Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables • Hacker News Board

Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

#291

Post by ThePowerOfFuet » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:36 AM UTC

ButlerianJihad wrote: post #41

booty wrote: post #24

Key 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…

> clear 2mil generic ziploc style baggies > transparent plastic box > Banker's Boxes Do not do this. All plastic baggies, storage tubs, and grocery bags, are going to build up with static electricity. While it may seem totally fine to drop inert cables into a plastic bag, eventually you'll come up against a USB stick, or an SSD or SDRAM, or something, and that ESD damage will not be a pleasant customer experience. Go…

That link almost gave me cancer. Here's the clean version for those who come after:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QH2NVM1

Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

#292

Post by ares623 » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:39 AM UTC

But make sure to let daddy sammy take away your cognition, that's less important.

Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

#293

Post by user_of_the_wek » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:52 AM UTC

mceachen wrote: post #267

dataflow wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What marker do you use to mark them? Is the ink durable and easy to read?

I bought a cheap pack of 5 colors of 3m electrical tape. Each cable gets one or two pieces of tape: 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

You could even do combinations of colors like on resistors.

Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

#294

Post by isodude » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:55 AM UTC

I had an lightning cable connected to a charger, turns out the connector was a bit broken and it started to spark, in the sofa where the end was.

Luckily our fire alarm on four legs quickly alerted us.

Don't keep busted cables. It's not worth it.

Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

#295

Post by fragmede » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 4:58 AM UTC

mrkpdl wrote: post #281

On the other hand, it feels great to no longer have a box of old cables...

Yes. In a different version of the future, the bboc is replaced by next day amazon a universal adapter.

Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

#296

Post by isodude » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 5:00 AM UTC

ElijahLynn wrote: post #50

Clear Hefty Slider bags are perfect for this! I have my cable boxes (Hefty Hi-Rise) filled with these bags, USB -A to USB-C, USB -C to USB-C (then sub-bagged with 65w, 100w, 240w) and so on. Point is, use clear bags so you can see inside, and Hefty makes the slider version. I get the gallon and half gallon bags for this, and then the quart size as well. This is the Marie Kondo technique and it's amazing for keeping a…

The rule: one cable per bag! At least in my case.

Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

#297

Post by protocolture » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 5:13 AM UTC

kingrolo wrote: post #218

I 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…

IT Recyclers will at least sort them and resell them in bulk as raw materials. Sometimes. When they are allowed to.

Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

#298

Post by protocolture » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 5:15 AM UTC

LocalH wrote: post #112

VariousPrograms wrote: post #37

Whoever does need it, I give you permission to throw out all your old cables, power adapters, and routers. Yes, on the off chance you do decide you need a Palm III dock, Linksys WRT54G, or Sony PSP charger that means you'd have to buy one on Ebay, but you can cross that $10 bridge if it actually happens.

Throwing away proprietary cables is a sin. Throwing away standard commodity USB cables is not so much

Yeah its hard enough when you need a Mini USB cable. When you need the proprietary RS232 cable for an old piece of hardware, at short notice, that stings.

Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

#299

Post by absynth » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 5:33 AM UTC

On the other hand, do you really need 50x VGA cables? yes? YES?! ok, as you were! Keep them in the ever growing box.

The idea of grouping by same or at least like is great for de-cluttering.

Re: Don't let anyone take away your big box of cables

#300

Post by exe34 » Fri, Sep 11, 2026, 5:47 AM UTC

rubidium wrote: post #154

exe34 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh for crying out loud, I've spent my life believing if it fits it's right. %$@&#!

I hope you never have to work with serial D9 cables. The variation of pinouts for legacy equipment is massive! Pretty sure every theoretical variation became some standard.

Hah there was one on the 8088 I was allowed to play with as a child, but I only used the parallel port to switch on/off a motor via a relay.