Speedcabling - Untangling For Fun and ProfitComments:138
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Wed Feb 13, 2008 09:30 AM
from the you-gotta-be-kidding-me dept.
ibnsuleiman writes "A new competitive sport is emerging amongst IT professionals and hobbyists. Speedcabling tests the ability to untangle the rat's nests that grow inside and outside of the beige boxes that pervade todays homes and workplaces. The first public competition was held in an LA gallery for a $50 gift certificate to a local Italian restaurant. The winner, LA web developer Matthew Howell, had to untangle a dozen ethernet cables in record time leaving them in working order to win."
I can see the doping scandals already...
Loser: Check his inhaler! I know he's taking stimulants! Look on the inside of glasses I know he's got a hologram of Natalie Portman to keep him relaxed! HE SO CHEATED!!
Curling combines the skillful art of hitting things with other things, ice, and beer. What more could you desire out of a sport? Sure, theres a lack of bikinis, see ice for a reason.
The trouble is, the techniques that help you disentangle a bundle of cables not attached to any equipment are not applicable when some of the cables are plugged in and need to stay plugged in, as usually in real life. They need a variant of the sport where there are thirty cables, some plugged into various patch panels at both ends, some at one end only, and some free; your task is to extract the loose and dangling cables and leave the working ones.
> They need a variant of the sport where there are thirty cables, some plugged into various > patch panels at both ends, some at one end only, and some free; your task is to extract > the loose and dangling cables and leave the working ones.
From the blurb: The winner, LA web developer Matthew Howell, had to untangle a dozen ethernet cables in record time leaving them in working order to win.
Working order? Man, there's a catch to everything. I guess I can put my weed whacker with it's steel blades back...
When we did our computer room expansion several years ago we literally used hedge clippers to cut out the old cables from the raceway. We went from having 3 random colors for cables to having one color per cabinet with pre-labeled bundles. It makes it MUCH easier to maintain and I have some fun photos for a portfolio =)
My normal failure mode with a cable jumble, that reassuring crack as it breaks off ensuring a lurking connectivity problem when its used in the future. I suppose those tabs need to be maintained in the contest FTW no?
This is what one of our wiring closets looks like [earthlink.net]. Untangling cables to have some sense of order is just another job duty.
And in case anyone is wondering, yes, those are punchdown boxes you see. It would be horrible to run the cable directly to the switch without having boxes and patch cables on each end.
Not to mention that it should be done under a poorly lit desk with insufficient room for more than one arm at a time while someone tries to do work around you during the contest.
I like the way that they set them up for the competitors - shove them in a clothes dryer for 3 minutes and let them tangle naturally. That explains my girlfriends socks and stuff after each wash around my house.
...since this is precisely what I do in my sleep, after all the MCSE weenies who weren't allowed to touch the cables in class have left for the day.
Now, a hunt for the loose terminator in a Thinnet network, or the forced-duplex port in your Cisco stack, or the one Linksys VPN router with different firmware out among the 50+ telecommuters, or even the splitters over the ceilings in your Localtalk network at the elementary school, or any number of real-world-ish scenarios.
Bah. Like playing pool for money. Too much like real work. And playing for beer makes you pee too much.
Next thing you know, you'll be talking about memory optimization for Win3.11 with QMM, filtering SAP advertisements on the WAN, or configuring TCP/IP packet drivers so you can use this new Internet program called "Mosaic."
It's changed its logo.. it's no longer 'news for nerds' and the look of the entire story has changed. Just seemed to happen with this story - previous ones come up normal.
The change only seems to be on stories in idle.slashdot.org [slashdot.org]. Maybe taco is testing it out before letting it loose on the rest of the site... I hope not though, because I'm not a fan of the new theme.
The winners of Geek Triathalons never bother with round 1 or 2. They compete only in round 3. In round 3, the competitors hack into the result tracking database and alter the results in their favor.
that there is finally a story where my following formalization of the process of wire entanglement is on-topic.
Kevin's First Law: For any number of wires, strings or similar objects, the probability of complex entanglement between them increases exponentially with the inverse of distance. Time required to entangle is also affected in a similar fashion. This phenomenon can be observed in consequence, but not in action.
