Our desks are awash in computers. Beside Judi's beloved Victor V286 sits a Mac II for testing Macintosh software. Next to Frank's souped-up old IBM XT squat the monitor and keyboard for our network file server, the floor-standing AST 286. Frank often works on different programs in both computers at once!
To these, add (in the outer offices) an Apple IIGS, a beauty of a Wang Freestyle system, a Dell, a Zenith and whatever else has come in for testing. Interconnect these computers to printers we own and are testing, currently a Juki, an Apple LaserWriter, a Hewlett-Packard and a QMS ColorScript 100.As you can imagine, our desks are crammed and our floors are awash in temporary wires. Or they would be, if we hadn't found some limb-saving and eye-pleasing gadgets. They'll probably help you out, too. And the beauty of them all is that anyone can install them.
Is your office a spaghetti bowl of cables and wires? Tuck them out of sight with CableManager. It's a $43 set of three cream-colored plastic conduits, one a flexible elbow, with plenty of room inside for computer and printer wires. No screwing or nailing, either. Judi secured the channels to her desk's back and side using just their adhesive pads. They're made by MicroComputer Accessories, Inc. (800-521-8270), a new division of Rubbermaid.
Does your desktop computer eat up the entire top of your desk? Frank tucks away one keyboard under his computer cabinet and the other under his desktop. Lots of mail-order computer cataloguers sell keyboard storage drawers. MicroComputer's $160-or-so drawers also adjust keyboard height and tilt.
Frank perches those other big space-grabbers, his viewing monitors, atop modernistic tilt-and-swivel pedestals. When he wants them out of the way, he can swivel them about as far as his arms can reach. Prices for these gadgets range from $25 to $230. Many local office supply stores have them on display.
Is your desk so cluttered your mouse can't run around? Instead of clearing your desk, you can add a good-size mouse pad that sits atop your keyboard when it's not being used. MicroComputer's sizable rubberized pad, at $27, can disappear along with the keyboard into the keyboard drawer. In use, it can hang over the edge of your desk.
Or you can put away your space-eating mouse and plug in Kensington's Turbo Mouse ADB. Some clever designer decided to put the rollerball atop his mouse instead of on the bottom. Result: Instead of rolling the whole mouse, you need only roll your finger over the stationery ball! So this mouse takes up only a few square inches of desk space, even while hard at work.
We tested Turbo Mouse on the Mac and Apple IIGS. It will shortly be available for the IBM PC world, too. It's a hefty $170, but even all-thumbs Judi finds it a lot more precise than other mouses. (If you can't find it locally, phone Kensington Microware at 800-5354242.)
A third solution to mouse-crowding, if you plunk away at an IBM type personal computer, replaces your mouse and your old keyboard with a shiny new KeyTronics model KB5153. Off to the right sit a four-inch square pad plus a tiny stylus. They do precision mousing.
They can also draw shapes and figures when you use an artwork program. (Used that way, computer sellers often dub it a digitizer or art pad.) Frank grabs the stylus and moves it hither and yon on the pad, pretty much the way you'd slither a mouse across a desk. At $250, it saves wear and tear on his walnut desktop.
KeyTronics also includes a disk that lets you divide up the pad into 36 extra function keys or macros. You can program the keys yourself, marking their meanings on a paper overlay that comes with the keyboard. To use a function key, you just tap the right spot with the stylus.
KeyTronics has preprogrammed some sets for you. They accompany the keyboard on a disk, with printed pad overlays. They include routines for use with WordPerfect, Word-Star, Lotus 1-2-3 and MS DOS. (Key-Tronics' number is 509-928-8000.)
Are overcrowded phone lines causing errors and aggravation? Our few phone lines are shared by people, modems and fax machines.
Whenever someone picked up a phone while the modem or fax was working, there was a chance of transmission error.
Then we found Nady Systems' Private Line PL-1. Easily plugged in between a phone and its wall jack, it automatically disables all other phone extensions while one of them is activated. You'll need at least two of these tiny devices, and they list at $24 a two-pack. (If you can't find them locally, call 415-652-2411.)
Now that we've shared our favorite gadgets with you, we'd like you to be on the lookout for two gadgets we haven't found. Frank needs a universal cable that he says will connect a 9-pin or 25-pin IBM or Apple type computer to a 36-contact or 25-contact IBM or Apple-talk printer with parallel and either reversed or non-reversed serial wiring.
And Judi is looking for a way to control the most dangerous gadget in all of computerdom: the loose nut in front of the keyboard.
Copyright 1989 P/K Associates Inc., 4343 W Beltline Hwy, Madison WI 53711.