Earlier quoted context omitted.
A secret I've found is use hair ties instead of rubber bands with cables, they survive long stints in the garage much better
I double the cables over until they're short enough , and then tie them into a loose half knot. No fasteners to wish for, or to fail. Both ends of every cable are always next to each other for identification at a glance. Different cables cannot tangle with each other in a box. There are no axial twists imparted into the cable. (Stage hands hate this technique, but this isn't stagecraft.)
Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
261–270 of 463 posts
Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
#262Key for me is to "group" cables. For example, I have a bag of USB-C cables, a bag of USB-A cables, etc. Grouping them is key to deduplicating. It's easy to look at a single legacy USB A-to-B "printer" cable in isolation and think "I might need this someday!" Because you really might need it someday. However, if you group them you might see that you have ten of them. And then you can get rid of... maybe 8 of them. I a…
Yeah. I do the same
Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
A secret I've found is use hair ties instead of rubber bands with cables, they survive long stints in the garage much better
I routinely steal my wife's hairbands to tie various cables in my cable stash. You can never have enough USB cables of various types. But as Murphy dictates, the USB cable that I need now is one that I don't have in my stash.
Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
#264I decided years ago to limit myself to just one box of cables... So then I ended up having to keep finding a bigger and bigger box to switch them to. One thing that bothers me though (or an excuse my brain uses to justify it maybe) is that it feels so wasteful to dump so many cables that will probably end up in landfill when I know there's someone out there who could make use of them. If anyone has a suggestion on th…
I wouldn't be so sure. I bet there's more cables out there than functioning equipment, especially for older standards like VGA or PS/2.
It's ok to throw out junk.
Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's what JIT (just-in-time) inventory and offshore manufacturing took away from us. Hold onto your spare parts.
My dad worked at Lockheed and in the 80s they joked they used JIC (just in case) manufacturing. They had so many parts without a clear reason as to why they created so many.
Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
#266This is also a good reason to keep your knowledge of MIPS assembler fresh, lest you have to type lots of it very quickly as the swarm approaches.
Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
God, yeah. I try to label the USB-C cables directly by capability with my label maker, if they are more than basic charging cables.
What marker do you use to mark them? Is the ink durable and easy to read?
Data:
White if usb2
Blue if it supports USB 3 data (because 5Gbps USB 3 ports are mostly blue)
Green if TB/USB4/40Gbps
Power:
None if low/no Power Delivery
Yellow for 45W PD
Red for 65W+ PD
Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
#268Earlier quoted context omitted.
Similarly USB cables that do not carry data lines
I think I disagree. I just (re-)discovered a couple of my cables don't have data lines a few hours ago, prompted by the earlier discussion. My initial instinct was also to throw them away like you said. But then I realized they're actually quite useful for any case where you want to prevent data transmission, whether due to security or other reasons.
Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
#269Key for me is to "group" cables. For example, I have a bag of USB-C cables, a bag of USB-A cables, etc. Grouping them is key to deduplicating. It's easy to look at a single legacy USB A-to-B "printer" cable in isolation and think "I might need this someday!" Because you really might need it someday. However, if you group them you might see that you have ten of them. And then you can get rid of... maybe 8 of them. I a…
Post author here. I didn’t get into my organizational techniques, but agree with your take! Ziploc bags + a sharpie is exactly how I do it. https://imgur.com/JMUIcDY
Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables
#270For evidence that Bluesky is a long-term living facility operating as a social media platform...look no further than how their users employ the word "skeet" to refer to "post".