Opinion

Cable Pride: show off your electronics!

16.6.2021

Translation: Patrik Stainbrook

Previously, our website has provided a variety of ways to hide your cables. But this just isn’t it. Cables are a part of our lives. We should stand by them.

I recently added LED panels from Nanoleaf and an Apple HomePod to my bathroom. After all, don’t you spend quite some time in that part of your home due to regular bowel movements and long baths? Hence my desire for a nicer environment.

But while this is true, it is ultimately still just a pretext for my true passion: Cable Pride! Most people don’t like cables, finding meticulous ways to disguise them while simultaneously keeping their devices connected. Either way, it all just ends up muddled together somewhere behind your curtain or under the sofa, often with grotesque outcroppings, thanks to overlong 5-meter extension cables. This cable shaming saddens me. After all, making an electrical setup as effective and aesthetically appealing as possible feels simply wonderful! And I haven’t even mentioned the labelling of individual components – a treat in its own right!

What you all came to see: LED panels, HomePod, Groot and an Ae 4/4.

In my case, the power supply for HomePods, LED panels, and the power cable for my Geberit shower-toilet attachment had to be assembled using multiple sockets and equipped with a WLAN switch from myStrom to automatically shut down the entire contraption every night. By the way, I might write a separate article about the Geberit item some day, involving the toilet paper hoarding craze going on around at the start of lockdown.

Of course, I could’ve hidden everything somehow, or at least placed it a little less prominently, but what’s the point? I’m proud to call technical marvels such as smart speakers and LED lights my own, and I want to see them in their entirety, including their mundane connections. During plays, the background interests me just as much as the play, and the exact same applies to people. Their weaknesses and failures fascinate me as much as their talents and triumphs.

The part you don’t usually want to see – but isn’t that what aesthetics is all about? The green myStrom switch and cable, all from the same friendly Bernese company. Equally matched by the Nanoleaf power supply, which came with a verdant company logo sticker. Note also the 5 cable management clips!

Naturally, all tasteful wiring requires a little equipment: cable ties of various sizes and colours alike, as well as Tesa Powerstrips,, which are available in several versions to best suit different surfaces (metal and tiles, plaster and other surfaces such as wood or plastic). This way, you can place multiple outlets in the ideal location instead of them just lying on the ground or, even worse, dangling weightlessly. And what’s really important: cable routing! This, too, is taken care of by Tesa, a company committed to combating cable shaming.

THAT alone is already beautiful to behold!

The next task is even more exciting. Our office and entertainment technology I had stowed away in a sideboard from mfsystem had to be rewired, as I wanted to integrate two more WLAN switches, while two additional HomePods had been added in the living room, making free slots in the power rail scarce. In addition, all my Ethernet cables were way too long.

I despise having to get up from my desk and walk to my printer every time I want a fresh document. Instead, why can’t I simply shout «Siri, turn on the printer!» (actually, HomeKit doesn’t turn on your printer, it turns on the appropriately named switch, which I set to turn off after 6 minutes)? But even more, I was looking forward to getting new cables and wondering what colour to assign to which device. And relabelling everything.

Labelling is important. This way, you won’t have to puzzle over anything when you first plug it in, and if something should fail or need to be repositioned, you’ll always know what you’re currently holding.

And sometimes, when the sun has set and I want it to be really romantic, I open the sliding doors of my sideboard, to the back of which I attached an LED strip. And before I know it, I can feast my eyes on my tightly organized, labelled cables, softly lit by many colours.

Do you also advocate for Cable Pride? How do you present your cables? Or why are you ashamed of them? Let me know in the comments!

149 people like this article

Thomas Meyer

freier Autor

tacheles@thomasmeyer.ch

Author Thomas Meyer was born in Zurich in 1974. He worked as a copywriter before publishing his first novel «The Awakening of Motti Wolkenbruch» in 2012. He's a father of one, which gives him a great excuse to buy Lego. More about Thomas: www.thomasmeyer.ch.

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