this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
577 points (97.8% liked)
Technology
59693 readers
2363 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I was there when we had lots of "round" connectors like Din connectors but also lots of proprietary ones.
That was way worse, trying for the eleventh time to put it in correctly without looking as it's under/on the backside in a jungle of other cables, and not damaging any of the fragile 7 pins... gargl.
That caused a flashback, as I haven't seen those in years (but I know I have a few still somewhere lol). It also made me think...I can not recall ever having to do the "1-2-3" tries when hooking a USB mouse or keyboard into those before I plugged it all into the back of the PC. Which makes me lean towards blaming the socket installation and lack of reference for a lot of the woes, not the cord or flashdrive (which you can see).
The trick with DIN connectors was to try to insert them gently while rotating them. Once you got the notch lined up they would very clearly drop into the socket at which point you could apply more pressure to fully seat them. It was only a problem if you were jamming them in full force while rotating because you could exert enough pressure to force it into the socket even with the key notch misaligned crushing the pins. I never once had a problem inserting a DIN connector, something I absolutely can't say about USB-A.
Wow I'd forgotten about the old keyboard and mouse ports, they were such a faff to plug in without looking.
Sometimes it's more 33% or even 10%.
I have my doubts. I think that a jack-like (circular) connector wouldn't require twice as many wires and circuits. Actually absolutely the same amount. The connector itself would require more metal to make.
And the chance of correctly plugging that in would be like 99/100 (1/100 for breaking it).