Apple

I’ve got a confession to make. I love unique applications, so long as they aren’t malware (Remember the flying toasters screen saver?). I’ve updated my Windows^® XP machine to mimic Apple’s^® Dock and added emulations that give me some Windows 7 functionality. I’ve loaded add-ons to my Firefox^® web browser that tell me the weather, allow me to share websites on Delicious, trust a site or not with WOT, save a site with iCyte and use a cool program I’ve never shared with anyone else called FireShot to snag images of websites that even include Flash^® animations. In short, I could be a tech support nightmare, but I’m not because I only download my tools from well-known sites (like CNET.com) and only after I investigate their reputations on the web at large.

It’s with this love of quirky apps in mind that today’s Tech Tip is written. If you’re a hard-working Certified Legal Nurse Consultant you may not lift your head from your work for hours at a time. In fact, I’ve seen Vickie go an entire day without looking out a window because she’s fully engaged in a project. I’ll even confess that sometimes I get like that.

As CLNC^® consultants, you know what I mean – you get so caught up in writing a report or doing research for your favorite attorney-client that you forget to eat lunch, go to the restroom and do anything except grab another cup of your favorite caffeine-containing beverage (hot or cold). Or maybe your office is a cubicle, or in a room that doesn’t have a window to the world or perhaps you’re just so caught up in Second Life, Farmland or Spacebook that you forget what’s going on in your real life or at least out there in the great wide open.

Well for those of you who need a reality check, reality reinforcement or just don’t have a window handy, check out a program called “YoWindow.” This is an easy-to-use screensaver that will show you the weather outside your own window (or at any other location in the world you choose) in real time. It sets the weather against a rather bucolic farm scene and realistically renders snow, rain, night and day, etc. and even reflects the season! Here’s the weather in Houston when I wrote this blog:

This is one fun little weather tool that is almost as cool as the “1-ClickWeather” Firefox add-on from Weather.com (which I really like).

YoWindow even allows you to scroll forward and see the forecast so you’ll know if you need to take an umbrella to an interview with your hot attorney-prospect when you go to show how your legal nurse consulting business can help him win his cases.

I’m an old-school tech-type and tend to use the Windows “Starfield” for my screensaver because it doesn’t put a strain on my processor or video card like some of the 3D screensavers used to (such as the floating, rotating, reflective “3D Text” saying “Tom Rocks!” that I put on Vick’s laptop this morning). YoWindow is different in that it seems to be fairly simple, if you’ve got a decent computer the clouds and weeds will blow in the wind and the effects will render nicely. The developers promise more backgrounds in the future but in the meantime you can substitute your own photo or background of your choice and the weather will lay over it.

If you want a quick weather app, YoWindow is fun and easy to install and use. Give it a try.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

I’m not a Mac^® user. I do think they’re wonderful computers but like anyone who likes a challenge, I live in a Microsoft^® Windows^® world. I’ve always wondered how Mac users who travel get along in a predominately Windows world? After all, most hotel business centers usually have low-end, Windows-based desktop computers (to keep costs down). What happens to Mac users? Do they have to be bilingual and speak two computing languages? Or, is this Windows predominance what forces them to carry an Apple^® laptop with them every time they leave home (like one of our CLNC^® Mentors who carries her slick Mac with her on every road trip we make)?

The Hyatt Regency Hotel in Deerfield, Illinois, the site of our May 2010 and 2011 CLNC^® 6-Day Certification Seminars, finally got things right for those who are computer-impaired. Instead of requiring you to haul your Mac along, they put higher-end, dual-boot Macs in the business center allowing them to cater to almost every computer user (except for the Linux geeks). They’ve given their guests the best of both computing worlds.

This is a terrific idea that should be the business model for the future (or until Microsoft finally buys and dismantles Apple). I’ve always said “Can’t we just all get along?” Finally somebody took me up on it, at least in the computing world. The world would be a better place (and require less rebooting) if only more business centers were this progressive.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

I’ve blogged about ways to extend the life of the battery in that laptop you’ve purchased for your legal nurse consulting business. I’ve also blogged about the need for every Certified Legal Nurse Consultant to have an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) on every computer and expensive electronic device in your home. I’ve even discussed the ways that a laptop dock can extend your workspace into multiple monitors and keep you from having to constantly plug and unplug peripheral equipment.

