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Controlling the Cable Congestion?
JaytheMover asks: "I've just moved, and my wife won't allow me to set up my desk as I had before. I had a gaggle of cables under my desk which only NOW seems to bother her in the new house. How do you guys keep this mess under control? I Googled 'Cable Organizer' and found this thing called the cable organizer at cable-safe.com which hangs the cords like in a closet or this cable snake thing which binds them all together. What do Slashdot readers use to keep their cable clean and their wives happy?"
I just wire everythinig unvisibly behind furniture and boxen. If you take the time to look behind crap, you see a mess. But if you look at the surface it's totally clean looking and uncluttered. It's cheap, efficient, and very easy to setup ;)
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
Well, almost. Before we bought our new house I bargained with her. I get the garage and the nerd room (home office), she gets the rest of the house.
-- The morphemes of your disquisition are ascertainable, but they have eschewed an ambit of transpicuous exposition.
What do Slashdot readers use to keep their cable clean and their wives happy?
First off, I avoid straight lines like that at all costs.
-- MaruksQ
I have two separate 3" split tubes for AC and data, ducttaped around the ends. Easy, cheap and stylin'!
To organize cables, I usually use my staple gun and a bunch of twist-ties. It's (to some extent) adjustable and reusable, and certainly effective.
I've seen too many accidents with staple guns to recommend going that route...
The ______ Agenda
I know god exists. I read it on the internet, so it must be true.
w/wireless
Just to find a different wife? One that would go into the kitchen and make you some pie instead of bitching about cables?
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
If you can't be trusted with a staple gun, you'd better stay away from them wires, then. Some of them carry lethal voltages, you know!
I do *NOT* staplegun the wires to my desk. I staplegun the TWIST TIES to the desk, then hang the wires on them.
For heavy wires, doubling up the staples and doubling or tripling up on the twist ties is a good idea.
I just keep my wife out of the office. It's worked so far.
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"How do you guys keep this mess under control?"
I don't. I keep my gf under control. My TV has DVDs of DS9 constantly running on it, she stays out when it's on.
"Derp de derp."
And have her arrange the cables anyway she wants. All you care about is your stuff is connected - who cares what it looks like, so tell her what needs to run to what - and have her do it
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them
A. Most slashdot readers are sadly (?) not constrained by this requirement. Perhaps you could explain to the majority of the readership here, what a wife is, and how you get one.
B. Most slashdot wifes probably accept the cable mess as "one of those things I love about him." Anyhow, I suspect slashdot wives in general have a fairly high tolerance of cable messes.
C. Which those married readers with wives who aren't particularly tolerant of the mess.
I've found buying shiny things are helpful for generating tolerance.
You can try wire duct of the type that Panduit sells. Run a long channel or two along the back of your desk and you can pop the top and stuff all your extra cable inside the channel and route the wire neatly out the slots where they are needed. More expensive but easier to reconfigure.
Now, as to part two - keeping my wife happy:
I try to hit the toilet when urinating and wipe up if I don't. I do my share of the dishes, cooking, laundry, etc. I take out the trash. I surprise her with flowers when she isn't expecting any. I help fix problems at her mother's house. I stop what I'm doing and give her a hug and kiss when she gets home from work. Somehow, the issue of a couple of stray cables hidden under the back of the desk hasn't concerned her at all.
~~~~~~~
"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
They're kind of like the plastic zippy wire ties with a slot to help hold the cables together, but being Velcro they're reusable. These work out really well if you need to tame the wires but still want to move stuff around a lot.
Firstly, my s/o always complained about cables, until I got her her own computer.
Only then did she realize that cables aren't just there to annoy her.
I'm not meaning she's dull either; we're often annoyed by stuff we experience the point with it
(think road work: "What the hell are they digging up the road for. Can't they see I'm trying to drive here?..." etc).
Second, velcro straps are good for getting the cables off the floor.
Our cables are now basically hanging rat's nests, but without the monstrous dust bunnies, and it's easier to vacuum.
No sig to see here. Move along.
I use gravity to keep my cables in place. It's effective and free, the cables just stay there on the floor with no additional power or hardware necessary. I shove my subwoofer in front of the pile of cables so nobody sees it.
