Although wireless connectivity is useful, I still have enough cables in, under, over and around my desk - and The Shed as a whole - to re-cable the entire Golden Gate bridge, with a bit left over to create a cable car system for some Alpine mountain.

Just as bad is the plethora of adaptors needed to power the devices we use in our daily computing environment. At last count, coming off two power points I have four six port powerboards powering all manner of things. Admittedly I also have my sound system, Blue-ray player, PS3, LCD TV and receiver also connected in this lineup, but that is ‘not unusual’ for a video editing suite apparently sang Tom Jones.

One of my biggest problems is the lack of native USB ports in my laptop; it came with four, two of which are USB2 and the other two being USB 1 – but one of the USB2 ones has failed, and I simply cannot justify getting a new motherboard – again (this would be the third).

When I have a mouse, Plantronics headset, Nokia N8, Seagate external hard drive, Contour Shuttle, camcorder, still camera, scanner, printer and Livescribe Pen to deal with daily, as you can see, there is a small problem. Even a five port external hub didn’t work, but now, Targus has released a 7 port powered hub for only $59.95 and whilst it doesn’t allay the number of cables, at least I am not continually plugging and unplugging devices all the time.

This alone can be fraught with danger, as my karked Firewire port will attest.

See www.targus.com.au for more details.

By David Hague

David is the owner and publisher of AusCam Online. He has a background in media dating back to 1979 when he first got involved with photojournalism in motorsport, and went from there into technology via a 5 year stint with Tandy Computers. Following that, he ran a software distribution company on the Gold Coast and was one of the first to recognise the potential of Microsoft Windows.

Moving back to WA, David wrote scripts for Computer Television for video training for the just released Windows and Office 95 among others, and was then lured to Sydney to create web sites for the newly commercial Internet in 1995, building hundreds of sites under contract to OzEmail including Coates Hire, Hertz Queensland, John Williamson, the NSW Board of Studies and many, many more.

He went back into full time journalism as the Managing Editor for Channel 7's 'Gadget Guy', Peter Blasina's publications VideoCamera and Pixelmag, before starting Australasian Camcorder magazine when these publications were shelved. He lives at Sydney's Avalon Beaches nearly on the ocean front with dog Budweiser and in his spare time is a nut for motor sport, road safety, fishing, science fiction - especially Dr Who - and technology.

David can be contacted via david@auscamonline.com