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By Charles Thompson President, Sell-Through Solutions, Inc. When the Universal Remote Control (URC) MX-5000 Network Wand was on its way to my home, I was thinking, wow, $1200 for a universal remote control. What could it possibly do to justify its cost? I sat and looked at all the gear that the MX-5000 would soon command. The Pioneer Kuro plasma TV. The Shanling tube CD player. The DIRECTV HD DVR. The PlayStation 3. The Pioneer Elite receiver. Then it dawned on me. Most of that stuff just sits there in the rack, regarding me impassively with unblinking red and blue LEDs. It had been more than a year since I even touched the DVR. On the other hand, during any home entertainment session, a good universal remote gets a spirited workout: adjusting settings and navigating menus; recording and playing back shows; channel surfing; skipping commercials and Monday Night Football's dreadful halftime highlights; on-the-fly volume adjustments to allow commentary during bad SyFy channel movies; skipping back to replay all those "what the hell was that" moments from "Fringe;" cranking both guitar solos in "Comfortably Numb;" muting those repulsive Geico commercials with the money and the eyeballs and the maddening song. A remote in my system has to be tough enough to withstand well over 100 button presses a day, and smart enough to flawlessly engage a complex series of commands (a macro) with a single button push. With more than 28 years in the A/V business, you can imagine the Who's Who of fancy remotes that have paraded through my system. Several years ago, I bought URC's stellar MX-700, then upgraded to the MX-850, and never looked back. Both remotes are hard-button types which, after trying a variety of touchscreen remotes, I strongly prefer. So it was with some trepidation that I considered replacing my beloved MX-850 with the MX-5000, which not only sports a touchscreen interface (mixed with hard buttons), but a touchscreen interface on steroids. The MX-5000 is the first handheld universal remote that features haptic touch feedback: when you touch a button on the smooth glass touchscreen, it actually feels like a button, with a satisfying vibration pushback. The MX-5000 also features: A big, fully customizable, 320 x 240-pixel brilliant color screen, with fluid, animated page transitions.
Wi-Fi capability for control of companion networked devices, and for accessing Internet info such as weather, news, stocks, and sports.
Complete control and display of iPod functions (with the optional PSX-2 Personal Server).
Native lighting control-just add dimmers and/or switches, and program right from the remote.
2-way Wi-Fi operation and display of Wi-Fi-enabled receivers from Denon, Yamaha, Integra, and more. Control and view AM/FM/Sirius Radio stations, volume, etc. from the MX-5000 screen.
PC Server application that converts any PC with iTunes or Windows Media Player into a music server controllable by the MX-5000, complete with album art and other metadata on the color touchscreen. The remote ships with no setup software, as URC insists that the device be programmed by a professional System Integrator who has been trained on URC's Complete Control Program (CCP) software. And, rightfully so, because the software has a challenging learning curve. Not for nothing does URC maintain a massive installer training initiative, with professional in-house instructors augmented by a comprehensive training website. I took advantage of all of the above, attending two of URC's excellent, self-paced MX-5000 installer training modules before I even cracked the manual. Once inside the manual, I tried my usual practice of skipping around to the good parts, and quickly discovered that, to make the most of the MX-5000, I would need to read the whole 96-page thing. You read it right, 96 pages. Still want to program this remote yourself? After playing with the MX-850 software for years, I found that the MX-5000 version ain't your daddy's remote programming software. It does a lot more, simply because the remote itself does a lot more. This is the longest review I've ever written, and it would be twice this long if I provided more than a sideways glance at the bottomless capabilities and customizations of the MX-5000. Anyone familiar with the Microsoft Office 2007 suite will recognize the CCP software's easy-to-navigate Ribbon interface. You hit the Program tab to start programming (logical!), and the Ribbon steps you through the programming steps sequentially. First, you add all your gear, and it's extremely likely that URC already has all your remote codes in its database. So that step is simple. Then you put all the buttons exactly where you want them, size them, and make them look like anything you wish. The software comes with a ton of beautiful buttons, from hi-res TV station icons, to the logos of all the popular brands of gear, to blank buttons in myriad colors. You can make your own buttons in Photoshop, Microsoft Paint, etc., which I did, because my Photoshop kung fu is strong, and my homemade buttons look badass. And every