Tom’s Tuesday Tech Tip: Useless or Fun Computer Accessories for Legal Nurse Consultants?

I love reading about new computer accessories so that I can share new discoveries with my CLNC^® amigos. Other than Vickie, computer accessories are my sole vice. Like probably every Certified Legal Nurse Consultant out there, the workspace on my desk and around my monitor is decorated with toys and clutter. I’ve got a talking King Julian from Burger King (who reminds me that “I’ve got to move it, move it!”), several Jack-in-the-Box “Jack” heads, photos of Vickie and me, friends, family and past-NACLNC^® conference Top Tens and Tomentary™s, the odd screw or other connector from projects I’m sort of working on and lots of stickies with my reminders of the things I’ve got to move them, move them. If there is a pattern in the chaos, I haven’t discovered it yet.

Vickie’s workspace, except for her photos which overflow her little acrylic memo holders, is the exact opposite. Clean and orderly. Well, I tried to put an end to that. While reading through my various tech magazines and “products of the year,” I found one product that sounded interesting and one that I found dubious. I took the liberty of ordering the fun accessory for Vickie for Christmas (we celebrate 12 Days of Christmas and this was her first gift).

The accessory is from Iconic Tsunami (great name) and is called a FACEMATE™. It’s a siliconish, rubbery thingy that wraps around your computer monitor’s exterior frame and allows you to slide photos, reminders and other similar items under its rim so that they can stand up or out. They come in pink, blue and black. I ordered hers in blue to match her office and I’m hoping she’ll love it. I’m going to surprise her by festooning her monitor with photos of her niece Reese, Vince’s horse Levi, family, friends and most importantly, me. Hopefully it won’t interrupt the Zen/Feng Shui-ness of her space.

Not personally suffering from any sort of neatness syndrome or desire, I think it’s a wonderful accessory and I am hoping Vickie likes hers enough to get me two for my birthday for the dual monitors at the office. I feel they’d help keep me on track! I’d definitely recommend the FACEMATE product to any Certified Legal Nurse Consultant who needs to turn her monitor into a visual reminder and bulletin board combination.

And now for something completely different. As I state during my lecture on How to Formulate and Negotiate Contracts at the CLNC^® Certification Program, there are two types of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants: those who divide people into two types and those who don’t. For the purposes of today’s Tuesday Tech Tip, let’s assume there are more types of CLNC^® consultants: those who are CLNC^® cat people, those who are CLNC^® dog people and those who are neither. This is important because of the other accessory, one that I’m dubious about.

A long time ago in the years B.V. (Before Vickie), and even B.C. (Before I had a Computer), I had a couple of cats. If you’ve ever owned a cat, you know that they will ignore you and pretend that you don’t exist until one of three things happen: 1) it’s meal time, 2) the litter box is full or 3) you begin working on something important. In the case of #3, as soon as you open any sort of work, your cat will immediately find it necessary to come and lie on top of it. In the years B.V., this included my notes from law school, any newspaper I was reading or anything else on my desk (ask me about the messy fountain pen and blue cat story later). If you’ve been around cats you understand it isn’t enough to sit on your lap, cats are all born under the astrological sign of Leo and know, not just believe, that it’s ALL about them. In short, they need to be where the action is – on your work and probably on your keyboard (another reason to hide your iPad^®).

It’s been an even longer time since I’ve owned a dog, but my memory of dogs is that they’re happy to sit at your feet waiting for you to drop a piece of brownie or whatever other savory snack you’re chewing on while you work. Dogs, unless they’re some goofy purse-sized breed, are generally polar opposites from cats in terms of temperament. In other words, they stay out of your work until it’s play time.

This takes me to the newly released CatNix partition for your desk. This is designed to be a pair of small screens that you set up on either side of your computer monitor with the intent of keeping your cat (or cats) from sneaking around the back of your monitor, plopping itself on your keyboard and disrupting that legal nurse consulting report you’re working on for your favorite attorney-client. Take a look at the picture on the CatNix homepage and if you’re a cat-owner, past or present, ask yourself: how long it will take for good ‘ole Kitty Galore to circumvent those screens by leaping directly onto your keyboard either from your chair or the nearest, highest perch? This is one product that I can hear cats laughing about all over town.

Interestingly enough, I do see one practical application for this product. That would be to create a sense of privacy around your monitor. Many office layouts don’t provide a good degree of privacy around the desks or cubicles. This might be a way to protect your screen from being viewed by various miscreants in your home or work location without having to resort to a privacy screen.

Those are today’s tech tips. Next week is my First Annual Festivus list of what I’d like to see from the tech world for Christmas. See you then. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your cat and dog stories about how they help, hinder or generally interfere with your work.

Keep on techin’,

Tom