Clean up your computer with Computer Cleaning Month!

Virtual Reality – Actual Germs Game

DurableUK — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:44:07 +0000

Videogames night was always a favourite night of the week for the guys. Playing Xbox, Playstation or Nintendo on your own or online is cool but there’s nothing quite like local multiplayer games.

The added competitive edge of being in the same room, whether it’s one of those controller-less games where you have to move all the furniture, a split screen game or even a game that involves passing the controller back and forth in the quest for a high score, the laughter, the taunting, the bragging, it’s right there, in your ear! What follows could almost be a true story! Bloke: Sneezer, Wheezer and Scratchy are coming over tonight, is that okay? Blokes Girlfriend: That’s fine as long you tidy up afterwards, I’m off out with the girls, I am not staying here on games night – no way! Bloke: That’s cool, we’ll make sure everything’s clean and tidy by the time you get in, we’re only playing winner stays on “beat ‘em ups” tonight...so we don’t need to move any furniture for golf. Bloke’s Girlfriend: I’ve heard that before, see you later. Bloke: (thinking to himself) I do enjoy games night but I wish the guys were a bit more hygiene conscious, especially Wheezer, he’s always spluttering all over the place! It’s a bit mean but perhaps I should give them all gloves and masks when we play? (Over-exuberant knocking at the door) Bloke: Come on in lads, How are ya? Nice to see you, go on through and have a warm up and I’ll get the drinks and nibbles. (Thwacks, Thuds and Thumps are heard above the repetitive jangly J-pop) Sneezer: (Sneezes and wipes his nose with a hand) First round to the SNEEZER! You’re all playing catch up now. Come on Scratchy you’re up. (We don’t know if Scratchy just has gallons of nervous tension or some kind of skin condition but either way Scratchy scratches. Usually his face, ears and nose, sometimes his mouth and he scratches his cheek vigorously now after taking the first round from Sneezer) Sneezer: Well played Scratchy my man, well played. You were just button mashing though, you’re going down in this round! (Scratchy frantically mashes the buttons again and totally destroys Sneezer, who sneezes and then hands his controller to me) Bloke: Steady where you sneeze there mate, we’ve all got to use these controllers ya know! Sneezer: It’s all that button mashing, it put me off. (In between scratches, Scratchy wins a close battle and it’s now up to Wheezer to take him down) Bloke/Sneezer/Scratchy: COME ON WHEEZER! (The toilet flushes and Wheezer bounds down the stairs and grabs the free controller. I remember thinking I didn’t hear any hand washing going on...Ewww!) Wheezer: (Coughing and spluttering) this is it then Scratchy, the moment of truth, the moment you become a loser! Button mashing or not, (splutter) you’re winning days are over my friend. (Much to Wheezer’s dismay, Scratchy remains unbeaten and then goes on to beat Sneezer again, so it’s my turn once more) Bloke: (thinking to himself) I don’t know about sneezy and weezy over there but I am starting to feel a bit queasy with all these germs floating around, there could be anything on those controllers now! Bloke: I think I’ll skip my turn and make another round of drinks, you guys carry on. (Bloke didn’t play another round that night and Sneezy was crowned undefeated Champion of the evening. When the guys had gone, Bloke spent 20 minutes cleaning each controller!) Even with good hand washing hygiene, games controllers and the consoles themselves can get really grubby and covered in potentially dangerous bacteria, so it’s really important to spend a few minutes after each gaming session, cleaning the controllers and making sure they are like new for next time. There are cleaning kits available that are perfect for the job.

