this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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[–] florge@feddit.uk 29 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Making USB reversible to begin with would have necessitated twice as many wires and twice as many circuits, and would have doubled the cost. Bhatt says his team was aware at the time of the frustration that a rectangular design could have, versus a round connector. But in an effort to keep it as cheap as possible, the decision was made to go with a design that, in theory, would give users a 50/50 chance of plugging it in correctly (you can up the odds by looking at the inside first, or identifying the logo).

[–] Valmond@lemmy.mindoki.com 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I was there when we had lots of "round" connectors like Din connectors but also lots of proprietary ones.

That was way worse, trying for the eleventh time to put it in correctly without looking as it's under/on the backside in a jungle of other cables, and not damaging any of the fragile 7 pins... gargl.

[–] Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yeah. I will always hate USB A and went a bit overboard on switching as much as possible to USB C the moment it was even kind of viable.

But... if USB A is the "This marvel movie is the worst movie ever made" of complaining, people would lose their god damned minds if they ever had to deal with ps/2 (a direct to dvd movie starring mel gibson) or some of the serial style plugs that were rectangular instead of trapezoidal and had asymmetrical pins (a recording of an improv group)

[–] florge@feddit.uk 2 points 1 year ago

Wow I'd forgotten about the old keyboard and mouse ports, they were such a faff to plug in without looking.

[–] topinambour_rex@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

would give users a 50/50 chance of plugging it in correctly

Sometimes it's more 33% or even 10%.

[–] vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 1 year ago

I have my doubts. I think that a jack-like (circular) connector wouldn't require twice as many wires and circuits. Actually absolutely the same amount. The connector itself would require more metal to make.

And the chance of correctly plugging that in would be like 99/100 (1/100 for breaking it).