USB is just too fiddly
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My biggest Gripe with USB - the plug design is quite substandard, especially with the goals they had in mind. Also I wouldn't mind symmetric plugs...
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In general, most USB wires have the USB symbol etched on top of the correct side. If you're using USB pen drives, it'll have the manufacturer name/logo etched on top of the correct side. This may not be true in all cases, but was true in all of the USB devices I've used so far.
SG Cause is effect concealed. Effect is cause revealed.
Many computers/devices have vertical USB sockets. This makes the matter even worse!
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Michael Martin wrote:
out drinking Maunder though gives no one bragging rights
So how many was that? 2? 3?
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Jim Crafton wrote:
So how many was that? 2? 3?
Two, then he took off like he shit himself, closely followed by Josh Gray, Ashley van Gerven then kept me company for another two hours and several beers.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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Does anyone else find connecting USB devices just a little bit annoying? Just by glancing at it you can't easily discern which way to plug it in - just trial and error. And sometimes you try and plug it in the right way, but it doesn't seem to fit right away (maybe it's just an inferior design on my PC case), so I assume it's the wrong way, and it should just be easy! Personally I find it way too fiddly, and I just find it hard to believe that by now they haven't come up with something that little bit more user-friendly for something so common.
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza
Ashley van Gerven wrote:
Forum: The Lounge Subject: USB is just too fiddly Sender: Ashley van Gerven Date: Thursday, January 31, 2008 4:59:00 PM Does anyone else find connecting USB devices just a little bit annoying? Just by glancing at it you can't easily discern which way to plug it in - just trial and error. And sometimes you try and plug it in the right way, but it doesn't seem to fit right away (maybe it's just an inferior design on my PC case), so I assume it's the wrong way, and it should just be easy! Personally I find it way too fiddly, and I just find it hard to believe that by now they haven't come up with something that little bit more user-friendly for something so common.
I think you should use the old serial ports, it is very easy to plug-in. Now if you are going to like how it works, now that is another matter.
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Except for the orientation, which could be improved, if only by markings, I've never experienced a problem.
Orientation is the only issue I've had at work, mostly due to my computer being under my desk -- and it is pitch black under there. I was using the hub on my monitor for things like thumb drives, but the hub now causes a BSOD on boot-up, so I have to leave it unplugged. Overall, though, USB 2.0 is just fine for me.
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Does anyone else find connecting USB devices just a little bit annoying? Just by glancing at it you can't easily discern which way to plug it in - just trial and error. And sometimes you try and plug it in the right way, but it doesn't seem to fit right away (maybe it's just an inferior design on my PC case), so I assume it's the wrong way, and it should just be easy! Personally I find it way too fiddly, and I just find it hard to believe that by now they haven't come up with something that little bit more user-friendly for something so common.
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza
No offence mate, but you seem REALLY bad with computers! I mean, how old are you? 15? 16? Seriously have you NOT NOTICED the "USB logo" on every plug on the "top" side of it? Once you notice it, you don't even have to look at the plug. You can feel it with your fingers! How hard can that be? Sheesh... P.S. Hope that helped 90% of you and you learned sth new :P
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My colleague has one. It can be pretty annoying being deep in a debugging session and then suddenly this plastic/foam missile flies in your ear. :laugh:
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-Atlas Shrugged, Ayn RandSounds like time to return fire. With a rock.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Does anyone else find connecting USB devices just a little bit annoying? Just by glancing at it you can't easily discern which way to plug it in - just trial and error. And sometimes you try and plug it in the right way, but it doesn't seem to fit right away (maybe it's just an inferior design on my PC case), so I assume it's the wrong way, and it should just be easy! Personally I find it way too fiddly, and I just find it hard to believe that by now they haven't come up with something that little bit more user-friendly for something so common.
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza
So what do you suggest? A cleverly adapted kind of induction over distances - like bluetooth, but both ways with power (com'n you use induction to charge your toothbrush, so why not, eh?) Or what, i kind of appreciate every manufacturer embracing USB, but you can't get those big plugs in the little sockets can you (no innuendo intended...!)
