Ah. Interesting to see that they would undertake some action that improves their service! Most companies wouldn't spend a dime on something that they can't *enforce* to improve service.
Understood. So, next year all the colors could conceivably change and user be damned... But, at least staff won't screw up!
Nut drivers are color coded, by size. And, I *think* this is standardized, to some extent (haven't checked all manufacturers OR EVEN MANY MANUFACTURERS to know for sure). Makes it easy to locate the right size "first time" or "relative" to the (wrong) size in your hand.
[I'm not a big fan of color coding; large percentage of people have some form of colorblindness -- primarily men! I wonder what the "other" colors look like to them? OTOH, colors are more appealing TO ME than the microprinting that would otherwise be required!]
Yup. Would be even nicer if ALL the adapters followed a similar line of thought.
I've seen such things here, too (though not holiday lights). Odd connector. I think it may have been on the illuminator for my stereoscope (which I promptly removed and replaced with something more "reasonable" :> )
I'll have to see if I have any of the items I mentioned squirreled away (waiting to figure out their use, someday) and see if anything comes to mind.
Ah, that explains why the shipping charges are so low!!! :-/ And, why some of them RATTLE when shaken!
How are you fixed for supplying high quality *tea* leaves?? ;)
Because some people are impaired, is no reason to impair everyone else. That's just stupid. Should we cut your legs off and put your eyes out to make life for them somehow "fair"?
Maybe all connectors should have their P/N in Braille?
Just a short historical note... PC manufacturers have always had problems getting customers to plug things into the correct jack. The use of a DE-9S connector for video and a DE-9P for serial was the worst. The obvious solution was to label everything, but there wasn't enough room. So, one manufacturer decided to try color coding, as inspired by Frog Design of San Francisco. That was Packard Bell. To the best of my foggy recollection, there was no grumbling about color blindness. Since color coding was not patented, most everyone copied the idea.
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Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
IMO, better solution is to make it so things won't *fit* in the wrong places! :> Don't know about you but, other than my laptops, I can't *see* anything on the backs of the machines once they are "in place" (under desk, etc).
And, manufacturers don't want to clutter up the front, ACCESSIBLE side of the machine with all those connectors (where they would be easy to access but a cosmetic eyesore).
So, the rationalization is that "you only do this once" so it can be tedious.
Is your keyboard mouse plugged into the front USB connectors on your machine? Or, the rear? When you have to unplug either of them (to relocate or untangle), how easy is it to reinsert the plugs? Which side is "up"? Can you "feel" where it should go?
In the PS2 days, could you see the color surrounding each of the two
*adjacent* keyboard/mouse connectors?
Like most PC things, they just "happened" -- without much forethought.
You can choose colors that minimize the most common forms of color blindness. Just like you can choose "product keys" that use all capital letters (no '1' vs 'l' confusion) and avoid '0' vs. 'O' vs 'Q', '8' vs. 'B', '1' vs 'I', etc.
*If* you think about it before *doing* it! :>
E.g. red vs. blue is a much safer bet than red vs *green*! (people seem to "always" be able to perceive blue)
OTOH, you can be ignorant and assume everyone can distinguish red from green, yellow from blue, etc. -- JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN! :>
How happy would you be if everything was labeled with 4 pt text so only "young" eyes could read them? What percentage of the population couldn't?
~10 million men in the US are color blind. Would you want to trust them to know which button stops the saw that is cutting your flesh vs. starts it IN AN EMERGENCY? Or, NOT start the saw while you are setting up a job?
To put things in perspective, there are only a couple million people in the country who are "legally blind". You are far more likely to discover the guy standing next to you can't tell if you're wearing a red shirt or green! (e.g., at least one child in ever classroom, statistically, is color blind. He can't see the red ball but can tell that it's not the green SQUARE!)
I rarely had (all laptops now) to fiddle with them either. Put the thing on the floor, over in a corner (where it can suck up cat fur). Many towers have USB connectors on the front panel. It's sorta nice for USB stick. My monitors also have USB connectors on them. Handy.
Kinda dumb to want connectors there on a laptop. That's where the hands go.
Seems like a good strategy to me.
Have you ever heard of this new thing, "wireless"? No, I never have to untangle my keyboard (wired) or mouse (wireless).
