Cable Management

[Makosuke]

Agreed. Zip ties are the invention of the devil.

Why? As far as I'm concerned, zip ties are right up there with duct tape and WD40 in the pantheon of "it fixes everything" substances. Not saying I don't like the re-positionability of velcro, but carefully-positioned and trimmed zip ties are far more attractive (and inconspicuous) than velcro.

This may, admittedly, come from the fact that I do a lot of wiring on scientific hardware that involves huge bundles of signal and power wires stuffed in cable trays and routed along structural tubing; zip ties work fantastically in a situation like that, and I'd never even consider using velcro. Heck, my boss would make me take it off and replace it with something better looking if I tried.

 

[fjfjfjfj]

I bought the cable box, I stuffed in it

- an Airport Express
- a gigabit switch
- an external V-Dac
- a multiple socket
- cable


you can see it next to the chair

Image

It was a good investment.

Absolutely beautiful! I mounted a surge protector upside down under the desk and zip tied all the wires to the underside of the desk. If you are low enough you can see them a little bit but from a standing position in the room you can't see much at all, it works fairly well.

Mawal - what is that clock screensaver? I want that.

 

[PatrickCocoa]

Enter the Lion

Although I love the trackpads on Macbooks, if I were sitting at a desk, I'd prefer to use a regular mouse.

Lion (OSX 10.7) will have several trackpad-only gestures. For desktop use (on my iMac with Snow Leopard) I still use the mouse. I've never used a desktop trackpad, but the day is fast approaching when I will buy a Magic Trackpad and retire the mouse for everyday use.

At some point, there will be a must-have feature in OS X that is trackpad only, or possibly the iPad gesture-based interface will become predominant. The mouse will slowly fade away.

 

[Hans Brix]

Why? As far as I'm concerned, zip ties are right up there with duct tape and WD40 in the pantheon of "it fixes everything" substances. Not saying I don't like the re-positionability of velcro, but carefully-positioned and trimmed zip ties are far more attractive (and inconspicuous) than velcro.

This may, admittedly, come from the fact that I do a lot of wiring on scientific hardware that involves huge bundles of signal and power wires stuffed in cable trays and routed along structural tubing; zip ties work fantastically in a situation like that, and I'd never even consider using velcro. Heck, my boss would make me take it off and replace it with something better looking if I tried.

My background is network management. So that's my frame of reference. Velcro wraps are much quicker to remove than cable ties and have more flexibility and are reusable.

 

[benjayman2]

Sorry pictures didn't turn out so well. I know it's not the greatest, but it is a much better improvement from the mess of wires that use to be. Plus the only stuff I paid for was the tubing, which was around $5.

 

[Richdmoore]

I worry about using paper boxes for this, as it may be a fire hazard. I am thinking of buying some plastic boxes and trying this however. I also still worry about airflow and heat buildup with powerstrips and transformers....

 

[benjayman2]

can't believe I didn't mention this. I sprayed the inner and outer lining with fire retardant spray.