[conspire] Warning: You'll never get your time back from this thread

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Ross Bernheim (ROSSBERNHEIM9307 at comcast.net):

> The USB ‘standard’ is so weak because they allow so many variations to be
> called compliant with the standard. USB is ‘inclusive’. 

Yep, been that way the entire history of the thing.

> USB C already has had problems that brick and or fry equipment because
> cable makers have done the same stellar job of following the ‘standard’.

In fairness, the problem appears to be cheap USB Type-C cables that do
_not_ correctly follow the standard.  Details:
http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/4/10916264/usb-c-russian-roulette-power-cords
The problem, for now, is that, as the article points out, spending more
money isn't an adequate solution either, and your gear still might get
fried.  

Not being completely crazy, I fully intend to let all the early adopters
go first, before I even think of using one.

> While I was not fond of Apple’s changing connectors every couple of years
> for their video, at least things with the same connector or adaptors worked 
> as they had a real standard and enforced it.

Well, MacBook Pro and MacBook AIrs' laughly badly implemented
Thunderbolt overlaid onto a DisplayPort port is a 'real standard' for
somewhat meaningless values of 'standard'.  ;->
https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/15948.html?thread=611660  

> The Kindle and tablet problems are familiar to me.

BTW, I did convert the Nook Tablet over to CyanogenMod / Android 5.1.
It's pretty darned good.  And I hadn't quite realised that this tablet
has 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage -- which I just doubled using the
microSD card I used to reflash the OS.

It's fun to experiment with.