Today, I’m going to address a question that has no answer – should I keep my battery in my laptop when it’s in the dock? That’s an interesting question and I believe the non-answer depends on a couple of different variables. In the good old days (weren’t they all?) before Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries, it was necessary to run older Nickel-Cadmium (Ni-Cad) batteries through full cycles, or close to full cycles, between charges. Constantly topping off a battery by charging it after every use degraded the battery’s life and reduced the time a legal nurse consultant could work off-site and on battery power.

Today, a combination of new technology and Lithium does more than make you feel good, it eliminates some of the need for battery “maintenance.” According to Dell, their newer batteries are designed to stop charging when they register full. This means that while your computer is docked, the battery is not charging. Dell also states that topping off and cycling are no longer issues. Apple takes a more conservative approach and recommends that you fully cycle your battery at least once a month and store it with a 50% charge if you’re not going to use if for six months (as if we could figure that out in advance).

So who’s right? I think both are. I leave one battery in my docked computer trusting it won’t get damaged by the heat and will be fully charged when I grab the laptop for an emergency run to Starbucks. I also try and fully discharge my battery on a regular basis, but will still top it off any chance I get while traveling. Finally, I agree with both Dell and Apple that the average laptop battery will last 18-24 months before requiring replacement.

Now, back to my original question, why leave a battery in the laptop? Well, if you don’t have a UPS and your electrical power fails while you’re writing a report for your CLNC^® business’s most important attorney-client, your laptop will seamlessly switch back to the battery (if it’s in place) without a loss of work. If you don’t have a UPS and have removed the battery, your computer will black out just like the lights and your work will be lost.

If you have a UPS in place, it will continue to supply power to your electronics for some indeterminate period of time (depending upon the size of the UPS and the power drain). This is one situation where bigger truly is better – a bigger UPS will power your laptop and your dual monitors longer than a smaller one. If you are working with the battery in your laptop, you can pull the laptop’s power plug out of the UPS and the UPS will run just the monitors and the laptop will run on its battery until the power comes back on (if you don’t mind working in the dark where I usually am anyway).

What it comes down to is that a docked laptop with an installed battery and a UPS is like having two insurance policies. Just like insurance, hopefully you’ll never need it but when you do need it, you’ll be glad you have it for your legal nurse consulting business. A docked laptop without a battery and without a UPS is an accident waiting to happen. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of repounding that keyboard to try and recreate your work. So dock your laptop with the battery in place and keep a good battery in your UPS.

Keep on techin’ (even in the dark),

Tom

Holy sockpuppets, it turns out you can! I know that more than a few Certified Legal Nurse Consultants have thrown themselves on Amazon.com’s Kindle^® bandwagon. Others are waiting to see what other ereaders come on the market (like Apple’s iPad^®). Amazon has struck first by making Kindle-reading apps for certain BlackBerry^®s, the iPhone^®, iPad^®, any Windows^®-based PC and even Macs^®!

You can read “kindlized” books like Vickie’s Inside Every Woman: Using the 10 Strengths You Didn’t Know You Had to Get the Career and Life You Want Now and shop for other Wall Street Journal bestsellers directly from your laptop, desktop or phone. You don’t even need a Kindle to do it. If you do own a Kindle, you can use it to access your books, newspaper and blog subscriptions (like Vickie’s Legal Nurse Consulting Blog). Amazon even created software that will sync between your Kindle and other device to keep your “last page read” and annotations up to date.

So, Amazon made the first move out the box and it looks like it’s a good one to keep their market in the face of strong competition.

Keep on Techin’,

Tom

Those of you who know me well know that my supposed antipathy to Apple^® computers is an act. I think they’re some of the best computers on the market and some of the easiest to use. In the old days of steam-driven hard drives, there wasn’t much interoperability between Mac OS^® and Windows^® operating systems. Well, as time has rolled on my CLNC^® amigos – things have changed.