No, color coding is silly. I can't even see it on my laptop, or remember what it is.
Neat, huh? Would you rather have had IBM tell you how you had to use your computer?
It's silly to penalize the sighted because there are unsighted.
It sorta looks right. I just measured the real connector which is close enough to the description for it to be the same connector. Thanks. At least now I know that the connector exists.
Nothing on eBay: Lots of cables, but no individual connectors.
Nothing listed on the Wikipedia page:
Yep. It's really not worth the time and effort to repair the connector on an $8 power supply. I just hate trashing anything that can be fixed.
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Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
I ran linux and linux doesn't care which you use for what. swapping them was a good way to keep mischevious people out of BIOS setup and the linux bootoader
The two were interchangeable, just the bios wasn't written that way.
I've got a keyboard with an orange plug somewhere, I forget whose branding it has.
The stop button is the one you can operate with the palm of your hand.
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Right. That usually degenerates into using identical keyed connectors. The problem with those is that there's always someone willing to apply brute force to override the keying. The original XT power supply to MB connectors were like that. The only thing that kept them from being inserted in the wrong receptacle was some easily broken keying plastic. I think I killed about 3 motherboards before the new ATX connectors arrived, which solve the problem. However, it didn't last, when manufacturers went from 20 pin to 24 pin, using the same connector and adding another with 4 pins. Now, there was plenty of opportunity to improperly insert the 20 pin plug in a 24 pin socket and blowing something up. Yeah, I really like keyed connectors.
That's much like all display advertisements for desktop and laptops. There are absolutely no cords anywhere in sight. I recall one ad showing a desktop on the kitchen table, with the requisite smiling gorgeous blond computing merrily, but with no cables or power plugged into the easily visible back of the computer. It's almost like cables, cords, and wires are a necessary evil, not to be shown to prospective buyers for fear of causing immediate panic or distress.
Ok, I'll confess. I'm a slob and have wires everywhere. The mouse and keyboard go into the back of the desktop. Same with the USB camera and several USB hard disk drives. I have 4 USB jacks in the front of my Dell Optiplex 960. Three are filled with cell phone and smartphone cables, used to sync, replicate, clone, or download data from the various phones and devices. Most everything else is either wireless or connected via ethernet.
All the connectors can be hidden behind doors. The current desktops by Dell, HP, and Acer have doors to access the connectors. Several of my customers have removed the doors because they get in the way. Again, it's like cables and connectors are a customer repellent.
Huh? I'm moving cables and connectors around all the time.
Rear.
I cheat and use a inspection mirror. Even so, it's a pain to get it right. Therefore, most of my machines are setup so that I can slide them forward, lean over the top, and deal with the connector tangle. I also have photos of the backs of my machines, so I can re-insert the USB plugs in the same holes. Some drivers don't like it when the USB port moves.
Only in the late part of the PS/2 era. In the beginning, everything was either black or beige.
There's a long story here, but I'll save it for another time. There was some planning, but in the dot com era, almost anything that looked like a computer was funded and occasionally delivered. Some of these even sold well.
True, but there's more. Every color has its meaning and effect on the user. For example, red is suppose to be some form on alarm. Green means go. Yellow means stop and think about it. See your neighborhood traffic signal, or industrial designer, for details. The problem is that these three only apply to the USA. For example, in China, red means good luck. Trying to find a common ground for color coding is not a trivial exercise if you plan to ship world wide. For example, while monitors in the USA came in beige, gray and black, those sold in Europe came in all kinds of garish colors. These are a bit over the top, but might give you a clue as the thinking:
Product colors are the domain of the industrial designer, who has a very different criteria for selecting colors.
As for accommodating the needs of the visually impaired, various federal laws require that access to computing facilities and devices accommodate such handicaps. However, I don't believe that color blindness is considered a handicap by any of these laws. I dug into the ADA web pile, but didn't find anything specific for color blindness. Since it's not requirement, I suspect color blindness can be ignored. All I could find is a settlement agreement with Wells Fargo bank agreed to fix the fonts on their web pile so that a color blind user could set the colors on their computer to improve visibility.
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Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
There's no difference in the havdware! So, unless NOTHlNG is plugged into *either*, a probe() can identify which is pluggedy where!
