This is an Australian wind farm that, when viewed from above, looks suspiciously like a bunch of USB cables . What’s up with that?! Now I’m not saying this proves my conspiracy theory about the Australian government being infiltrated by aliens so they can use the continent as a docking station for their USB-powered space ships, but I think the photo speaks for itself. And — not to brag or anything, but I DO live in a giant Monster brand HDMI connector. Suck it, peasants! Google Maps and Giant USB Spaghetti Cable Monster Invades Australia [gizmodo] Thanks to GuamOtoko and Blaqk Panda, who both live in giant 3 inch floppy drives.

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Google Maps Spots Australian USB Farm

We’ve all been there: you’re setting up a up a new computer , you get a little distracted and next thing you know, BAM! — you’re experimenting sexually with a mess of tangled cables . Unfortunately, I didn’t have the sense to shape them into something first. And it was still awesome. Well this is a self portrait by LA artist Kasey McMahon made from CAT-5 cables entitled ‘Connected’. Because that’s what cables do, they connect things. SAME GOES FOR PAPER CLIPS AND VELCRO. Now, can you name something else that connects things? What do you mean “muffins”?! Listen, I’d like to schedule a meeting with your parents. Not that it’s any of your business, but I’m gonna tell them you’re retarded. Hit the jump for one more shot from the side.

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I Know, You’d Hit It: A CAT-5 Lady Sculpture

As grotesque as paying $10 for one would be, I know without a second thought that a bagful of CableDrops would make life easier, fitter, happier. Tape? Never stays sticky. A wodge of plastitac? Too tasty. CableDrop [BlueLounge via Red Ferret Journal ]

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CableDrop

BusinessWire press release : Consumers will have a choice of the following HDMI cables: • Standard HDMI Cable - supports data rates up to 1080i/60; • High Speed HDMI Cable - supports data rates beyond 1080p, including Deep Color and all 3D formats of the new 1.4 specification; • Standard HDMI Cable with Ethernet - includes Ethernet connectivity; • High Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet - includes Ethernet connectivity; • Automotive HDMI Cable - allows the connection of external HDMI-enabled devices to an in-vehicle HDMI device. So I just buy the most expensive one, right?

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New HDMI 1.4 standard offers just five confusing options

