Wires, Wires, Everywhere

It still bothers me that computers equal wires, plain and simple. The more powerful the setup, and the more wires that are needed, in an exponential fashion. I've written about this before relating to speakers, but the amount of wiring is even more when we consider even a simple setup.

Why is this coming up now? I wanted to setup my notebook, my scanner, and my printer all in one place. Easy and simple enough, and hardly a power system. The DSL modem and the router are right there as well in the same location.

Next thing I know, I've got spaghetti, not marinara, but of wires. I put this on two surge protectors, one for the wireless gear, and the other for the computer and the peripherals. At least the notebook eliminates a need for separate wires for a display and speakers. Still, my three USB ports quickly filled with the scanner, printer and a wireless mouse. Next, four plugs went into the surge protector (notebook, printer, scanner for those that are counting, and I needed to plug in a desk lamp as well). Just when I thought it was good to go, I then realized that the laptop was so close to the router, that I really shouldn't go wireless, and yup, one more cable to connect to the built in ports on the wireless router. What a mess!

Ever notice that when they take pictures for magazines or catalogs, they always have a notebook, with no wires in the image? They clearly don't want to spoil the lines, but who can really do that for more than an hour or two until the battery runs out. While it looks ideal, it's just not realistic.

So... what to do. Well, I need all the wires as I'm not dumping my scanner or printer anytime soon. I'll pick up some "cable keepers" somewhere (probably the velcro kind), and at least manage the mess. I had hoped that those wireless USB hubs would have gotten more popular, but they seem to be stuck in the starting gate. Eventually, the Wireless USB standard may gain some traction, as Bluetooth promised to and mostly didn't. Perhaps I could consider putting the printer on a network, and running it remotely, but that would just spread out the problem, add more complexity, and just dilute out the wire problem rather than solve it.

I think in the final analysis, each and every device needs its own input of power and data. Unless they can combine the two into one cable, which is rather unlikely (except for a USB powered scanner like this), I think for the foreseeable future, this is in the category of "it is what it is."

--Jonas