This neat crap bugs me, it reminds me of an incident many many years ago, on the first PC network I ever used. I was a developer and we had an early Corvus OmniNet. It used flat cable, and we bought only 100ft cables, that was the max length and we figured better too much cable than too little, and we planned to move to bigger offices where we would need longer runs. But some of us were within 20 feet of the server, so we had huge piles of ribbon cable bunching up behind our desks. So one day the office manager came in on a weekend and decided to clean up, and coiled the extra 80 feet into a nice coil, put a wire tie around it, and put it back behind our desks. Then on monday we came to work and the network was shot to hell, we couldn't get decent speed or reliable file transfers. I checked cabling and found the coiled cable behind my desk. I uncoiled it and instantly got back to reliable net use. I went to the manager and informed her that you can't coil 80 ft of ribbon cable in a nice neat cylinder, you're just making an induction coil, signals can't pass through it. He didn't believe me, so we had to call Corvus, and they confirmed. They said that if you wanted to neaten up your cable, you had to make a loosely bundled accordion fold about 3 ft long. So he made us all rebundle the cables. Total loss of productive time, about 1 business day. Neatness can be destructive, never let neatness interfere with productivity.
I just tell my wife to stay the hell out of my computer room!
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
Power & network cables?? ;)
Real slashdotters use use Tesla coils and wi-fi!
(and don't have wifes
What do Slashdot readers use to keep their cable clean and their wives happy? "Cleaning your cable?" Is that what their calling it now? Yeah, I find that my wife gets unhappy too if she doesn't get her cable cleaned at least 3 times a week...
I resent that! I do too have a wife! So she's inflatable and I keep her under the bed, still, we've been happily together for years!
Some wires must be. However wireless keyboards and mice are nice. Wireless networking isn't THAT expensive either (compare to divorce if you must) so keep the internet connection in the basement or something. That gets rid of a few.
Put a USB hub on your desk (one wire, 2 if powered), when you need the printer, scanner, real keyboard/mouse (wireless doesn't always work for games), game pad, steering wheel, external CD drive, webcam, and so on, pull it out of the closet, plug it in and use it. Put away again when you are done.
Doesn't solve all problems, but helps a lot.
You might be able to move some things elsewhere too. Sure a printer means two cables, but buy her a comptuer and attach the printer to her machine. Use the network to print. Or put the printer in a different room.
Or better yet, get her a hobbie. Most of the women in my family sew, and can never have too much fabric. Once she has a room full of sewing stuff it is much easier for you to get a corner of cluttered stuff to yourself. Good luck.
What kind of sick fuck thinks jokes about killing women are funny? Dude, get some help.
I know god exists. I read it on the internet, so it must be true.
1. Accumulate and Twist-Tie excessive cable to eliminate congestion.
2. If #1 doesn't make your wi(fe / ves) happy, paint a shoebox to the room color (or use wallpaper if your room has wallpaper) and stuff all the Tied excess cable into it.
3. Kill your wi(fe / ves).
4. Problem(s) solved!
Frink: Nice try floyd, but you were designed for scrubbing, and scrubbing is what you shall do.
If your desk faces the wall as most do, hang a piece of black burlap behind it to hide the cables behind.
... Or do you mean to manage the cables?
Velcro is your friend - ignore those zip tie folks.
Slashdot, where armchair scientists get shouted down and armchair theologians get modded up.
Disconnect the main cable from the car's battery. Get a handful of likely looking wires which could have come from the car. Wait.
"Sweetheart? The car won't start."
"I know. I thought about what you said about the wires on the computers and decided you were right. They're an eyesore. So when I was working on the car, I decided all those ugly wires under the hood had to go. See?" [Hold up handful of wires].
"But the car won't run without those!"
"I know. Neither will the computers."
If she's not fully convinced yet, walk over to the TV and start fiddling around with the coax cable.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
I picked up a couple of their SIGNUM cable management systems. It's basically just a rack that screws to the underside of your desk, and you run your cables through it. I ran every cable I possibly could through it, even making custom-length network cables so everything was long enough to be able to make use of the rack.
