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USB inventor explains why the connector was not designed to be reversible (www.pcgamer.com)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Also a male USB 2 plug fits perfectly into a RJ45 slot :-/ In my days of tech support, I've seen multiple people plugging their USB printer cable into the network slot of their computer and it's a perfect fit so they were always convinced they didn't do anything wrong... That's clearly a design flaw while all other connectors have distinct sizes.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Never heard of people plugging USB into LAN, but now that you mention it they are the same size. Luckily all the contacts are shielded.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

I've done it myself when feeling the back of a pc and trying to get away without looking. I've been doing IT support since high school.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Way back before USB, joysticks had a DIN-25 connector that was identical to the ~~MIDI~~ network connector.

I blindly plugged my brand new MS Force Feedback joystick into the ~~MIDI~~ network port behind my miditower (yes I'm that old) and watched the magic smoke rise out of the joystick. That was not a good day to learn about plugs. The network carries 50 volts or something. Stick wasn't happy.

edit: corrections! Here's a photo of the network card: https://i.imgur.com/fBJixkM.png

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Strange. I always thought they were the exact same port. Because most of the time you would need a sound card to plug in a joystick. And nowadays I can't use my MS Force Feedback because all the USB adaptors don't implement all of the MIDI stuff the joystick needs to run the force feedback.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

Oh you are right, I misremembered: what actually happened was that I was indeed going for the MIDI port of my SoundBlaster card but found a matching socket in my networrk card!

I will update my comment to correct this.

[–] MrScottyTay 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

My girlfriend works in IT at a school so I asked if she's encountered this too. She said "all the time, they're right next to each other" she also added that a lot of people put their thin charging cables into the headphone jack breaking their laptops. And that for some of them they "fit better" in that jack than the one it's meant to go in.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

You mean USB Type-B, right?