this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (www.pcgamer.com)
submitted 2 years ago by ooli@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] MeanEYE@lemmy.world 88 points 2 years ago (19 children)

I can bet you it's incompetence. They failed upwards. Sure, protocol is great and universal, but connector is atrocious and it has nothing to do with cost. Few points in favor of this hypothesis:

  1. Plastic inside of the connector was initially black. Why chose hard to see color? Go with something easier to see;
  2. Connector is perfectly rectangular and only distinguishing feature they made hard to see. Don't make ti symmetrical if it's not reversible, basic design principle;
  3. Connector is perfectly rectangular making it difficult to insert. There's a reason why most connectors have rounded corners, they are self-correcting, even TypeC does this;
  4. They made various different connector types but pushed for the only one with these issues. No one ever had doubts how type B or mini B or micro B go in.
[–] sachabe@lemmy.world 39 points 2 years ago (6 children)

Also a male USB 2 plug fits perfectly into a RJ45 slot :-/ In my days of tech support, I've seen multiple people plugging their USB printer cable into the network slot of their computer and it's a perfect fit so they were always convinced they didn't do anything wrong... That's clearly a design flaw while all other connectors have distinct sizes.

[–] MeanEYE@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Never heard of people plugging USB into LAN, but now that you mention it they are the same size. Luckily all the contacts are shielded.

[–] chatokun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 years ago

I've done it myself when feeling the back of a pc and trying to get away without looking. I've been doing IT support since high school.

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