We were at an undisclosed office supply company the other day when this nifty little number caught our eye. Cool, we thought. Now whenever we have an Important Message someone can write down the contact information and a note detailing what the call was about. How handy!

But wait a minute . . . what if we’re traveling? Then either we have to wait until we come back into the office to see this message, or someone has to take the message and then read it back to us when we call in to check messages.

But wait another minute . . . do we have cell phones with voice mail? Yes! We do! In which case the person calling would have just tried another other number instead and left a message if we were busy.

But then again, it might be nice to have a physical record of their attempt to contact us. Plus that space for the note is awfully nice.

But wait yet another minute . . . do we have access to e-mail anywhere on the planet? Yes! We do! In which case the person trying to contact us could have left a message and then followed up with an e-mail with more details. Who knows? Maybe there was no real need to talk on the phone in the first place. Maybe no one called anyone and we addressed everything electronically.

Hmm . . . maybe this isn’t such a great product after all. Which is too bad, because we like things with the word “important” on them.

Intel says they hope to change. This Wall Street Journal story talks about how the chipmaker is possibly considering maybe being open to changing their cube culture.

Here is our favorite bit:

“In one of its tests, Intel plans to add 32 small conference rooms to a floor for meetings of two to four people and a dozen ‘private audio rooms’ – for private conversations that aren’t possible in cubicles.”

We love you, Intel! You come up with the craziest schemes for allowing people to think and talk to each other.