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xkcd 927 - How Standards Proliferate
(See: A/C chargers, character encodings, instant messaging, etc.)
Situation: There are 14 competing standards.
Cueball and Ponytail stand facing each other:
Cueball: 14?! Ridiculous! We need to develop one universal standard that covers everyone’s use cases.
Ponytail: Yeah!
Soon: Situation: we did it our standard beat all the other ones and is universal yay :D
The suspiciously cheap pile of out of spec USB-C cables (only usb 2 or can only transfer power):
USB c is the physical spec and none of those connectors you have are out of date. Every single one is still perfectly to spec and up to date
The electrical spec they use is out of date, but that has literally nothing to do with the physical one.
Which honestly almost makes the entire problem worse…
which… is all you need 90% of the time, lol.
I use USBC most often for PD charging or for connecting my laptop to a secondary display
TBF, charge-only USB-C cables are great for data security when needing to charge your device from a public / untrusted port.
I thought USB 2.0 Type C cables were covered by the spec also, but I honestly have no idea.
The issue with charge-only USB cables (in my eyes) is there’s no distinguishing color coding or symbol on the connector to easily distinguish them from normal data cables (unlike USB-A cable norms). The same applies for USB-2 compatibility - the inclusion of USB 2 connectors as an option is nice, but because they aren’t distinguished in form factor, color coding, or labelling, you get a lot of cables that “trick” you into thinking they are more capable than they are.
I’ve had a lot of bad experience with misrepresented cables through my repair and IT work in the past, so I’m a bit frustrated is all (Have to test every goddamn cable that I come across before serious usage).
Oh, this 100%!
I ended up buying a cable tester in order to sort, identify and validate the rats nest of USB C cables we’ve accumulated.
Once identified, I use a little bit of coloured electrical tape around one end to keep them categorised. I originally wanted to use silicone o-rings or mini clips for this purpose - but didn’t have any luck finding something suitable.
It shouldn’t have to be like this, manufacturers should clearly label both transfer and power delivery capabilities on the cables themselves.
For this reason alone, I’d give plenty of kudos to LTT for doing just this with their recently launched line of True Spec cables. Every cable moving forward should be produced to this same standard.
I recently did the same and sorted my cable clutter. What a drag!
Personally I don’t blame USB-C as a standard - despite how everyone seems to dump on it constantly. I consider it mainly a problem of unverified marketplaces.
Anyone can sell anything on Amazon or eBay claiming to be something it isn’t, and cables are rife in this group specifically because it’s almost impossible for the average consumer to verify the claims. So of course unscrupulous sellers mercilessly exploit this to sell absolute crap posing as something quality.
Sounds weird, but these days I am increasingly buying a surprising amount of my electrical and electronic stuff from IKEA.
IKEA sell their own products (or in the case of electronics, likely have them manufactured directly for them to a known spec) and so they have a lot more control on the supply chain. They also have more to lose if their products don’t perform as expected, because they have direct responsibility.
So yeah, if I want an extension lead that won’t burn my house down or a cable I can trust to do what it should, I’m finding IKEA a safe bet.
I’ve heard good things about IKEA electronics and white-goods also; for instance their LADDA batteries are apparently Eneloops, their dishwashers are/were Bosch, and they partnered with Sonos for their speakers also.
Costco apparently does quite similar with their Kirkland own-brand products - but at least here in Australia they haven’t offered (m)any electronics yet.
“one standard”
Nintendo…
But at least they are compatible with high spec ports.
Situation after: there is a single universal standard that everybody adopts, it’s divided in 3 dimensions of 24 incompatible sub-standards everybody mashes at random.
It’s more like we all agreed on one physical standard. Cool!
Now the problem is that standard doesn’t actually say what should go on the inside and how it should all be wired up.
So we have entirely divorced the physical and electrical aspects.
We won half the battle and somehow it made everything worse…
i really do not understand why people keep saying it’s worse, it’s very very obviously so much better than it has ever been.
