-
@ 🇵🇸 whoever loves Digit
2024-11-18 23:38:55I can't believe I was tricked into liking USB-C for so many years. It's useful to be able to use one cable for everything, but that doesn't make the standard good.
It was absolute gaslighting. The complete opposite of truth, being presented as genius.
Now it's clear in hindsight: USB-C is ruined, always has been, always was going to be, it was never a good idea.
At least I was smart enough to never stop requiring a 3.5mm jack in my devices.
The 3.5mm connector was always more ready for 2-way power and data standards than USB-C was for anything, and yet they tried to make me plug my headphones into USB-C, instead of letting me charge over a headphone jack. Capitalist bullshit.
The "one connector" lie
USB-C was initially pitched to the world as "one connector for everything" but it was designed to be one connector for scam bullshit and nothing else.
I don't know who I'm quoting when I put quote marks on "one connector for everything." Maybe some guy unveiling a MacBook 10 years ago or something. The words have been repeated many times, regardless of who said them first.
Here's how you know it's total bullshit:
- "One connector for everything" would be designed so that a power-only one is harder to make than a full one. This would avoid encouraging scammers to manufacture power-only versions to cut cost; important, since letting them do that would split the connector into at least two disparate versions.
- Instead of being designed to prevent it, the USB-C standard straight up fucking encourages this version split by listing power-only cables as a valid configuration in the spec, despite being marketed as "one connector for everything."
- There are still phones, tablets, etc. being made with no USB-C video output.
- Again, the standard lists this as an acceptable configuration, adding at minimum a third connector to this list of "connectors for everything" which is still somehow purported to be a single-item list.
- There are still no devices I'm aware of with both video input and output on a single USB-C connector at the hardware level.
- The official spec might not even allow this. But it allows power-only cables.
- This means it's not like "yeah there are multiple versions of the port but when we say one connector for everything we mean you can get a device with just one connector and use that one connector for everything," it's just straight-up "yeah we say one connector for everything when we actually mean a bunch of different connectors for one cable and also a bunch of other cables that look the same but don't work with every connector but still work with some connectors so it can be hard to tell, good luck."
I wanted more connectors anyway. How did I let them trick me into the idea that a fake "one connector for everything" was so great when I wasn't even trying to reduce the number of connectors on my devices to begin with - just the opposite? This is such fucking pure capitalist bullshit. It's maddening.
As much smarter as I am than other people, the fact that I fell for this is proof that the limits of intelligence can still go far beyond mine. A truly smart creature would have easily noticed USB-C was bullshit all along. It was obvious, and yet - not obvious to me. I will probably forget this little lesson and continue getting frustrated with other humans for not seeing obvious things.
Well, as someone wise once said, "fuck em."
If Digit and I both live a while, then eventually I might be able to manufacture electronics. Apple is bankrupt the day my first cell phone releases.
If "one connector for everything" is supposed to be such a great idea, then let's fucking have it. I admit, always having the right cable on hand would be nice.
The one true connector
Here are my specs.
nostr:nevent1qvzqqqqqqypzqamkcvk5k8g730e2j6atadp6mxk7z4aaxc7cnwrlkclx79z4tzygqy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyv9kh2uewd9hj7qgwwaehxw309ahx7uewd3hkctcqyqqqqqxahhez9l9epxsn5vjhej7cxajc94wt759vzjwxd6glrtm254u5qsf
I'm onto something here
This would be the path to one connector for everything. There is no better way.
No new cable would be better than using the 3.5mm ones we already have. No other cable we already have would be more appropriate. I don't think any approach to the problems can beat mine without using any of the same solutions.
And this is the first-ever public description of a spec with most of these details, as far as I know. I'm sure someone else has invented it all before in their head - maybe even written it all down, almost exactly the same as mine. I'm sure most of these ideas have even been mentioned on the internet before - or all of them. But comprehensively woven together in one place? I think my post is the one. I'm curious what prior material is out there.
If I'm right, then after I submit this post, there are 4 possibilities:
- The perfect solution to the "one connector" problem doesn't happen in the foreseeable future, because I mentioned the major factors making it so good before a corporate stooge could take credit for it, and every electronics manufacturer prefers sabotaging their products with an inferior design by one of their corporate stooges over using any design I'm involved in. All the new standards continue to suck for reasons that were already solved in this post, and I keep saying it's weird how every company is always ready to come out with yet another fucked up new spec that sucks but not a single one is willing to use mine that's actually good. Instead of listening to me, plebeians keep being wowed by "number go up" in the transfer speed of data and/or power. Every attempt to copy my design is cancelled in the developmental stage by Zuckerbergian corporate executives who realize my work is consumer-friendly, inherently making it kryptonite - and, worse yet, it would be unbearably embarrassing to have this nostr post be what a global, widely-used hardware interface spec ultimately traces back to.
- The perfect interface protocol is an emergent property that can be invented twice if the first time doesn't get anywhere, so after my invention gets nowhere, some corporate stooge invents it again, and they pitch it without curse words, and it gets made faster than anyone involved can even find out about my post. The creators of the actual product are later surprised to learn the important elements of the design match some prior internet post from some guy. I brag about having invented the standard and I probably insist it was stolen from me even though I'm smart enough to know a perfect solution can be found twice due to its inherent merit. Regardless, USB-C is defeated. The new commonly-used spec ultimately traces back to a nostr post from someone who loves Digit, instead of a gentrified whitepaper from corporatist academia.
- The perfect solution is copied from me by some corporate stooge who finds my design, uses a chat bot to transmogrify it into a bespoke PDF with fake prototype codenames and charts and shit added in, then finally slaps some research consortium logos on top of it, or whatever. I keep pointing out how the major design elements match mine, but it's cool, at least USB-C is defeated. The new commonly-used spec ultimately traces back to a nostr post from someone who loves Digit, instead of a gentrified whitepaper from corporatist academia.
- Some other fourth thing.