Very Useful Small Computing Things

One of my favorites is a microSD card... card. It's a plastic case with 10 slots for microSD cards, about the thickness of a credit card. A brilliant little bit of lo-tech hi-tech.

Literally at work team lead said "We need to connect these two HDMI cables together". Me: My team was amazed.

Another thing I would add to this list is a magnetic screw bowl. It's not really specifically for computers, but when you're taking apart or building computers or SBCs, having a place where you can't lose a screw is really great. I keep mine on the fridge when I'm not using it.

Could have titled this video “Things you didn’t know you needed until now “ I’m getting some of those USBC bungs, brilliant video

We pay so little attention to these type of devices, but when we can't find them.... oh boy 🙂 We need a special mention to Mr Scissors and Stanley, whom we owe a major thanks....

I can hear how proud you are of that encrypted USB Stick it's really wholesome and respectable

One of my favourites is a 4 way USB hub with on/off buttons. So that they can be populated and whatever is connected can be switched on or off as desired.

As a Helpdesk Tech, a lot of these things are a MUST for anyone doing IT work

My house is FULL of almost 50 years worth of an endless collection of adapters, kludges,, interfaces, obsolete cables, boards, old drives and media, widgets, doohickeys, gizmos, thingies, gimmicks, doodads, whatchamacallits, MacGuffins, thingamabobs, and thingamajiggers. It always at least a full day's journey to find the right ones that still work, matching them to their technology mates, finding their software drivers, and then identifying what they actually still do. The labels are almost always missing or inadequate. The mystery is how you got it down to just so few. It proves though how ubiquitous the many USB devices have become, and how necessary passwords and encryption still are to us and our safety. Before USB came along, I think I spent almost half my life trying to configure serial ports. Once I have finally shuffled off this mortal coil, there will probably be a small fortune to be recovered in precious and valuable metals in all that stuff, not even to mention an archeological trove of ancient data to be translated and parsed for the historical record. Or perhaps just a trip to the landfill dump.

It's not a computing device, but it is an essential part of my computing activities....a cup of tea. Helps me solve so many problems, I can't function without it.☕

After hearing you say “get it in Chris” I’m never going to be able to watch another of your videos in the same way again lol

Another useful item is a small box of various computer screw types. You can accidentally lose a screw when working on upgrading or just opening up a laptop or something else ect. So having replacements is handy. And often there are screws already missing from previous work. A mini screwdriver kit is also a requirement, some come with tools to pry apart a laptop. A couple of spare blank USB drives in various sizes are also useful, there are types that have a USB type A port at one end and a USB type C port at the other. There are times when you just need to physically transport files, especially to use retail commercial services easily or to give someone a big file and you can't be bothered mucking around with dropbox - or explaining to someone else how to use it. That's why at least one should be a cheap basic USB that you don't mind giving away. A good (labelled) drive can have a bunch of useful software repair tools on it, including a basic operating system, in order to help with computer issues. A variety of various commonish USB cable types (micro USB, lightning, ect) and a good charger can also come in handy sometimes .... you'll regret it when you need one and you don't have them. "Where's the charger for your external drive? Does it use USB power?" And just to keep your phone (and anyone else's) running, you may be doing a lot of screen time looking up solutions. If you have the space (say in a laptop bag), a long ethernet cable can be a lifesaver so you don't have to sit right next to the modem when the WiFi is playing up. And a surprisingly overlooked item - a good lens cleaner spray and cloth. If you wear glasses it can do double duty and you probably already carry one. And if you are going to be working on fiddly things, a pair of magnifying eyeglasses can save a lot of frustration - unless you're young and short-sighted you may need them, depending on your minimum focal distance. I've had to have a friend hold my mobile phone in front of me with the magnifying app on, to make sure a connector was connected properly. And to find the missing screw that had rolled onto the motherboard. I've since gotten a pair of chemist bought magnifying specs to use for looking closely. And a proper prescription pair of glasses solely for sitting at a screen, with the ideal focus distance set for that. Make sure the frames look completely different, I once tried to go driving with my computer glasses on and was barely out of the driveway when I realised what was wrong. A small plastic case to hold fiddly bits while you're working on something. A small magnet plate is useful for holding screws. A roll of masking tape and a pen can be useful. You can bundle and label cables and use it for holding small items in place. Trying to deal with a tangled mess of cables, you can as a temporary fix label a cable at both ends with the same number and then what its for. You can even find legacy/orphan cables taking up power points that are otherwise needed, which is nice when that happens as you get freed up power points. Remember every time you need a item and don't have it, and then add it to your personal list. All of these are items that at one point I needed and didn't have on me.

I can't express how much I love this sort of technology. Adapters and little cool and convenient pieces of tech.

One thing I find useful with phones, tablets, smaller laptops, etc, is a small USB 3 hub with a built in Ethernet port. As you pointed out, a lot of small devices don't have an ethernet port, and adding one, along with extra USB ports (which they often don't have either) is sooooo useful.

My group in college called me Marry Poppins because I somehow always would have the cable or adapter you need, I absolutely love to see what others carry around! I would add a compact portable wireless USB keyboard to the list. For testing SBCs, troubleshooting servers, or even media control, having a wireless keyboard you can connect to anything gives you so much freedom.

I also recommend a USB audio device of some kind. I'm totally blind, and these are extremely useful for getting audio out of systems that don't support it, such as servers or when installing operating systems in cases where the screen reader can't be heard on the default sound device because it lacks drivers. Thank you for this wonderful channel! I look forward to every episode!

using those couplers to reduce wear and tear on the main component is a really smart idea

Really love the USB to SATA cable. Worth mentioning that these don't work with 3.5 inch drives unless they've got an additional power source though.

I'm highly impressed you got the HDMI leads into the coupler without having to turn at least one of them the other way around. I know you can set it up before recording, but i know how sneaky those cables can be if you look away for even a split second

My favorite cable is Ugreen Type-C to 3.5mm audio jack. And this cable has my favorite tip, to convert information from Type-C to audio for the audio jack this cable has an integrated audio interface in it, you can also see this cable's audio interface every time you connect it to a computer as separate from the other audio interfaces you have. And this tip with this cable saved me, one time that i was helping on a presentation and for some reason the presentation's laptop integrated audio interface (Realtek) wasn't working, so i used this cable's 3.5mm audio jack output and this cable's integrated audio interface and presentation was saved. 😊