Durable FM and the DJ Bob Show

DurableUK — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:43:26 +0000

Radio Jingle: (Booming Voice) It’s the DJ Bob Show on Durable FM. With music so good it’ll blow your cobwebs away! It’s Competition Hour! DJ Bob: Here’s today’s competition for you with a whole selection of cleaning products up for grabs! We want you to phone in and tell us what or where in the house are the dirtiest, most germ ridden places. I’ll give you a clue; the answers are not as obvious as you may think. So, get dialling, we want to hear from you! In the meantime here’s a track from “The Germs!” DJ Bob: Okay we have our first caller on the line, what’s your answer caller one? Caller One: Hi Bob! I reckon it’s got to be the toilet seat hasn’t it? Oh and can I say hello to all my friends and family please? DJ Bob: You just did caller one! Ewww! Gross answer but yeah that’s a pretty germ ridden place but not really one of the answers we’re looking for. Believe it or not, there are dirty places that you come into contact with every day that are worse than the toilet seat. I’m getting the heebie-geebies just looking at the answer card! Caller two, you’re live on air, what’s your answer? Caller Two: I am gonna say the TV remote control, Bob. Ours is so grimy I put gloves on before I switch channels! DJ Bob: Oh caller two! That’s really gross but another great answer. It’s certainly in the list I have but not the one that’s going to win the prize, sorry and thanks for calling. Over to you caller three, what have you got for us? Caller Three: How about one of the things we really take for granted Bob? The money in our pockets...just think about the amount of times it changes hands and where all those hands might have been! I use credit card only now Bob! DJ Bob: Hahaha! I never even thought about that one! I certainly won’t be jangling the change in my pocket anymore! That answer is almost worth a prize but I’ve to go with what’s on the card. (Still chuckling) A quick recap of the answers so far: We’ve had toilet seat, remote control and money, what else might there be? Remember we are looking for something we might interact with every day that is literally covered in germs and bacteria. Caller Four: Great show tonight Bob, lovin the track list! Errrrm, I am going to say mobile phone Bob. Have you ever looked at the touch screen after a call? It’s pretty horrible and greasy! DJ Bob: That’s a great answer caller four! It’s very high on my list here. Yeah, mobile phones, who would’ve thought they would be such a haven for bacteria and bugs? There can be literally tens of thousands of germs on the surface of your phone at any one time. We are often glued to our mobiles more than anything else, texting, browsing the web, checking facebook and tweeting and that’s before we even hold the phone next to our ear for calls! You really should be cleaning your mobile phones thoroughly with a good telephone cleaner! Caller 5 you’re live on Durable FM. Caller Five: (A thud and a crash is heard followed by the inevitable disconnection tone) DJ Bob: Well, it’s looks as though our last caller has taken the last answer seriously and is probably frantically cleaning the phone as I speak! Perhaps that’s something we should all take on board? How about some music before the next caller? Here’s “Mr Telephone Man” by New Edition.

Every Time We Touch Phone

DurableUK — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:42:44 +0000

Google recently announced the purchase of mobile phone company Motorola, emphasising (if it needed any) the importance now placed on smart phone technology and ongoing battle for dominance. Everyone now has a touch screen smart phone don’t they? Well, perhaps not everybody but nearly everybody. Research from the UK telecoms regulator suggests that more than half the teenagers and more than a quarter of all UK adults own an iPhone or something similar. It’s fair to say that we are in the middle of a smart phone, touch screen explosion but what else might we expect to explode in the coming years as the percentage of smart phone owners grows and grows? Well, the first thing is that the statistics reveal that many of us are actually becoming addicted to our mobile phones. This addiction is likely to feed something else, namely germs and bacteria! The same survey revealed that more 80% of Smart phone users actually leave their phone switched on all the time! Yes, even when they are in bed! Not scary enough for you? How about this...More than half of the teenagers and more than a fifth of adult smart phone users, use and answer their phone in the toilet! That’s right; I bet you never even considered where that last text you received was sent from did you? Now, let’s really think about this (perhaps some of you would prefer not to), all that texting and swiping the screen, fingerprints (washed or not) everywhere, the handset back and forth to your ear! In 2010 an analysis of 30 handsets by “Which?” magazine revealed that the average handset is covered in more than 18 times the amount of potentially harmful bacteria than you might expect to find on the toilet handle in a men’s loo! Some of the phones were apparently so dirty that they were more than 10 times over the level of acceptable TVC (Total Viable Count) bacteria. That means that your mobile phone, which you could well be addicted to, could actually be a health hazard! This is why Computer Cleaning Month is so important. We want to make you aware (if you weren’t already) of the potential dangers out there in terms of germs and bacteria on your handheld touch screen gadgets and show you there are solutions to combat all of these problems. A simple yet effective telephone cleaner could go a long way to making your phone a safer place to touch!

