One big problem with organizing your collection is that it is too easy to tell when you have way too many of some item and should really stop getting more. For example when everything is scattered around the house, garage, and storage, one can never have too many Apple logo power cords, but once you start putting them in a box and it fills up the fun kind of goes out of it. Also with a tidy collection you never get the thrill of finding some item again while moving stuff around. OTOH if the working portion, not just the functional stuff, but the stuff you need to play with your toys, isn't where you can find it, playtime is reduced, plus a lot of wandering around to find stuff and you look senile. Two tips Forget rubber bands, they don't last the sort of time we tend to let things sit on the shelf, plus twist ties are generally free excepting the labor of plucking them apart. Clear storage, bins or ziplock bags, and you can be lazy and never label anything.

On Thu, 18 Sep 2003, Ed Sharpe wrote: Rubber bands and just about any type of tape should never be used to bundle cords. Twist-ties, zip-ties, and even string are much better alternatives. Beware of cheap dyed paper type twist-ties though, as they can stain PVC jacketed cables. PVC jacketed cables will react with both styrene and ABS. Many computer cases are made of an ABS blend, and of course the bulk of the form fitting packing materials used for computers is made of styrene. This is why manufacturers put all the cables in poly bags before boxing and shipping. In some cases, certain ABS blends can also react with styrene, which is why you also see many devices bagged before being packed. Higher temperatures speed up the reaction of PVC with styrene and ABS. For those of us with large cable collections, a supply of poly bags on spools and a heat sealer tend to be a good investment... -Toth

On Thu, 18 Sep 2003, Eric Smith wrote: I want my RFID. Anybody played with this stuff? http://www.ti.com/tiris/docs/products/products.shtml -- Doug

At 05:58 PM 9/18/03 -0700, Eric Smith wrote: I use a sheet of paper dropped in so I can read it thru the plastic wall, but I am thinking about going to dry erase markers. Its labeling, but still lazy since you can dump a LOT of stuff in each container.