Today with Microsoft^® Office: Mac, any Mac user can enjoy the fun of Microsoft Office without the pain of the Windows operating system. You can have your cake and eat it too! Or should I say have your Apple? So, I fully recommend Macs to those Certified Legal Nurse Consultants who want one for their business. You just need to be sure that any other software you may want to use is Mac-compatible before you invest your life-savings in an Apple computer.

Now to the real purpose of today’s blog. I’ve heard that some Apple computer users out there aren’t on AT&T and haven’t adopted the iPhone^® as their smartphone of choice. Some of you are still slaved to BlackBerry phones. If you’re one of those Certified Legal Nurse Consultant BlackBerry users who wants to sync their BlackBerry to their Apple computer, just visit the BlackBerry website and download the BlackBerry Desktop Software for Mac. This will give you the ability to sync your contacts, calendars, notes and tasks with certain Mac applications. Now you can stay with the mobile provider of your choice and keep your smartphone up-to-date.

There you have it – you can have an Apple and a BlackBerry at the same time and we can all get along!

Keep on techin’,

Tom

A couple of Thursdays ago, I posted a blog about my birthday (thanx again everyone). Then Vickie had a birthday and today I’d like to remind everyone of two more birthdays – both are about half my age and both are almost as important as mine. They’re the birthdays of whats, not whos. You either love or hate (or both at once) these whats.

On November 10th of last year, Microsoft^® Windows^® turned 25! Happy belated birthday, Windows. I’m sorry I didn’t send a card but I forgot while waiting to reboot (again). This year, coincidentally on my birthday (January 22 in case you want to mark your calendar), Apple, Inc.’s Macintosh^® computer, turned 25 too! Happy belated birthday, Mac^®, I’m sorry I didn’t send a card but I was loading the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack onto my iPod^®.

Windows was really created in 1983, it wasn’t until 1985 that Windows 1.0 came around as a new product. My first experience was Windows 3.1, back in the early 90s. I remember moving very reluctantly from my trusty DOS version of Automenu to the scary Windows GUI (graphical user interface). It was so traumatic that I needed a techie friend to come over, install it on Vickie’s and my computers and teach us to use it.

Next we graduated to Windows 95, then moved up to the popular blue screen of death known as Windows 98. Believe it or not, I still have two laptops running Windows 98! I keep them to run some older programs I just can’t live without (no, one is not Pong). We passed through a couple of server versions and I advanced the users in Vickie’s growing company right past Windows 2000 to the best OS I’ve ever used, Windows XP. Now we have the SP2 version of Vista out (which shows it really is a good OS if you have enough computer power) and Microsoft is set to release Windows 7. All the reviews I’ve seen of Windows 7 say it will (eventually) knock our socks off (even though it’s really just SP3 of Vista).

Although Apple was started way back in the ‘70s, 1984 was the public introduction of the first Macintosh computer (which was the first computer to use a GUI as well as a mouse). Remember the cool “1984″ commercial that ran during Super Bowl^® XVIII? Most of you know I’m not a Mac user (although I did check my email on a Macbook Pro^® in the Apple store in Tokyo last year) so I have no history with them. I will tell you that I believe they’re some of the best computers built and have the best operating system on the market.

Today, technology has given Certified Legal Nurse Consultants many more choices than we had in the 80s and 90s. There are advantages to both systems and with the vast array of software available (like Windows for Mac) there’s nothing stopping you from using a Mac in your legal nurse consulting business. You won’t find Macs in too many big law firms but you’ll probably find them with solo practitioners and possibly small firms. Whichever OS you choose for your business or next computer upgrade, you’ll be in good shape tech-wise. Things will just continue to get better. You can look as cool as you want in Starbucks^® or for your kids – there’s nothing holding you back! One last thing – there are Mac viruses out there (contrary to popular belief), if you’re a Mac user check out this article.

A lot of things have come and gone since 1983/1984, Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush and Cabbage Patch Kids included. We’ve experienced the frustration and fun (hah) of Windows and Macs for over 25 years. Can you think of many other products, especially in the personal computing field, that have lasted that long while improving themselves? If you do, let me know.

