this post was submitted on 10 Aug 2024
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.cringecollective.io/post/75583

why isn't it ok? why????

Meme "the number of people who think this is an abomination" over a photo of a USB-A to USB-A cable, "but think this is perfectly acceptable" over a photo of a USB-C to USB-C cable, "makes me sick."

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[–] ekky@sopuli.xyz 94 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Huh, I'm not sure they are comparable.

Didn't USB A and USB B use a master-slave relationship in which the male would (generally) always be the slave, whereas USB C uses agreement and discussion to decide the master and slave roles regardless of connector gender.

Please do correct me if I'm wrong. Also, do we say "agent" now instead of "slave", or what is the new term?

[–] lengau@midwest.social 94 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I believe the common terms now are "domme" and "sub"

[–] DahGangalang@infosec.pub 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I can't tell if this is real life or sarcasm....

Did I really miss the memo on this one?

[–] communism@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

No that's the lingo the professionals use these days

[–] Vilian@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I can confirm, I'm called sub at work

[–] communism@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ah yeah, I've heard that offices are rolling out a new role of office cumdump. Glad to hear from someone already in the role

[–] ScrotusMaximus@lemm.ee 2 points 1 week ago

journalctl --cumdump

[–] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 63 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I think the biggest problem I see with A to A is: who's delivering power, and who's receiving it? Maybe if you use it only with the device it came with then it'll be fine, but if anyone tries to just hook up that cable to two random computers, it might actually cause a short circuit and fry something.

Whereas Type-C was explicitly made to handle such situations.

Or a shorter reason: Type-C cable is allowed by the spec while Type-A is not.

[–] vext01@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Hrm. I have a keyboard that requires an A to A cable and I think it works with the cable any way around...

Might be wrong.

[–] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It makes sense, if I remember correctly the older USB cable (i.e. everything before Type-C) are passive, so as long as the pins are wired symmetrically it wouldn't matter which side is which. But whoever made your keyboard really blundered, there is no reason in the world why anyone would do this. There's so many options: the B connector, mini USB, micro USB. All would make sense to put in the keyboard. A just doesn't.

Let me guess: you got it from an ultra cheap online store? AliExpress/Wish/Temu?

[–] vext01@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You guessed wrong.

https://www.maltron.com/store/p10/Maltron_L90_dual_hand_fully_ergonomic_%283D%29_keyboard_-_UK_English.html

It's a ridiculously expensive and "home made" looking, but it saved my hands from OCD.

[–] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ooh, I did guess wrong! That is an interesting specimen.

My suspicion is that they are experts in ergonomics, not in electrical engineering, so they probably aren't aware of how silly and possibly dangerous what they did is. Or perhaps they simply don't care because "it gets the job done", standards and specifications be damned.

Anyway, in this case I'm happy to be proven wrong. Thanks.

[–] vext01@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 month ago

I known they outsourced the firmware development, so who knows, maybe the electronics hardware too.

[–] jcg@halubilo.social 1 points 1 month ago

I've actually used this to my advantage. I bought some cheap speaker/light combos which basically made the lights dance to the music. The only power connector was a wire that comes straight out of the device and into an outlet. But it did have a USB port for loading music from a USB stick. So naturally I plugged one side of a USB A into the port and the other side into a power bank and it just straight up worked.

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 26 points 1 month ago (1 children)

master/slave could be primary/secondary, primary/subordinate or principle/agent, so you're correct on that replacement.

I personally am a big fan of "Mantrap" becoming an "Access Control Vestibule" mostly because it's fun to say.

[–] moonlight@fedia.io 24 points 1 month ago

I like controller/peripheral, which is the most descriptive in my opinion. That's what's commonly used for SPI.

[–] unmagical@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 month ago

Both ends of a USB cable are generally male (unless you're talking about an extender). Generally the type B end (in mini, micro, or full configuration) would be the client though I have seen a couple of clients use Mini or Micro A.

[–] ElectroLisa@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 month ago

I think reusing server/client naming for USB connectivity instead of master/slave would fit it

[–] brianary@startrek.website 24 points 1 month ago

USB-A requires three attempts to connect, C only one.