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Does anyone else find connecting USB devices just a little bit annoying? Just by glancing at it you can't easily discern which way to plug it in - just trial and error. And sometimes you try and plug it in the right way, but it doesn't seem to fit right away (maybe it's just an inferior design on my PC case), so I assume it's the wrong way, and it should just be easy! Personally I find it way too fiddly, and I just find it hard to believe that by now they haven't come up with something that little bit more user-friendly for something so common.
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza
I would agree that USB feels a bit finicky. Esp. removable disks. I always seem to have trouble when removing them..... I'm trying to add some functionality to an existing code project usb ejector to allow people to easily see which files on the device are open... (though I'm still trying to figure out open handles in managed code) Anyways more info: http://dave.thehorners.com/content/view/339/126/[^] THanks, Dave
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agree; I hope with symmetric you mean with respect to upside-down as well as inversion (gender-neutral)
symmetric = at least a cable with the same plugs on both ends. For "how you plug it in", either somethng that is obvious when grabbing the cable (host link is worst), or something that doesn't matter how it's plugged in.
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
blog: TDD - the Aha! | Linkify!| FoldWithUs! | sighist -
Ashley van Gerven wrote:
Does anyone else find connecting USB devices just a little bit annoying? Just by glancing at it you can't easily discern which way to plug it in - just trial and error. And sometimes you try and plug it in the right way, but it doesn't seem to fit right away (maybe it's just an inferior design on my PC case), so I assume it's the wrong way, and it should just be easy! Personally I find it way too fiddly, and I just find it hard to believe that by now they haven't come up with something that little bit more user-friendly for something so common.
Jesus Ashley, I'm way older than you, very short sighted, colour blind and drink like a fish and I have absolutely no problem getting any and all of my and my customers USB thingies plugged in. Maybe you need to start drinking more, you know it makes you smarter don't you? It kills off brain cells but it is all the slow ones that go first. You made a pretty good start at the Sydney get together (out drinking Maunder though gives no one bragging rights) so you just have to keep on keeping on.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
Michael Martin wrote:
I'm way older than you, very short sighted, colour blind and drink like a fish
There's the problem - you are already used to fiddling around with every A goes into B, so you can't tell "silly design" from "that five o'clock tremble".
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
blog: TDD - the Aha! | Linkify!| FoldWithUs! | sighist -
Does anyone else find connecting USB devices just a little bit annoying? Just by glancing at it you can't easily discern which way to plug it in - just trial and error. And sometimes you try and plug it in the right way, but it doesn't seem to fit right away (maybe it's just an inferior design on my PC case), so I assume it's the wrong way, and it should just be easy! Personally I find it way too fiddly, and I just find it hard to believe that by now they haven't come up with something that little bit more user-friendly for something so common.
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza
You're kidding, right? -CB :wtf:
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Is FireWire any better?
ROFLOLMFAO
yeah. USB was designed to be cheap enough to replace interfaces designed with 60's era tech for very cheap low end devices. As a result USB devices are mindless. Firewire was designed to actually be able to use its available bandwidth efficiently for expensive hardware, as a result both the devices and controllers have internal processing to manage toe bus intelligently. They also add about $10 per device/port at the consumer level vs USB.
Otherwise [Microsoft is] toast in the long term no matter how much money they've got. They would be already if the Linux community didn't have it's head so firmly up it's own command line buffer that it looks like taking 15 years to find the desktop. -- Matthew Faithfull
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No offence mate, but you seem REALLY bad with computers! I mean, how old are you? 15? 16? Seriously have you NOT NOTICED the "USB logo" on every plug on the "top" side of it? Once you notice it, you don't even have to look at the plug. You can feel it with your fingers! How hard can that be? Sheesh... P.S. Hope that helped 90% of you and you learned sth new :P
greg_shutdown wrote:
"USB logo" on every plug
That's a pretty broad claim. Guess you've had limited exposure.. And trying to feel for it takes longer than just trial and error. Thansk for the suggestions anyhow.
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza
CP article: SmartPager - a Flickr-style pager control with go-to-page popup layer.
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Yep, the orientation is my main issue. Especially when you're reaching behind your case and you can't really see what's going on.
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza
Ashley van Gerven wrote:
Especially when you're reaching behind your case and you can't really see what's going on.
Wow, this is not just a hardware problem. I have the same problem coding when the lights are out and I can't really see what's going on. Darn code never works right.
