Where bling and cable management meet: bedazzled pink CAT5

As a female user of computers, I can assure you that this is relevant to my interests, because it is pink and contains sparkles.

KaBLiNG: It's where cables and bling come together (The Daily What, via Susannah Breslin)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Anonymous

Actually, I think the xbox logo might explain this. Xboxes use ethernet cables (unless you’ve sprung for an expensive wireless adapter). It certainly would be nuts to expect an adult setting up a home network to want pink sparkly Cat5 – but a tween setting up her xbox might.
- jackie31337
  
  I can see my almost-7-year-old wanting these for her computer. Thankfully, it’s a laptop with a wireless LAN card, so these are not needed.
Anonymous

What’s really frustrating is that I like this sort of thing, but I’m a man, and we’re forbidden from even LOOKING at things like that.

I can’t tell you how upset I was when they put Cooking Mama in the “Games for Girls” section of my local game store. I’m glad they finally got rid of the Games for Girls section.
Anonymous

I do Video teleconferencing at work, and I always use what I refer to as ‘Barbie Pink’ Cat 5 cables for my connections. No one every mistakes my cables for anything other than mine, even though I haven’t grabbed any sparkle bling that we have around for cell phones.

I have a supply of pink 25 footers salted away so I’ll always have some available for the future. Our other IT folks all have special colors for special uses around here.
No Imagination

Cables Unlimited has been around since 1994. The logo doesn’t look all that much like the x-box logo if you view it on their website.

Xeni, you missed the flagship of the Ka-Bling (or KaBLING, it’s spelled both ways) line: the Audio Unlimited (sister company) KaBLING Pink 900MHz Wireless Speakers!

Finally, nicht die Blinkenlichter, die Kristalle.
Amsterdaam

No, I was implying that they changed the xbox logo slightly and then used it as their own, but then No Imagination pointed out that it is easier to see on their site and blew my trademark infringement case right out of the water.

They still look similar though…
MadRat

Well I had to admit it’s a little suspicious with their logo looking like an Xbox logo so it wouldn’t be hard imagine they lied about what they do with their money. But their website says:

Cables Unlimited is a Proud Sponsor of the NBCF/ National Breast Cancer Foundation, donating a full 10% of proceeds to this charity

and the charity does exist. This caught my eye because my wife had her second breast cancer surgery today.

http://www.cablesunlimited.com/products/prod_Group.aspx?groupcode=G0448&itemNo=UTP-1450-07P
Phoenicks

Sarcasm, Xeni?
kevinsky

So basically what we’re seeing here is that the blinging up of $10 HDMI cables so that BestBuy can sell ‘em for $140 is now spreading to other types of cables.
Stefan Jones

I hear the NASCAR cable — covered with sponsorship decals, and with a tendency to burst into flames and whip around and sever other nearby cables — is popular in Southern states.
boingaddict

i want zombiefied cat5 cables i would so enjoy those
- MrsBug
  
  Sorry, no zombie cat5, but you CAN get LOLcat5.
Amsterdaam

It’s very strange that they use the xbox 360 logo on the box…
- SpacelordMother
  
  My gosh is that similar.
  
  My girlfriend was discussing earlier today why they don’t make CAT-5 couplers for girls. It’s such a male dominated market right now it seems. Now I see this. Well I’ll be damned…. :\
- IronEdithKidd
  
  Indeed, because any girl worth her salt has a PS3.
  
  Wait a tic… Are you implying that females don’t play video games?
  - Anonymous
    
    No, i was implying that they changed the xbox logo slightly and then used it as their own, but then No Imagination pointed out that it is easier to see on their site and blew my trademark infringement case right out of the water.
    
    They still look similar though…
  - TooGoodToCheck
    
    I suspect @4 was more implying that it’s some shameless copyright violation. It’s not a licensed Xbox product, and the use of a logo which is 99% the same as the Xbox logo seems very much intended to sow confusion.
shatterjack

hahaha cables unlimited is my dad’s old company. They sell every cable you could imagine. My favorite is the mickey mouse power cable…If any place might have zombie cat5, it would be this place.
absimiliard

“As a female user of computers, I can assure you that this is relevant to my interests, because it is pink and contains sparkles. ”

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

I love you Xeni, let’s all move to Utah so my wife and I can marry you!

-abs isn’t actually serious, but damn your sense of humor matches his pretty perfectly some days
Anonymous

I have seen the pink “bling” cables for sale, probably at Micro Center. IIRC women bought them, too.
Summer Seale

Those rock, and I want to buy some today. =)
Anonymous

It’s funny because sticking plastic gems on RJ-45′s is actually more useful than gold-plating them.
Stephen

But the markup is much smaller than “audiophile” cables, some of the money goes to fight breast cancer, and they come in Pink OR Hot Pink!
- kevinsky
  
  @Stephen – Don’t assume that something that is painted pink and sporting a ribbon results in money to breast cancer research. Pink is the new Green.
  
  Often the companies are just raising “Awareness” or giving only a nominal amount to fight breast cancer. There are no controls on the use of the pink ribbon, so anyone can slap it on anything without any responsibility.
  
  The only awareness they raise is 5 seconds of you saying, “Oh, it fights breast cancer” before you throw it in your shopping cart and take it home.
  
  That’s not to say they aren’t raising money to fight breast cancer, just that you should find out for sure. But generally you’d probably do more for breast cancer by buying a standard product for less and donating the difference to a registered charity directly!
GrrrlRomeo

The color pink haunts me. I cannot escape it.
Anonymous

see i didn’t pick up on the sarcasm right away and now i’m sad because i really do want these because they’re pink and shiny.
miss eliza sea

I’m sure any good geeky girl worth her salt has access to a hot glue gun and a handful of sparklies. I’ll bedazzle my $10 lavender 50ft cat5 myself, thank you very much,
Anonymous

AND it has the Breast Cancer ribbon.

Ow, I just headdesked.
Phikus

The cable shown above is androgynous, after all, it has male ends on it.
Anonymous

A sys admin friend of mine wired up his companys conference room with bright purple cat5 cables to stop people from “borrowing” the cables. Easy to spot if someone took them due to the slagging their workmates would give them.
Chris Tucker

If it pleases and sparkles…
Elizabeth Krumbach

I took this picture in my living room, the actual source of this image is my blog:

http://princessleia.com/journal/?p=2652
sithlet

I have a pink ethernet cable at work (came from what was formerly known as the Hello Kitty Network), but it has no gems. Time to make good on my promise to put glitter glue on it.
foobar

That’d be kinda neat, if they were das blinkenlights.
Anonymous

I can’t believe that people (or companies, that are run by people) slap pink on anything and voila they have an instant product for women.

The more amazing thing is that apparently this stuff sells. Companies wouldn’t do this if it didn’t work!

I’m intrigued and baffled by how different men and women’s “primary characteristics” are. For example in restaurant selection, men decide on a restaurant based on the food and location maybe. Women? Their selection seems to be determined by how clean the restroom is, how cute the interior is, and what kind of music they play.
Tallakahath

My roommate has one of these, not because it was pink and sparkley… well, actually, yes. Because it was so bedazzled it didn’t sell and got put on sale – cheaper than the regular CAT5′s on sale! Plus, the sparkles entertain the kitten.