button label can say whatever you want it to say, in a variety of fonts, font colors, and font sizes. I made all my channel number buttons real big, so my aging eyes won't have to squint. Of course, the MX-5000 can learn remote commands, in the unlikely event that you have a remote control that isn't in the database. The software also steps you through setting up optional RF control (for controlling equipment beyond the line of sight), and connecting the MX-5000 to your Wi-Fi network. After all that, you program macros. A macro lets the remote perform a slew of commands with a single button push. You could, for example, push a macro button you call "Play Blu-ray": the curtains part, the lighting dims, the screen lowers, the receiver turns on (or switches to Blu-ray), the TV turns on (or switches to the appropriate HDMI input), the Blu-ray player begins to play. You can create macros for All System On and All System Off. You can create macros for pretty much any sequence of commands you can imagine, and assign them to any button you please. If you're an end-user reading this, you should be thankful that URC only allows the MX-5000 to be programmed by a pro. You may be a genius, but you'd still be messing with this thing three sleepless days later, and one of your friends would have to drive you to the Cuckoo's Nest. Nine out of ten users will be stumped trying to sync the remote to a Vista or Windows 7 computer (there's an easy little tweak that I guarantee you don't know), effectively grounding them before they even get out of the gate. If you're a pro (ostensibly, like me), you may be alarmed that my first complete MX-5000 programming took six hours. But, that was with all the reading and the two online classes, and the additional reading (because I may be just a little dense), and the rookie programming mistakes. I could do the job a second time in less than two hours from scratch, and the third time, maybe 90 minutes. And here's the beauty part: As an installer, you can archive everything-devices, buttons, layouts, etc. So, if I wanted to program another MX-5000 with the same gear, it would take mere minutes. For System Integrators who sell favorite system combos often, this feature is a godsend. I finally got the MX-5000 programmed, and I'm ready to use it. First, how does $1200 feel in your hand? As Larry David would say: pretty, pretty, pretty good. Actually, amazing. If you've used one of URC's remotes before, you know that this company gets ergonomics in a big way. The MX-5000 gets ergonomics, squared. The whole presentation is very Bang & Olufsen, very Museum of Modern Art Industrial Design Award. The svelte form factor somehow hits the perfect balance between the male and female hand. Thank goodness it's almost impossible to wear the finish off a URC remote, because you'll be fondling this thing a lot. The hard buttons have a superb feel, and their shapes are nicely differentiated, so you can learn to feel your way around them in a darkened theater, without looking at the remote. Not that finding buttons is gonna be a problem. The display is simply beautiful, and I mean iPhone-beautiful, not remote control-beautiful. The button icon I made for "CD" is a photo of my tube CD player, which is a pretty complex-looking piece of work. On the MX-5000's color touchscreen, you can actually tell what it is! The color touchscreen and the backlit hard buttons "wake up" instantly when you pick up the remote, and time out at a duration of your choosing. The default settings are bright enough that the remote's screen looks like a mini-HDTV when you pick it up, and it's even bright enough to easily see outdoors. Of course, all this color and brightness take a toll on power consumption. My completely-unlit MX-850 could go for months on four AAA batteries. The MX-5000 might get you through two full evenings of entertainment before it needs to go into its charging cradle. You'll just get into the habit of charging it every night, especially when you see how artful it looks, poised in that gloss black cradle. Each of the hard buttons is brilliantly backlit in classy white light, and they don't use that crude, Pong-looking lettering. These buttons are absolutely hi-res and high-end. The main hard button on the remote ("Select") feels so enticing, I keep thinking up excuses to press it. The lighting, and lighting timeout, for the hard buttons-and for the touchscreen-are fully customizable from the remote (so you don't have to be a pro to do it). The haptic touchscreen feedback alone is enough to make me kick all other remotes to the curb. It feels so massively cool and provides such satisfying feedback to your commands, you'll even start to think that the vaunted iPod Touch buttons are crude by comparison. For the first time, someone has solved my primary gripe with touchscreens: that you actually know, immediately and without a doubt, when you nailed the button. Of course, it was impossible to solve my secondary gripe with touchscreens: they only look flawless until you touch them. After that, well…more than cats and dogs, more than snakes-humans are just plain