that the towns outside of Brisbane are hurting too and I also know of Brisbane Mud Army members who would deploy across our state in a heartbeat.  Brisbane still has a while to go before a complete recovery which I think needs to be balanced with the recovery of the regional towns.  If only we had enough resources to tackle everything simultaneously, because with the influx of a large number of out-of-town volunteers would come accomodation, travel, food requirements etc on an already stressed town.  That’s not an excuse, that’s just a personal obervation.

And I’ll leave you with one more personal observation – the response from the Premier and her office.  This is not a political advertisement (being a kiwi, I’m not even allowed to vote here), but I think it’s important that you know that whilst Anna Bligh deals with the recovery of the economy of her state capital, the recovery of 75% of her state (businesses, farmers, homeowners all impacted) and questions from the media and others about whether this could have been predicted better, she has time to ensure her office follows up my little story about a t-shirt idea.  That’s impressive leadership.

-SCuffy.

Logitech Harmony One Review – Logitech Australia Product Tester

Tags

control, harmony, harmony one, logitech, one, remote, touch

Logitech Australia Product Tester – Harmony One Remote (Dec 2010)

Logitech Australia reached out to its social media community and asked for volunteers to test some of their products.  I was accepted as one of the ‘chosen few’ and here is my completely unbiased report on their product.  Enjoy!

On arrival, the Harmony One remote was staring at me through clear plastic, just waiting to escape!  The packaging did a clever job of hiding all of the boring bits (software installation CD, instructions, charge cradle and cable), whilst leaving the feature product on clear display.  The plastic was a bit of a mission to get in to… or maybe that was just my impatience!

The first step was to charge the remote, as it had a Li-Ion rechargeable battery (like most cordless phones).  It fitted snugly into the cradle.  The downsides to the charging process were 1) the lack of indication as to whether it was still charging or had completely charged (you needed to press a button on the remote to find out – a colour changing LED on the cradle would have been great, or the ability for the remote screen not to ‘sleep’ during this process so you can see the on-screen indicator all the time) and 2) the cradle took up a bit of bench space, being slightly larger than the remote itself (would have been great to be able to charge it vertically, but with the battery contacts being near the top of the remote, a stand-up cradle would mean you’ve have to place the remote in upside down).

While that was happening, I wandered around and gathered the information for the devices I wanted to control (TVs, games machines, DVD players, set-top box, VCR etc).  Once the remote was charged, I installed the software onto my Windows 7 Professional laptop and connected the remote via the USB cable, and received an error (Step failed Updating region: 0x10a00102 – The information was not sent.  Check your USB cable and try again.  If the problem persists, contact customer service. Step 2 of 4 Applying settings 80% complete).  To fix this, I tried a different USB port on my laptop, and then it had no problems.

Adding devices was easy, and I was surprised to see cheaper & older devices listed (eg DSE DVD, DGTEC Set-top box and 10yr+ old Panasonic rear projection TV).  Unfortunately neither the Installation Guide nor the device worksheet tell you to note your input channels for your devices, so I had to wander around again to check which AV channels were needed for which devices.  With that information, setting up Activities (like Watch TV) was also easy.  It was great to see that I could have a ‘TV’ and ‘TV2’ and also multiple games machines etc, so this one remote could be used in both rooms where I have AV gear.  Though the remote can’t natively control a Nintendo Wii (Wii’s limitation of being a bluetooth device though you can buy a Wii IR receiver), I could still setup an activity so my TV and Amplifier would come on and set to the right channels for the Wii.  Only downside to the software was a full-screen limitation where the software doesn’t ‘maximize’ to the full edges of my screen (the icon areas stays the same and it just extends the grey background).  It would also be nice to have the Activities in a vertical list, instead of tiled with big icons.

The remote is comfortable to hold, with the buttons in the right places and a gloss finish matched with an underside rubber grip right where it’s needed.  The screen also sleeps automatically when you put the remote down, and lights up when you pick it up again.  A friend commented that it would be nice to have hard red, yellow, green & blue buttons (eg used by Foxtel), but I don’t have Pay TV and apparently they do display onscreen as touch buttons.

It’s fairly intuitive to use and the remote assistance feature is great when things don’t seem to go quite right.  Watch the screen and follow the prompts and it will sort everything out for you.  Remember that some devices will have to be physically turned on at the switch and in standby mode before the Harmony One (or any remote) can talk to them.  Once it’s configured to turn on and set the correct devices to the correct channels at the press of one icon (Watch DVD, Play Game etc), it’s just like having a teenager in the house .. but significantly less expensive!

The Slideshow is a little gimmicky but my family loved seeing their photos on the remote.  It only allows for 8 photos of max 160kb each, so I had to resize them before loading them on.  The only way I can find to display them is through the Options menu, and then you can turn the slideshow on to run once.  It would be great if this had more options, or could be set as a ‘screensaver’ though ultimately that would affect the battery life.

The battery life is really the only other negative, it seems I have to charge it every 3 days or so.  Perhaps that’s just because I’m using it so often to test it?

Overall, this remote is fantastic.  It has easily replaced 8 other remote controls in my house and sits there looking unobtrusive, even stylish, on my coffee table.  If you are looking to consolidate the number of remotes you have, or if you are looking for an easy way to control multiple devices and make them simpler to use, I would highly recommend the Harmony One.