"Cable Drawings" is a series of installations by artist Maisie Maud Broadhead in which pesky cords are incorporated into the very decor of one's home.

But as Lifehacker points out, this technique need not be for the pretentious class alone. Adhesive wire clips, like those used in the lead photo, are available on the cheap. And you've spent years perfecting your perspective of the crudest of body parts already. [Maisie Maud Broadhead via Design Lounge via Unplggd via Lifehacker]

The instructions are actually pretty thorough and explain everything you need to know about running CAT 5e or CAT 6 cables through your home, walls, and attic without making a horrid mess, but please don't blame me if you somehow manage to destroy something anyway. [Instructables via Lifehacker]

The kit includes a remote, 2.5-in space for a you-provided HDD, three USB slots, Ethernet, and support for more than a few file formats. It launches, well, soon, as there's no date and it's currently in pre-order. [Amazon via The Gadget Site via Engadget]

After reporting some issues with their internet connection, technicians advised the folks over at Unplggd to wipe the tips of their ethernet cord with a coffee filter. Apparently the filters are excellent at catching loose impediments like lint, plus the technician reported witnessing more than on instance where installers had left cheeseburger grease on cords. Gross.

A bit anticlimactically, this coffee filter tip didn't solve the problem for Unplggd, but it might still help you. Well, that, or you'll just start licking those cords clean like we do. [Unplggd]

The diagram below illustrates part of what he tried to set up. What it doesn't show, unfortunately, is how slow the network would have been compared to the average home network now. In your face, Bob. [BBG]

The Price: $700 (4TB), $400 (2TB)

The Verdict: It's a NAS for normal people. With a simple curved white design highlighted by a single hypnotic bar of white LED, the diminutive My Book plugs in to your router via ethernet to give you up to 4TB of networked storage. You plug it in, it shows up on your network, and that's that. (There's a more advanced CD installation that allows you to auto-backup your PC hard drive should you want the software.)
We tested the large, 4TB RAID 1 (mirrored drive) version of the My Book. In other words, you have about 2TB of recordable space that's backed up to another drive so that if one drive fails, you don't lose any data. If you wanted more speed/space, the drive can be reconfigured to RAID 0 (Striped) mode allowing you to access all 4TB. And it's easy to forget, if you choose to mainline the My Book right into your computer's ethernet jack, transfer speeds are fast. Gigabit ethernet reaches 1000Mbps, which is easily faster than USB but also quicker on paper than even Firewire 800. Still, transferring a 700MB file took 1:32. Transferring 8.2GB in files took 18:49. Not so fast in practice. (In other words, you won't actually be copying files at 1000Mbps, but the installed system has no trouble streaming HD media over Wi-Fi.)

You feel a bit of warmth dissipating out of the My Book's large top to rear vent panel (that we wish were metal instal of plastic), but system runs cool enough, offers easy access to the drives (you just pop the lid) and operates with very little noise. Quite simply, it works pretty well and makes a cute little media server (if you've got the scratch).

It's As Simple as RAIDs Get

Small, Quiet Formfactor

Mega Storage

Venting Could Feel More Durable, But It's Flexible and Thereby Easy to Pop Off

Reaching data rates of 1000Mbps (over the former speed of 200Mbps), Belkin's new $150 Gigabit Powerline HD Starter Kit includes two Powerline adapters, allowing you to stream multiple uncompressed HD data feeds through your home with little issue.

Of course, these are best case scenario numbers. If your old home has lousy electrical, that theoretical spec speed could drop a lot lower. Then again, at the overkill bandwidth of 1000Mbps, it can afford to. [Belkin]

• Dongle
• Cookie
• WAP
• Phone jack
• (Nokia) Navi Key
• Time shifting
• Digital TV
• Ethernet
• (Nokia/Others) PC Suite
• Desktop

It's an odd list. Even though the UK loves its Nokias, the inclusion of two proprietary Nokia terms seems innately disproportionate. "Time shifting" was an awkward term to begin with that's specific but antiquated now that "DVR" has taken over. And as for "phone jack" and "desktop," yes, it's disconcerting that laymen don't understand this "jargon," but I can't remember the last time that I used either of these technologies.

So that pretty much leaves "cookie," "dongle," "ethernet," "digital TV" and "WAP" as the terms people need to learn. Please call your grandmothers and inform them as to the proper definitions immediately. [BBC and image]

Simply put, this fairly simple DIY device involving an RJ-45 connector spliced onto a power cord that will obliterate anything with an Ethernet port. Essentially you are running 120 VAC though a cable that likes something in the neighborhood of 2.2-2.8. From what I understand, the results can be gruesome and spectacular. The instructions on how to make one yourself are in the following link, but you know as well as I do that plugging this thing into your router is not going to be a good idea. [Fiftythree via Boing Boing Gadgets]

USB Type A Universal Serial Bus, the gold standard. The whole idea behind it is that this one interface will connect everything (except the stuff it doesn't), killing off the old guard, like parallel and serial ports. It moves data, and in the case of USB 2.0—which is pretty much the standard now—it does it faster, and with some extra specs for power. Clarification: USB 2.0 adds in the Battery Charging specification 1.0, which allows for dedicated charging and other power goodness. This particular connector is the type A variety. It plugs everything from your iPod to your digital camera into a computer, or whatever else. If you haven't seen this before, what are you reading this on?

USB Type B The USB Type B plug is basically a USB connector for peripherals—you've probably seen it jacked into a printer or scanner.

Mini USB It's a type of USB connector for smaller devices like cameras and phones—it takes up less real estate than a port for a Type A connection, obviously.

Micro USB Even smaller than the above Mini USB. Since it's, like, even smaller, we're starting to see it adopted by LG, Motorola and others—hopefully this is the last time they all switch power adapters on us, till wireless power makes adapters unnecessary. Update: Better pic via Mobile Burn.

IEEE 1394 (aka FireWire) An alternative to USB, Apple popularized the IEEE 1394 interface as FireWire (Sony called it i.LINK). You're probably most familiar with it on a digital camcorder (or an old school iPod), since it's really speedy for data transfers. You're looking at the four- and six-pin versions of FireWire 400. The six-pin version delivers power, the four-pin version (originally favored by Sony) doesn't.

FireWire 800 A revised, faster version of FireWire introduced in 2003, it doesn't use the same connectors as the original, making it rare for non pros—and an unnecessary pain the ass.

RJ45 The kind of plug you're used to seeing on the end of a Category 5, Cat5 enhanced or Cat6 (commonly known as Ethernet) cable, which is plugged into your router or computer's networking port. Cat5e is an update to Cat5 that supports faster Gigabit Ethernet. Cat6 is the next-gen standard that will handle speeds twice as fast as Cat5e, and has stricter rules about noise and crosstalk. Interestingly, the most recently approved IEEE 1394 spec (aka FireWire S800T) uses RJ45 connectors as well.

eSATA External Serial ATA is a branch off of the Serial ATA interface that connects your hard drive to your computer if it was put together in the last couple of years. As you can guess from the name, the difference is it's an external port, but it delivers the same insane data transfer speeds as the hookup to your hard drive. Faster than USB or FireWire, it's basically for external hard drives for quicker data transfers. You'll be seeing it more as more laptops include a port for it, usually one that can also be used with USB. There's even talk of bus-powered eSATA coming in the next year or two.

HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface is another one of those "it'll connect everything except all the stuff it doesn't" deals, but for high-definition audio and video. It basically replaces DVI (see below) plus S-Video and all that other analog crap. Laptops, desktops and even high-end cameras and other gadgets are getting HDMI. Besides fat bandwidth, another benefit is control: The Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) profile already lets machines send commands to other products over HDMI—that or something like it could be very useful in the PC space, too.

DVI The digital successor to VGA, Digital Visual Interface is a video connection you'll most likely see dealing with computers or computer monitors, at least until they're all replaced by HDMI. Older HDTVs have DVI ports too. It can have a few different pin arrangements, depending on whether it carries a digital (DVI-D) or analog (DVI-A) signal or both (DVI-I, for integrated). The analog deal on some types is to make them easy to adapt for use with a VGA monitor, but it's less and less noteworthy. There's also a dual-link version that carries more data for high-res displays. These are helpfully depicted at Wikipedia.

Mini and Micro DVI are dumb, shrunken, Apple-only versions of DVI. Why dumb? Because they're essentially proprietary formats. HDMI will make them obsolete before long.

DisplayPort is the newest video interface on the block, and its plane of existence is basically in the computer-to-monitor realm only. It's not even close to mainstream yet, but Dell is backing it, among others, so you might wanna know it. It can carry a whole lot of data, but it's got DRM built into the spec, so it's a double-edged sword. Update: Swapped pic out with a better one.

That's enough cable to strangle most of California, but by all means feel free to add in your own cable trivia down in the comments.

Something you still wanna know? Send any questions about cables, plugs, holes, bird or bees to tips@gizmodo.com, with "Giz Explains" in the subject line.

D-Link doesn't have images of this thing, so I made my own interpretation of what it looks like. We've got actual pictures! See my original interpretation below. [D-Link]

Here's the beef on the $99 Superdrive:

• Slot-loading
• Built-in short USB cord
• Works with DVD±R DL, DVD±RW, CD-R/RW
• Slightly bigger than a CD case at 5.47 x 5.47 x 0.67 inches
• 1.09 lbs

• RJ-45 socket for 10/100BASE-T Ethernet
• Built-in 4.6 inch USB cord
• Bus-powered USB 2.0

The robomutt comes with 2GB of built-in flash memory, probably for scripts and pictures. With Windows XP and its b/g wireless capabilities, we're hoping it can just toss its snaps to Windows-based PCs around the house. What you might end up with is a cool gallery of your life as seen by your RobuDOG. That also means it will be able to use Windows programs geared toward robots, like Microsoft's Robotics Studio.

The RobuDOG uses a 500MHz AMD Geode LX800 processor, 512 MB of internal RAM, both an Ethernet and a USB port, and a speaker allowing it to bark. Developed in France, the RobuDOG is going to cost around 3,200 Euros, so expect to pay upwards of $4,400 to get it in the States. [WindowsForDevices via GearLog]