Skip to main content

If my cables are not actively trying to kill me, they are managed

If you go one of the subreddits on Reddit.com celebrating pristine computer builds, the site of a single inch of cable raises hackles.

As someone who has been setting up computers since 1979--yes really--I have never worried much about cables.  I'm forever having to add/subtract, move peripherals, so cable management would have been inhibiting and inconvenient.

I've been working from home like many for the last year (it was a year Friday). Over this time  I've tweaked my home system immensely. Since I do spend a lot of time in it, I have thought some of cable management.  Not so much in making them disappear--that's an ideal I'll never hit--but rather somewhat less chaotic.

The most offensive part was my docking station. I'd bought a small docking station that accepted two monitors, two USB inputs and an ethernet cable. That way I could switch from work laptop to personal laptop by switching one cable; not several.

I connected a powered USB hub to one of the USB inputs so I could swap my 2 cameras, Yeti microphone, headset, keyboard and mouse once too.

That hub and dock made far an ugly rats nest. One day I had an inspired idea. I had a small, empty cardboard box. I punched holes in three sides, put the dock hub inside and passed the cables into them, and then the one out to the laptop.

For a brief moment I thought I'd made an major invention. I visualized going on Shark Tank and partnering up with Cuban and deftly putting Mr. Wonderful in his place.

And then I checked Amazon.  Alas, cable management boxes are a whole category.



I bought a set of three.  

On a Sunday, I tore everything down, and had a completely clear desk for the first time in years.  I moved everything back, cabling carefully as I went.  All was wonderful for three days.

Then my mouse and keyboard got twitchy and I had to hook up direct to my work laptop. Everything got torn apart.

It was a short lived glitch. At the end of the day I hooked everything back up and it worked, but the cables were a rat nest again.

Another Sunday, another setting up.

Then I had to go into the office for a quick trip and needed my laptop. I had to tear it all apart to get at my power supply.

So the following Sunday I repeated everything, but this time I've added a small power strip outside of the cable boxes for my work laptop and to hook up other devices temporarily.  Not as attractive, but more useful.

Then I added a third monitor. Remember my dock only supports two, so I had to move two cables to switch from work to home laptops; the dock's USB cable and an HDMI for that third monitor.  That was a first world problem I could not live with. That's an adventure for another post.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Notes Folder : My new note taking system

I'm in the process of moving to a new way to keep my notes. It would be best to make a separate post on my long time notetaking app, Evernote, and how it now disappoints me.  Bottom line, I no longer trust the company behind Evernote since it was acquired. My first inclination was to finally look at alternatives. like Notion, Joplin, Obsidian, etc. I was not enamored with any of them, so I gritted my teeth and stayed with Evernote. The situation made me think about how I use Evernote. To keep up additional posts on this topic, search on the tag Notes Folder Updates : January 24, 2024 and in updates noted here. Most of the things I store are quick notes, lists, online receipts for online bills, that sort of thing; kind of an online file cabinet if you will. If I were a doctoral student though I could see storing PDFs of papers and research materials.  If were working on a large project, then plans, communications etc. would all be there. Back when I began using Evernote way b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Recording your own notes with Google Voice

Note :   April 2016:  Frankly I don't know if this works anymore.  It is 7 years old. I stopped using this when Google Now became useful on my phone, and I could dictate reminders using it. I found a way a while ago to use Google Voice to record a personal note, transcribe it, and email it to me. A recent Lifehacker post "Five Things We'd Like to See in Google Voice" lists that need as their #5 request, so I realized what I'd figured out is not common knowledge. In GV's Contacts, create a Group "Special Transcription" To avoid listening to my standard voice mail when I call, I recorded a short voice mail greeting for this group simply saying "Record note now" I added a contact with my own cell phone number as the only number, and made it the sole member of this group. In GV's phone settings, I edited the settings for my cell phone. In the section "Direct access to voicemail when calling your Google number from th...
62 comments
Read more

Your First Day with Evernote

I've written many times before about Evernote .  I love this program.  It is my brain's memory on steroids.  I have over 6000 notes in it now.  And I keep finding ever more uses for it. While originally written in 2009, this post has been frequently updated. New January 2012:  If you like what I write about Evernote, check out my 136 page e-book,  " Get Productive Fast with Evernote ".  Just $10. Sunday October 11, 2009 I wrote about Evernote in my print column, Family Tech. If you are wondering what is Evernote, and why would I want to use it, start with the column . I promised in that column this post to help new users get efficient fast with Evernote. I thought I'd write a quick plan for someone's first day with Evernote. This is really meant for after you've installed the client to your computer, so this picks up after you've gone to  Evernote's Get Started Page and created an account and downloaded and installed a clien...
31 comments
Read more