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The umbilical!
Jul. 22nd, 2013 10:23 pmI finally got around to re-wiring my computer.
I had put some thought into this originally:
- Back in the days of yore (2011 or so), I had the Mac Pro under this desk. I did my usual thing of dropping wires behind the desk into a wad and not caring about it.
- January 2012 or so, I decided to go all-laptop. I still needed a machine running all the time, so I cadged a Mac Mini from work and stuck it under the desk on a little wire shelf. Still a rats nest, actually worse because of a pile of external drives connected to it (so it can stream videos to the TV). Plus, now the desk is covered in cables too.
- The laptop thing gets worse and messier until a month or so ago, when I built my current desktop. I wanted it not under my desk (the Mac Mini is still there, and I want leg room), so I stuck it beside my desk. This meant extra-long cables for things, held to the wall with zip ties. Unfortunately, the cables weren't actually long enough, there were USB issues (some things don't work with a hub, some things couldn't get bluetooth reception to the computer, and the whole thing was starting to fall apart.
- Enter the umbilical! A 15-ft HDMI cable, two 15-ft USB repeaters, and an ethernet cable, all inside one of these. One big cable is better than many small cables. When it hits the desktop it essentially becomes two female USB ports, for my mouse and keyboard (well, mouse and hub). It doesn't exactly look awesome, being something sort of like a black garden hose, but it's better than a big wad of tangled cables.
I had put some thought into this originally:
- Back in the days of yore (2011 or so), I had the Mac Pro under this desk. I did my usual thing of dropping wires behind the desk into a wad and not caring about it.
- January 2012 or so, I decided to go all-laptop. I still needed a machine running all the time, so I cadged a Mac Mini from work and stuck it under the desk on a little wire shelf. Still a rats nest, actually worse because of a pile of external drives connected to it (so it can stream videos to the TV). Plus, now the desk is covered in cables too.
- The laptop thing gets worse and messier until a month or so ago, when I built my current desktop. I wanted it not under my desk (the Mac Mini is still there, and I want leg room), so I stuck it beside my desk. This meant extra-long cables for things, held to the wall with zip ties. Unfortunately, the cables weren't actually long enough, there were USB issues (some things don't work with a hub, some things couldn't get bluetooth reception to the computer, and the whole thing was starting to fall apart.
- Enter the umbilical! A 15-ft HDMI cable, two 15-ft USB repeaters, and an ethernet cable, all inside one of these. One big cable is better than many small cables. When it hits the desktop it essentially becomes two female USB ports, for my mouse and keyboard (well, mouse and hub). It doesn't exactly look awesome, being something sort of like a black garden hose, but it's better than a big wad of tangled cables.
