Rain Gutters as Cable Management Tools

Creative cable management instantly drawn to reader Seandavid010's rain-gutter cable management setup.

Granted, you can find other cord-wrangling solutions but the rain gutter approach yields impressive results. Sean was nice enough to share his entire step-by-step, so here goes (everything below was written by Sean):

I recently purchased a new table from IKEA to use as a computer desk. I liked it because it was really long and narrow (78"x23") and would work perfectly for my wife and I. The problem I ran into was that I didn't want a bunch of cords and cables hanging down behind the table. Having that would ruin the new 'clean' aesthetic I was going for.



So I decided that I needed to find some solution to this cable-clutter problem. I looked at some of the commercial solutions available, but they all either seemed rather expensive, or they didn't really fit my needs very well. I had remembered reading somewhere about somebody using ordinary vinyl rain gutters in some way (I think they used bungee cords to suspend them from the underside of the table) but I couldn't really find anything to help me out, so I decided to try to solve it myself.



So I went out and purchased a 10 foot length of vinyl rain gutter and cut it to size. I also bought two end caps and four hangars (used to nail the gutter to the side of your house) and some fasteners. I figured I'd drill up into the bottom of the table, and drive in the lag screws. Then I'd attach them to the threaded hooks with joiner nuts, and hang the rain gutters from those. Easy. Job one, however, was to cut a notch in the gutter so it would fit around the middle leg of the table. Job two was to drill a hole in the hangars to attach the hooks. I also fitted the holes with rubber grommets to cut down on any excess noise they might produce.



After that, it was just a simple matter of doing a dry-fit:



Using the hangars to suspend the length of gutter turned out to be a good idea, since they can slide back and forth, meaning fitting it together was really easy.

Here's my workspace before I began the project. It's not really terrible, but it just all felt really pieced together. A flimsy computer desk and a plastic folding table shoved together with all those cables hanging down there. Besides not looking great, it was actually a pain to clean down there, and dust tended to accumulate.



And here's the after shot:


Notice: no cables hanging down. Everything - my power strips, wireless router, cable modem, usb cables and chargers for two Mac Books is all tucked away nice and clean underneath. The best part is that you can't even see it unless you're looking for it.

Nice and tidy. The table is also really great. It came unfinished, and I liked the color and texture so much that I just had a big piece of glass cut to go on top. The only problem is that now my mouse won't work anymore. Any good tips on making my own (visually appealing) mouse pad? I'd appreciate it.

Anyways, the total cost for the project came in at just over $30 and only took about two hours to complete.

Watch TV for free with Hulu Desktop

More people are drifting away from scheduled TV. They’re finding their favorite shows online and on demand. And the go-to site for online TV is Hulu.

Hulu has tons of clips, full-length shows and feature films. And you can access all of it for free. It’s great. You’re no longer tied to network schedules. But there is a problem. Watching Hulu using your browser isn’t the most convenient.

But now you can use the free Hulu Desktop. This takes Hulu out of the browser. It also gives you a new and slick interface. It’s much easier to find what you want. And you can link your Hulu profile with the software.

Hulu Desktop is a great media center application. You can control it with your keyboard or a remote. This is great if your computer is hooked up to your television. You can just sit back and enjoy.

If you have never watched TV on your computer, you will now.

Cost: Free

Link: www.hulu.com

System: Windows XP and Vista, Mac OS X

Motivate Yourself to Achieve Goals by Putting Them Online

The year's almost half over, and many of our New Year's resolutions have already fallen by the wayside. If you have a difficult time sticking to your goals, weblog Web Worker Daily suggests success may lie in putting them online.

Nothing will motivate you to achieve your goals like making other people aware of the specifics of what you’re aiming to accomplish. At least for me, the threat of public shame is a great tool you can use to prevent yourself from giving up on your dreams. Making others aware of your plans also has the added benefit of potentially providing you with great feedback about how you might best go about carrying through with them, too. The web is a great place to publicize your professional goals, especially if that’s where you do the bulk of your work. But just tweeting your aim doesn’t mean it’ll come through. As with most things, a plan will help increase your chances of success.

Step 1: Alert the People You Trust

If you’re worried about the feasibility of your goals, bouncing them off of your closest friends and relatives is a sure way of getting some invaluable early feedback. You probably have some good friends who aren’t afraid to make you look foolish (and, in fact, might relish the opportunity), so you don’t have to worry that they’ll pull punches to spare your feelings. Conversely, if you have a good idea, they won’t summarily cut you down, like some of your more trollish online contacts might.

Your inner circle of real-life peers and confidants will also have a better idea of what you’re realistically capable of. In fact, they might be more aware of your own limitations than you yourself are. Most Internet connections, as familiar with your work as they might be, will likely judge based on the apparent difficulty of the goal in a general sense, without specific reflection on your level of talent, dedication or ability.

Step 2: Keep Your Twitter/Facebook Friends in the Loop

Once your plan has passed muster with those you trust, you can broaden the audience using Twitter and Facebook status updates. Don’t make a huge deal out of it, but do post things like “Starting work on my ABC certification today, wish me luck!” At the very least you should secure some words of encouragement.

Most likely, depending on the size and nature of your networks, there will be others among your friends and contacts who’ve tried to achieve the same or similar goals. They’ll be able to offer advice, helpful links, and possibly even prep materials or information sources, depending on what it is you want to accomplish.

Mining your social networks for support is great, but be prepared for challenges, too. Anything from doubt concerning the merits of your chosen goals, to flamebait and personal attacks is possible, but the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages, particularly if you’re thick-skinned. Hopefully, you’ve already applied the golden rule of the Internet: Never take anything personally, unless it makes you look good.

Step 3: Broadcast Beyond Your Network

While making the people you know and interact with on a regular basis aware of what you intend to do is the best way to get yourself to stick to your guns, it might not be the most effective method of garnering feedback.

Reaching out to strangers might give you a fresh perspective on what you’re doing, and how to go about doing it. It may also help when your goals are off the beaten track, and therefore less likely to be shared by other individuals in your social circles. To some degree, Twitter will broadcast your plans out to the ether if people are searching for keywords that occur in your tweets, but other alternatives are much more targeted.

MySomeday is a new web app in public beta that is designed specifically to help you share your goals with others in a community setting that will help you garner constructive criticism and words of encouragement. The concept is simple: You post a plan, and other members of the community comment on what you want to do and how you want to do it. You set up steps towards achieving your goal, and then you rate each step in terms of importance and check them off as they’re accomplished. Checking off tasks updates your progress bar, which displays the completion percentage of your overall goal.

Step 4: Stick to It

Just talking about your goals is a sure way to not accomplish what you want to do. Action is the only real solution, but sometimes the key to spurring yourself to act rests outside of yourself. Regardless of whether you draw your inspiration from yourself or others, though, the only way to achieve your goals is to persevere in your pursuit of them. Especially for web workers, using the Internet to garner encouragement might just be the extra push you need to keep your nose to the grindstone.