Next time I clean under there, I'll probably screw the power strips in the bundle the power cables, to get rid of even more stuff sitting on the floor.
The most common technique is to use good old fashioned string. Most hands refer to it as Tie Line. Run a wire where you need it, tie it up. Tie line is usually cut to about half a yard (or metre), tied in a clove knot, and finished with the same knot you tie your shoes with. After a year or two, they wear out, but it's cheap and easy.
Many rental shops will put Velcro ties on their cables. I think it's silly given that's it's 50x more exprensive, but it's their money.
This is a boring sig
I have a cheapie corner desk, with 4 computers piled on/around it. Since I didn't mind drilling in the desk, I bought 10 rubber coated screw-in hooks from K-Mart. I think they're meant to hold garden tools or something -- they're pretty hefty.
Spacing the hooks about 12" apart horizontally on the back of the desk as a cable tray worked amazingly well, and cost about $4 total.
I don't have anything tied down, which is nice for moving things around.
For other cords (mouse, keyboard, etc) I like to use the 3M Command Adhesive strips with the wire clips on them.
Last time my wife & I were at IKEA, we got some cheap home office organizing stuff like what you seem to be looking for here. One promising item they had was a cable organizing tray that can be attached to the back of your desk. They also have these donut-shaped reels that can be used for spooling up excess cable. But the main one, which I can't seem to find on their website, was a simple slitted black tube that you could use to snake all your cabling together.
Note that I don't have anything to push by suggesting IKEA here -- there may be stores in your area that have the same sort of items. The nice thing about IKEA though is that the prices aren't too bad (I think $10 for the organizing tray sounds pretty reasonable, and the reels are two for $1).
As for the cable snake, the one I bought could easily be substituted by going to a swimming pool supply store & picking up a three or six foot length of cheap pool filter hose, and just cutting a slice along the length of it so you can slip your cables into the tube. At a guess, this tube is probably also about a buck at most pool stores, and it should work just as well as a "custom computer cable tube".
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
First off, I get as much wireless stuf as possible. Printers, scanners, mice, keyboards, all these things can and should be wireless. There's just no reason not to, if its worth the money to you. Second, its' not about the wires it's about the desk.
For the past two years I had a store bought desk made of particle board that comes as a kit. It was cool, but it broke when I moved out over the summer. When I got back to school I built my own desk. I took a tape measure and determined how high, wide and deep a desk I would need. I went to Home depot, had them cut a piece of wood of appropriate size. The I bought 6 cinderblocks. 3 on the left, 3 on the right, room for feet in the middle. Put the piece of wood on top. Perfect.
I took the piece of wood outside and Drilled a hole in it, a big hole, inches in diameter. I got my box on the right, monitor on the left. Wireless keyboard and mouse. Subwoofer in the bottom right corner on the floor under the desk. All the wires on the desk run along the back and through the hole to where the power strip is. Only the speaker wires go anywhere else. It's pretty slick. It's the first time in years I haven't had horrible wiring problems. I don't even think about cables anymore, I used to have to fiddle almost weekly.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Find all the groups of cables that go from one place to annother, ie (Desktop->Back of computer (mouse, keyboard, microphone, monitor, video camera)) and (Shelf of computers->Powerbar (power cables)) and (Shelf of computers->Router (Cat-5s))
Now tape each group together so it forms one mega-cable.
Just be really carefull when you replace a device that you don't cut any cables when you cut the tape. I did this myself; last time I replaced my mouse I also had to replace my keyboard.
hm... I assume they have battery powered devices for that purpose?
Sitting Walrus Blog
...testosterone boosters and a backbone transplant!
Failing that, get some velcro and a staple gun.
The 3M velcro straps (Hook and Loop Fasteners) are great and don't cost much. They have multiple types (length, width, colors) perforated or not.
I like the 600" x 1" roll with 8" perforations. Allows me to cut them down the middle and in half if needed. 300 1/2" x 4" straps for less than $7. Great for all kinds of organization tasks.