Keep on techin’,

Tom

I just got home from the Great Christmas Migration of 2008. Tom and I are bicoastal. His family is in Pennsylvania and mine is in San Diego. Both demand our presence (and presents) at Christmas. This gives us plenty of chances to enjoy the fun of air travel and to meet interesting and helpful people along the way. This year instead of emulating the executives from the auto industry we decided to forgo taking the VMI company jet (Southwest, in our case), and instead flew our various journeys on a mainstream airline.

Christmas and the holidays are supposed to be the merriest time of year – so why is airline customer service the gloomiest? It starts with the smiling (not) faces at the airport check-in. The check-in staff is the frontline of the airline. They’re the first impression you get of the service you’re about to receive (or not). I’m sure that everyone has some part of their job they don’t like, but excuse me, sir, your job is to help me check in, tag my bags for the right airport, get them on the belt and tell me my gate number. If you don’t like that portion of your job, rotate to something else. Don’t make a face because my bag looks heavy or because I have two of them. Yes, I know you’re going to charge me to check them, but you don’t have to be so stern about it. I’m a customer not a prisoner (at least not until I board).

I think that being a nurse makes it difficult to sympathize with someone who’s upset about the fact that you asked for a second 4-ounce glass of lukewarm water. Look at what nurses do every day – change catheters, clean suppurating wounds and get sprayed by bodily fluids we shouldn’t discuss in mixed company (but still do). Some flight attendants really make me want to take their blood or at least stick them with an oversized needle. I feel like saying “Look lady, I asked you for a napkin – not to wipe my ass. Don’t act like you’re doing me a favor after taking 20 minutes to bring it. Yes, I know there are other passengers onboard, but right now you’re standing in the back of the plane kvetching about your upcoming layover in Poughkeepsie.”

It’s not just airlines that have bad service. Retail sales are down everywhere you go. ‘Blame the economy,’ you may say. If these retail employees keep it up, there won’t be any retail economy. I don’t know about you but I’m sick and tired of trying to give my hard-earned money to the lethargic, tattooed, multi-pierced cashier who’s on her cell phone. Or, the two salespeople talking to each other who act put out when you ask one of them to look in the back for a size 4. Try getting away with that type of behavior as a nurse. Can you imagine a patient saying, “Excuse me ma’am, I’m truly sorry to bother you, but I’m in desperate need of defibrillation. Would you please stop chatting about your ex and shock me back to life?”

In contrast, here I am at the Mecca of customer service – the Apple store on 5^th Avenue in New York City. Like an airline, this store is open 24 hours a day and there’s usually a line to get inside. Unlike an airline, people wait patiently, even expectantly, because they know that once they get inside, the experience will be extraordinary. When’s the last time you heard someone say their flight or shopping experience was extraordinary unless they were talking about the extraordinary prices?

Apple sets the highest bar for customer service (plus the store is mad cool inside). Sales staff help you with your purchase and stay with you until you’re done shopping. They accompany you to the checkout line or point out one of the roaming check-out staffers who comes conveniently equipped with a wireless credit card machine. You walk up to any one with your purchase, joyfully swipe your credit card and get on your way without a hassle. My receipt is emailed to my BlackBerry^® before I’m out the door!

Even if you don’t buy anything, staffers will patiently answer any question about all the cool stuff on display (and you get to play with it as long as you want). You can even make an appointment to bring in your computer, iPod or iPhone that you already paid for to get whatever service or training you need, including how to turn it on. The entire experience is exhilarating from the time you walk in until you leave. It makes me want to turn my whole office into Mac users. (Just kidding, Tom.)

I live by my rule, “do what’s right, not what’s easy.” A legal nurse consultant was complaining to me about something her attorney-client wanted her to research. He was off-base but demanding about it. She got angry with him and it may have cost her the relationship. I wanted to support her, but I couldn’t agree with her and said, “Remember, the attorney-client isn’t always right, but he’s still the attorney-client. Just be grateful he didn’t ask you to wipe his butt. If he’s paying you to do a job, it’s your job to do it and your duty to do it with a smile on your face (if not in your soul).”

Certified Legal Nurse Consultants exist because of our customers, attorneys. Aim to be more like an Apple store than a lemon airline.

Success Is Inside!