“Keys for a Cleaner Office”

DurableUK — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 13:56:11 +0000

Bad habits are often easy to learn but much tougher to shake off, so it is with this in mind that the Durable Computer Cleaning Month gets under way. How often do you sit at your computer at home, perhaps first thing in the morning, or when you get home after a day at work and as the PC boots up you prepare a little snack, maybe breakfast, maybe a bit of tea and then happily munch away while you browse your Facebook pages and check your emails? Now if you just stop for a moment, lean over your keyboard and take a bird’s eye view peek between the keys, what do you see? Dust, a few splashes of milk and cereal, a piece of tuna from last week’s (or last month’s!) excellent sandwich and who knows what else? I know! It can be a pretty horrific and stomach churning sight! Eating whilst at your computer could certainly be considered a bad habit but it certainly isn’t the worst! How often do you subconsciously touch your face, scratch your nose, touch your ears, and play with your hair? Now, have another look between those keys. How much of that dust and detritus might be bits of dry, flaky skin or worse? Fact: There can be more than 3000 germs per square inch on your keyboard and some researchers claim there could be more bacteria found here than on a toilet seat! How about your office computer? Is it one you share with others? Then perhaps what you see between the keys didn’t belong to you in the first place! Can you be sure the greasy fingerprints on the mouse are yours? So, you can see how easy it is not just to lose particles of skin and pieces of toast onto and into your computer equipment but how easy it must be for all those nasty germs to thrive in such conditions. What can you do? Well, vigorous hand washing and personal hygiene should be the obvious first port of call but in a shared office this can never be taken for granted. (Did he/she wash their hands?) Thankfully, there are a number of cleaning tools that can be used to combat the bugs that may have taken up residence in your computers. From specialist monitor screen cleaning equipment to full PC and Office Workstation cleaning kits, there really is no excuse not to be protected from the bugs that love to forage beneath your fingertips!

Computer Cleaning – Durable Shows You How

DurableUK — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 13:51:39 +0000

The Durable UK Computer Cleaning month is all about raising awareness of the need to clean your computers, mobile phones, games consoles, gadgets and other such equipment. Throughout the month, we hope to explain how potentially dangerous bacteria can easily build up and thrive on all of the equipment that many of us use on a daily basis. As well as exploring these issues with you, we actually want to show you how you can tackle these bugs with a series of simple, easy to follow videos. There will be a different theme in each video, with clear instructions on how to clean a specific piece (or pieces) of equipment. We hope that by the end of Computer Cleaning month, that not only will you know how important it is to clean all your computer equipment and electronic gadgets thoroughly but you will also know how to actually do the cleaning for yourselves. You will be able to view each video direct from this blog or you can head on over to our Durable YouTube channel, where you can also see some of our other cool videos. Video 1: How often do you find yourself having to wipe away layers of dust from your Laptop? In this short video you will learn how to clean your Laptop as well as finding out which products are best suited for the job. Video 2: Research confirms that we do more talking and texting on our phones than ever before and that our handsets are one of the most common places to find a build up of bacteria. This video will show you the best ways to clean your mobile phones and other telephones and point you in the direction of the best tools to use. Video 3: Keyboards are notoriously difficult to clean properly. This video will show you the best methods to clean keyboards (and other work surfaces) along with the best cleaning tools to really get between those crevices in the keys. Video 4: Computer Cleaning Month will attempt to highlight just how germ ridden all your touch screen gadgets and smart technology can be. This video will go some way to showing you how to successfully de-bug them all.