Here are some of the places I've found them:
Mouser
Jensen Tools
This post and the parent got it. To add good cable managment is like most good things. it results from planning. Use technologies that don't require wires. Use technologies that have easy to handle cables. i.e. DVI, IEE1394, USB, SATA instead of ribbon, parallel, SCSI, analog monitor. Use only the lengths you really need. Place your components (internel as well as external) to minamize cable lengths, and make routing easier. Don't forget to pay attention to the connections on the equipment. Orientate equipment into unusual (vertical instead of horizontal) positions and places if needed. Overall your success will depend on how good you are at visualizing and managing the 3D puzzle that cable managment is.
the key to useing zip ties, it to keep each cable separate and zip tie it only to itself. If you do need to bundle cables, keep power and data cables separate, and only bundle cables that go to and from the same box (ie: a cable modem that uses a cat5 cable, but your computer has a TV tuner card coming from the cable modem also, the same place as the network cable)the zip ties should only be used to shorten cables, not to secure them to things. If you do sercure them, use a separte one to shorten them. Use the right size ties, and cut off any of the excess length without pinching your cables. And finally buy alot of them and don't be afriad to cut them off at a moments notice. Hope it helped.
Why are you so serious? Did your Pa kill your Ma?
.~~~
Never tried them, but http://www.cordkeepr.com/
If Chaos Theory has taught us anything, it's that we must kill all the butterflies.
You don't believe me? Look at the living room, the kitchen and your bedroom, for example. Are they arranged and decorated as they would be if you lived there alone, or as they would be if she lived there alone? I thought so.
But as you are a long term guest, and because of your various useful functions (getting things off high shelves, opening jars, killing icky things and changing fluids) you should be alloted some small parcels of guy space.
Traditionally, guy space is found in the garage, the basement, the attic or sometimes in a room in the house that the wife can find no other use for. They are filled with things; guy things; things that the wife will not tolerate anywhere else in the house but cannot outright ban. Your power tools, your games , your books , your semi-abandoned projects, your things that are too close to working again to throw away,
This is where your computers should be.
Once you establish that your computers are in your space - where everything is as it should be - let your cables be as they should be. The general condition of the guy space must constantly remind her that here, she is the guest A rat's nest of computer cables on the floor sends that message subtly but strongly.
"In a hierarchy every employee will rise to his level of incompetence". The Peter Principle
I must co-habitate as well, and this is what I did. I have a very long (3 monitors fit on the top shelf) desk, which used to have a whole mess of cables behind it. I managed to procure some surplus large-diameter PVC (3-4 inch or so) piping, which I cut in half. Lay cables carefully along baseboard of wall, set piping covering cables, thread cables through gaps between segments, and suddenly, no more cable mess. Sure, you have to move the PVC to rewire stuff, but it's as simple as tilting it back. It also keeps the dust off the cables, and keeps other junk, like wrappers, off the cables too.
Worked for me, could work for you!
I recognize people by their sigs. Is that a bad thing?
Simple, we didn't get married. Now, if you'll excuse me, my frozen pizza is done.
Karma: desrever
Unknown host pong.
Just say "I can hide all these cables by running them through the wall", then punch a hole in the wall using a hammer. She won't even notice your cables at all after that.
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
You obviously don't have enough stuff. You need enough stuff to provide a solid face on the desk. Multiple PC's and monitors.
All the cables are tangled up out of sight behind the big boxes. All I have visible is mouse/keyboard cables, and a camera connection cable, tucked under a monitor until I need it.
If you've worked in telephony much, you've probably seen masses of crossconnects (the same function as a cat5 patch panel, but on the analog side of things, and cheaper.) Look closer, and you'll see that the telco guys organise this stuff with plastic cable runs, but also use scraps of crosconnect (fine solid core) wire as twist ties.
If you do your own cabling, this makes sense. You just take a scrap of cat5 (if you had crossconnect wire, you'd probably already be clued to this) strip and cut to an appropriate length. Untwist if you're feeling extra neat. Patch cables won't work for this, because they are usually stranded wire, not solid core.
Because of this, whenever I'm doing cabling, I always have a limitless supply of cable organizers.
I'm no fan of neatness for its own sake. Neatness can be counterproductive. Ever look at a few hundred really tight and neat cat5 patch cables? Then did you ever try to replace the one that failed? All that tight velcro, and identical cables of exactly the same length are no fun to work with when you have to move or redo something in there. Hey, it looks tidy though.
