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The USB paradox is one of the most familiar experiences of the digital age. Every time you try to plug in a USB cord, it seems like you always get it wrong on the first try. It doesn't matter how much attention you pay to the plug or the cord or the icons on the cord. It's always wrong.
And there's a good reason for that! In an interview published Thursday by DesignNews, Intel's Ajay Bhatt spoke at length about why the ubiquitous technology has been so infuriating for so long. Bhatt was a member of the team that developed USB technology. Even at the start of development, they knew that making the connector flippable would be a better user experience in the long run. But doing so would require twice the wiring and more circuitry, which would increase costs.
"If you have a lot of cost up front for an unproven technology it might not take off. So that was our fear. You have to be really cost conscious when you start out," Bhatt said.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday December 03 2017, @11:38AM (15 children)
There would have been a simple solution tho, some form of marking on one side of the connector for this side is "up", would probably work better at laptops since the connectors are usually positioned sideways compared to most, or a lot of, modern towers where they are positioned in a rotated position but still having a mark on one side of the contact really helps. If there isn't something on the side of the USB memory/contact or whatever I'll just draw one on. Saves me from the usual trying to stick things in the wrong way.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03 2017, @11:44AM
Or color or shape... they were just incompetent and lazy. Business as usual.
(Score: 5, Informative) by TheRaven on Sunday December 03 2017, @12:42PM (12 children)
They have this. Any certified USB cable has the USB logo on the side that is up. Which doesn't help much when plugging it into a port on the back of a vertical computer and having to figure out which way is up from the perspective of the socket.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by looorg on Sunday December 03 2017, @12:54PM (1 child)
Some of them have that. Some have a beveled logo or symbol, that really helps. Some have painted something on which doesn't help as much, certainly not very much in the situation you describe. A lot of cables and devices (sticks and such) do not have anything. So it's one of those things that they should have but quite often does not have. Sadly.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Monday December 04 2017, @02:21AM
Fine for the plug. Doesn't help if you can't see the port and are groping around by feel. And why are ports on the front of the case invariably upsidedown, so if the USB device has its own LED, it points at the floor??
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Sunday December 03 2017, @04:07PM (7 children)
The port on the computer isn't always the same way up.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2, Disagree) by Whoever on Sunday December 03 2017, @04:14PM (6 children)
Actually, it is.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03 2017, @05:11PM
Nope, the back of my machine has ports in three different directions 4 vertical, and two horizontal off the motherboard, and two more horizontal, but upside down ports off an LP-PCIe card, which also connects to the front panel ports.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Sunday December 03 2017, @05:50PM (2 children)
The ports built in to the front of my case are upside down.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 04 2017, @04:16AM (1 child)
"You're holding it wrong."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 04 2017, @06:43AM
Front plugs are normally a cable run to a patch plug. The patch plug's normally symmetrically mounted. Whoever assembled had probably 0 restriction.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 03 2017, @09:30PM (1 child)
Looks like you haven't used much USB hardware in your life. I've seen ports in all 4 orientations. It all depends on the orientation of the underlying circuit board and the connector used.
I remember when PCI first came out, I wondered why all the connectors were upside down. The reason is, that PCI cards should have the components mounted on the underside of the card in a tower case, so the industry standard connectors are upside down compared to ISA cards.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Monday December 04 2017, @01:54PM
Additionally, this meant that a PCI and ISA slot could share the same back panel position, so that you had some flexibility in how many ISA/PCI cards you used in a motherboard.
(Score: 1) by Gertlex on Sunday December 03 2017, @04:12PM
But really, for any desktop of reasonable size, based on every motherboard's connector panel I've seen, the "bottom" of the usb connector is almost certainly closer to the edge of the case.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday December 03 2017, @10:20PM
You are holding your computer wrong
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Sunday December 03 2017, @05:08PM
The split in the shield is always on the bottom, as far as I can tell. And the logo should always be on top.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk