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  3. Why is it called plug and play??

Why is it called plug and play??

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Lounge
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  • E ed welch

    I always wonder why they called it "plug and play". If you really want to be accurate it should be "plug, install drivers, then unplug and plug again, then reboot, then open device manager and fiddle around, then reboot again, reinstall drivers and finally play"

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    peterchen
    wrote on last edited by
    #31

    Yeah, but marketing couldn't remember that slogan, they always forgot the reboot. And you know what happens then... so "install drivers, then unplug and plug again, then reboot, then open device manager and fiddle around, then reboot again, reinstall drivers and finally play" became shortened to "play".


    We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
    My first real C# project | Linkify!|FoldWithUs! | sighist

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    • S Shog9 0

      It's all relative. Sure, it ain't nearly as easy as what it purports to be, especially the cheap stuff. But... it's been almost a decade since i last had to worry about IRQs, or choose between a working sound card and a CPU-intensive parallel port driver. So by comparison, it's almost fun... :rolleyes:

      every night, i kneel at the foot of my bed and thank the Great Overseeing Politicians for protecting my freedoms by reducing their number, as if they were deer in a state park. -- Chris Losinger, Online Poker Players?

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      peterchen
      wrote on last edited by
      #32

      You are not bullshitting me with your technobabble, old man. And learn to spell "ICQ"!


      We are a big screwed up dysfunctional psychotic happy family - some more screwed up, others more happy, but everybody's psychotic joint venture definition of CP
      My first real C# project | Linkify!|FoldWithUs! | sighist

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      • L leckey 0

        Then feel free to go away forever.

        http://craptasticnation.blogspot.com/[^]

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        vurso786
        wrote on last edited by
        #33

        Plug n Pray more like, and what about UPnP, everyone I know disables this service the first moment they start up a new build of Win-doh!

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        • S Shog9 0

          "That's an amazing story!"

          every night, i kneel at the foot of my bed and thank the Great Overseeing Politicians for protecting my freedoms by reducing their number, as if they were deer in a state park. -- Chris Losinger, Online Poker Players?

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          Jorgen Sigvardsson
          wrote on last edited by
          #34

          But in DMX language "Dude!!! That's the shit!!111"

          -- Kein Mitleid Für Die Mehrheit

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          • E ed welch

            I always wonder why they called it "plug and play". If you really want to be accurate it should be "plug, install drivers, then unplug and plug again, then reboot, then open device manager and fiddle around, then reboot again, reinstall drivers and finally play"

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            Blekk
            wrote on last edited by
            #35

            From the plug and play hardware I use it seems pretty straight forward. Webcam Keyboard Mouse Speakers Just plug them in, install drivers and then it works, never had to reboot after installing drivers. And wasn't it originally called that for mice and keyboards because you didn't have to shut down then plug your mouse/keyboard into the serial port and then boot up, you could just attach it once the OS had loaded up? I may be completely wrong by the way.

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            • E ed welch

              I always wonder why they called it "plug and play". If you really want to be accurate it should be "plug, install drivers, then unplug and plug again, then reboot, then open device manager and fiddle around, then reboot again, reinstall drivers and finally play"

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              Gary Wheeler
              wrote on last edited by
              #36

              Have you ever written a driver installation app? It's practically impossible to do it correctly, and you certainly can't do it based solely on the help in the Windows Driver Kit. Since I've had to write several, I've had a lot more sympathy. You get the feeling the programmers in the Microsoft Drivers group are all reavers[^].


              Software Zen: delete this;

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              • C code frog 0

                I thought it was called "Plug & Pray".:laugh:

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                X site
                wrote on last edited by
                #37

                No no you got it wrong. it is call, Plug n' Rape

                A Bug is not all bad.

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                • E ed welch

                  I always wonder why they called it "plug and play". If you really want to be accurate it should be "plug, install drivers, then unplug and plug again, then reboot, then open device manager and fiddle around, then reboot again, reinstall drivers and finally play"

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                  deltalmg
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #38

                  It was originally plug and pray, but then the democrates shot it down as religiously biased. Plug and pray to an unspecified diety of your choosing, if you believe in a deity, and praying is something he/she/it likes was too long.

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                  • E ed welch

                    I always wonder why they called it "plug and play". If you really want to be accurate it should be "plug, install drivers, then unplug and plug again, then reboot, then open device manager and fiddle around, then reboot again, reinstall drivers and finally play"

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                    harlam357
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #39

                    It's called Plug & Play because no one has to manually configure hex addresses and IRQs anymore. Of course in those days a device was a device and didn't need drivers to interact with a bloated OS.

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                    • H harlam357

                      It's called Plug & Play because no one has to manually configure hex addresses and IRQs anymore. Of course in those days a device was a device and didn't need drivers to interact with a bloated OS.

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                      Dan Neely
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #40

                      Instead every application had to write all the data being sent to the device to magic number locations in memory in a format proprietary to the brand of the device. X|

                      -- If you view money as inherently evil, I view it as my duty to assist in making you more virtuous.

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                      • E ed welch

                        I always wonder why they called it "plug and play". If you really want to be accurate it should be "plug, install drivers, then unplug and plug again, then reboot, then open device manager and fiddle around, then reboot again, reinstall drivers and finally play"

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                        Momony
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #41

                        Well, privately, it is called plug and pray. But they can't use the word pray in public because then ACLU would demand a separation of church and state. Then they were going to name it plug and prey in honor of the potential security violations possible when adding a new hardware device to the system. So they finally decided on plug and play. As in, plug it in, then go play with something else while you wait for driver patches from the manufacturer. Momony (as in I wish I had some mo money).

