You can’t plug in a regular USB, firewire, or microUSB cable just by feel in the dark without risking fuckeing uppe the connection contacts by trying to insert it in the wrong orientation. And if you fucke uppe the cable end, no biggie, but if you fucke uppe the receptacle in your device, ugh.
The Apple Lightning connector, on the other hand, can be plugged in regardless of orientation, and the way the cable end and the receptacle are designed, you can just insert the motherfucker easily once you get anywhere near alignment. (Which is sort of like boning, but whatever.)
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F [nucular nyandrothol]
March 20, 2013 at 6:44 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Too bad Apple doesn’t like anyone else providing products with their connector. Sounds like a winner.
DrugMonkey
March 20, 2013 at 7:36 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
not all of us are such ham fisted mashers that we can’t feel the orientation and fix it before crushing the contacts, deuce.
fuckesatonne
March 20, 2013 at 8:28 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Yeah, what kind of an idiotte can’t plug a fucking USB cable in without ruining his precious gizmo? Must be someone with a goddamn Ph fucking D.
Marcus Ranum
March 20, 2013 at 8:48 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Exceppte that it cant be plugged into fuckinge anythinge because apple changed the fuckinge designe.
I just spent the nighte in an upscayle hotelle that got fucked by apple who convinced them that all clock radios should have an iPod interface. Which is now as useful as tittes on a papal bulle.
Marcus Ranum
March 20, 2013 at 8:51 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
(addendum: rule #1 of industrial designe – standards matter)
(addendum: rule #2 until they don’t)
(addendum: rule #3 which is only when all systems go out of service, which is basically never)
badgersdaughter
March 21, 2013 at 5:49 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
ugh you reminded me that I am a ham-fisted masher who has to get the laptop fixed because I screwed up the USB contacts in just the way you described. Ugh ugh ugh.
janiceintoronto
March 21, 2013 at 6:31 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Bugger and disfigure all those who design proprietary interfaces.
Bastards!
Oh, and all screws should be Robertsons, the only REAL screw.
Beaker
March 21, 2013 at 8:28 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
The one that pisses me off is Firewire 800 (IEEE 1394 in PC-lingo). The Firewire 400 plug is sturdy metal, and it is impossible to plug it in the wrong orientation. So then why the hell did they “upgrade” to the stupid 800 interface, which has cryptic polarity and a plastic plug? This is especially stupid because the 800 is backward compatible with 400. Somebody was not thinking about industrial design when they road-mapped this interface.
fuckesatonne
March 21, 2013 at 10:11 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
“all screws should be Robertsons, the only REAL screw.”
I screw non-Robertsons all the time. They seem to enjoy itte.
dab
March 22, 2013 at 5:13 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Except for the bit where you totally can because all you need to do is feel for the raised graphics of the USB 3-pin logo and make sure that end goes either up or [whichever sideways you checked on your device at least once in the past, which isn't much to ask].
Anyway, I’ve gotten it wrong in sideways-loading devices before and never broken a port. What are you doing, punching the cable into things? Given your usual attitude, I can quite imagine that, but you shouldn’t blame the standard for your ham-handedness, y’know!
sailor1031
March 23, 2013 at 4:05 am (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Geez, i always put on the lights to see WTF i’m doing when plugging/unplugging peripherals. How fukken radical is that?
aziraphale
March 23, 2013 at 1:15 pm (UTC -7) Link to this comment
“and make sure that end goes either up”
That would be a good standard. A pity the designers of Sony Readers didn’t agree. I have two. In the older one, the raised graphic has to be underneath. In the new one it has to be on top.