Gary
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So what do you suggest? A cleverly adapted kind of induction over distances - like bluetooth, but both ways with power (com'n you use induction to charge your toothbrush, so why not, eh?) Or what, i kind of appreciate every manufacturer embracing USB, but you can't get those big plugs in the little sockets can you (no innuendo intended...!)
UberScruffy wrote:
So what do you suggest?
Ideally a dongle that plugs in either direction (total reinvention, obviously not feasable). Or at least a standard that manufacturers adhere to whereby the two holes only appear on *one* side of the plug and always face up or left, depending on the orientation of the socket. Is there any reason why there need to be two wholes on BOTH *sides* of the actual plug part?
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza
CP article: SmartPager - a Flickr-style pager control with go-to-page popup layer.
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Ashley van Gerven wrote:
Forum: The Lounge Subject: USB is just too fiddly Sender: Ashley van Gerven Date: Thursday, January 31, 2008 4:59:00 PM Does anyone else find connecting USB devices just a little bit annoying? Just by glancing at it you can't easily discern which way to plug it in - just trial and error. And sometimes you try and plug it in the right way, but it doesn't seem to fit right away (maybe it's just an inferior design on my PC case), so I assume it's the wrong way, and it should just be easy! Personally I find it way too fiddly, and I just find it hard to believe that by now they haven't come up with something that little bit more user-friendly for something so common.
I think you should use the old serial ports, it is very easy to plug-in. Now if you are going to like how it works, now that is another matter.
Fabio Franco wrote:
serial ports
Fortunately we've come a long way. I'm just saying that there seems to be room for improvement - and yet USB has remained the standard for so long and is not about to change.
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza
CP article: SmartPager - a Flickr-style pager control with go-to-page popup layer.
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symmetric = at least a cable with the same plugs on both ends. For "how you plug it in", either somethng that is obvious when grabbing the cable (host link is worst), or something that doesn't matter how it's plugged in.
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
blog: TDD - the Aha! | Linkify!| FoldWithUs! | sighistpeterchen wrote:
the same plugs on both ends
Good idea! BTW do you have any idea why both sides of the plug part both have two holes? I mean if one side was easily distinguishable from the other they could standardize the direction.
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza
CP article: SmartPager - a Flickr-style pager control with go-to-page popup layer.
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You're kidding, right? -CB :wtf:
Nope, I'm serious. USB dongles are slightly unintuitive in my opinion. A smarter design would mean you would know which direction it should go without even thinking, or even better if it could be plugged in either way. And I should mention I particularly notice this "issue" on my home PC. I have a brand-name case with sockets on top, and they're just not as easy as some other sockets.
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza
CP article: SmartPager - a Flickr-style pager control with go-to-page popup layer.
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No offence mate, but you seem REALLY bad with computers! I mean, how old are you? 15? 16? Seriously have you NOT NOTICED the "USB logo" on every plug on the "top" side of it? Once you notice it, you don't even have to look at the plug. You can feel it with your fingers! How hard can that be? Sheesh... P.S. Hope that helped 90% of you and you learned sth new :P
greg_shutdown wrote:
the "USB logo" on every plug on the "top" side
How could I be so daft not to notice something so obvious? So, I now have two USB flash drives in front of me. Neither meets your "every plug" criteria, so you are wrong. No "USB logo" anywhere, not even "USB" printed on the device. No raised diagram that I think you are calling a "USB logo". Marketing has company and item logos on both sides (or is it top & bottom?) so you can't tell by looking. Cheapo companies tho, called SanDisk and Kingston. And "TOP" side, which side would that be? There is no standard orientation on a vertical slot. You are way off base and need to experience some real world. There is nothing to feel that is any different between the two sides (or is it top & bottom?), not on the connector. Regardless, even if the connector had a marking or touchy-feely logo, what is on the computer port that tells you which side is "top"? Nothing, that's what! I'm giving you a 1 for lack of research and comprehension. Besides, a 15 or 16 year old youngun would have less trouble than us old farts. :-O Make the port a trapezoid and us old farts can press our thumbs on the port behind the computer, look at the indentation on our thumb and know which way to plug it in. Current USB plug can't do that.
Gary