An estimated 160 million utility poles in the U.S. shore up with the millions of miles of crisscrossing cables that power our homes, phones and more. They’re hard to miss, yet until recently, I’ll admit I was mostly a utility pole dilettante. How often do most people really deconstruct the random wires, boxes, transformers, and industrial bric-a-brac hanging off them? Maybe you do . But if not, here’s an introductory guide to pole ogling* after the jump… [image via flickr ] *I did not mean that to sound vaguely sexual, but now that we’re talking, yeah yeah, ha HA. The notion of observing a pole’s “industrial ecology” is an elegant one. Like the rainforest, distinct regions at specific heights each encompass a unique ecosystem. 1 Newton’s Telecom Dictionary defines three spaces: Supply, Safety Zone, Communications. Brian Hayes, author of Infrastructure , breaks it down roughly the same: Power Company, Communications, “Yard-Sale Zone” (aka the “Kick ass bass player seeks bandmates for Dio/Megadeth explosion” zone aka ” Tourist ” zone). There’s an intense amount of minutiae once you start looking at different poles, even those just a few blocks from one another. Some poles are choking on cables , power supplies, amplifiers, repeaters and more. Better to start with something less crowded. A typical pole near my home: The Florida Public Service Commission has a solid primer that makes deconstruction easy. Simple rule of thumb: The higher you go, the more dangerous the cables and accoutrement are. The reason: safety. There can be 7,200 to 12,000 volts pumping through the top lines and transformer drums (in my photo, the two white buckets 2 , which are effectively mini versions of this mammerjammer ). The transformers are responsible for converting that huge surge to locale wires that carry the much smaller voltage necessitated by residential spaces (typically 120/240v). At the tip-top you’ll often see a single, static wire (there isn’t one in my photo), which releases excess charges to protect the “Transmission” in case of lightning. The three thinner wires running parallel across the very top beam (photo above) are the A /B/C phase wires. These feed into the drums, which then send power down to the “T,” which distributes the charge through the secondary service drop cables, the higher-up lines you see heading everywhichway into homes and businesses. Below the “T” but above the next set of communication wires is the “Safety” zone, generally 30 inches below the transformer. This gives the phone company and others wriggle room to maintain the strands supplying your broadband (CATV), TV and phone wires. Here’s what you might find on a pole that’s exclusively CATV (image via Neal McLain ): If you want to dive in further, the resources cited here are pretty wonderful. There’s also Ed Sobey’s A Field Guide to Roadside Technology (also on Google Books ), which I’ve not read, and the aforementioned Infrastructure . One last point that’s hopefully obvious: Don’t get too close. The results of one misstep can be gruesome . Here’s what happened to a rookie lineman technician trying to splice 3-conductor #16 wire cable in North Carolina: At 8:45 a.m. the victim positioned himself in a one-person articulated, truck-mounted aerial bucket 25 feet above the ground and slightly below the upper cross member of the utility pole…The victim did not use any boots, blankets, or other insulating material to cover the lightning arrestor conductors or other live conductors. The victim’s insulated rubber gloves were in the tool tray located on the floor of the bucket… the physical evidence suggests the victim was holding the #16 wire cable with his left hand when his right hand came in contact with the lightning arrestor conductor. The victim cried out when his hand came in contact with the lightning arrestor conductor. The lineman on the ground looked up and saw the victim slumped in the bucket; he then ran to the truck and radioed for assistance… Finding the victim unconscious, the co-workers began CPR until the local EMS arrived. The victim was transported to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead at 9:55 a.m. The cause of death was cardiac arrest due to contact with 7200 volts of electricity. The coroner reported electrical burns on the victim’s right palm (entry wound) and electrical burns on the victim’s left palm (exit wound). Terrifying, which is why you and I shall continue to call it pole- watching . 1 That analogy holds true in another respect: extinction. The push for more underground cabling and wireless is a good thing. The less we see, the better. But generations from now, we’re likely to see fewer of them — or at least, poles with new aesthetics. But I digress… 2 The cross of the pole juxtaposed with the Church cross’ was unintentional.

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A Beginner’s Field Guide To Pole-Watching

This is what the world’s submarine cable system looked like in 1901, according to the Eastern Telegraph Company. This is what it looks like now. [Image via Telegeography ]

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Submarine cable maps: 1901 v. 2009

