Uncable Contest

[Dark Tangent]

I saw this on slashdot today, and it made me smile. It might be a quick contest to set up and run. Mix in different kinds of cables, phone, fiber, and some cat5.

"A new competitive sport is emerging amongst IT professionals and hobbyists. Speedcbling 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."

[goathead]

Re: Uncable Contest

This would be a fun cluster to set up... replicating tangled masses to assure that the contestants are working within the same parameters.

I for one would gladly pay someone $50 to clear up the intertwined chaos in my studio.

[renderman]

Re: Uncable Contest

two words; meat cleaver

[TheCotMan]

Re: Uncable Contest

How would you make sure the tangles being untangled were of equal levels of disorganization?

two words; meat cleaver

Yeah, and if you brought a crimping tool and extra jacks, you could double the number of cables untangled in less time!

That would have to be worth more points... wouldn't it? ]:>

[0x58]

Re: Uncable Contest

But would the runs be long enough to support these extra cables? :P

[haden]

Re: Uncable Contest

think id do pretty good considering working with the it guy in my last job. with more than 300 networked computers and the same amount of phones and just 2 server rooms we had a complete mess.

[DaKahuna]

Re: Uncable Contest

two words; meat cleaver

I think you missed the part about "working condiction."

[astcell]

Re: Uncable Contest

How long until RJ45 wireless is as small as USB wireless? It would be nice to have little sugar cubed size devices to plug into a router for the net connection and then work the connection magic with software.

[0x58]

Re: Uncable Contest

How long until RJ45 wireless is as small as USB wireless? It would be nice to have little sugar cubed size devices to plug into a router for the net connection and then work the connection magic with software.

Until wireless is as fast as Gigabit ethernet I won't even consider a solution. And would you trust all your corporate data to wireless?

[DaKahuna]

Re: Uncable Contest

Until wireless is as fast as Gigabit ethernet I won't even consider a solution. And would you trust all your corporate data to wireless?

Given the proper layer 2 encryption, yes.

[hackajar]

Re: Uncable Contest

A program to allow you to force tangle the RJ45's in the same manner (if there is not one already) would help.

Also, having two switches with at lest 24 ports on each end might be a good addition. Think about this, "You loose points as the cable stays unplugged from the switch" which forces contestant to find unwind path BEFORE they unplug it from the switch. I suppose a back end program with have to "ping" across cable to get right length of "un-plug" time. Just an added thought.