Entries tagged with clean computing - Channel 10

Clean Computing: Cheap Cable Wrap

Larry — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:59:00 GMT

Alright, I might be a little bit of a neat freak. One thing that really distracts me is seeing a pile of wires everywhere when I'm at my computer. A good video tip was posted on MetaCafe my Marek080580 that shows you how to manage your cables with an old CD spindle. Nice tip, the only thing I would suggest is using a half height (50 count) spindle rather than the top hat sized. Guess it depends on how much cabling you have to organize. Good idea, but I think I'm going to stick with velcro strips.

But I decided to make a tag for 'clean computing', which is going to be my term for having a tidy setup. Check out the tag to see some examples and give us your best tips for a neat workspace.

Belkin 3-outlet + 2-USB adaptor

Larry — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:10:00 GMT

I've spent the last two weeks in hotel rooms and continually juggled between lamp, clock, laptop, phone, and MP3 player(s) in the power outlet that was available. Then there is the ruthless power outlet jockeying that goes on in airports... Well, Belkin has a great solution for this in a three outlet power adaptor that has two built-in USB chargers on the side. It features a 360-degree rotating plug with a surge protector. Well worth the money at $24.99.
(via Uncrate)

Cool Cord Trap Design

sarahintampa — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 09:36:00 GMT

When I saw this on .net DEvHammer's blog, I thought: genius! This grommet is designed for keeping cables in place as they are fed up through a hole in your desk. One of the hardest things for me in the I.T. world from which I came was threading cords up through a hole in a desk. Of course, some cords can be dropped down, but others, with large AC adapters and the like could only go one way: UP. With my short arms, I often couldn't hold the cord in place with one hand while grasping the end with the other, leading me to become a master cord balancer by necessity. But if these grommets had existed...sigh...Unfortunately, as I continued reading, it appears that these grommets don't actually exist yet - this is a design concept only. What?! Please, someone, hear my plea: make these things already!

Confessions of a Desktop Neat Freak

Larry — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 17:49:00 GMT

This weekend a friend came over and marveled at how clean my desktop is compared to their own which was filled with icons, install files, web shortcuts, and files. I have a confession to make, my desktop isn’t nearly as tranquil as it looks. Here’s how you clean up that mess without actually having to do any of the work that comes with sorting and organizing those files, basically this is a digital way of sweeping them under a rug.

First, right click on your desktop and select View and uncheck “Show Desktop Icons”. Next, right click on your taskbar and choose “Toolbars”, then “New Toolbar”. On the dialog that pops up, just scroll up to the top of the tree and choose your desktop. Now you’ll have a link on your taskbar that works kind of like a right hand Start Menu, showing you all of the things on your Desktop. You can still drag things to your desktop, but you’ll only see them when clicking this new toolbar. Folders on your desktop branch out from this list, similar to how the Start Menu operates.

When it comes time to sort/organize/delete/rename the things that are on my desktop, I just hit Windows Key + E to open up Windows Explorer, and scroll up to “Desktop” at the top of the folder tree.