This miniature ethernet cable fad raises so many questions
It began on the ubiquiti subreddit, and is now invading Twitter with its lilliputian network connectors.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Right now, reddit users are competing to make the world’s shortest ethernet cable for reasons I can’t quite understand. I mean, I’m all for cable management solutions but… could this be going too far?
The /r/ubiquiti subreddit has been going back and forth the last few days on who can make the shortest ethernet cable and it’s been seriously cracking me up. pic.twitter.com/OJqsT5RnElFebruary 14, 2022
The fad was brought to our attention through a recent tweet from angel investor and ‘recovering programmer,’ Zach Holman in which they highlight some of the more impressive entries.
So farthe shortestI’ve spotted comes in at a minuscule 13mm, with the original post entitled “We were so preoccupied with whether or not we could we didn’t stop to think if we should.”
The 13mm connector does indeed work, asrickyh7 proves in a subsequent postwith a testing video. Commenters called for proof, and they got it.
The fad has even been raising philosophical questions, such as “If a highly minute ethernet cable appears capable of fulfilling the various technical functions of an ethernet cable but is too tiny to connect any two know devices, is it still an ethernet cable?” WASDmatter getting down to the deep themes on Twitter, there.
Best CPU for gaming: the top chips from Intel and AMDBest graphics card: your perfect pixel-pusher awaitsBest SSD for gaming: get into the game ahead of the rest
mnemonicovrload came back with a party-pooping reply, noting that “None of these are technically Ethernet cables because they don’t meet the spec. There’s a minimum length of 18” in the specification, because of excessive reflections iirc."
It’s a fair point, but let them have their fun. Making tiny versions of things is always encouraged here at PC Gamer, from itty bittyPCs for console gaming, right up to jamming some parts into thebest mini ITX case.
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Still, I’m not sure I’d like to try and fish one of these teeny connectors out the back of my machine, tweezers in hand.
Screw sports, Katie would rather watch Intel, AMD and Nvidia go at it. Having been obsessed with computers and graphics for three long decades, she took Game Art and Design up to Masters level at uni, and has been rambling about games, tech and science—rather sarcastically—for four years since. She can be found admiring technological advancements, scrambling for scintillating Raspberry Pi projects, preaching cybersecurity awareness, sighing over semiconductors, and gawping at the latest GPU upgrades. Right now she’s waiting patiently for her chance to upload her consciousness into the cloud.
Hackers hijack over 16,000 TP-Link network devices, creating a big ol' botnet that’s absolutely slamming Microsoft Azure accounts
Netgear Nighthawk RS300 review
How to get the best ending to Dragon Age: The Veilguard—or the worst, if you’re curious
