I've already had a long rant, but wanted to chime in on the USB debate, specifically about the "way up" of the cables.
Yes, they're (usually) stamped, and you can work it out by peering in the end of the cable anyway. This helps not a jot when you're reaching under the cosmetic flap on the front of your computer (thanks, Dell) and have to remember that, even if you *could* feel which way up it is from the outside of the connector (thanks, USB consortium) it has to go in upside-down (thanks, Dell) and at a 45 degree angle (thanks, Dell) in a socket that feels a lot like the air gaps next to it (thanks, Dell).
It's possible to design connectors so that you can feel which way up they are. The same applies to sockets. It's amazing how many connectors are designed by people looking closely at them in a CAD drawing, irrespective of how they have to be used by someone fumbling blindly down the back of a desk/television. (Even with SCART, I can feel which way up the cable is, but can never work out the socket even if I run my thumb nail around the rim.) About the only connectors that I can give credit for this are the power sockets (kettle lead and UK 3-pin mains). It used to be possible to connect PS2 and (especially) AT keyboards blindly by rotating the plug until the socket accepted it, but that doesn't work for USB, which I usually end up plugging into a spare ethernet port.
Not that any of the proposed display standards are particularly better than others for this. (I can tell which way up an SVGA socket is by running my finger around it, but often get it wrong; I can tell a DVI plug by the analogue pins, but can't feel the slots in the socket easily. 9-pin VGA, like 9-pin serial, is easier to identify, which is another backward step.)
It's almost an argument for wireless connectivity, if I didn't have such strong feelings about reducing the available bandwidth of everyone within 100 yards.
Register
Re: USB connectors
I've already had a long rant, but wanted to chime in on the USB debate, specifically about the "way up" of the cables.
Yes, they're (usually) stamped, and you can work it out by peering in the end of the cable anyway. This helps not a jot when you're reaching under the cosmetic flap on the front of your computer (thanks, Dell) and have to remember that, even if you *could* feel which way up it is from the outside of the connector (thanks, USB consortium) it has to go in upside-down (thanks, Dell) and at a 45 degree angle (thanks, Dell) in a socket that feels a lot like the air gaps next to it (thanks, Dell).
It's possible to design connectors so that you can feel which way up they are. The same applies to sockets. It's amazing how many connectors are designed by people looking closely at them in a CAD drawing, irrespective of how they have to be used by someone fumbling blindly down the back of a desk/television. (Even with SCART, I can feel which way up the cable is, but can never work out the socket even if I run my thumb nail around the rim.) About the only connectors that I can give credit for this are the power sockets (kettle lead and UK 3-pin mains). It used to be possible to connect PS2 and (especially) AT keyboards blindly by rotating the plug until the socket accepted it, but that doesn't work for USB, which I usually end up plugging into a spare ethernet port.
Not that any of the proposed display standards are particularly better than others for this. (I can tell which way up an SVGA socket is by running my finger around it, but often get it wrong; I can tell a DVI plug by the analogue pins, but can't feel the slots in the socket easily. 9-pin VGA, like 9-pin serial, is easier to identify, which is another backward step.)
It's almost an argument for wireless connectivity, if I didn't have such strong feelings about reducing the available bandwidth of everyone within 100 yards.
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Fluppeteer