Wired
Published by Deanna Hoak December 12th, 2007 in blogSo, I was looking for the connector that the Xbox microphone plugs into today, and I feel compelled to wonder…
Does everyone these days have a junk drawer that looks like this, or are we just waaaaaaay too technogeeky for our own good here? :-)
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I'm a freelance copyeditor specializing in fantasy and science fiction. SF/F novels I have copyedited have been finalists for (and have sometimes won) the Hugo, Nebula, Arthur C. Clarke, Golden Spur, John W. Campbell Memorial, Quill, Locus, Philip K. Dick, British Science Fiction, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy awards. In 2007 I was short-listed for a World Fantasy Award for my copyediting.
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Looks a lot like our wiring bin.
We certainly have a drawer (or two) that look like that. And a bag in the closet. And a bag in the basement. And…
Yes.
Meaning that we all have drawers like that, and we are all too technogeeky for our own good.
Even my parents have a collection like that, as I discovered when I asked them if they had a USB-to-USB cable. Of course, theirs is relatively small, and the bottom layer is obviously cables from the 80s… But yes, we’ve all gotten to have junk-drawers like that.
I’d say you are missing an Iomega Jazz drive, a SCSI adapter, an RJ-45 crimper, and about 3 varying length Cat-5 patch cables.
Or yes and then no.
I don’t have a drawer that looks like that; my technojunk is scattered around my house.
I have a drawer with random cables and extension cords. I have a little pile in the livingroom consisting of an ancient SCSI external hard drive (purchased back when 80 MB was a wealth of space I would never fill up), an external Zip drive (also SCSI), and an ancient Mac Quadra 610 that still worked just fine the last time I bothered to plug it in so I could play LodeRunner. Oh, and a 13″ Mac monitor, circa 1992 vintage.
The piles of extra keyboards, mice, and power cables are in my bedroom/office, and there’s at least one shopping bag in the livingroom that stores a USB hub, an old hard drive I pulled out of a broken computer I was tossing, and several SIMMs and DIMMs of random sizes and configuration.
I also have two excess 21″ CRTs. One is actually in use because I haven’t bothered to swap in the LCD flatscreen yet, but I plan to get around to that soon. (That I have been “planning” for 8 months is not relevant, okay? The CRT is freaking heavy.)
I also have a box full of software disks, most of which came on floppy. Anyone need to install System 7.1 for Mac? MS Word version 5? I got you covered!
Just don’t ask me if I still have plastic drawers of floppy disks. Stacked on my windowsill. Containing school papers and badly written stories from 20 years ago. Assuming the disks still work, of course, which I would never know since they haven’t been inside a drive in a decade and what are you looking at of course I don’t have anything like that in my apartment why do you ask?
Hmm. I may need to move again. Nothing makes a person part with their junk like having to chose between carrying it to the dumpster and hauling it to a new abode.
Mine aren’t in a drawer. I keep them in a popcorn tin from about five Chritmases ago.
In a drawer, no–that would mostly be screwdrivers, a hammer, nails, screws, and so forth.
In a few plastic bags lying in various corners of the Space Age Bachelor Hovel, yes.
And it works out: a week or so ago, my friend who has several different Macs had the power cord go out on one of the older models. “Lemme see, I think I have one around here somewhere,” I said. And after a bit of rooting and rummaging, “Ah yes, here we go. You see, there are advantages to being a pack rat…”
Well, I think whether it’s a drawer, or progressively larger spaces depends on the level of geekiness inhabiting your house. You see my basement looks like a server room blew up, the workshop has been possessed equally between a cable monster and an old stereo system, and my attic apparently has been reopened as a home for aged electronics. Combined with the serious case of book hoarding and this place looks like several centuries of the information age got together and had a bash and left their detrius.
not a drawer but 2 large boxes in the garage. One for computer stuff and one for tv/stereo stuff. Yours isn’t bad but you are missing old wireless routers, a spare hub, an xbox wireless portal, 2 power supplies, plus the 5000+ pieces of debris that come with the motherboard but can’t be thrown away because they might be needed.
Only one such drawer? Ahh, that would be nice. :) We have a whole cellar full of the stuff, because any time the university has a sale on such items, the husband can’t resist! It has come in handy on more than one occasion, though!
Yes, except mine was in a box. My advice - under no circumstances is emptying or getting rid of this haven of past electronics an option. You never know when your router power supply will stop functioning and one of these sweet little gems may provide the perfect temporary replacement. I had to go without internets a whole evening. *gasp*
LOL! i have a junk box, similar to that one.
its easy not to notice it, until you realize its a complete mess already.