Cables - do they hate me?

the Interceptor

the Interceptor

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theInterceptor77
Alright, that's it! I've had it! I'm off! I'll go back to the woods and live on a tree... :banghead:

The reason for that? Cables! I've just moved into another flat and also got a PS3, so you might imagine that I had to deal with a lot of cables lately: power cables, speaker cables, audio cables, video cables - the lot. And I'm a techie, so I don't really have a problem with setting everything up.
The problem I have lies within the natures of cables. There are few things you might want from a cable. You either want to plug it in, pull it out or just lay somewhere for later use. Whichever thing you try though, the cable always makes it as difficult as possible for you. Here are some examples that have happened to me all over the place in the last few days:

- you try to plug in a cable. You have two possible ways of plugging it in, a right and a wrong one. You can't see the socket, so you're operating blindly. The possibility of holding it the wrong way lies at about 183 % (rough estimate)

- you put a cable on a table, because you're holding three devices at the same time and try not to drop any of them. But the cable suddenly decides to alter physics and finds a way to slide down and drop from the table. It also develops a sudden urge to pull every device that is at least to some value for you with it, or knock over your freshly filled coffee cup. Whatever it does, it leaves something in the way, so you can't put the three devices onto the table to get the cable again

- you pull a cable out of a device and try to remove it from behind the table. The cable immediately starts to engage atomic bonds with everything within reach, preventing you from just gently pulling it out. The plug itself acts like an additional anchor and grabs every cable that is around. It also likes furniture, it is capable of engaging bonds with table edges you could pull an aircraft carrier with


Like I said, I love all of this technology, but all the cables you need to make it work really make me go bananas sometimes! :mad:

Have you made similar experiences? Or do cables like you?
 
No they don't hate you! Where do you get that idea?


In fact, ...



... they hate ME!


I'm having the same problem as you.
 
As annoying as they are, they're the only efficient way of transmitting power and information in large quantities.

Hooray for cables!
 
I've always been annoyed by the stiffness of cables/hoses/etc, how they never just hang limp and tend to curl up exactly when you don't want them to. Of course, when I'm working in a tight space and need to "thread" a cable through a hole of some kind, then the cable isn't stiff enough.
 
Oh yes, putting a load of cables together does cause trouble. I still can't get my head around how my phone charger cable, my laptop charger cable, my headphones cable and 360 controller cable all get tangled together when all I've done is put them next to or on top of each other.

Plus, my headphone cable randomly makes knots on itself, which is even more baffling.
 
The only cables that really annoy me is earphone cables. And that putting 2 pieces of wire in a pocket for 1 minute ends up as 15 minutes of untangling fun.
 
In a couple of days, about 1230km of cables in my room will no long be needed thanks to this:

imac-back.jpg



ONE cable. Gangsta.
 
Ha, nothing like a good old rant. Cables were originally designed by a well-known Satanist, Vince Cable (hence the name), and ever since the world has become infested by their snake-like wily ways. What is it that makes two perfectly straight and unconnected cables want to wrap around each other and get into knots, with seemingly no human intervention at all? It's witchcraft... only possible explanation. Cables are a necessary evil, but don't be fooled - they are doing it on purpose.
 
My issue with cables is that they are never the right length. They always seem to come in only two sizes - about 4 inches too short, and about 4 feet too long.

Plus, the number of times you have to move/rearrange your electronic equipment is directly proportional to the amount of time you spend coiling the excess cable, ziptieing it, and making sure it's tidy.
 
I had my carpets cleaned the other week and I thought it would be a good time to unplug everything and then reconnect using cable ties to keep everything neat. It does look much better but I'm still not satisfied. The main problem is power cables, some are really long and seem to get rucked up behind the TV stand making it look untidy.
 
Yeah, cables and I fight a lot. I have yet to fathom how they tangle up with each other without being touched.

When moving my PC I would just unplug everything at once and move the box and then attempt to get the cables out from behind the desk. Once I get them unsnagged from whatever they grab on the back of a flat surface I then pull them out to find the cables that I hooked up in an orderly fashion somehow intertwined all together into one massive clump.

And don't even get me started on Christmas lights. I even have a roll up thing that I put them on when in the attic and somehow they manage to tangle. My mom used to put each strand in separate plastic sandwich bags and it just meant untangling multiple small balls.

tangled%20christmas%20lights_untangled%20life.jpg
 
We need someone to invent wireless electricity...

Apparently it can be done (faraday cage with neon tube) but not safely for a homes needs..... we already have those things that can charge phone without plugging them in but we need total Wi-Fi style electricity! :sick:

In the meantime it seems like twist ties are the best!

Robin
 
I agree with the points above. Connectors are never aligned properly (despite the fact that it should be 50% chance), cables are never long enough (or too long), they get caught on everything, and they get tangled very easily.

But what bugs me most about cables is that they make everything ugly. Lamp in the middle of the room? That means power cord dragging across the floor to the outlet. Plasma TV on the wall? Cables running down the wall.

So then we get creative. We run cables around door frames. We run them under the floor, through the attic. But they still manage to find away to make everything ugly.