Exactly. Force the user (your customer) to follow an arbitrary rule to make your job (0NE TIME!) a tiny bit easier. :(
That's not true of all devices.
For example, many have two hefty round buttons. The ON button usually has a metal sleeve that surrounds the button to it's full height. I.e. depressing it requires a fingerTIP and follow-through motion as the button recedes into this sleeve. The same is not required of the OFF button. Don't these manufacturers think that people can tell RED from GREEN? :)
Also, you don't need a key if you can ensure none of the "right" signals will ever come into contact with the "wrong" device. E.g., a multiconductor audio connector wherein "mic" is on a particular pin, "line in" on two others and "line out on still others.
Plug in a device that uses all of the above and its one connection. Plug in separate devices, then separate but compatible connections. (silly example; but look at DVI connectors and the range of options they support)
Can't protect from idiots. I know a guy who plugged a (4p) power connector into a disk drive "backwards" (I didn't think that would be possible with *any* amount of effort!)
"Didn't you feel it not fitting?" "Yeah, I just pushed harder!" "Well, congratulations! You now own a toasted disk!"
I think they *do* intimidate many people. Show them a bunch of wires and they imagine "but how do I know where they'll all go?"
I leave the front connectors (audio, FW, USB) "free" for transient things. A thumb drive that I want to plug *just once*, etc.
The first thing that I do when setting up a new machine is glue a small 4 port powered USB hub onto the back, somewhere (double-sticky
3M "foam"). Then, put all the low speed devices into that: mouse, keyboard, etc. Leaves the rest of the machine's USB ports ('cept for the one I just used) clear for other devices. If I need a separate "channel" for a particular high speed device (video digitizer), I add a 4/5 port card.
My solution to the "two many USB devices" issue is to split peripherals among different workstations. E.g., scanner and color inkjet don't need to be attached to machine that I use for CAD -- which needs a tablet, etc.
My front connectors hide behind a flimsy door. I keep it closed lest it snap off! (cuz the connectors aren't used, normally)
Exactly! Just because they *think* (hope) that's the case (which is how they rationalized putting stuff "out of the way" on the back) doesn't make it so.
Mine are under my work tables -- which are pushed up against the wall (just enough room for cables to sneak up between wall and table).
So, to see behind (with mirror) I have to crawl under table just to get a mirror in position (or, use binoculars to view a mirror on a telescopic arm -- I can't read small print at 3 ft in a dimly lit area!)
Sliding the machines forward means all the cabling is at risk. Video cables to two monitors, all the USB connections, SCSI cables, audio cables, network cable, etc.
I.e., I *really* don't like having to crawl around behind machines UNDER a table just to make sure the DB9 is "correct side up". Or, that the USB plug is actually lined up with its mate and not just "upside down".
You can use *shapes*. E.g., 'O' [sic] and '1'. Or, a consistent "pull on, push off". Where the information channel is available to all instead of a select group with a particular skill/sense set.
It's not ignored in safety critical applications.
Look at the effort the gummit is going through in order to make currency more "accessible" to the visually impaired. Look at the colossal screw ups it's made in the past re: the *unimpaired* (Susan B Anthony, anybody? :> )
We have bunches of these in stock cheap on eBay. Amphenol rather than Canon, in original die cast metal.
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I remember Packard Bell PCs in the mid-90s with this; I think their colors were different than the "modern" standard. Later on, Intel and Microsoft standardized the color coding with the PC 97 and PC 99 standards, which match what you see today.
Yeah, we had a bad batch of fake 2N2955s. Zhang had a bad week; 12- year-olds can be so moody. We cut his pay by half for a few days; he straightened up and we saved 25 cents US.
We use tea leaves to fill up the extra space in the TO-3 cans! Run one of them at high currents and a fresh tea scent will appear, for your beautiful time.
Ah, that explains all this silver "hairs" I've been finding in my bulk tea! I had thought they *were* hairs -- annoying to keep have to pick them out of my teeth with each sip! But, obviously, they must be BONDING WIRES and the tea I've been buying must be the SCRAP you discard from failed unit test!!
Now that I'm aware of what they *actually* are, I'll start setting them aside for you... hate to see all that material go to waste!
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