Assembly is the reverse of disassembly.
.... remind her that you don't go around asking her to change things around the house.
/.ers around here that are obviously more accomodating that I would ever be :-)
If you do, then the compromise should be that you will stop doing that if she stops messing with your stuff.
Honestly, some times you have to say no, and make clear how unfair it is to be told how to put things like a child,
Now, if you do not ever do anything to keey the house tidy then, yeah, sucki it up and follow the advice of other
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
What happened to having an extra plug in the computer power supply for another device such as a monitor? How about two, one for the monitor and another for the printer. Or an extra plug in the printer for the scanner?
Other things to consider are things such as: combo cable modem/wireless router, combo scan & fax printers, wireless kerboard and mouse combos.
Having said that, the area behind my computer looks like a rats nest too.
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
I work at Staples. We have a bunch of cable organizers in our stores, in the electronics department. Just go there and have a look at what your options are. We've got the basic ideas covered.
Next time I clean under there, I'll probably screw the power strips in the bundle the power cables, to get rid of even more stuff sitting on the floor.
Should be: "Next time I clean under there, I'll probably screw mount the power strips under the desk and bundle the power cables, to get rid of even more stuff sitting on the floor."
Holy Shit....I make a cartman reference and BAM!! Modded to -1 Troll.
Those of you that felt it was necessary to mod me down, understand the context before you go crazy.
In the show he's talking about not taking any crap from a woman. Not that I actually advise "telling her to go make you a pie", or whatever, but christ. This was hardly deserved.
This was supposed to be funny. If anything, just ignore it, don't waste your mod points on me.
How could I say to men: "Speak louder, shout! For I am deaf!"? -Ludwig van Beethoven
One word of warning when using Wireless devices such as keyboard and mouse. Be careful when using them in an area where more than one person may have wireless devices.
In my college we had a case where a student was "magically" seeing someone typing on her computer, when in reality it was a girl about 50 feet down the hall who's wireless keyboard signal was being picked up by this girl's wireless keyboard receiver. (Of course, how that signal made it thru about 7 cinder block dorm room walls is still beyond me!)
On a related note, you also have to worry about the security issues - a case like the above demonstrates how easy it would be to sniff a wireless keyboard signal and find out what you are typing.
but my wife won't do scat for me...
"What kind of sick fuck thinks jokes about killing women are funny? Dude, get some help." someone with the nick I Be Hatin'.
You guys need to have a chat. Geeks need space of their own. If you let her control the cable behind your computer, she will think she can control everything in the new house, including _YOU_. She needs to come to an agreement that you get some space of your own. Even if it is in combined space (which will probably be required if you have kids), it needs to be completely under your control. She should respect you enough to not move so much as an empty gatorade bottle. It's only fair (but always give her more space that she controls, and always let her decorate)
Before everyone says I don't know what I'm talking about, married 4 years (co-habitated for 2 before that). My office, bedside table, and the garage are designated "Pack Rat" areas (anything goes). I'm sure my wife would rather have those areas perfect, but she still understands that she needs to let me be who I am (a geek with a messy office and a whole lotta computers).
Wireless stuff, USB hub, etc...
A cool project in and of itself. I am waiting for a 17" Flatscreen with built in speakers, a USB hub, and USB speakers. That way I can just run one USB wire to the PC for all that (still need power though).
I like having the mouse and keyboard attached, keeps the kids (and me) from running off with them (like they do with the remotes).
try searching for "cable management", which is what the IT industry types call it (I am one). Cable organizer means *nothing*
Man, you got it.
I wish more people will read this.
Give your wife what she really needs, with love and respect, and you'll get the same (or you'll find out you married the wrong person).
Marriages comprising of spoiled, selfish and moody children (vs adults) rarely work out.
The solution isn't with the cables, it's with the desk. Just get a desk which has a back to it, and the cables are invisible. There are some desks which have a plastic hallow back which can be opened when you need to work on something.
Using zip ties doesn't really reduce the clutter, they just lump it all together. And it's also a PITA when you need to find out where a particular cable goes.