This is Garrett Murray's Maniacal Rage

Anonymous asked:

I like your taste in equipment and appliances. I've been looking for a stylish yet practical, yet understated powered USB hub for ages - what do you have?

I don’t have a USB hub, let alone a powered one. These days, I don’t have many USB devices I need to regularly plug in—all of my external USB hard drives are bus powered and for backup purposes so I keep them in a fireproof safe until I need them, and iPhones and iPads support over-the-air sync and update now. The only USB cables regularly plugged into my iMac are my Bowers & Wilkins MM-1 speakers and an iPhone dock/CF card reader. Whenever I need to debug using additional devices I temporarily plug them in using a cable and then put them away when I’m done.

There was a time when I had several USB docks on my desk and loads of stuff plugged into them. Over the years, my computing desires have gone basically the exact opposite direction—I’m always looking to remove cables and devices where possible. Ideally, my speakers would be wireless. Ideally, I’d never plug my iPhone into my computer. Et cetera.

I felt like a jerk for answering with this non-answer, so I did a little investigating for you to try to find a nice looking powered USB hub and I pretty much came up completely empty. So then I thought again and realized I wanted to know: Why do you need a powered USB hub? How many items need to be plugged into your computer at once that also require power? Do you actually need this or are you missing an opportunity to trim down here? These are all genuine questions.