With the advent of laptops and cheap software like Logic and ProTools, building a decent “home” recording studio isn’t as out of reach as it used to be. But there’s more to it than buying crisper mics, better pedals or amplifiers that go up to 11 . I recently dropped by a small recording space in Portland, OR — the unofficial band capital of the West Coast — for the lowdown on how to get the best, albeit relatively-subjective , bang for the buck by ditching generic audio cables. Hint: buying the most expensive patch cable available isn’t the solution — more after the jump. “That’s what’s retarded about cabling. It’s like trying to describe the difference between two pastel paintings of a lake: one may have longer brushstrokes or be a slightly blurrier pic. But if you close your eyes and listen, you begin to isolate the subtleties.” Brandon and Benjamin (above) rent a linoleum-floored room in what used to be a breakroom of an industrial space. They have “home recorded” all four of their albums, including their last two on Sub Pop Records . They’re currently working on a new one in this space, where I find a messy, but deliberate network of cables of all sizes, thickness, colors, and function — digital and analog alike, including two 10-foot monitoring cables that each cost ~$100. Playback at a recording studio mixing station is vital, but the sound, of course, all begins with the analog and digital signals you send from the pre-amps, guitars, drums or keyboards. At left, a range of instrument/guitar cables, mostly from Mogami (~$30-$50 depending on length). However, the longest, most impressive cable is a 50-foot, Mogami “snake” (~$400-$500) This guy spans most the studio, channeling the analog signal that originates at the drums, vocal mics and guitar — then pre-amps — across the room. At either end, you’ve got 16 inputs/outputs in aggregate (below, top) that let you patch in whatever however, wherever. ex; find the prime spot for your bass drum, leave it, and run your cable to the mixing station, where secondary cables pass the sound from the snake to a number of ADCs (below, bottom) that convert the signal for digital editing*. Before playing on a bigger budget album with Modest Mouse , Benjamin used only generic snakes for his personal studio. During those sessions, however, he says he really started to hear the difference. “It’s pretty hard to define,” he told me, “That’s what’s retarded about cabling. It’s like trying to describe the difference between two pastel paintings of a lake: one may have longer brushstrokes or be a slightly blurrier pic. But if you close your eyes and listen, you begin to isolate the subtleties.” With a generic snake, he says, there’s simply less presence, less body and a lower dynamic range. We didn’t conduct any spectrum analysis, but I’m willing to believe a slightly more expensive cable can be worth it, simply because people like Benjamin and Brandon don’t have hugely disposable incomes, unlike boomer audiophiles who put together compelling justifications for their crazy home stereo cables. Much of the same thinking and “physics” can applied to the cables you record with, but active recording vs. passive listening seems different. A “better” cable for recording isn’t simply about minimizing resistance so you can hear the difference right then and there in the moment, the way it is when a needle hits the vinyl and immediately transmits the cash registers on “Dark Side of the Moon” to your speakers. With recording, you’re resigning yourself to a delayed listen, capturing the signal for potential use down the road, then making adjustments as you re-record to get a desired sound. It’s not about tinkering with a known work to achieve a golden tone. In that sense, the act of recording seems inherently honest about the subjectivity of it all (at least that’s my impression from this personal studio). If you take your craft at all serious, you might lay down and then sift through dozens or more takes to find the one that just feels right and sounds clear-est, but what is there to justify? You won’t have anything to compare it to and why would you? You’re creating a “vibe”, not architecting the ultimate waveform. The following tips will help maximize your purchase power : How Much Cable to Buy With a snake, calculate the true, absolute distance you need and don’t over estimate. If you buy a 100 feet for a 50-foot run, you’re not doing your sound any favors. When electricity travels from the mic through the pre-amp and into your snake, there’s only so much distance it can travel before the quality starts to degrade — even with a higher-quality, pricey cable, that’s unavoidable. Where Not to Buy Guitar Center? Meh. Leave that place to undiscerning n00bs. Every beginner’s go-to outlet sells basic quad cable with extra shielding that’s used to reduce RFI/grounding issues/noise. The resulting reduction in resistance will hamper your sound. Besides, in a decent space, those issues shouldn’t be too prevalent. What Brands to Buy You can buy a much cheaper non-quad cable with more bandwidth and a clearer sound. Pro studios and musicians are partial to cable makers like Canare and Mogami . Between the two, some say it’s really six of one and half a dozen of the other . Where to Buy Going direct to Mogami and Canare can be pricey. If you’re looking for custom-build cables, it’s worth it in some respects. However, Redco will make many of the same cables for more reasonable fees ($1.00+/foot, depending). Or better yet, also try Hotwired , which often sells even cheaper pro cables on eBay. What Not to Expect No matter how much money you invest in cabling, the old adage holds: garbage in, garbage out . Previously: Audiophile product parodies - Boing Boing $39 gold plated fuses for audiophiles - Boing Boing Scientific study on why knots happen - Boing Boing Pioneering hillbilly/soul label King Records celebrated - Boing Boing *How to pick a converter is a whole other story, since the type/brand/era of your converter determines how much or little harmonic distortion colors the sound. Purists say no converters can compare to recording in analog.

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How To: Amp up a Home Recording Studio w/Cabling