Video 5: How many of us (if we are really honest) have actually cleaned our games consoles (other than a quick dusting)? Well, they can get really very grimy and this video will show you how to get your consoles and its controllers sparkling like new once again.

‘The Office Outbreak’ the Movie!

DurableUK — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 08:35:50 +0000

The Office Outbreak Here at Germ HQ, we are drooling over a new film coming out called the ‘Office Outbreak’. It contains all the ingredients for a chart topping blockbuster. Starring an award winning line up of famous germs – E.Coli, Salmonella, MRSA and H5N1 Bird Flu plus a couple of surprise guests – we are already looking for the filthiest place in the office to watch this new epic. The plot is a fairly simple one. Following a pair of hands for 24 hours, we watch the hands get dirtier and dirtier as they touch commonly shared surfaces picking up all of our favourite germs. The highlights for us were the bin at home, the escalator rail at the train station, the keyboard, printer and mouse in the office right through to mobile telephone on the way home from work. We squealed in delight as the hands passed these germs onto eyes, mouth, nose and ears realising that within 48 hours the unknowing office worker would be coming down with a nasty, infectious bug that would cause him to be in bed for at least 3 days. Our verdict is that this film is a real Oscar nomination especially as at no point do we see any computer cleaning products or hand sanitizers being used. We are fed up of films being spoilt with these annoying wipes or sprays killing off our favourite germ characters and not seeing an end result of fevers, vomiting or diarrhoea being shown. The ‘Office Outbreak’ is due out this winter and we couldn’t be more excited.

iLove Gadgets!

DurableUK — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:13:49 +0000

In today’s modern technology era, every day is like Christmas for me! As you proudly show off your new touch screen or challenge your friend to play the latest game, I can only happily dream of the new germ hotspots for me to breed in. Me and my new germ family – Staphylococcus Aureus, Candida Parapsilosis, Corynebacterium and Norovirus – can’t wait for you share screens, buttons and controllers so that we can be passed from your gadget to your mouth, eyes, nose and ears and make you really sick. Some of my favourite places to hide are:

Video Controllers
Remote Controls
Mobile Phones
Touch Screen Tablets
iPods
Sat Navs
Digital Cameras
3D Glasses

So next time you go to use your gadget, you might want to think about zapping the germs first – get cleaning, not sick.

The Germ Hotspot X Factor

DurableUK — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 11:15:20 +0000

The Germ Hotspot X Factor finalists were announced today! From hundreds of hotspot hopefuls that have made it through the auditions, we take a closer look at the finalists and give you the low down on our favourite to be the grimiest place in the office.

Telephone – our favourite to win the coveted prize. With 25,127 germs per square inch, the phone has been found to contain E.Coli and Staphylococcus Aureus that can cause food poisoning and faecal coliforms which are associated with human waste. Add to the fact that your colleagues are coughing, sneezing and sharing their contagious germs when you aren’t looking means the telephone is our front runner. Desktop Surface – your filthy workstation will come a close second in this year’s Germ Hotspot X Factor. The common belief is that your office cleaner will remove the germs every day but we know better. With 20,961 germs per square inch, hotspots form from food crumbs, dust and grime on the bottom of your bag or laptop. In fact the place where you rest your hand has 10,000,000 bacteria making your workstation a strong competitor. Keyboard – the dark horse of the competition. The keyboard is the perfect place for germs to breed and yet rarely gets cleaned. Horrible research to support our third place choice shows that saliva, skin cells, hair, fingernails and even mice droppings have been found in a keyboard. With 3,295 germs per square inch, the keyboard needs cleaning once a week compared with daily for the telephone. Mouse – hands are known to be the grimiest place on our body so the daily germs that we pick up are passed to our mouse. If you share your mouse with colleagues, do you know if they have washed their hands when they have been to the toilet or played with their pets before work? This would explain the high bacteria count of 1,676 of germs per square inch. A mouse found in an Internet Café would have been our favourite, we don’t even want to think about all the germs that members of the public have left to breed and which cause very unpleasant illnesses. Fax Machine – the fax machine is shared by all colleagues in the office which makes it a contender as a germ hotspot. With 301 germs per square inch, you may not think it will last long in this competition but it still contains unseen enemies that can cause sickness. Next time, you press ‘enter’ think about who touched this button last. Photocopier – not a strong contestant with only 69 germs per square inch but it is still dirtier than your toilet seat so it could be worth an outside bet. As another shared piece of technology in the office, all sorts of germs can be found breeding on it. Toilet Seat – you make think this would be the obvious choice to win but with only 49 germs per square inch, we feel that the public won’t be backing the toilet seat. With most people cleaning their toilet regularly, the toilet seat is our favourite to go in the first week of the finals. Do you agree with our Germ Hotspot finalist positions? Let us know your thoughts. We are hoping that this is the final year of the competition, if people regularly cleaned their computer equipment with professional computer cleaning products we wouldn’t need to be talking about the dirtiest place in the office.

