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.

Becoming the Paperless Office

For more than 10 years we have heard that the “paperless” office is just around the corner; alas, paper consumption has tripled in the last decade. Every year, the United States uses nearly 3.7 million tons of copy paper — more than 700 billion sheets! The Information Age has not reduced our paper pile up; instead, we print data more quickly and easily. Most documents received via email are printed, creating a paper nightmare for the recipient. A Xerox survey showed that most U.S. office workers print more than 1,000 pages a month; the national annual average is 10,000-12,000 sheets per worker.

For a company to have a paperless office is more complex than it seems. There are issues of technology, management change, how people process data, and work practices to consider. Along with reducing paper usage, companies must be clear that the value of becoming “paperless” will support business objectives, operations, and sustainability goals.

Why Become a Paperless Office?
There is a clear environmental need for paperless offices. The paper industry is one of the world’s major polluting industries and one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gases with over 900 million trees cut done annually. The EPA reports that paper is the number-one material thrown away, comprising 40% of our waste stream. According to the National Resources Defense Council, “The pulp and paper industry may contribute to more global and local environmental problems than any other industry in the world.”

In addition to environmental impacts, paper is time consuming to manage. Record keeping constitutes more than 90% of all office activity. Studies indicate that of the paper filed, over 80% is never referenced again! One Xerox study showed that over 45% of the office paper that is discarded was thrown out on the day it was printed. A great deal of time is being wasted printing, sorting, purging, and filing paper.

Then there is the cost aspect of paper. According to the Association for Information and Image Management, the lifecycle cost of a document is over $20, which includes the cost of paper, printing, mailing, distribution, and handling fees. Another study done by Coopers and Lybrand estimated the cost of paper management to be about $50 per document.

Essentially becoming a paperless office could reap the benefits of improved efficiency and effectiveness, reduce cost, and improve the brand and image of the company by becoming a better corporate environmental steward.

It’s Not So Easy Being Green
There are difficulties in becoming a paperless office. Employees who graduated from high school or college without the use of a computer grew up learning and processing information in paper format. It can be difficult and uncomfortable for these generations to process, read, comprehend, and absorb information on the computer. In their research for the book, The Myth of the Paperless Office, Abigail Sellen and Richard Harper discovered that these employees depend on paper to conduct their daily tasks, even though a digital version is available. For instance, when editing a document on screen, 89% of the time workers simultaneously use paper, spreading around their computers printouts of other supporting documents they are using.

Then there is the issue of data loss. Most employees don’t understand IT backup or disaster recovery processes. Citing past experiences with data loss, many employees continue to keep data in paper format for security and historical purposes. These concerns are not unfounded. According to RBS, Inc., 31% of PC users have lost all of their files due to events beyond their control. Gartner Research found that over 77% of organizations don’t have disaster recovery or business continuity plans, and the ones that do are often outdated or never communicated to employees. In a different study it was found that 34% of companies fail to test their backups, and of those that do, 77% have found backup failures.

Although there are other constraints and issues of becoming a paperless office, data protection and data process are key issues to address when becoming a paperless office.

Four Steps to a Paperless Office

1. Create a Document Management System and Guidelines
This important step means creating a simple way to manage electronic data. An office needs a system of sharing data: 1) use a hard-drive server or 2) install document management software. Either way, data management guidelines and structure need to be established. Employees must have a logical file structure with clear guidelines including record retention and parameters of how, where, and for how long data should be stored. Keep in mind that legal, financial, and HR departments must abide by clear government retention guidelines on data management.

2. Improve Printer Efficiency
Employees who print their electronic data create their own paper pile up. The easier and more convenient it is to print, the more likely it is that paper use will increase. One way to reduce paper use is to remove individual and desktop printers. By making printing less convenient, employees begin to be more mindful before printing their data.

IT departments can also increase printer efficiency by changing defaults on copying machines to two-sided copies. Known as “automatic duplexing,” the copier turns the paper over and prints on the backside automatically. One year after implementing this copier default, Bank of America reduced paper use by 50%, which saved $1 million in total paper and printing costs.

Users also print data because they are not sure how to save data in another easily retrievable electronic format. Install PDF printer drivers on employee computers. The PDF format can be recognized and made accessible on all computers and to all users regardless of the source software. This enables workers to save emails, Internet pages, and other system data into a standard PDF format.

Installing print management software is another option to improve printer efficiency. Print management software sets restrictions on printing and directs users toward the most efficient and cost-effective printer in the office. Moreover, the software collects all the printing data for analysis so that there is good information about how much is printed and wasted on a daily, weekly, and annual basis.

3. Provide Technology Options
An easy and convenient method to scan documents makes it so workers can scan and email documents instead of making multiple paper copies. Scanning important paper documents, such as company historical documents, into an electronic format makes for simplified electronic filing and retrieval. Scanning also works well for paper files that are compiled from various sources that need to be saved as one document in one place.

Faxing is still alive and well as a medium to transmit data. According to Gartner Research, more than 1 billion faxes are transmitted annually worldwide. Offer employees a way to have faxes converted to an email or an electronic format instead of paper.

When processing data, workers often need to view documents simultaneously, as Sellen and Harper found in their research. Provide employees with the option of having a second monitor. When workers have the flexibility of seeing two windows or two screens at one time, they can to review one document while processing or taking notes on another, alleviating the need to print hard copy documents in order to have the same functionality.

4. Automate Processes
Improving paper efficiency means accomplishing the same task using less paper. Determine which paper-based processes are inefficient and could be improved with automation. Of course, when some processes are automated they become more costly and time consuming; therefore, stay focused on the processes that are vital and used frequently. Automation is a good investment only if it lowers costs, reduces time, and improves efficiency and effectiveness of business operations. The key is to have the right balance.

Engage Your Employees in the Process
When companies begin their “paperless” initiatives, they must remember to consider the change employees will face. As much as workers hate paper, they also love it! Not only do you need to provide IT systems, tools, and policies, but also it is important to create the paperless culture within your firm. Organizations must inform and engage their staff in the value of becoming paperless so each member will buy into the goal and purpose.

Next, it is important to understand your company’s unique paperless challenges. Support and encourage the paperless change by letting employees, alongside IT staff or consultants, work through these challenges to come up with solutions. Once solutions are identified, be sure management supports these initiatives and provides the necessary resources to implement the new processes.

K.J. McCorry, an efficiency and productivity expert, discusses on how offices can reduce paper and begin "paperless" initiatives in their office.