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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[–] [email protected] 17 points 9 months ago (5 children)

What's a common thing that would require the use of USB A on both ends?

[–] [email protected] -3 points 9 months ago

nothing worthwhile, as it's not allowed (for a good reason)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

The only place i ever saw it was on those cooling padas for laptops

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (4 children)

I am a stupid end user. But I've never found an instance where I needed male to male cords.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Chargers are now female. So you need m2m to charge your phone

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago

In general? Off the top of my head I remember these male to male cables.

  • Ethernet cables
  • telephone cables when they were a thing
  • audio cables of different varieties
  • optical cables
  • coaxial cables when they were a thing
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[–] [email protected] 36 points 9 months ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Six since it has A at both ends.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (3 children)

I absolutely have some Type C cables that only work one way because there's no enforced standards and the manufacturer will wire them however is cheap, throw on another company's logo, and sell it to Amazom.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (3 children)

I have never seen this.

There is absolutely a certification process, but playing legal whack-a-mole with fly-by-night counterfeiters is difficult.
This is why buying reputable brands from reputable sellers is important.

But even then, I remember years ago I read an article about major retailers selling counterfeit brand name SD cards that didn't meet the labeled performance specifications and had very poor QC. Turns out that gray market sellers were buying batches of the real product that failed QC and just reselling them as though they were fine, and they ended up making their way back into the distribution network.
In the end the conclusion was that we're all kind of fucked until retailers start being way more strict about their supply chains, which they are disincentivized to do, because the current system gives them plausible deniability on things like child labor.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Don't buy electronics through amazon. This is precisely why.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Even if you don't, there is basically no way to tell you've got a legit authentic product that passed QC until you test it yourself. The supply chains that give retailers plausible deniability wrt child labor also by their nature allow counterfeits.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (4 children)

You have to get your electronics from somewhere, retailers' supply chain has a helluva lot more quality control than Amazon. Just because you can't get to 100% doesn't mean you shouldn't strive for, well, anything more than the worst chances anyone can offer.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

When I need something for work I have a company account.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Gross. I haven't run into that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

I have a switch controller that requires two plug ins to work

[–] [email protected] 80 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

USB-A male to USB-A male is not in any USB standard (not entirely true, but compliant cables are very rare and don’t connect voltage), and if you plug it into a device it’s not meant for, the behavior is entirely unspecified. It will probably do nothing. But it might fry your USB controller that is not expecting to receive voltage.

USB-C to USB-C is in the spec, and if you plug in two host devices, they won’t hurt each other. You can actually charge a host device over USB-C, unlike USB-A.

That’s why it isn’t ok. It’s not the same thing, it’s not in the standard, and it can even be dangerous (to the device).

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

I think the argument that A-A should be in the spec.

But usb-c is just so much better all around.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

actually they would be correct :

USB began as a protocol where one side (USB-A) takes the leading role and the other (USB-B) the following role . this was mandated by hardware with differently shaped plugs and ports . this made sense for the time as USB was ment to connect computers to peripherals .

however some devices don't fit this binary that well : one might want to connect their phone to their computer to pull data off it , but they also might want to connect a keyboard to it , with the small form factor not allowing for both a USB-A and USB-B port. the solution was USB On-The-Go : USB Mini-A/B/AB and USB Micro-A/B/AB connectors have an additional pin which allows both modes of operations

with USB-C , aside from adding more pins and making the connector rotationally symmetric , a very similar yet differently named feature was included , since USB-C - USB-C connections were planed for

so yeah USB-A to USB-A connections are explicitly not allowed , for a similar reason as you only see CEE 7 (fine , or the objectively worse NEMA) plugs on both ends of a cable only in joke made cables . USB-C has additional hardware to support both sides using USB-C which USB-A , neither in the original or 3.0 revision , has .

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (2 children)

With USB-C isn't there still a slave-master dynamic that is now negotiated via software rather than hardware?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago (1 children)

a slave-master dynamic

please don't use that term, every time i see it i immediately verge on orgasming. you've already made me ruin 2 undergarments today. i have a serious bdsm kink and this is not funny.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

sorry, I didn't mean trigger you. I'll refer to it as a daddy-pig duo instead

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

it seems like it , but I have no idea !

edit : to clarify , I believe it does , using the CC1 & CC2 pins which are also used for other things , but I don't know anything about USB protocol side , I should learn about it haha

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

I think since it's now a software implementation, USB-C supports many such modes, some of which are slave-master as is needed, but others such as various display modes, and power modes.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

As it being disgusting or great?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Objectively disgusting. How can one connector be so chunky while still being asymmetric?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

USB 3 micro B

[–] [email protected] 25 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months 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 :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

bottom dom sounds interesting 🤔

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Is that like a power bottom on steroids?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

more expensive imo.

actually the same pins (well one of them , though since the connector is rotationally symmetric you need two anyway) are used for USB Power Delivery and to negotiate what speed regime to operate in .

furthermore , USB On the go , which was introduced in USB 2.0 , offers the same functionality for USB Micro and USB Mini

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