USB is just too fiddly
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
Michael Martin wrote:
closely followed by Josh Gray,
Almost true :) . I'm pretty sure Josh left first. I'm kinda curious whether your recollection was affected by the dozen odd beers, or by the fact that you'd only slept 2-3 hours ;P
Michael Martin wrote:
kept me company for another two hours and several beers
Everyone knows that *real* men have nothing more important in their lives than beer ;) . The other two probably had unimportant crap to attend to like, who knows, girlfriends.. work.. dinner.. :doh:
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza
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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
Ahhhhh of course - I just need the lights on! Oh, and a mirror. And a bit of understanding of the careful design that went into the dongle design by a team of super-nerds whose job description didn't include the words "intuitive" and "usable". :doh: :-D
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza
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Yes! The orientation is only part of it, even in the right orientation it's still sometimes hard to plug it in! Annoys me a lot.
My point exactly - and seems to be worse depending on the PC case design. And the problem is that when it's hard to plug in you assume it needs to be turned around. But then still can't get it in :mad:. Unhooking someone's bra strap in the dark is easier than this! :)
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza
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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
Buy a saitek eclipse keyboard then. It's backlit so even hunt and peckers can use it at night. For the rest of us, the lighting can be turned off (at least in v2 don't have a v1) and it's the closest thing I've found to the feel of a mid90s membrane type keyboard.
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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The device detection can be fiddly too. It's always amusing when you move a device to a different port and Windows "rediscovers" it. And then there's the scenario where the device locks up but moving it to another port magically gets it working. And have you ever looked at the USB protocol? Ewww. After reading the protocol, I threw out my USB hubs. This is not something where you want to hang a lot of devices on one controller. Gotta love the master channel "hey all, I'm here, oops, just stepped on somebody else, hey all, I'm HERE, oops." Or the polling process for regular data "hey dude, it's your turn to send something". "Oh cool, ooh, wait a sec, hold on, yup, coming up, here it is...splat!!!" :rolleyes: Marc
--- Latest book review --- Marc Clifton's latest book "USB explained in plain English" is an absolute gem, and belongs on everyone's shelves. Not just programmers - but nuns, horse trainers and microbiologists as well. Of particular interest is chapter 6 titled "Coming up, here it is...splat!" which goes on to explain the intricacies of the polling process using nice simple surfer lingo. -------------------------
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza
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Does anyone have problems plugging in their headsets or speakers into a socket smaller than a USB connector? :confused: Any question on the orientation? Can you do it without looking? USB connector design sucks. 'nough said. :rose:
Gary
Actually I'm not too happy with audio plugs either! :mad: Nahhh, just kidding :)
"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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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.
I see, but it isn't plausible changing a standard that has such a solid base and it is widely used all over the world just for comfort purposes, it is just not gonna happen, what would happen to all divices based on USB case another port is adopted, everyone would have to by adapters to fit their current devices. Also who would build a different kind of port if nobody is gonna use. It would be built only if USB became obsolete and bigger needs were arrising. So USB design improvements will probably only be accounted when a whole new kind of port gets designed.
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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.
SimulationofSai wrote:
most USB wires have the USB symbol
But not all. I have a flash drive that has no difference of any kind from side to side. So I put a small yellow smiley face sticker ":)" on the side where the USB symbol should be.
BDF A learned fool is more a fool than an ignorant fool. -- Moliere
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I see, but it isn't plausible changing a standard that has such a solid base and it is widely used all over the world just for comfort purposes, it is just not gonna happen, what would happen to all divices based on USB case another port is adopted, everyone would have to by adapters to fit their current devices. Also who would build a different kind of port if nobody is gonna use. It would be built only if USB became obsolete and bigger needs were arrising. So USB design improvements will probably only be accounted when a whole new kind of port gets designed.
Yep, you're right. But I'd even be happy if the plug part had holes on one side only (it's still a bit of a mystery to me exactly what they're for anyway - and why BOTH sides?). But one side only, and standardize it so they always have to face left or upwards of the socket.
"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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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
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Buy a saitek eclipse keyboard then. It's backlit so even hunt and peckers can use it at night. For the rest of us, the lighting can be turned off (at least in v2 don't have a v1) and it's the closest thing I've found to the feel of a mid90s membrane type keyboard.
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
Oh boy. :-\ Get one of these and my code will now work. Never knew how you geniuses achieve that level of perfection! :| Silly me, new keyboard (or light) is all that's needed. :-D Any suggestions as to how to keep the cats off the keyboard so I can see the backlit keys?
Gary
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dept1 wrote:
if you point the pitchfork up
Pitchfork? What pitchfork? I know what you mean, but the three devices I am looking at do not have the pitchfork symbol. Nothing. Nada. This leaves either a) trial and error, or better named error then trial and error and retrial, or b) look in the end, then look at the PC connector, stick it in then revert back to (a). :)
Gary
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Actually I'm not too happy with audio plugs either! :mad: Nahhh, just kidding :)
"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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Is FireWire any better?
ROFLOLMFAO
[QUOTE]Is FireWire any better?[/QUOTE] No. 4-pin connector is too delicate for even one-time use -- bump the inserted cable and the connector becomes unreliable. 9-pin is pretty much just a rectangle from the outside like USB. 6-pin has non-rectangular outside. But, in all cases, one still needs to look at the cable to orient it before inserting, same as with USB. USB cables and devices usually have a logo or brand on their top side. If not, look at the conenctor and the thin side goes up: top |------------| | | |============| |------------| Some devices and computers violated spec and resist use together -- I've had to file excess plastic off one flash drive to get it to fit into the recessed port on my laptop. FYI, if using 1394b with XP, make sure to get the updated driver from MS that allows use of full bandwidth. They refuse to make it part of any service pack.
patbob