greasy creatures. You can wash your hands until sunup, but after just a few minutes of operating a touchscreen, it looks like you first mainlined Kentucky Fried Chicken with a chaser of Orville Redenbacher Movie Theater Butter. So, keep the supplied cleaning cloth nearby. URC moved the hard buttons around, so my favorites (Guide, Info, Play, Pause, Stop, Skip, Record) don't line up with my old MX-850, and they don't quite line up with remotes from DIRECTV, TiVo, or Dish. Also, to make the remote more petite, you don't get hard buttons for the number keypad anymore. Those go up to a page on the touchscreen. At first, this was all highly frustrating. It reminded me of last month, when I decided, after 11 years, that the fung shui of my office dictated I move my phone from the left side of the desk to the right. For two weeks I swung and missed at the phantom phone on the left. Now, it's second-nature to reach to the right, and I've similarly already gotten used to the new button placements on the MX-5000. And, with the number keypad on the touchscreen, it gives me way more opportunities to play with the intoxicating haptic feedback buttons. This review goes on forever, doesn't it? And I've only scratched the surface of what this remote can do. Right now, I'm checking the weather via Wi-Fi on the MX-5000 touchscreen in five cities simultaneously with one button push. I installed a URC MRF-260 RF receiver, so now I don't have to aim the remote anymore. I have an iPod Touch, so I may just get into controlling that as well. (The MX-5000 actually adds some secret iPod controls that even the iPod doesn't have!) Of course, I gotta try that PC media control, seeing as it's free and all. When you invest in the one device that you'll interface with more than all other devices combined, in my opinion, you need to really, really dig it. I dig the MX-5000 the most. Is it worth $1200? And then some.
 A few days ago I was asked about the legality of sharing or selling MX-6000 templates that contain images from professional sports teams. Today I'd like to share the answer with you, because I suspect the same question has come up with many installers from time to time.
First off: these days the terms "copyright" and "copy protection" tend to get used interchangeably, even though they are very different things. In fact, they actually have very different goals. Copy protection is a physical or electronic means of attempting to stop you from ever making a duplicate of some form of media. Copyright is a legal status, establishing someone as the owner of a piece of media that they created. Copyright doesn't protect you as the licensee of a piece of media you've purchased—it protects the rights of the creator of that media from unauthorized distribution.
Many people think that media must have some form of copyright marking on it to be covered by copyright. That's not true. A few decades ago, the law was changed so that the act of creating media automatically grants you the copyright to that media. You don't have to file any papers or pay any fees. If you produce a creative work, you are now the owner of that work, by law. Feel free to slap a name, date, and copyright symbol on there if you want. But you don't have to do that. You can file for a copyright, which makes defending yourself in court and/or receiving damages for violation much, much easier should you ever need to do so, but again, it's not required.
Here's a little primer on how copyright applies to programming control systems:
Unless you have written permission, distributing someone else's copyrighted material, even for free, is a violation of copyright law. And in the case of remote programming, there's really no way to separate the programming from the graphics.
As an example, imagine if someone copied images of Mickey Mouse, framed them, then sold the result for $50. They might assert that they are selling the frame, but giving away the image of Mickey Mouse. In this case, the copyrighted image still adds value to the sales proposition, even if it is not explicitly paid for. So the seller is in violation of the law.
However, in that same example, you can't even give away the copied images of Mickey Mouse. The reason is that copyright law grants the copyright holder the right to establish the price for their work. If, for example, the holder establishes a price of $10 for the image of Mickey Mouse, then you give away that image, you have caused material damage to the copyright holder, even though you did not profit yourself.
And the final factor in this is when the copyright holder establishes a price of zero for the work: even then, copyright law grants the copyright holder the sole right to determine how their work is distributed. Even when the original image is free, you can't give away copies of Mickey Mouse because, legally, you are using someone else's property in a manner they have not authorized. If this weren't the law, any non-profit organization could use images of Mickey Mouse to try to get people to believe there was a connection between their cause and the owners of the Mickey Mouse copyright.
So clearly, you can get in big trouble for including copyrighted images in your remote programming. The exceptions to this are when you're the copyright holder, or have written permission from the copyright holder. But be careful here too: if you strap on your telephoto lens and head out to the football stadium to take your own photos of your favorite team, remember that you're photographing something that's already protected by copyright. The team logos, the design of their uniforms, and even their specific color schemes are often protected by copyright. Just being the photographer doesn't automatically grant you the rights to sell your own photos, believe it or not!
If you want to use custom images in your programming, I suggest getting a membership to one of the online stock photo sites, such as Fotolia.com. Sites like that let you inexpensively purchase the right to use a photo in your work, keeping your legal footing solid and your profits in your pocket, right where they belong.
 The MX-6000 has a feature that no previous URC remote has included: the combination 5-way and scroll wheel. I love the scroll wheel for page flipping (that feature is included in all the default MX-6000 templates). It’s also used extensively in some of the two-way modules for the MX-6000. The other day I was reading through the posts on the URC Control Room forum and came across a question about how to reduce the sensitivity of the scroll wheel on the MX-6000.
I replied that yes, there’s an easy way to reduce the sensitivity using variables. I gave the following example for the macro I use in my left scroll function:
IF (Variable(ScrollLeft),True).….Jump (Page-).….VAR (ScrollLeft = FALSE)
..ELSE.….VAR (ScrollLeft = TRUE)
This works pretty well because it requires two scroll events to occur before issuing the Page- jump command. I patted myself on the back, posted the solution, and casually mentioned that you could make the scroll wheel even less sensitive by using the same technique, but nesting multiple variables and IF statements. I didn’t bother to explain how, because thinking about it gave me a Slurpee headache. I figured that anyone dedicated enough would figure out what I meant. They could have the headache instead of me.
I consider myself to be a fairly skilled MX-6000 programmer. Working for URC doesn’t hurt in that regard. But stop to consider the engineering team that designs Formula-1 race cars. Those are really smart folks, but I doubt a single one of them could qualify for a Formula-1 race if they had to sit behind the wheel themselves. Sure, they can probably out-drive you or me, but their specialty is in making the car. Driving it is a whole other art, and that’s where professional drivers shine.
Recognizing this, I mentioned my little Scroll Sensitivity solution to my good friend Bracken Baker over at tripleBsoftware. He’s a really polite guy, so instead of breaking out in a round of belly-busting guffaws, he kindly said, “Yeah, that’ll work.” But then, as I expected he would, he quickly showed me a sample of code with a multi-variable solution that made my solution look clunky.
I very nearly posted that solution to URC Control Room, but then Bracken said, “WAIT!!”
Spend enough time around brilliant engineers and you’ll learn that “WAIT” means My brain just told me there’s a better solution, but it hasn’t told me what words to use to describe it yet! But before he could get the new idea fully typed, he jumped in again with, “HOLD ON!!” With our previous example, I’m sure you understand that “HOLD ON” means I’ve got an even BETTER idea! So I held… uh… on.
Bracken’s mind went through several iterations of the problem, considering angles I’d never have thought of. He wanted the solution to work well and be dead-simple to implement. Before I knew it, he came up with a way that any MX-6000 programmer can adjust the sensitivity of the MX-6000 scroll wheel without using any variables at all!
Bracken’s solution takes advantage of the often-misunderstood Toggle feature. It’s just downright genius, so I wanted to share it with you here:
TOGGLE
.….TEXT (hold)
.….JUMP (Page-)
The beauty of this solution is that the TEXT step doesn’t really do anything except “waste” a step of the Toggle command. Specifically, it tells the left scroll function to display the text “hold.” But since there’s no button text on the scroll wheel, “hold” never appears. However, while not displaying anything, the remote is also waiting for the user to continue moving the scroll wheel. It’s only when the wheel has moved enough times to step through all the toggle steps that the remote finally issues the “Jump (Page-)” command.
So in three lines of code, Bracken accomplished what took me five lines, plus I had to create and name the macro in the first place.
