scansnap

Unless you’re an OB nurse, you probably don’t have many cord management skills. If you’re like me, the backside of your desk is a mess – of cables that is. One thing’s for sure, no matter who you are, the more gadgets you have, the more cables you have.

On the desk at my home office, I have a flat-bed photo scanner, a UPS/Surge Protector, the dock for my laptop, the 60” HD flat screen monitor (just kidding), the ScanSnap document scanner (indispensible) with all of their associated power charger and connector cables plus all the various cables for my computer, mouse, keyboard, Ethernet and my devices – the iPhone^® cable, the female-USB extension cable for my thumb-drives, charger for my Bluetooth headset and the little plug for my various digital cameras. It kind of looks like Medusa’s hair back there (and is just as scary).

On my desk at Vickie Milazzo Institute, it’s even worse because there are attached printers and power cables for my USB hubs on top of all the other cables I’ve listed above plus the dual monitors with their cables and my USB Plasma Ball (I’m not allowed to have a Tesla Coil due to some obscure safety regulation).

In January, Vickie got a new computer after her old one quit. Her desk is a paradigm of cable management neatness, despite the Dragon Naturally Speaking headset, speakers and iPhone and headset cables. All her cables are nicely managed because I did a fresh installation. That’s what happens when you start over. (Note to self: build new garage!)

So, how does a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant regain control of her office from the plethora of cables, connectors and other cords that accumulate in the open space behind her desk?  Even more important, why would she want to?

Well my CLNC^® amigos, the answer is simple. Eventually you’ll need to replace a device, power supply or whatever. After spending half the day unplugging and replugging different cables, you’ll get to the one you want. (Want to know why the one you want is always the last cable you unplug? It’s because you stop once you’ve found the cable you’re looking for.)

Instead of blindly unplugging and replugging, I recommend that once a year you power down your entire desk and then take a few moments to untangle the mess by completely unplugging all the cables (one at a time) and coiling them on top of, or next to, the device to which they belong. Then pull out your trusty label-maker, and label each cord with the name of its device (ScanSnap power cable, USB roller-mouse, etc.).

Once they’re all labeled, you can plug them back in, one at a time. After you’ve plugged in a cable, find someplace to hide it where you can’t easily see it and coil the cable around your fist. Next, grab some Velcro^® cable ties in various colors and tie it up to keep it neat. I like to match colors by device, which makes it easier than looking for the label. If you don’t want to spring for Velcro ties just get some plastic zip ties from your local hardware store and fix them in place. However, I don’t like zip-tying cables together with other cables because as soon as you do, one will fail. Instead, I recommend you buy a flexible cable cover to hide the obvious cable runs. I even have some flat ones that run along the wall and hide my Ethernet and power cables.

By taking a few minutes, you can turn that messy desk into a work of art. When you’re done organizing the cables on your desk, feel free to stop by and do mine!

Keep on techin’,

Tom

I’m a mobile user. I make no pains to hide it from you. Give me a laptop, a spare battery and a wireless connection, and I’m happy no matter where I am. Vickie often jokes that if there was a disaster, I’d grab my laptop before her – she’s not far from the truth (she’ll never forget my actions during the great condo fire of ’88).

Anyway, I can’t spend my entire life on the road (although it seems like I do). For those odd times when I’m at home, I have a docking station that I drop my laptop into. Into the docking station, I’ve plugged my dual 20″ monitors, a full-size keyboard, trackball mouse printer, flat-bed scanner (for photos), Fujitsu ScanSnap (for documents), a USB cable for my BlackBerry^® and camera, that snazzy white cable that came with my iPod and a USB extension cable (with the female USB end) that keeps me from having to look for an open port when I’m loading a memory stick. At the office, my dock is identical, sans the scanners and iPod cable. Best of all, whenever I undock to move offices or catch a flight I NEVER UNPLUG A CABLE!

I know some legal nurse consultants haven’t set up a dock yet to take advantage of the new big screen monitors. So you’re constantly plugging and unplugging USB cables from your machine every time you need to move it (or clean under it).

“Tom,” you might ask, “how did you ever manage to cram 7 USB connections into a dock that has 3 USB ports?” Easy. It’s a solution that’s helpful even if you don’t use a dock for your laptop.

Depending on the number of connections you need, buy yourself a small, powered USB hub like the Cables To Go 7 Port USB 2.0 Hub ($27.99 at Amazon.com) or the D-Link DUB-H4 High Speed USB 2.0 4-Port Hub ($25.98 at Amazon.com).

Once your hub arrives, unpack it, follow the instructions, connect it to your laptop (or even your desktop) and plug all your USB peripherals into it one at a time. Make sure you use the accompanying power supply because some laptop USB plugs don’t always give off enough juice to power an external hard drive and all that other stuff you’ll end up plugging into it (like your USB Plasma Ball $12.99 from ThinkGeek.com).

My hub plugs into the back of my dock taking up one USB plug. Even better there’s no wear and tear on my USB connections from constantly sticking them in upside down (admit it). Desktop users will love not having to crawl around on the floor looking for an open port and can use the hub to extend their number of available ports.

Next time you grab and go with your laptop, you’ll only have to unplug one USB cable and won’t pull the entire contents off your desktop if you miss a cable (don’t ask). This is a much cleaner and simpler system and isolates all your connections at one point. Occasionally I’ll have a device stop working and I just unplug it, replug it and I’m back to work!

That’s all for now – keep on techin’,

Tom

We all have goals of saving money. Do you want to learn a great way to save over $400 in 2009? Save yourself the expense of a dedicated fax line. If you don’t use your fax machine that often, or if you send more faxes than you receive, you can buy a cheap Duplex Wall Jack Adapter ($2.51 on Amazon.com) and plug your phone and fax machine into that adapter.

With the adapter, both your home or office phone and fax machine are on the same line. Next, set your fax machine to “Manual” and call the phone company and cancel the old dedicated line. On the manual setting you can send faxes at any time and the fax won’t answer when your attorney-clients call, your regular answering machine will. If you need to receive a fax, you can activate the fax – but you have to be there to switch it on, which may be inconvenient.

If you want to keep the full functionality of the fax machine, add a Command Communications Comswitch 5500 3-Port Phone/Fax Modem Line Sharing Device ($50.24 from Amazon.com) between the wall and your phone and your fax machine. This neat little device senses the type of incoming call (probably from the fax screech) and directs it to the appropriate device.

You’re probably spending $38/month or better on your dedicated fax line so this system will pay for itself in 2 months!

Now that you’re saving money hand over fist start planning on your next equipment purchase: A Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 ($399 on Amazon.com). This scanner is the size of a Barbie^® Lunch Box and it’s fast. Feed your papers in like a fax. It quickly and easily scans both sides of a document directly to a specific application such as Word^® or Excel^® or, into a searchable PDF for easy filing, emailing or other communication. There’s even one for Mac users!

Now you can start scanning your reports, medical records and other paperwork and clean out those filing cabinets. It also comes with a full version of Adobe^® Acrobat^® which lets you edit your documents after scanning.

Tsukiji Fish Market

This sure beats faxing and is great when you’re sending contracts or other reports to an attorney and don’t want to provide them with the native Word^® document.

See you next Tuesday!

Tom