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                        • E ed welch

                          I always wonder why they called it "plug and play". If you really want to be accurate it should be "plug, install drivers, then unplug and plug again, then reboot, then open device manager and fiddle around, then reboot again, reinstall drivers and finally play"

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                          MattPenner
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #42

                          Well, let's see. Plug & Play came with Windows 95. Finally in Windows XP I can plug in my USB memory stick and use it without a hitch. Only 20,000 more devices to go I guess. Maybe by the time Windows 2025 comes out I'll be able to plug in my printer without any fuss. Matt Penner

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                          • L leckey 0

                            Then feel free to go away forever.

                            http://craptasticnation.blogspot.com/[^]

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                            Lost User
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #43

                            Hugs. XOXO

                            █▒▒▒▒▒██▒█▒██ █▒█████▒▒▒▒▒█ █▒██████▒█▒██ █▒█████▒▒▒▒▒█ █▒▒▒▒▒██▒█▒██

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                            • C CataclysmicQuantum

                              norm .net wrote:

                              Plug and piss about for an hour

                              What the hell is that? Do you call that humor? I find it appalling.

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                              Draugnar
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #44

                              Then go away and don't read "GLOBAL" forums. "Piss" is a very British way of saying "waste." In other words, we Americans might say "wasting the night away" where our brit friends would say "pissing the night away". Translated, his statement was effectively "Plug and wait around for an hour." And it was funny because he was able to use the alliteration of the P&P...

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                              • G Gary Wheeler

                                Have you ever written a driver installation app? It's practically impossible to do it correctly, and you certainly can't do it based solely on the help in the Windows Driver Kit. Since I've had to write several, I've had a lot more sympathy. You get the feeling the programmers in the Microsoft Drivers group are all reavers[^].


                                Software Zen: delete this;

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                                ed welch
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #45

                                Gary Wheeler wrote:

                                It's practically impossible to do it correctly, and you certainly can't do it based solely on the help in the Windows Driver Kit.

                                That make sense. Probably why so few drivers are signed. Always figured the system was at fault, not the driver developers

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                                • M MattPenner

                                  Well, let's see. Plug & Play came with Windows 95. Finally in Windows XP I can plug in my USB memory stick and use it without a hitch. Only 20,000 more devices to go I guess. Maybe by the time Windows 2025 comes out I'll be able to plug in my printer without any fuss. Matt Penner

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                                  twinscythe12332
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #46

                                  hmmm, most of the usb and such stuff I used to plug into my machine (XP) used to find drivers that made them at least a little functional... I'm on vista and my one keyboard doesn't work :rolleyes:

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                                  • E ed welch

                                    Gary Wheeler wrote:

                                    It's practically impossible to do it correctly, and you certainly can't do it based solely on the help in the Windows Driver Kit.

                                    That make sense. Probably why so few drivers are signed. Always figured the system was at fault, not the driver developers

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                                    Gary Wheeler
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #47

                                    The driver signing process is absurd. We looked at it. Every revision of a driver must be re-signed. Each iteration is expensive; we were quoted a figure in the thousands of $'s by Microsoft. The only benefit of having a signed driver is that it avoids one popup dialog during the installation process, and it puts your driver on the next round of Windows installation media. For a driver that will be distributed in the dozens, maybe even hundreds, we thought that was just a tad much.


                                    Software Zen: delete this;

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                                    • C CataclysmicQuantum

                                      norm .net wrote:

                                      Plug and piss about for an hour

                                      What the hell is that? Do you call that humor? I find it appalling.

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                                      W Balboos GHB
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #48

                                      Oh my gawd! I took him literlly! My office mates didn't seem to appreciate the increased moisture content of the office. Go figure.

                                      "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein

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                                      • G Gary Wheeler

                                        The driver signing process is absurd. We looked at it. Every revision of a driver must be re-signed. Each iteration is expensive; we were quoted a figure in the thousands of $'s by Microsoft. The only benefit of having a signed driver is that it avoids one popup dialog during the installation process, and it puts your driver on the next round of Windows installation media. For a driver that will be distributed in the dozens, maybe even hundreds, we thought that was just a tad much.


                                        Software Zen: delete this;

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                                        ed welch
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #49

                                        Yeah, I always thought that signing was a badly concieved idea - it discriminates against open software and small developers. On a side note, I found when installing bluetooth Windows XP would silently disable the drivers that I installed because they weren't signed.

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                                        • E ed welch

                                          I always wonder why they called it "plug and play". If you really want to be accurate it should be "plug, install drivers, then unplug and plug again, then reboot, then open device manager and fiddle around, then reboot again, reinstall drivers and finally play"

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                                          nilotic
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #50

                                          Haha ! How about a compromise like : PLUG N PLAY AROUND FOR HOURS TO GET IT WORKING ...? This isn't my idea -- I heard it before somewhere. To be honest, I've been very successful with all my devices and drivers for several years, since I got a mobo with integrated stuff, and XP. Ironic that I've never needed System Restore since moving from Win98 when I desperately needed it. The only bluescreen I get these days is when I eject a CD using the hardware's button itself rather than selecting File/Eject from iTunes. smug smug smuggity smug-smug

                                          Beef chimney. (You heard it here first.)

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