But it gets better. Because if I wanted my solution to reduce the sensitivity of the wheel any further, I had to nest IF’s and add more variables, putting me right back in SlurpeeTown. But Bracken’s solution is elegant: just keep adding TEXT statements until you reach the level of sensitivity you want. Here’s the same macro, made four times less sensitive:
TOGGLE
.….TEXT (hold)
.….TEXT (hold)
.….TEXT (hold)
.….TEXT (hold)
.….JUMP (Page-)
See how that works? Each TEXT command adds a tiny delay, then the Toggle function waits for the scroll wheel to continue moving before finally landing on the JUMP command, which actually issues the page flip.
So there you have it—a super-simple way to make the MX-6000 scroll wheel precisely as sensitive as you want it to be. Once you understand the technique, it’s easy to see ways to do things like give audio feedback to the wheel (add a “tick” sound after the jump) or turn it into an absolute volume control (add discrete RS-232 volume commands to each step of the Toggle control), or a thousand other cool ideas. It’s a whole new way of thinking of the scroll wheel!
My thanks again to Bracken for helping me out and coming up with this cool technique. It’s the Formula-1 drivers like him that prevent us regular-old programmers from having Brain Freeze on an everyday basis.
 In my last entry I talked about the unexpected professional benefits that friendships can bring into your life. Over the course of your life, you’ve probably known a lot more people than you know right now. So I’d like to talk a bit about the benefits of reconnecting with long lost friends.
Ever since I was in junior high I’ve had a hobby of writing horror/thrillers and science fiction. I never imagined myself becoming the next Stephen King or Dean Koontz. I never even imagined that my job would ever be writing novels. But I always dreamed that one day I’d be able to walk into a book store or log on to Amazon.com, see something I wrote, and quietly whisper to myself, “That’s mine. I did that.” Beyond that, I always hoped that someday something I’d written would be adapted to the big screen. And that’s where I left my hobby, my dream, because like everyone else, I’ve got bills to pay.
Recently URC created a page on Facebook. I wasn’t a Facebook user at the time, and I admit that like many of you, I snickered when I heard what we were doing. Social networking? What was that? It seemed goofy to me. But the guy at URC who came up with the idea asked us to check out Facebook so we’d know what it was all about. Maybe we might want to create our own page there. I did.
Now I just wish I had been the person who came up with the idea.
Within days of joining Facebook, I reconnected with dozens of friends I’d lost contact with. I didn’t know where to start, but that was okay, because mostly they found me. People I never thought would remember me came calling with open arms. I learned of a high school reunion I would otherwise have missed. I told everyone my ups and downs, what I’ve done for all these years, and what I’m up to now.
And I learned their stories too. Some of them, it turns out, use some of the software I helped design or wrote the manuals for in my positions at previous jobs. Some even use the very products I help to design for URC. Once again, I got to feel like a rock star for half an hour. A few of my old friends remembered my writing from school and asked if I’d ever finished any of those book ideas I’d always talked about. So I told them about the books I’ve completed and some that are still in the oven.
One friend asked where she could buy a copy of a novel I mentioned, so I sent her a copy. She read the novel and enjoyed it. And then she said she’d told a close friend about the book, and he wanted to read it too. So she asked if I would mind if she shared the book with him. I agreed because hey, I love it when anyone reads my writing. (Shameless plug: Search the Books section on Amazon.com for “Dale Crawford The Price,” or check out the first 35 pages at http://www.lulu.com/browse/preview.php?fCID=6561409. I’d love to hear your thoughts!)
An amazing opportunity came about due to that long-lost friend asking about my novel. It turns out that her good friend just so happened to be an executive at a major film studio. He wasn’t just wanting to read the book… he wanted to consider it. So there I was, mailing off a requested copy of my novel to a person whose in-box I could otherwise never have seen without breaking and entering.
I’m not getting too worked up about where things might go from here, of course—the studio probably discards a hundred novels like mine a day. But it was pretty exciting for me to know it was even being read by someone at that level! If everything worked out the best it could, the sale of the movie rights wouldn’t mean a career change for a first-time author. I’d still be right here designing remote controls, and loving it! But I’d have the opportunity to do something else I’ve dreamed of since childhood: I could walk by a movie poster, smile, and know inside, “I did that!”
