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USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (www.pcgamer.com)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 52 points 3 years ago (12 children)

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?

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  • [–] 48 points 3 years ago (5 children)

    Circular.

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  • [–] 27 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years 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.

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