For years I’ve been complaining about the mess that external hard drives create. They’re amazing and convenient for someone in my line of work who needs to move a lot of storage around, but every manufacturer uses a different power cord. Some of them use wall-warts. Some of them use in-line bricks. Some of the higher-end companies like Glyph put the converters inside and use standard 3-pin power cords. They also keep the case a nice rectangular shape, but you pay a premium for those drives. I have at least five external drives connected to my computer at all times, and they tend to vary in both cord and enclosure style. What this has generally meant was a barely contained mess of wires surrounding my computer. When I installed an HD monitor and Blackmagic Intensity card, the problem got even worse. So this week I moved my computer into my closet. This solves the messy cable problem, and makes the computer easier to access. It’s on a shelf so I don’t have to crawl around on the floor to plug and unplug things. It also makes the office much quieter because all those noisy fans are tucked away in the closet. Of course it generates a bit of heat, so I’m currently investigating some cooling options. I’m thinking of venting the heat out the back of the closet into another closet that doesn’t have any delicate computer equipment. For now, the closet door just stays open a crack.

Since I was running 35-foot cables, I wanted to minimize the number of cables I had to buy. Once you get over 15 feet it can get expensive especially for DVI. I managed to get it down to an incredibly thick (1/2″ diameter) DVI cable, a 33-foot active USB repeater cable, a component video cable for the HD monitor, and a red-white RCA for audio. I was already running ethernet from the DSL modem right past the closet, so I diverted it inside. I put a little 7-port USB hub on my desk, and the computer monitor has 4 USB ports as well. I put my DVD burner in an external USB enclosure on my desk so I don’t have to go into the closet to burn a disc. All firewire and eSATA devices stay in the closet. The component and DVI cables are really thick, but the whole thing just barely fit in a nice little cable zipper so it looks like a single thick cable.

I have a multi-standard DVD player hooked up to the HD monitor, so I got a component video switcher to switch between the computer’s video feed and the DVD. It’s a neat little device that has IR Learning, so I can use any remote to control it. That lives under my computer monitor stand, which does a great job of hiding cables.

For years when people asked me if I had an iPhone my response was “No, I have a phone that makes phone calls.” Well today I have a phone that does all those things an iPhone does and it makes phone calls. I got myself a Nexus One.

The phone arrived yesterday, and due to some rather dispiriting conversations with T-Mobile customer support, I was unable to connect to the 3G network. You see, I was a VoiceStream Wireless customer from 2002. (Look it up kids, or ask your grandparents about it. They won’t remember it either.) My rate plan hasn’t existed since the days when MySpace was cool. And I obviously didn’t have a data plan. I once tried to use the web with my old phone-phone and it was unbearable. My first step was to call T-Mobile customer support before I purchased the phone in order to verify that I could switch to the lovely Even More Plus plan, which at $59.99 for 500 minutes, unlimited text and data, is a stone cold bargain. I was told in no uncertain terms that the only way the Nexus One will work is if I purchase the phone with the Even More plan, which at $79.99 and a 2-year contract is not a good deal. Even with the $250 subsidy for current T-Mobile customers, I come out behind over two years with that plan. I have the cash now. Why get stuck in a contract?

So I did my research online and it seemed pretty clear that I could use the Even More Plus plan with this phone if I paid full price. I just went ahead and ordered it, hoping for the best. That’s not something I usually do with $530 purchases, but I felt that I was in the right on this one.

The phone arrived yesterday and it is frakking beautiful. My life is already well-integrated with Google, and this takes it even further. All of my contacts are synced with my GMail contacts, and of course GMail works right out of the box. The few times I use a calendar I always use the Google Calendar, and guess what: Google Calendar is the default calendar on the phone.

I set all this up using my Wi-Fi network at home since I still didn’t have a cell data connection. I could make make calls right away, but still no 3G. So I contacted T-Mobile customer support again. And again I was told that I could only use the Nexus One with the Even More plan and that it would not connect to the network otherwise and would I like to sign a 2-year contract now? As if the phone can tell I’m paying $20/mo. more. I didn’t think I was going to get anywhere with this one, so I hung up and again I was left with a phone that makes phone calls and can get on the Internet only if someone forgets to password-protect their router.

I decided to just change the plan myself using T-Mobile’s website, but rate changes don’t go into effect until the next billing cycle, which for me is 2/14. Since I only had 14 days left to return the phone for a refund, I started to worry. Even though everyone on the Internet was telling me it would be fine, I still had to go through the wall of ignorance at T-Mobile in order to make it work. This morning I gave it another shot and was connected to my new favorite person: Shawn F, rep ID #13-20832. He confirmed that I had purchased the phone at full price without a rate plan or contract and as such I could use the phone with any damn plan I wanted. 15 minutes later I was on the 3G network.

The lesson here is that T-Mobile needs to educate their customer support. And don’t give up on your dreams, because they do come true.