Recently in Life & Technology Category

I consider this post almost a public service announcement. Have you been having issues with your Foxtel remote? Read on.

Since about November last year (2009) the remote for our Foxtel IQ2 box has been playing up. Only registering every 3rd press, buttons doing different actions from what they are meant to... that sort of thing. The first time I rang up, after changing the batteries repeatedly, I was told that I would need to pay $50 to replace the remote. I was convinced that it wasn't the actual remote as our Kids remote also had the same issue, so I declined on spending the money. A few months later, completely frustrated and after researching online that there was a KNOWN ISSUE with the Foxtel remote and the new energy saver bulbs, I called Foxtel only to be told that my remote was actually in warranty and they would send a replacement. I did try at this stage to say that it was not the remote to which the person on the phone didn't even slightly listen. My argument was that the Kids remote didn't work either. With that I was transferred to another rep in the 'accessories' department. Finally I got someone who listened, said we'd try the new remote which the previous rep had already ordered. But he put a note on the account to say that if I called someone would need to come out. Finally someone came out today and confirmed the issue with the energy saving bulbs and replaced the box. Surely this is known to Foxtel and they could have saved a customer, me, months of inconvenience by proactively communicating this issue and changing peoples boxes. Poor, poor customer experience.

So, if you have had this issue, call Foxtel (131 999) and insist they send someone out.    

Palladio - the Renaissance architect. It got me thinking about how Ruby is going to be learning Italian at school and that we really should visit Italy at some stage to inspire her.

Viper PIts inspired by an episode of Man vs Wild set in Panama. Interesting fact:Viper pits were thought to hold a cache of lost pirate treasure. Shockingly I didn't find this out on Wikipedia. Wiki was a bit too literal.

Palau - Where is Palau and why would an archologist explore it looking for bizarre looking little people? Palau is a Pacific Island 800km east of the Philippines which has a well established matrilineal society.It's ancient connection to the Javanese lead archiologists here where they discovered the oldest known burial ceremony in Oceania. The discovery here is thought to be related to the controversial discovery of Flores in Indonesia.

   The inflammatory title of this post is inspired by my ongoing experiences with my local DVD store. Here's the latest scenario... Sick child, need to work from home. Brainwave - go to the DVD store and rent as many movies as sick child would like so she rests and lets me get some work done. Great, takes mere seconds for sick child to pick out a couple of Barbie movies. Fantastic - get home, sick child cannot wait to start watching... my cunning plan is falling into place like a beautiful dance. So I endure the torturous minutes it takes to get to the actual menu (can I pay extra to get a DVD that skips these bits?) of a 'special' treat of sweeping through a circa 2002 3D landscape, a full 'intro' spoken by Barbie herself and then finally the selections pop up. Play movie - yes!

Every now and then I come across the age old debate of the internet and children's photos. This morning I read a blog post by MamaMia (@miafreedman). I have great respect for this lady and enjoy her blog so the following rant has nothing to do with her or her views.

It's usually starts out as innocent concern about children's likenesses and them being used on the web. As anyone with children knows you are repeatedly being asked to sign a waiver allowing your child to be photographed in the event that a photograph is taken and your child just happens to be in it.

Ari has recently been using my laptop and I'm often intrigued when I open up my laptop the next day and his last search is still in the IE Default search box. Today it is "bible code obama".

The other day it was "gabriel method" and another time "fibromyalgia"