USB inventor admits that the plugs are annoying

boing
83

I see you’ve played connector-spoony before.

2 Likes
84

I’ve seen ram installed backwards, DDR1, 2, and 3…on multiple occasions.

2 Likes
85

… or serial/RS-232/comm ports…

86

Yes! Could USB have been by a 4-circuit 1/8" TRRS (Tip Ring1 Ring2 Sleeve, like the one that’s on headphones with a built-in micrphone). Very well known and debugged connector. Smallers than USB. Might even be able to use same port for good old analog LR stereo audio, or even mono, if that’s your thing.

Maybe. I’m not an engineer. But we’re talking about the same metal-on-metal sliding, spring-loaded contacts, dammit!

87

While completely proprietary and non-standard, TRRS to USB adapters are actually a thing.

(I’ve seen them used in very space constrained places like old digital cameras and such before smaller connectors like mini and micro USB became commonplace.)

88

Standards are way more durable than almost anyone realizes/admits.

https://kk.org/thetechnium/chosen-inevitab/

89

Yeah, just saying, for the historical record, USB was SO MUCH LESS annoying then the state things were before. They clearly aren’t perfect. I think the feeling and orienting took as much time as trying the USB plug in each orientation a time or two, esp if you had to figure out, blind, which plug was which. But yeah if they had some key that you could easily see and feel, like a clipped corner or something, they would be even better.

1 Like
90

In that case, it was the Intel team’s first try at designing a connector that would eventually become an industry standard. That much is apparent from the blunder that caused this post to exist.

There already existed many different connectors that had solved the backwards-insertion problem. These folks could have taken a cue from the humble D-Sub connector that USB was intended to replace. I observe that every USB connector since then has been either D-shaped or reversible.

1 Like
91

yeah those phone plugs were great, untill they wern’t.

92

Just a thought…I wonder which is higher, failed placement rate for USB dongles, or teenage male dongles?

93

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.