As so clearly evidenced by Whack-a-Mole!
Neutron star-levels of density.
While the USB hijack is still in flight we all have an opportunity to learn a bit more about it. Here’s an OP of mine about a problem I recently had with various flavors of USB talking to one another that I had no clue about.
Along the way, @Reply gives an absolute masterclass on the history. And, perhaps more usefully here in 2026, a masterclass on how the USB-C connector is now sorta universalizing a whole host of different underlying protocols. A bunch of other folks added even more knowledge and perspective.
With the completely predictable result that nowadays just because the connectors on these two devices and this wire mate, it is no longer true that the devices will cooperate enthusiastically. Or at all. It’s usually true, but not always.
We’ve come full circle from idiot-proof wires and sockets that always work to not-so-idiot proof wires and sockets that look alike even to experts but might or might not work together. Progress!
I generally trust people with the education and experience. I always trust multiple people. I may ask follow up questions because I don’t understand but I never argue with them.
I didn’t read the other thread, but it seems blindingly clear that he just didn’t understand the answer, it wasn’t explained in a way that was breaking through his solidified misapprehension, and he wasn’t willing to consider that he was the one not understanding what was being explained. I’ve certainly had my own blind spots, not understanding something obvious that was being explained to me, but I did understand that the fault lay in me, not the entire scientific community.
In this case he kept insisting that they were wrong. It was flat out insulting. I’m on the fence whether it was stupidity combined with misplaced arrogance or just trolling. It’s not the first time. This is simple facts, not a matter of opinion.
JFC, @Jasmine, how many times have you been called out for not bothering to read a thread before jumping in with the same advice that was already given - often without realizing that corrections were made and you’re responding to the wrong thing. I can recall at least a dozen, and I have a shit memory. I do remember mentioning one where you offered your deepest condolences to someone who quickly posted that there had been a full recovery. This is supposed to be a message board with meaningful interaction, not just to jump in and expound regardless of where the conversation actually is.
Here’s the latest:
Too fucking bad. What do you think the rest of us do? You didn’t even read the FIRST response. If you can’t even skim the thread, then how about not replying until you can?
Lord, I actually feel very bad that I’ve worked you up into such a rage. Your hatred is palpable. I will make a real effort at being more patient and do a better job at that.
And in the same breath you offered to apologize to the OP! But the caffeine deprived poster didn’t copy that, more and more they remind me of the long ago poster Duckduckgoosethe resident den mother who insisted on correcting people and givi g instructions on how to behave.
Ignore them.
Whatever that means because there ain’t no offer to apologize in the post,
That was an amazingly helpful thread. My wife has a electrically cooled thermos-like thing for carrying her RA injectables when she travels. It’s good device with one ultra-infuriating limitation. It has a USB-C port for power from a battery, but it would not work with a modern USB-C battery output. The support people indicated that the device wasn’t broken, that it was working as intended.
Never knew why until that thread. Turns out they used a USB-C port for packaging convenience, but for some bone-headed (probably cost containment) reason, they left out the enabling chipset. So a USB-C device sees nothing connected. Only an ancient USB-A battery will blithely send power to an unknown consumer.
Not surprised the resident scavenger of old bones missed it but here ya go.
An hour later.
A whole hour, get a load of that, clocks keep on ticking, time passes by, how astute of you to observe this phenomena. Yet rage happens in the interstices of time, release yourself from this burden you carry.
It’s gracious to accept an apology no matter how it’s given.
And also to admit we’ve all done it. Posted in a thread late or missed one sentence. Misspelled, under or over used punctuation.
Y’all crack me up scouring threads for something said wrong. Perhaps pick up a crossword puzzle to search for clues. Gives your brain something to noodle on.
We’ve certainly all done it. The post was for someone doing it chronically. And the excuse wasn’t “oops I missed that” it was “I was a work so I intentionally didn’t take the time to read the rest of the thread”*. The apology was some “bless your heart” bullshit. This was at least the second example of this in the last couple of days.
*paraphrasing
Some people a lot more than others, with no attempt at improvement.
Most people don’t go looking for something to be annoyed by, so when the same behaviour is done by the same person over and over again people notice, because it just hits you in the face.
I was going to start a discussion here about the mole-whacker and his performance in the USB-B thread in FQ but opted not to bother, but the criticism is well deserved because of his stunning, obstinate obtuseness.
He seems totally fixated on the idea that because a USB cable has the same wires coming out of both ends, a legacy USB cable should have the same connectors on both ends. I swear that the reason it doesn’t must have been explained to him at least a dozen times in the now-closed thread, to no avail. When even a patient explainer like @Francis_Vaughan starts a post with the word “sigh!”, you know that the last straw has arrived and everyone’s patience has been exhausted.
I’m willing to take the mole-whacker at his word that he wasn’t intentionally trolling, but he should understand that this is most assuredly not a compliment. Sometimes someone may have a preconception that makes some piece of technology hard for them to understand, but that’s never a reason for insulting those who patiently try to explain it, or declaring that the whole industry doesn’t know what it’s doing.
Almost nothing grinds my gears more than when ignorant people want to argue with me about one of my areas of expertise. Details about how cables isn’t one of those things but I understand enough to know that those posters knew their business. A subset of that is when people think that things in tech are easy or obvious or insinuate that engineers don’t know what they are doing. This shit is incredibly complicated and comes from the long and hard work of thousands of brilliant people. Why do these ignoramuses imagine that they know better?
Yawn/stretch.
Anyway, I learned my lesson 6 years ago, almost to the day!
Although I guess I didn’t really, fully absorb the lesson until 5 years ago: