Cables suck. They get in your way, look ugly and make it difficult to move your electronics around. Is it possible to live a cable less life? Of course! Just abandon everything you own and move to the forest. But for those who want to maintain some modernity there are some simple solutions to the cable problem.
It’s so obvious that it’s easy to forget that owning fewer electronics results in fewer cables. Before going wireless or managing cable clutter ask yourself “Do I need this?” Throw out (or sell on eBay) anything you don’t really need. And if you do need some gadgetry, then you may want to...
Can multiple gadgets you own be replaced with a single gadget? Do that. iPhone’s can replace your iPod, mobile phone and games device while an Xbox 360 can be your DVD player, music system and source of multiplayer gaming.
Mice. Keyboards. Headsets. Go wireless! The idea of going wireless still has negative stigma attached to it because of its previous poor performance but these days the difference between wireless and wired counterparts is negligible. For peripherals I’m a fan of Logitech myself.
In most homes a router acts as the central node in a home network. Buy a good one. I have no recommendations because the past 3 I’ve owned have all been terrible, but one day I’ll buy one that actually works and it will be ever so glorious.
Most devices these days will have wireless built in but if you’re a desktop user (and ignore the step below) then you’ll probably need a USB wireless adapter to connect to your network while Xbox gamers will want the official (and horribly overpriced) wireless network adapter.
Are you into professional video editing, heavy Crysis-level gaming, or intense graphic design? No? Then you don’t need a desktop computer. People find it odd that I bought a Macbook Pro and never take it out of the house, but having a laptop as a primary computer is a smart choice. You can work anywhere in your house easily, close the lid and put it away (this helps with work-life separation) and save a ton of space.
Landlines are not necessary. Get yourself a good mobile phone (iPhone advocate myself, but it’s fairly frivolous in most situations) and enjoy the freedom of location and from telemarketing calls.
Cloud computing is revolutionizing the internet as we know it. Instead of backing up my computer locally I have Mozystoring all of my data offshore and Amazon S3 storing my website backups. And then there are services such as Dropbox which offer similar functionality. Basically, there is little need for external hard drives and other storage-centric gadgets simply because storage in the cloud is cheap, safe and easy.
For those cables you just can’t get rid of, Cable Turtles
Wireless power isn’t available yet (unless you own a Palm Pre or buy some funky iPhone case) but it is coming. Power cables are the #1 contributor to cable clutter but I expect within 10 years for cables to be gone entirely in a consumer environment.
Written on 10/09/2009 by David Turnbull. David is a writer and shares his thoughts about peace of mind, simplicity and geekery at his blog, Adventures of a Barefoot Geek.
How to De-Cable Your Life
