X config damaged by power failure

[Tim]

On Wed, 2008-05-07 at 15:26 -0430, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> The worst part is that I had actually *checked* that it was correctly
> plugged in. Only later did I go back and recheck (it was somewhat
> awkward to get at and see properly).

It gets difficult the more gear you have.  Cables get twisted around,
and you look at the wrong ends, thinking something is plugged in where
something else really is.

Working in A/V production it's not uncommon to have some twenty cables
going into gear, and 'tis a right pain to sort out which cable's which
when they're bunched together.  I tried naming things, but when you
re-use a cable, the name's wrong.  I tried numbering, but people expect
cable one to go into socket one, and get mightily confused when it
doesn't.  In the end I settled for using bands of coloured electrical
insulation tape on both ends of the cable (e.g. green, red, then blue
tape, starting from the plug ends, inwards).  You can easily find both
ends of the same cable, that way, and it doesn't matter what they're
connected to.

Trying to untangle them doesn't work.  :-\  A cable can be going around
the back of the desk right near you, for just a couple of metres.  But
while you drag it out, it magically wraps around something on the other
side of the room.  They're in the same union as garden hoses.

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