Also, for those who are interested, my second law is formalized thusly:
Kevin's Second Law: There exists no robot that cannot be improved in form or function by the addition of a flamethrower.
In my younger days, before they finally figured out what the issue was, I would spend hours untangling knotted balls of string. I got very good at it and still derive a certain pride from turning a tangled mess of cabling into a cleanly laid-out network system.
The focus required to see which cables are tangled up where and to identify the loops that, once pulled out, will free up a myriad of other cables is just the type of ability you see in Asperger's and other high-order autistics.
Hmmm... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Hmmm... (Score:5, Funny)
I can see the doping scandals already... Loser: Check his inhaler! I know he's taking stimulants! Look on the inside of glasses I know he's got a hologram of Natalie Portman to keep him relaxed! HE SO CHEATED!!
Well, makes more sense than curling (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well, makes more sense than curling (Score:5, Funny)
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Next on... (Score:5, Funny)
Limited real-world relevance (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Limited real-world relevance (Score:5, Funny)
What they really need is a life.
Re:Limited real-world relevance (Score:5, Funny)
Irritating Wire, the Japanese version (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Limited real-world relevance (Score:5, Funny)
> patch panels at both ends, some at one end only, and some free; your task is to extract
> the loose and dangling cables and leave the working ones.
It's called Network Administration.
I was nearly with you until... (Score:5, Funny)
Working order? Man, there's a catch to everything. I guess I can put my weed whacker with it's steel blades back...
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
snapping off the locking tabs (Score:3, Interesting)
Cup stacking for nerds? (Score:3, Funny)
Another sport that deserves a WTF? award.
Just part of my job (Score:5, Funny)
And in case anyone is wondering, yes, those are punchdown boxes you see. It would be horrible to run the cable directly to the switch without having boxes and patch cables on each end.
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How do they standardize the nest? (Score:2)
Bah, make it tougher (Score:3, Funny)
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Are there rules? (Score:5, Informative)
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Oh man, he's juicin'!
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This week, on the Ocho! (Score:3, Funny)
heh (Score:2)
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There. Fixed that for ya' This is Slashdot, after all.
Sport? (Score:2)
his secret? (Score:4, Interesting)
The goggles.... (Score:2)
This isn't going anywhere... (Score:3, Interesting)
Now, a hunt for the loose terminator in a Thinnet network, or the forced-duplex port in your Cisco stack, or the one Linksys VPN router with different firmware out among the 50+ telecommuters, or even the splitters over the ceilings in your Localtalk network at the elementary school, or any number of real-world-ish scenarios.
Bah. Like playing pool for money. Too much like real work. And playing for beer makes you pee too much.
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Thinnet? LOCALTALK??? Are you stuck in the '80's?
Next thing you know, you'll be talking about memory optimization for Win3.11 with QMM, filtering SAP advertisements on the WAN, or configuring TCP/IP packet drivers so you can use this new Internet program called "Mosaic."
OT: What has happened to slashdot? (Score:2)
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The sport is misnamed (Score:2)
Speed cabling (hooking the wires up) would be round two of the geek triathlon.
Round three: ???
Round 3: Hack the results. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I can't believe... (Score:5, Funny)
that there is finally a story where my following formalization of the process of wire entanglement is on-topic.
Kevin's First Law: For any number of wires, strings or similar objects, the probability of complex entanglement between them increases exponentially with the inverse of distance. Time required to entangle is also affected in a similar fashion. This phenomenon can be observed in consequence, but not in action.
Also, for those who are interested, my second law is formalized thusly:
Kevin's Second Law: There exists no robot that cannot be improved in form or function by the addition of a flamethrower.
Sure it's all fun and games now... (Score:2)
Gordian Knot (Score:2)
THE sport for Asperger's (Score:2)
The focus required to see which cables are tangled up where and to identify the loops that, once pulled out, will free up a myriad of other cables is just the type of ability you see in Asperger's and other high-order autistics.
spaghetti cable? (Score:2)
"Ethernet Cables"? (Score:3, Informative)
What the hell are 'ethernet cables,' anyway? Ethernet is a protocol. Back in the good ol' days I set up Ethernet LANs with 10BASE-2 coax cable.
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