2 posts tagged “gear”

Cables, cables everywhere

I decided to go through the Box today. The Box is actually 4 distinct boxes and a duffel bag. The box has been accumulating bits of electronic gear for the better part of a decade, and it was time for a come-to-jesus.

Treasures found in the Box:

• A/V cables. All of them. I could wire the Fillmore with the metric shit ton of wires the Box produced. You name it, I got it. RCA, TOSlink, quarter-inch, stereo, mono, 1/8th inch, sub-1/8th inch, component, RGB, RCA to 1/8th inch, RCA to 1/4 inch, splitters, elbow joints, pink & green computer audio cables, adapters.
• 22 power cords, including 2 vintage Apple power cords from the Bondi-blue era.
• Misc power bricks, feat. The hulking UK 220v Nokia adapter and his pal the Canon Ixus/Elph AC adapter circa 2001.
• 4 mobile phones, with devices from Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and some off-brand T-Mobile shit making an appearance.
• Misc adapters, car-chargers, headset cables for aforementioned phones.
• VGA cables, and one DVI cable. One baker’s dozen.
• SCSI cables: 50-pin to 50-pin, 25-pin to 50-pin and 25-pin to 25-pin.
• A bunch of 100MB ZIP disks, with various files and software, mostly Mac OS 8 era.
• 1 vintage Apple Adjustable Keyboard, complete with original Marathon sticker circa 1994.
• Marathon 1 CD-ROM. Accelerated for Power Macintosh!
• Ethernet cables. Lots.
• A set of really-short ethernet cables (5-inch, 1-foot, etc).
• 1 USB/VGA/audio 4-port KVM switch. Trick!
• All cables for said KVM switch, neatly zip-tied.
• Caller-ID box from Bell Atlantic.
• USB cables, of every flavor. Mostly still shrink-wrapped.
• Coax (cable) cables. In all lengths, shapes and sizes.
• Adapter cables for Bang & Olufsen gear. Now I can connect this vintage piece of art to my iPod!
• 1 Pentium II CPU (OEM).
  

Rarer were the devices:

• 1 Bondi-blue G3 tower.
• 1 Newton.
• 1 Apple prototype tablet Mac.
• 1 Game Boy Advance, with original batteries (I think it actually got less play time than my PSP).
• 1 PSP.
• 1 last-generation ADB Wacom tablet, with 2 styluses.
• 1 Apple-branded external SCSI hard drive. 850 MB, yeah!
• 1 Iomega ZIP drive, including AC adapter and SCSI cable.

In the non-electronic category:

• 1 pair chopsticks
• My first California driver’s license from January 2000. I want to smack that look off my face too.
• 1 golf ball.
• Old photos, business cards and greeting cards.
• Mix tapes!

So the lot will be going to Goodwill next week. If anyone wants a KVM, an Apple prototype or really really loves SCSI, make an offer.

TZR (Matte Black)

1 comment

Today's shopping theme: Gear, specifically safety equipment.

Per advice from a number of people smarter than I, riding a motorcycle with someone else's helmet is probably less than wise. So I ponied up the duckets for a shiny matte new Shoei TZ-R helmet in the One True Color. Like the shoes acquired earlier, I was told there was a "break in period" and a "snug fit" was desirable. I'll defer to the experts.

Earlier today, we went by Sports Basement and snagged carabiners, belay devices and climbing shoes. The shoes are like ballet slippers except covered in sticky rubber instead of pink satin. They are equally as painful [1]. I recall being upsold on a chalk bag too, so to not have to bear the shame of renting.

I need another gear-intensive sport like I need a hole in the head, but mountain climbing piques my interest in a way that trepanning never did.

[1] This is a 5-beer story.