We all have them. Dongles I mean. Bluetooth and Wi-fi ones to control mouses, keyboards and other devices, security ones to allow to software work and specialist ones for communications such as Dragon Naturally Speaking. And no doubt many others.
The snag is they a) all look the same and b) rarely have any indication what their host device is. Some companies have realized this; Logitech for example now has a “unified” system letting one dongle cover multiple mice and keyboards. This is a massive bonus as when for example, I need to switch between rodents (see “Of Mice and Men” to see why I might need to do this) as I don’t have to switch dongles or keep them all plugged in at once.
But others are not as practical as this, so even with the Logitech system I have 7 dongles plugged into my powered USB hub.
But I found a simple and inexpensive fix to keep track of what is what and belongs to which. My first thought was to use a China pencil to mark items, but in small tight spaces such as allowed for writing on a dongle, this wasn’t practical. The answer was a packet of small stick on coloured stars that you can buy in any newsagency, Red Dot or Reject Shop for $1.50.
Simply place a, say, a red star on the dongle and another red star on the device that uses it. You get 8 different coloured stars to play with and 3 sheets of 8 of each so plenty to go around.
As Mr Aleksandr says, “Simples!”
Film, Video & Virtual reality 