And don't get me started on home networking pre-wi-fi.
 
One thing I always mean to do (but never actually do) is the label the cabels at the plug end. That would make things so much easier. My power strip at the moment has

PS2 + cables coming out of it
TV + cables coming out of it
HD 1 + cables coming out of it
HD 2 + cables coming out of it
Sound system which includes 5 wired speakers, sub, remote, TV connection
Fan :D
Bed
Computer

It's a big pile of black spaghetti.
 
Cables are a bitch, its a fact of life, unless you use zipties, tubing or those things that kikie posted to tame them.

Anyone else do like me when they buy a new electronic good and it comes with a rolled up cable only spool out what you really need?
 
My "home theater system" has about 25 cables and cords. The TV, stereo, telephone, PS2, CD/DVD player, satellite dish box, VCR, and all the in-out-cables are perfectly wired so that moving one of them renders the other 24 completely out of sorts when moving furniture or adding equipment. It makes for bout 3 hours of pushing, pulling, blind guesses, and cursing every time I move things or acquire new stuff (which obviously isn't that often, since I still have a VCR). The office computer is similarly wired for imperfection.

I can't wait for it all to be completely wireless in about twenty years.
 
Let me set the scene up for you.

A pile of pointless crap on one of the kitchen counters.My moms cell phone charger cord sitting 100% on top, plugged in. i walk by and my shirt touches one of it's billions of atoms to the wire. The whole stack of 200 things goes to the floor like I just shoved them with my arm.

What took 1/2 of a second to walk past, took 20 minutes to clean up.

I too hate cords, wires, ect.

EDIT: BTW I've seen cases where somebody broke one of the tubes they had holding wires and, the wires inside where tangled.
 
A year ago, I had some Christmas lights that I had to put on the tree. These were completely tangled. I spent 2 hours untangling them. It was terrible. When I finally got them on the tree and lit them, they looked nice. Until they started to explode. I have a 2 in. gash in my couch from one glass shard that had flown from the tree. My brother has a scar from one light, as he was trying to un-plug them.
 
UnoMOTO
I'm trying to MacGyver something up this year to avoid that very problem.
Click to expand...
Give it up. It is impossible to do. Besides, I've seen your lights there, Clark Griswald, and I knwo how that turns out next year. "Little knot here."

Sting
Cables are a bitch, its a fact of life, unless you use zipties, tubing or those things that kikie posted to tame them.

Anyone else do like me when they buy a new electronic good and it comes with a rolled up cable only spool out what you really need?
Click to expand...
Yep, and still it somehow manages to tangle all the rest of it and in the event of untangling moer comes unspooled/bound and just adds to the problem.
 
Firstly, 👍 to the first post. You've described cables in a nutshell. I dunno how they feel about me but I'm pretty sure I hate all of them!

Touring Mars
Ha, nothing like a good old rant. Cables were originally designed by a well-known Satanist, Vince Cable (hence the name), and ever since the world has become infested by their snake-like wily ways. What is it that makes two perfectly straight and unconnected cables want to wrap around each other and get into knots, with seemingly no human intervention at all? It's witchcraft... only possible explanation. Cables are a necessary evil, but don't be fooled - they are doing it on purpose.
Click to expand...

Actually I believe there may be a scientific principle behind their behaviour. Here's my theory:

Cables carry electrical current to some or other degree, whether it's tiny voltages driving speakers or delivering your webpage text to your PC. We all know that electricity flowing down a wire generates a magnetic field flowing clockwise around the cable (the left hand wire rule. Or was it the right hand wire rule?) Anyway, when two cables are close together, the tiny magnetic forces in the cables interact, causing the cables to twist around eachother. However, the forces are so small that they are significantly influenced by Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, which has the effect that they cannot move and be observed to move simultaneously. Hence, they only tangle themselves up when you're not looking. This happens even when they are not connected, probably because of latent static charge buildup or influence of dark matter or something.

Connectors are a different breed entirely. These are sentient beings which lead a highly troubled life as humans try to force them to engage in some bizarre mating ritual with strange creatures called "sockets" which clearly are not even the same species. This leads to angst on the part of the connector and it will do whatever it can to avoid this forced union. Because of this, connecters will without fail disconnect from sockets if they are not secured with some third party clip or screw. Even in such cases, connectors display amazing intelligence and ingenuity in attempting to break free, using such tactics as wrapping their attched cable around your leg as you walk past, in an effort to get jerked free from their incarceration.

Also, because connectors usually have a cable coming out of their rear end, they recognise other cables as being legitimate mates. Thus, when they see another cable, they will naturally attempt to mate with it. Connectors do this by employing a ritual dance similar to the human dance known as The Twist. This is different from the magnetic entanglement force because it can occur under observation.

I call this Alfaholics Extended Theory of Cable Dynamics. Hope it helps!
 
I read yesterday that some scientists in the US are working on something called 'WiTricity' which in the near future will replace cables with wireless electricity.
 
On the subject of connectors, why is it that no matter which way you try to plug a USB item in, the plug is upside down to the socket every time?
 

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