cherylmorgan getting a new desktop computer prompted us to clean up the computer desk -- a six-foot folding table shared between our computers, including three power strips, a telephone, and the DSL modem, router, and several external storage devices. The desk was very dusty and the cables badly snarled up, so we undertook to disassemble stuff, remove obsolete pieces (like the now-unused docking station for an older laptop), dust, re-run cables, and generally clean things up.It was quite a struggle at times. The worst part was when, while moving my monitor around to get at the rat's-nest of cables, I knocked the anti-glare screen to the floor, where it shattered. I would have felt worse about this, but the screen was Menlo surplus -- I picked it up when they were tossing out pieces no longer in use because most people now have flat-panel monitors.
After an hour or so of fighting the Cable Monster, we got things to the point where Cheryl could install her machine. I'll leave it to her to describe how that went.
Things are somewhat cleaner, all right. But boy, do we have a lot of hardware in here. I've suggested that we look into buying a UPS for this. I'm a little concerned that we're over-taxing the electrical circuits in this room, with three or four computers (not counting the out-of-service machines) and sundry other hardware running through three power strips and two sets of outlets.