Re: : when you build something foolproof...

I always thought that PS2 was a very good connector, until someone I sold a
IBM PS2 keyboard to a girl, and she tried to screw it on the connector. She
called me later saying the keyboard was non functional, and I got it back
with a badly twisted connectors. I straightened them up and got to her home
to connect the keyboard and show her that the keyboard was working fine.
I never thought I could put "physical keyboard installer" on my
curriculum...

Mauro
http://mauro.limeiratem.com - registered Linux User: 294521
Scripture is both history, and a love letter from God.


2014-04-27 15:32 GMT-03:00 Anthony de Boer <[email protected]>:

> D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
> > ... they invent a better fool.
> >
> > (I'm behind the times, I know.)
> >
> > I got a slap-bracelet / USB flash memory as swag a while back.
> >
> > We just tried it for transporting pictures.  I plugged it into my
> > computer's USB port, and nothing happened.  It turns out that the usb
> plug
> > had no housing, only a tongue, and so could be plugged in backwards (and
> > not work).
> >
> > One of the few things USB got half right was that you could not plug it
> in
> > backwards.  But we've now had innovation.
> >
> > (I say "half right" because the obviously right approach would be to have
> > it work whichever way it is plugged in.  The *next* USB connector is
> > supposed to do that.)
> >
> > (My Lenovo ThinkPads, like most notebooks, have barrel plugs, with
> > complete rotational symmetry.  My latest Lenovo (IdeaPad) has a
> > rectangular plug with 180-degree symmetry, like the new USB.  This
> doesn't
> > seem like progress.)
>
> Part of the problem is that they don't make it easy to plug it in the
> right way around first go.  If you have to have a connector that doesn't
> work flipped over, then make eg one side textured and the other smooth so
> you can tell which way you're holding it, and mark the socket so you know
> which side takes the top of the connector.
>
> The best solution I've found with USB A connectors is that if you look at
> which side has the USB logo and put that "up" with regard to where the
> motherboard is sitting in the computer it's usually right, but I have at
> least one counterexample I have to deal with.  And that still depends on
> having to stop and look at it.
>
> Meanwhile, the old PS/half connectors had a flat one one side and I could
> always without even looking at it rotate it to the correct alignment
> right away.  That IMHO made it a better connector.
>
> --
> Anthony de Boer
> --
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