Welcome To Speedcabling

We’re all familiar with the mass of cables that spring up behind computers, seemingly multiplying of their own accord. When you need to move your machine they’re frustrating, a mass oftangles.                          Well, now they’re a sport.  It’s called speedcabling, and the idea is to take a set of six tangled Ethernet cables of varying length, and the idea’s quite simple –competitors go head to head to see who can untangle them fastest.   Thee BBC reports that the sport, invented by Steven Schkolne, an IT professional (whatelse, of course) held its first championship recently in a Silicon Valley gallery, and the winner was LA web developer Matthew Howell.   So how are the cables tangled? First of all they’rewound into a figure eight, then tossed into a tumble dryer.   "I did a bunch of experiments and found that putting them in a dryer for three minutes works pretty well, it allows them totangle naturally," Schkolne told the BBC. "After that, they’re pretty much how they appear in nature."   Schkolne came up with the idea two years ago, adding one important caveat– the cables have to be able to work after being untangled.   Winner Howell – whose time wasn’t recorded – described his untangling technique as “fierce datacloud.” And his prize. Very aptly, perhaps, it was a gift certificate for dinner at an Italian restaurant.