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Comment by Bellend | Hacker News Reader

No in my view. USB should be USB. That rectangle thing you poke into a port somewhere. Not just on chargers, motherboards or literally aircraft and cars.

If it's not that. Call it something else. LEET, PHAT, BIGPORT.

I really don't understand. Universal Serial Bus... in 10 different formats make's it no longer universal.

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USB should be retronymed to Unpredictable Serial Bus.

This made me laugh and brought me to "Unknown Serial Bus"

This is unfair.

USB mostly has predictably "just worked" as in "there is a port for it and it works when I plug it in".

If you had the right cable.

Honestly I'd prefer that! Have fried two devices using the wrong damn cable/ charger. Sure the device should have had better power IC's etc to prevent anything from happening when I plugged in the wrong one, but still, they all look the damn same!

USB does mean that already! If you have two spec-compliant devices, connecting them with a USB cable should never cause one to get fried.

But that's not how it actually goes. Many devices aren't actually spec compliant

that's pretty much not true anymore. the wild west after USB-C first came out is over, testers are available enough and sketchy vendors get shamed loudly enough that unless you're buying cables at unreasonably dodgy stores, you're going to get something spec-compliant.

Snap-On still sells (along with many others) flashlights that charge via USB-C... only when using an A-C cable. Just as long as we're shaming non-compliant vendors.

This isn't an example of someone still selling a device that either fries others or gets fried, though, right?

> fried two devices using the wrong damn cable/ charger

Doubt the USB-IF can do anything about that. Those chargers either don't use the USB logo or use it illegally without passing compliance testing. Don't buy from those sellers.

Well one of them is from a company called Nintendo

Nintendo didn't follow USB Spec on their charger and the Switch. But what they didn't do correctly shouldn't fry anything.

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