Chopping the plug is a very good idea, everybody should practice that. I once had a recurring problem with patch cables between workstations and drops going ba

Chopping the plug is a very good idea, everybody should practice that. I once had a recurring problem with patch cables between workstations and drops going bad, four or five in one area that had never had that failure rate before. Turns out, every time I replaced one somebody else would grab the "perfectly good" patch cable from the trash can beside my desk. God knows why people felt compelled to do that when they already had perfectly good wires, maybe they thought because it was a different colour it would make their PC faster... So, now every time I throw out a cable that I know to be defective, I always pop the ends off. No more "mystery" problems.