How do cables get so tangled??

[GH85Carrera]

Is is the extraterrestrials. a secret government agency?

My wife insisted I have a nice furniture computer work station. It is nice, but a real chore to change or add wires for the two computers.

I had a set of nice higer end computer speakers with a subwoofer that were great for over 30 years, but now every so often at random, they go into a 60 cycle HUMMMMM and I have to crawl on hands and knees to the sub woofer, and unplug it, and plug it back in to get normal sound.

Sometimes it goes for weeks, and sometimes just minutes before the hum returns. OK, I had enough! I ordered some new high equivalent speakers. The old ones from way back had nice long cables to connect things, and allow speaker placement in logical places. The new set has some stupid short cables. I compromised on speaker placement but one cable is so short I will have to get an 3.5 mm extension cable just to hook everything up, and have most of the cables hidden.

The old cables were almost tied in knots a fisherman would be proud of. They have been in place for the last 25 years or so, but somehow they got twisted and were a pain to get out.

So right now I am using some cheep Dell speakers that I don't even remember how old they are, but OLD. They are all on top of the desk for now, waiting for the extension cable to finish off the new computer sound system.

I do watch several different streaming services and and listen to Pandora all day if not watching a show.

The cable should be here sin a few days.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FB6FB19/ref=pe_386300_440135490_TE_simp_item

[GH85Carrera]

This my desk. It is an all day project to take be able to move it out from the wall. So it just stays in place.

I spend many hours per day here.

The second computer is hidden from view under the keyboard drawer.

[herr_oberst]

Hard to tell. Cables lead curious lives, only appreciated when they don't work as they should, It can lead to self reflection, wondering about the role they occupy in the world.
As Bob Dylan said, the reasons for becoming tangled up can be varied and many.
For instance,

They never did like mama's homemade dress
papa's bankbook wasn't big enough?

and they just grew....
tangled up in blue

[masraum]

I was expecting a thread about...




If your speaker cables are all messed up, then my guess is that over the years they've been moved by someone that was cleaning/dusting and then put back again. All of that moving back and forth likely contributed to the tangling of the cables.

[look 171]

CAbles and smoke alarms are relatives and always out to fk with us

[aschen]

Entropy, the world tends to disorder.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by look 171

CAbles and smoke alarms are relatives and always out to fk with us

LOL! It's a big conspiracy. I've never had a smoke alarm battery go bad at noon. It's always when you're asleep.

[look 171]

Originally Posted by masraum

LOL! It's a big conspiracy. I've never had a smoke alarm battery go bad at noon. It's always when you're asleep.

It knows when you are deep asleep usually between 3-4 and that sound caused us to jump right up bang our heads almost killing us. Oh, don't forget about the chirping all night no matter what type of new batteries we install in it. chirp, chirp, chirp.

[look 171]

Hey Glen,

Wireless speakers. Try them, they are bad ass

[E Sully]

I have seen some amazing messes of twisted cables over the years. As an electrician the amount of wiring since the computer age, especially in older buildings on Wall Street is unbelievable. Dropped ceilings and raised floors have run out of room for running wiring. Elevators have been removed so the shafts can be used for cabling. Over the years as new wiring is added, wiring gets twisted in a giant knot.
Crews of electricians and the companies networking specialists spend an unbelievable amount of time and money trying to sort through years of cables to determine what can be safely removed to make room for new. All on overtime when trading has ended so as not to risk interrupting trillions of dollars in trading.
It's kind of ironic since when newly installed with wire racks the groups of wires are carefully pulled and sorted to look perfect, but within a few years as technology changes, so does the cabling. Lets not forget communications lines also. Cross connections after cables are punched down on blocks end up the same over the years.

This is similar to what I have installed over the years. Carefully and neatly done.


This is what many look like after a few years of the companies networking people have had their time in there.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by masraum

LOL! It's a big conspiracy. I've never had a smoke alarm battery go bad at noon. It's always when you're asleep.

Originally Posted by look 171

It knows when you are deep asleep usually between 3-4 and that sound caused us to jump right up bang our heads almost killing us. Oh, don't forget about the chirping all night no matter what type of new batteries we install in it. chirp, chirp, chirp.

I figure we need to find people in India, and swap our smoke detectors with them! Then they will go off in the afternoon for all of us!

[stevej37]

The reason my cables get so tangled is because I always buy them in lengths extra long for pulling the components out. Speaker wires especially.

I hate speaker wires....the coating seems to get sticky with age.

[wdfifteen]

Cables, extension cords, garden hoses, and air hoses - I hate fighting with them. Battery powered drills and impact guns have eased the burden some.
I don't see much of future for battery powered air or garden hoses though, so I'll keep inventing new ways to curse them.

[stevej37]

^^^ My most used battery tool is my Bauer Air Station....but I don't think it would run heavy tools.

It's great for tires...cars and bikes. Just set the digital screen to the lbs and let it go....no hose to drag around.

[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by masraum

I was expecting a thread about...

Wow, I remember that nightmare.

Smoke alarms:
Either aliens or Transformers trying to kill off the human race by destroying our sleep or getting us so upset that the dumb ones just decide to take the battery out.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Por_sha911

Wow, I remember that nightmare.

Smoke alarms:
Either aliens or Transformers trying to kill off the human race by destroying our sleep or getting us so upset that the dumb ones just decide to take the battery out.

Yep. It never happened to one of my phones because I would take the time to fix it, but I ran into plenty of other phones that folks had let get in that condition, and I never understood it. It was so easy to fix at the very beginning. It was so much more of a PITA once it got really bad (and a huge pain to use).