But that’s just a dream. That same Facebook page has allowed me to help one friend find a job in this tough economy. Another of my friends is now a client of an installer I know. But I never set out to “market” to anyone or to “expand my contact list.” No, all I did was say, “hello world,” in a medium that was new to me. I’m still amazed at how much the world has said in reply.
So go check out URC’s Facebook page. Friend it. Start your networking circle there, then maybe expand to LinkedIn or some of the other more “serious” social networking sites. It’s a digital world out there, and if you’re not participating in the social aspect of it, you’re missing a big part of what’s going on.
But more importantly, it will build and rebuild the best connections. It will open you up to new opportunities—probably ones you will never realize exist until you hop on the social networking bandwagon.
 I’m not writing today about HDMI or $200 per-foot component cables, so you may wonder for a while if what I’ve got to say relates to your job. But bear with me—it does.
One year as my wedding anniversary approached, my wife knew that I was tired of the coffee table clutter. I was a home theater geek, so she started looking in that direction for an anniversary gift. Her gift to me was my first PC-programmable universal remote. It was the same green-backlit, grayscale touch screen that most of you once programmed professionally and eventually abandoned in frustration because programming took so long per client that you couldn’t make any money selling them.
But I was a hobbyist, so I stuck with it, determined to make my remote do things it was simply never designed to do. Eventually I was proud of what I’d accomplished, so I uploaded my file to a popular web site. It was there that my work caught the attention of Eric Johnson, a guy who was well known in our industry, but unknown to hobbyists like me. Eric contracted me for some graphics work from time to time, but mostly we just struck up a friendship. At the time, I didn’t expect that friendship to ever affect me professionally.
The files I had posted online elicited a lot of commentary on the forums, so around that time I coined a term to describe home theater components that fail to offer the discrete IR codes installers need for good automation. I wanted the term to imply an insult, so I came up with “Toggle-Only Actuated Device,” or “TOAD.” Eric Johnson picked up the term and used it in his trainings, presentations, and documentation. Due to his frequent use of the term, I succeeded at one of my geeky lifetime goals as a writer: I “invented” a word that has come into relatively common use.
That’s something I probably would have never accomplished without my friendship with Eric Johnson. And that’s a connection that paid off in more ways than one. Back then I was working as a technical writer and user interface designer for a struggling firm that finally hit their last hurdle and had to shut my department down. The layoff notices were a big shock in a tough economy. But later that day, by pure chance, I got a call from Eric at Universal Remote Control asking if I would come aboard full time. Amazingly, even after an unexpected layoff, I didn’t go a single day without a paycheck. Now I am part of a team that designs the products your clients use every day. To a geek like me, that’s pretty close to being a rock star.
Inventing a new word or designing consumer electronics may not be line items on your bucket list, but they are both very big things to me. I probably would have accomplished neither of them without putting forth the effort to maintain my friendships. The fulfillment of both goals came out of left field when I least expected them.
The point in all of this is probably obvious by now. Yes, the Federal Reserve says the economy is starting to improve. But that doesn’t mean we won’t see good days and bad days going forward. The quality of your tomorrows, quite often, is a direct reflection of the connections you make today.
You give your best to your clients. Be sure to also give your best to your friends, your family, and to yourself. The payoff comes in the enrichment of your life. Sure, you expect that personally, but you'll be amazed at how much those personal connections can mean professionally as well.
 I admit that I was born a pessimist, and have to willfully look for the bright side of things most of the time. So as the U.S.A. has navigated our way through some challenging economic times recently, it would probably stand to reason that I would be one of the first to see the trend as a terrifying one.
But I don't. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Probably the oldest folk saying I can remember learning is the truism, "Every dark cloud has a silver lining." For me, that has always been a very important sentence, because it's often the thing that helps me realize that my natural pessimism is a flawed point of view. It helps me look for what's right in the world, not just what I think needs to be fixed. Right now there are plenty of things we'd all like to see fixed in our economy, and there's no shortage of ideas about the right way to go about it.
But I posit that real change doesn't usually come in the form of a government bail-out or new laws or regulations. Yes, those things affect us, but generally, they tend to come in the form of news that we hear is going to improve our world, but we never actually feel the impact as the real effects slowly trickle into our daily lives. But as I've learned to do, I've noticed a silver lining in the economic challenges we're currently seeing. And it's a silver lining that I really, really like.
