this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2023
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I found it at the dollar store.

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[โ€“] jet@hackertalks.com 169 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Don't think of it as a tiny cable, think of it as a gender bender. You can put on the end of some female cable.

You're more likely to see dongles like this at fixed installations. Like somebody puts a USB port into a wall, like a speaker's podium, or a presentation stand. So one side is fixed, depending on what you want to hook up to it, you might need to have a gender bender.

[โ€“] Starshader@lemmy.ml 56 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is the cable considered transgender after that ?

[โ€“] jet@hackertalks.com 69 points 11 months ago (1 children)

USB is bi-directional. So it really doesn't care about the plug gender. Some other protocols are directional, then the plug gender is very important, so adapters for directional protocols tend to be more expensive, it may even require external power.

Once USB on the go was invented it cease to matter at all.

[โ€“] essellburns@beehaw.org 34 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Today I learnt my sexuality is USB

[โ€“] lud@lemm.ee 23 points 11 months ago

Universal Sexual Bus?

[โ€“] x4740N@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago (2 children)

What your describing sounds more like a double ended dildo

[โ€“] jet@hackertalks.com 28 points 11 months ago (2 children)

As long as the double ended dildo provided low impedance electrical through ways, and distinct electrical paths for at least four conduits, with minimal capacitive cross talk... then yes

[โ€“] meyotch@slrpnk.net 16 points 11 months ago

I like you and your style. Do not let a stupid dirty joke get in the way of proper electrical and data connections. It tells me where your priorities are and I respect that.

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[โ€“] Hurensohn@lemmy.world 126 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[โ€“] FUsername@feddit.de 36 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

The stars of username, comment and upvotes aligned

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[โ€“] Hellstormy@lemmy.world 104 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Have you never just wanted to plug 2 PCs into each other back to back?

[โ€“] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 74 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[โ€“] Artaca@lemdro.id 37 points 11 months ago (2 children)
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[โ€“] Buffalobuffalo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 11 months ago

Back and forth, forever.

[โ€“] x4740N@lemmy.world 72 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If you think about it, this is the USB equivalent of a double ended dildo

[โ€“] stebo02@sopuli.xyz 15 points 11 months ago (1 children)

does this mean there's also double ended flesh lights?

[โ€“] n00b001@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago

Isn't that the nickname of your mum?

[โ€“] Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 71 points 11 months ago (2 children)

It turn@ a usb extension cable into a regular usb

I guess that could be a use case?

[โ€“] ook_the_librarian@lemmy.world 23 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Or turn 2 extension cords into a long one.

But a serious answer is that these are sometimes sold in a kit of adapters that would let you change the head. Most kits like used a normal cord as the base cord, but some used USB extension cords as the base cord. So this is meant to be a replacement part, not useful in its own right.

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[โ€“] stebo02@sopuli.xyz 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

wouldn't that just make this thing longer? we'd still have the same problem

[โ€“] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 11 months ago (3 children)

There are female-female USB extension cables. As to why those exist...

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[โ€“] flakeshake@feddit.de 56 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Such A-to-A adaptors and cables always have been prohibited by the USB spec, but people built them anyway. A common usecase for "illegal" A-A cables i remember was connecting PCIe cards (especially GPUs and mining cards) externally to riser sockets.

[โ€“] accideath@lemmy.world 23 points 11 months ago (4 children)

I have an external 3,5โ€œ HDD enclosure that needs a male to male USB 3.0 A cable to plug into a PC. Still wondering, why they didnโ€™t use Bโ€ฆ

[โ€“] lud@lemm.ee 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That's really odd. Why use a host connector when a client connector is intended for the purpose.

Did they entirely miss the purpose of USB?

[โ€“] accideath@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Cost? A USB-A 3.0 connector is probably a few cents cheaper than a B 3.0 connector

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[โ€“] jet@hackertalks.com 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_On-The-Go

In 2001 the directionality became kind of moot. Especially if you want to do attach something with an on-the-go host

[โ€“] nottheengineer@feddit.de 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

An OTG setup needs all 5 pins of the micro-B connector. USB A cannot be used for OTG. If a USB-A port can act as a client, that's not OTG, it's a botched implementation.

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[โ€“] Z4rK@lemmy.world 52 points 11 months ago (9 children)

Iโ€™ve used them for extension, as it allows you to attach a second, regular USB cable to it.

[โ€“] iAmTheTot@kbin.social 14 points 11 months ago

Well, what do you mean by "regular"? The cable would need to be female on at least one end, which I usually see in... USB extension cables.

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[โ€“] trailing9@lemmy.ml 42 points 11 months ago

Sometimes you have a female to female cable.

[โ€“] Murais@lemmy.one 25 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You ever watch Requiem For A Dream?

[โ€“] Fraylor@lemm.ee 10 points 11 months ago

ASSSSSSS TO ASSSSSSSS

[โ€“] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[โ€“] Fizz@lemmy.nz 12 points 11 months ago (2 children)
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[โ€“] tkk13909@sopuli.xyz 23 points 11 months ago

LUSBian sex obviously!

[โ€“] blackn1ght 20 points 11 months ago

I dunno but it bothers me how much plastic wrapping that fucking thing apparently needs.

[โ€“] theKalash@feddit.ch 15 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (25 children)

To connect two USB-A ports.

Basically the same as a USB-A to USB-A cable, just really short.

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[โ€“] LazaroFilm@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago

I used to have a portable hard drive that had a usb-A/ e-sata hybrid connector and I had to use a USB A to A cable (or e-data) to use it.

[โ€“] Rand0mA@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Get 2 laptops, put them side by side with usb ports wide open and plug them bitches together. Likely will short with 5v being fed both sides.

But in reality its a usb coupler (plugging together 2x usb extension cables). Not a great lot of use from them in my opinion. I've seen shit bodged together in low budget it offices using edge case crap like this.

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[โ€“] Ravi@feddit.de 10 points 11 months ago

It's an Usb-A gender changer. It's not that useful but you could use it to turn an otg adapter (female usb-a to male usb-c) into a regular usb-c cable. I'd rather buy a usb-c cable though.

[โ€“] nicocool84@sh.itjust.works 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)
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Many cheapo sata connectors need a cable like this(I use a male A to female micro b and then a female micro b to male A, it gets the job done)

But connector, idk

[โ€“] ShellMonkey@lemmy.socdojo.com 9 points 11 months ago

Not one that short but I do have A to A cord like that in use. In my case it's with a KVM that I lost and AC adapter for but found that if I plugged in to one of the rear console connections it could get it to power on from the USB device. Cable it to a USB charging port on the front of one of the UPS and away it goes.

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