It’s not difficult to understand, it’s like how you have to put larger pipes in the wall if you want more water from the faucet. Obviously we can’t just shove huge pipes everywhere!Well, 6 physical substandards, with 3 in “current usage” and 3 “deprecated” ones…
After the EU pretty much forced it, sure. Apple was straight up told to fuck all the way off if they didn’t get their shit together and put USB-C onto their devices.
And after all that it’s still a mess of different standards and capabilities, plus weird compatibility issues. Douche bags like Nintendo fucking with it on purpose to push out 3rd party hardware.
Apple was straight up told to fuck all the way off if they didn’t get their shit together and put USB-C onto their devices.
Apple was almost certainly going to do it fairly soon anyway.
Starting 2015, any new Macbook chassis’ (2015 Macbook, 2016 Macbook Pro, 2018 Macbook Air) only had USB-C ports and 3.5mm jack. Took heavy criticism from users for them to walk back on this later and add other useful ports back. For a while there, Apple users were THE driving force behind USB-C dongles being designed and manufactured for computer usage (obviously phones already have USB-C).
The Lightning port came with a promise of “we won’t change ports for 10 years” after they moved away from 30 pin. The EU enforcing USB-C came into effect riiight as the 10 year promise expired. They started selling Lightning based iPhones in 2012 and the last new model with Lightning came out in 2022.
That being said, I’m still grateful that the EU mandated it. Not just because of Apple though. Because of all kinds of devices that are NOT smartphones. Barrel jacks, Micro USB, etc, should all become obsolete now.
a while back i bought a small portable vacuum cleaner, and it’s so fucking nice that it finally has USB-C.
No more dedicated cables, i can just fucking keep an extra charging cable at the other end of my room and plug stuff in there, and in a pinch i can also use my phone charging cable.It really is like we’ve finally emerged from a seemingly endless fog, and all of a sudden we can actually see more than 10 meters in front of us. How the fuck did we just accept the fog??
Chloe!!! chloechloechloe!! <3<3 heyhi dearest Chloe ~ ~ ~ ~ 🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕💖🧚♀️🌌🕯️🍜🍨🪽🌠🧚♀️🌌
haiiiiii maria!!! 🧡💖🧡💖🧡💖
ummm… Chloe?.. u… u have - u have a great art style.
like -… gosh - the combo of the new pfp and the caerit and and – the vibe u give us… its great, i luv in (and am kindsa envious cuz I really like it a lot n i also want an art style)
like…,… u really have a specific thing about u, like… a real solid character or vibe. a vibe of I woke up 1PM and will now drink tea kinda vibe maybe…
or a its snowing so of course I will go outside kinda vibe… u managed to make ur profile feel like a real representation… and i admire that… <3
thank uuu <3
im sorry to disappoint u but… it’s not my art style, i don’t know how to draw. i made my new pfp (and the old one too) using picrew :3 (if u don’t know, it’s an avatar maker basically, you pick stuff like your hair style, skin color, head accessories…)
if ur curious, the one i used for this pfp is this one
but your art style is really cute too, don’t sell yourself short you’re amazing :3
but I still like ur vibe! the - the carrot gives me such… such a specific kind of… vibe from u, a vibe a like.
and just - the overall style u have established I… its - its the composition and stuff and I just… I really like it, I like the Chloe i see and i get excited every time I see her---- cuz im like
yassss its chloe🥕🥕🥕🥕🧚♀️💖🌌🕯️🌠🌊🪽🐚🍨and I imagine what adventures u go on and what ur life is like and if u like carrot cake or not----- like… mygosh…how do I put this… u provide a kind of texture I miss seeing from others. u r not smooth. but like - that’s good!!! ur a much more fun texture to experience!!! u provide an experience not many people can and I’m happy to.,. be able to witness u…okay this does sound weird I gotta be honest but - I hope u kno what I mean.,… (I don’t mean it in a weird way…,… btw)
Bet
