Someday we'll look back and laugh (or cry) at our early USB struggles.
  • sanguine_artichoke@midwest.socialEnglish
    531·
    1 year ago

    the decision was made to go with a design that, in theory, would give users a 50/50 chance of plugging it in correctly

    How could it be less than that? If it was triangular?

    • ccunning@lemmy.worldEnglish
      27·
      1 year ago

      The PS2 (and AT) connectors keyboards and mice were largely using before USB were round…

      Arguably still better though because you could just rotate the plug until it went in instead of flipping it back and forth 5 times to get it to go in. And they also had more reliable indication for orientation.

      • TimeSquirrel@kbin.social
        22·
        1 year ago

        you could just rotate the plug until it went in

        That was a good way to twist and bend up all the pins. Don’t you remember how fragile they were?

        • ccunning@lemmy.worldEnglish
          6·
          1 year ago

          I meant to add a warning saying I may have bent a few pins that way 😅

          Twist gently…

          😳

      • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        They still are widely used. There are certain things that you can’t do on some motherboards without a PS2 device.

    • brsrklf@jlai.luEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      You know all the jokes about getting usb’s orientation right on first try, failing to push it in and trying the other way? Yeah, it was already worse than 50/50.

      Honestly that connector always felt like shit. A tiny, easily identifiable mark/notch/whatever on both plug and port would have made it a lot better, even if it was still non-reversible.