Germs are Learning Fast!

DurableUK — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 09:15:02 +0000

As you happily send the kids back to school after the long summer holidays, myself and my fellow germs are preparing to breed nasty and contagious illnesses so they are back home before you know it! The cold, hard facts are that 22 million school days are lost every year due to the common cold with 52.2 million cases affecting children under the age of 17 (source: CDC). School computer equipment such as keyboards, mice and printer buttons can become a breeding ground for infectious bacteria that cause colds, flu and sickness. Children on average have 6-10 colds every year and innocently pass their germs on to other students and classroom technology via their hands. You might think that your child’s school computer equipment is clean and hygienic but bare in mind that an animal cage contains 1,200 microbes compared with 3,300 on a keyboard which shows how clever invisible germs really are at picking commonly used hotspots (source: Scientific American). Let me share a secret with you - if you want to outfox us germs and reduce the number of colds your kids get, invest in some hand sanitizer and computer cleaning wipes and you’ll get an A+ on your next report.

WIN a £3000 shopping spree at John Lewis!

DurableUK — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 14:37:39 +0000

In 2011, Durable UK is lending its support to “Make-A-Wish Foundation ®UK” and is really excited about their associated projects.

“Make-A-Wish” is a UK based charity which grants wishes to children and young people fighting life-threatening illnesses. Not just any wishes, however, but magical wishes! 2011 is the charity’s 25^th anniversary and it already has more than 67500 granted wishes under its belt, so this is an extra special time for Durable to be involved with Make-A-Wish. First up from Durable is a donation as Make-A-Wish sets about the task of breaking the world record for the biggest-ever Pass the Parcel! Tying in with anniversary celebrations, the gigantic parcel has 25 layers and from June 7^th-16^th the parcel will visit towns and cities in the UK, with a layer of wrapping peeled off at each destination. The 2011 link between Durable UK and Make-A-Wish doesn’t end there though, because for a limited time only, from July 1^st 2011, you will be able to pick up a selected range of special “Make-A-Wish” branded Durable cleaning products which will be on sale in high street stores such as Ryman and WH Smith as well as online retailers. A contribution from each and every sale will be donated to the charity. Each of these specially packaged products will also give you the chance to win a £3000 shopping spree in John Lewis courtesy of the www.winwithdurable.co.uk website. Four runners up will win a £250 voucher for John Lewis, so look out for the promotional keyword on-pack! The products included in this promotion are selected Durable Cleaning products, Air dusters & Cleaning Kits. All of the products in the promotion will prove useful both in a work environment and at your home office as you try to combat the endless stream of dust and bacteria that like to encamp themselves all over your computer equipment! Don’t forget, the chance of a £3000 shopping spree at John Lewis on every special Durable/Make-A-Wish cleaning product from July 1^st for an exclusive period. For much more information about Durable cleaning products or the Make-A-Wish Foundation, please feel free to visit their respective.

Charity Registration Nos. 295672/SC037479