cross-posted from: https://lemmy.cringecollective.io/post/75583

why isn’t it ok? why???

Meme “the number of people who think this is an abomination” over a photo of a USB-A to USB-A cable, “but think this is perfectly acceptable” over a photo of a USB-C to USB-C cable, “makes me sick.”

  • Ekky@sopuli.xyz
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    3 months ago

    Huh, I’m not sure they are comparable.

    Didn’t USB A and USB B use a master-slave relationship in which the male would (generally) always be the slave, whereas USB C uses agreement and discussion to decide the master and slave roles regardless of connector gender.

    Please do correct me if I’m wrong. Also, do we say “agent” now instead of “slave”, or what is the new term?

  • hperrin@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    USB-A male to USB-A male is not in any USB standard (not entirely true, but compliant cables are very rare and don’t connect voltage), and if you plug it into a device it’s not meant for, the behavior is entirely unspecified. It will probably do nothing. But it might fry your USB controller that is not expecting to receive voltage.

    USB-C to USB-C is in the spec, and if you plug in two host devices, they won’t hurt each other. You can actually charge a host device over USB-C, unlike USB-A.

    That’s why it isn’t ok. It’s not the same thing, it’s not in the standard, and it can even be dangerous (to the device).