If you pay attention, you'll notice that suddenly, the cashier at your local grocery is smiling at you more. The guy behind the counter at the local tire and lube shop seems genuinely happy to have your business. And your local fast food burger joint takes a lot more care to get your order correct the first time. I'm sure part of it is simple: these people are thankful to have their jobs, and that makes them happier. But the business owners who train and manage these employees are also taking the time to make customer service their number one priority. And it's a welcome turnaround for something that's been in decay for a couple of decades now.
I'm no MBA, but my perception over the last thirty years has been that somewhere along the way, the business community figured out how to factor great customer service into the cost of doing business. And for many businesses, great customer service probably cost a lot more than "pretty good" customer service. So the old adage "The customer is always right" slowly died off, replaced with a spreadsheet and an actuarial table that indicated how often, and in what circumstances, it was okay to be nicer than profit allowed. If you're staring at the bottom line, I imagine that spreadsheet is your best friend. But when the guy behind the counter would lose his job if he exchanged your faulty MP3 player one day after the store's 30-day return policy, those formulas for factoring customer service don't look very much like customer service at all.
But a funny thing has happened now that times are a little tougher. A genuine smile is now worth more than the value in "Column J," and helping you to your car carries your goodwill all the way home and back again these days. Just take a look around you and you'll see it. Customer Service is back. The real kind. The kind of service that comes from someone who knows that you truly are the reason they get to come to work every day. People are thankful for their jobs, and they're thankful to you for your business. If we're all lucky, as the economy turns around (and there's very good evidence to suggest the tide has already turned), we'll all remember how far those smiles go, and how valuable those customers are.
I got lucky on this one. I just happened to notice the change one day, before my natural pessimism managed to form an opinion about it. But if you haven't already noticed, take a look around. I think it will make you smile. But if by chance I'm wrong, and your corner of the world hasn't yet seen a return to heartfelt customer service, don't fret. If it's in you, it will soon be all around you. Just spend an extra five minutes with a client who seems a little confused today, or take the time to mail out the product manuals you forgot to leave with that customer last week, and include a thank-you note for their business.
Great customer service starts small, with just a smile. But it grows fast, it grows powerfully, and it takes on a life of its own that will improve your workday, your customer's day and, oh yes... your bottom line. It's funny how that works.
 When I started at URC several years ago, my first task was to design and administer URC Control Room. It has a far better architect now, and a far better administrator. Though URC Control Room was my baby, it's grown into the internet equivalent of a teenager. I say teenager instead of adult because I know of some great upcoming features that I can't talk about yet. Yes, it's really cool to to see the site blossom under the guidance of its new "parents."
But because my email address was on about twenty thousand registration confirmation emails, I still regularly get questions about the site. Again, like a teenager there are things about my own creation that I no longer understand. So I'm happy to answer the questions I can, and I forward the rest to the new team.
One question I used to get from time to time was, "I'm changing jobs. Can I still log on to URC Control Room?"
And the answer to that is, "Yes. Resoundingly, yes."
You may have noticed when you signed up that memberships to URC Control Room are personal. Heck, the registration form even has a section for your personal cell phone, if you're willing to share it. When your company received a registration code from your rep or distributor, it came with instructions that the code was to be used by each team member, to create his or her own personal account. In fact, there's no such thing as a company account on URC Control Room.
Why? Because you're a custom installation professional, and URC Control Room is your place. If you change jobs or if your company falls on bad times, that doesn't change the fact that you're trained in URC custom installation and programming. Your account belongs to you. That's why the site rules forbid anyone from sharing their login information.
So don't forget that if you decide on a change of venue, or if that decision is made for you by outside forces, you are most welcome here in URC Control Room. We've got a constantly growing curriculum of web-based training to keep you current during any down time. We've got the software tools you need to stay in practice. And we've got a community of like-minded people to share ideas with.
So if I didn't say it personally when you created your URC Control Room account, I'll say it now: Welcome aboard! We hope you stay a while. Make this your home away from home. Or... work away from work. Or... work away from home.
Something like that, anyway.
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