[–] FiskFisk33@startrek.website 22 points 1 month ago

I guess the usb spec makes you sick then.

With the the first one you can fry your gear, while stuff that takes the second one does auto negotiation.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Well, if you have asymmetric cables, there's always one clearly-defined host and the other one is the slave.

it works like sex: with usb-c, both devices more or less kinda have ti "negotiate" who's dom and who's sub. that takes extra negotiation effort and makes the protocol more complicated. and therefore more expensive imo.

[–] Droechai@lemm.ee 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Just a small nitpick, but sub or dom doesn't care about gender or sex, its top or bottom you mean in your example :)

[–] gandalf_der_12te@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

bottom dom sounds interesting 🤔

[–] PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Is that like a power bottom on steroids?

more like a power button

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)
[–] listless@lemmy.cringecollective.io 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's just one internet rando.

The internet rando that caused me to make this meme

[–] narc0tic_bird@lemm.ee 1 points 1 month ago

Was gonna ask, never heard of anyone.

[–] KomfortablesKissen@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 1 month ago (2 children)

What if I put a C-to-A Adapter on both ends? Is that okay?

[–] itslilith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 month ago

C to A adapters are sick and illegal

I still have some

[–] sparkle@lemm.ee 3 points 1 month ago

Yea but it's inefficient. USB-A has a significantly lower transfer rate than USB-C so it'll bottleneck

[–] sundray@lemmus.org 8 points 1 month ago

In the long, long ago, we used to use USB-A to A cables to transfer customers' Mac OS X user profiles when they would buy a new Mac. Also worked with Target Disk Mode, way back when.

[–] Crow@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 month ago

I read the Wikipedia a little and apparently A to A cables can damage your devices, and the ones that do exist are for specific purposes and should only be used in those specific scenarios, and often they are more than just cables and have some computational stuff inside them

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 month ago

It's about the winding and not about the USB version, right?

[–] EmperorHenry@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 month ago

I actually have several USB-A to USB-A cables.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I bought a charging pad once that had a USB c connector but none of the 40 USB power adapters I have have one so I returned it. IDK wtf they were thinking. Just make the wall end an A connector like everyone else has been doing for a decade.

[–] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

USB-C can deliver more power which is why they've been appearing more and more on charging bricks.

[–] mxcory@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I had to look up, USB PD does work with a USB A port.

That being said, I personally want to get to a single type of cable so any I get can be spares for anything I have, so I like USB c to be all around.

That ALSO being said, I doubt I will ever get to all USB C.

Side note, USB PD is awesome because I know it can do up to 240w. (Last I knew.) That is 48v at 5a, so I am not sure what they can do to squeeze out more wattage.

[–] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

USB PD is not specced for USB-A which is limited to 5V 2.4A. They had Quick Charge back in the day that got a little bit higher power using 9V but all the modern higher voltage high current PD stuff uses USB-C. The USB-A cables aren't specced to be running 5A or more that PD uses.

https://www.usb.org/usb-charger-pd

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

C-C carries more power than A-C?

[–] Mike1576218@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

USB-PD is only specified for USB-C. I think they use an extra channel for this configuration, so it's not possible to use PD over A plugs.

There were competing standards like Qualcom quick charge. AFAIK they never went above 20-ish watts on USB-A, while PD is specced at up to 240W.

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Interesting. I always figured the wires inside were all the same.

[–] Mike1576218@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago

Oh no the wires are a mess. Usb3 cables have extra wires and pins for super-speed. IIRC usb-c has said extra pins for usb configuration like pd or displayport alt mode. The wires can also be different. Some can carry more current, most cables are insufficient for really high data rates...

[–] AnnaFrankfurter@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 month ago

If I remember correctly you can't do data copy with A to A. I maybe wrong but I'm to lazy to look up.

[–] magoosh@feddit.nl 1 points 1 month ago

I actually thought this was about rolling up cables: circling on the top and over-under at the bottom