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Is Your Power or Ethernet Cable Constantly Being Yanked On?

post #1 of 31
6/7/06 at 11:38am
Thread Starter 
I have a nice laptop.
I have an ass-groove in my couch.
I have a three year old.

Nearly every night after dinner, I sit in my ass-groove with my laptop, watching the news, and letting my three year old crawl all over me.
Very, very often, she either steps on the power cord, or outright trips on it, and yanks the laptop. It seems no matter how I position the cord, for example, to come from behind me, it always seems to happen.

If I hook up downstairs in my office directly to the ethernet cable, on a few occassions I have moved the notebook and accidently caught the cable on the corner of my laptop table.

Sooo, I wanna invent a little plastic gizmo that clamps onto the various cables that come out of the back of a laptop, and anchors to the Kensington Lock hole.
The "Cable Clamper" would be meant to clamp onto the cable with a certain amount of slack allowed so that when my three year old trips over the power cord, it would yank on my laptop chassis instead of the power input jack.

I think there would be three components; The Kensington Lock unit, a short cable/cord/string, and the component cable clamp. The lock mechanism I'm not sure of because I don't know how the Kensington locks actually work. The clamp would be plastic...simply a 4 inch long, narrow piece with holes in a variety of diameters drilled in a line down the center, and cut in half length-wise. It would be hinged at one end, and have a snap-clip at the other.
-I'm imagining a one-piece plastic design as the finished product, as it would be just like some chip bag clips I've seen.

The cord that links the two could be nylon cord, which is plenty strong enough and inexpensive.


Is this a common problem?
Does this product already exist?
What would you pay for it?
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post #2 of 31
6/7/06 at 2:22pm
Wow, sorry to hear about your situation. Me and my ass grove are placed in a location to prevent either. My power outlet is behind the couch and runs under it up to the laptop. No network cable needed for me. I hope you find a solution. GL
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post #3 of 31
6/7/06 at 5:25pm
Whats an ass groove?
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post #4 of 31
6/7/06 at 5:40pm
Thread Starter 
*Sigh.*
Well, so much for starting up "Psychokittys Laptop Accessories Online .com".

I take it my beer can holder LCD clip idea is pretty much out of the question?
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post #5 of 31
6/7/06 at 6:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sally.Jones
Whats an ass groove?

Go sit in the same spot in the family room for hours each day... then... stand up, and look where you were sitting. Thats an ass groove haha

Solution: Wireless
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post #6 of 31
6/7/06 at 7:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bahama.Llama
Solution: Wireless

Solution: Get rid of the 3 yr old.




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post #7 of 31
6/7/06 at 8:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by g0dfr3y
Solution: Get rid of the 3 yr old.
The sooner the better. My parents say "i look at you and i remmember what a sweet kid you used to be when u were 3. After that, all hell broke lose and for the next 15 yrs you made my life miserable."

The same will happen to you
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post #8 of 31
6/8/06 at 12:14am
Wierless will solve half the problem.
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post #9 of 31
6/8/06 at 1:07am
Thread Starter 
Ya think?!
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post #10 of 31
6/8/06 at 2:33am
Famous Homer Simpson quote: "You better not be in my ass groove!"
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post #11 of 31
6/8/06 at 5:17am
Theres still the "sitting on throne laptop holder" that has yet to be invented
As far as the beer can holder, already been invented...CD-Rom
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post #12 of 31
6/8/06 at 12:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Psychokitty
Ya think?!


Ok well...sorry.

The problem with your solution is...isntead of ripping out the power cable or ethernet cable when you trip on it...you will throw the laptop on the ground. If its really a problem take out the little plastic stopper from your eternet cable...so when you yank on it it comes out easily instead of pulling the notebook.
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post #13 of 31
6/8/06 at 1:17pm
Thread Starter 
Listen,
This was just a little idea, ok?
It's NOT a major problem in my life here, and I run wireless for 2 1/2 hours when my battery is fully charged.
The cable doesn't get ripped out. It just often gets a little "tug" on it, and sometimes that's all those plastic jacks need to snap.
I've seen quite a few "My headset jack is broken." threads, and I repaired a plastic power jack for someone on an HP laptop and my own old gateway laptop.
This was just one of those little light bulb moments, and I was just trying to guage interest. I thought it was a great idea, but that's the thing about "great ideas"...You often need other people to let you know that they're not that great.

I kinda don't need anyone to explain to me that going wireless and selling my kid will fix my problems, that's all. It was just an idea for a silly little product.
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post #14 of 31
6/8/06 at 7:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Psychokitty
Listen,
This was just a little idea, ok?
It's NOT a major problem in my life here, and I run wireless for 2 1/2 hours when my battery is fully charged.
The cable doesn't get ripped out. It just often gets a little "tug" on it, and sometimes that's all those plastic jacks need to snap.
I've seen quite a few "My headset jack is broken." threads, and I repaired a plastic power jack for someone on an HP laptop and my own old gateway laptop.
This was just one of those little light bulb moments, and I was just trying to guage interest. I thought it was a great idea, but that's the thing about "great ideas"...You often need other people to let you know that they're not that great.

I kinda don't need anyone to explain to me that going wireless and selling my kid will fix my problems, that's all. It was just an idea for a silly little product.

I think you missunderstood my first post. I wasnt dissing your idea I was suggesting something without really taking to much time to think about it.
And in my second post I was suggesting that I felt would be an ok idea. My dog got caught up in my power cable once and thankfully the power cable just got disconnected instead of my laptop flying off the table.
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post #15 of 31
6/8/06 at 8:07pm
Discipline your kid and teach him not to screw with your cables. That's what I'd do.
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post #16 of 31
6/9/06 at 3:21pm
Hey, Psychokitty, instead of securing the cables to the laptop chassis, why not invent a magnetic 2 piece adapter that fits between the laptop and powercord, like the magsafe power connectors on the latest macs. That way, if someone trips on the cable, it just pops right out. I'd pay money for that
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post #17 of 31
6/9/06 at 4:09pm
I think you have a pretty good idea. The only thing is if the whole thing gets yanked off the table...

One the xbox controllers they have a quick release if you trip over it. I witnessed it action once when I tripped over the cable. I'm sure you could come up with a design similar to the xbox controllers for all sorts of cables.

I tripped over my 100 foot ethernet cable because my wireless was being a bitch. Felt my heart go into my mouth, lucky I only bent part of the metal liner around the ethernet.

A cable lock would have been good, wouldn't have bent anything that way.
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post #18 of 31
6/9/06 at 7:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bahama.Llama
Go sit in the same spot in the family room for hours each day... then... stand up, and look where you were sitting. Thats an ass groove haha

Solution: Wireless


/thread.
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post #19 of 31
6/11/06 at 2:23pm
o rly? I've never seen a wireless power cable...
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post #20 of 31
6/11/06 at 2:45pm
maybe go wireless, or run your laptop on battery.
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