Earlier quoted context omitted.
What does it mean when something "EZ-Bake[s]" itself?
I'm assuming getting too hot when plugged in and cooking itself.
Interesting...
Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work
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Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work
#392Earlier quoted context omitted.
What does it mean when something "EZ-Bake[s]" itself?
There's a toy made by Hasbro called the Easy-Bake Oven that's been in production since the early 1960s. It has a heating element (originally a 100 watt light bulb) that lets kids bake "cakes" using packets of mix. Despite it having a very good safety record (percentage-wise, given how many millions of them have been sold) the urban legend persists that it's dangerous.
What sparked the myth?
Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work
#393Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a toy made by Hasbro called the Easy-Bake Oven that's been in production since the early 1960s. It has a heating element (originally a 100 watt light bulb) that lets kids bake "cakes" using packets of mix. Despite it having a very good safety record (percentage-wise, given how many millions of them have been sold) the urban legend persists that it's dangerous.
What sparked the myth?
No idea - it's just one of those things that arise out of nothing. Someone thinks "OMG someone could cook a pet hamster in it!" and it just goes from there, like a game of Chinese Whispers.
Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work
#394It would be good if he did resistance tests as well. I killed my phone's battery by absentmindedly using a shitty cable that was basically tinsel wire. (details: I was full-time tethering while plugged in. I assume the charge controller thought the battery was charging but it was actually slowly discharging)
That info deserves being tied to the model of the phone, at least. Not because that phone's thus inherently bad, but because that's a buggy design. I understand you're saying that the cable fooled the charge controller into letting the battery fall completely flat? Wow.
Getting said info to the right place so next version's charge controller is fixed would be nigh impossible, but dropping the info in lots of high-exposure places might be a start.
Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work
#395Can someone explain why this topic receives so many upvotes? Is it just a popular topic getting upvoters who vote for popular items or is there something genuinely interesting about this?
I was similarly curious too.
You may find http://hn.algolia.com of interest to look through, to see the kinds of things HN tends to upvote, and the kind of things that tend to get passed by. Different things attract different levels of attention and fascination on here. It can actually be quite interesting to observe.
This is just a fascinating artefact of the HN hivemind collective interest, I guess.
Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work
#396So uh, maybe they can explain why the DisplayPort USB-C adapter for the Chromebook Pixel only works in one orientation? Yes, that's right. You heard me. You have to flip it over 50% of the time to get the screen to come on. (This might be Linux specific, I don't have ChromeOS to check)
I don't have one of these adapters but that seems sub-optimal. Perhaps it's an issue fixed by a newer firmware (which CrOS will load to the dongle automatically, but probably not a stock Linux distribution)? Detailed design for the adapter is here: https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/dingdong If you feel like it, please file a bug.
:) I don't come across a lot of ppl that know that one. Googler? Fan/user
Anyway, yeah, I've actually had that thought in the back of my head. I've actually reloaded this laptop 3 times due to the exact situation you mention. (The HDD is too small to leave CrOS on there).
It's been several months since I've let CrOS do it's thing and reflash the firmware... I should give it a shot.
Many moths ago, I was reinstalling CrOS it to try to get it to reflash the adapter so that MST on DP1.2 would work. But it never worked and furthermore, the Dell monitors I have stop working when you enable DP1.2 so all around... it was disappointing.
I wanted my Pixel to be my sole development machine... but when I'm sitting at my desk... I expect dual monitors... So I continue to sync my git repos between 3+ computers at a time. Woohoo.
Whoever wants to make a laptop with 16GB RAM, HiDPI screen (and not the shitty Lenovo panels), and 2x mini-DP out.... boy, I'd sure love to see it. (And the Surface Pro 4 actually falls in that category, but is not Linux friendly)
----
edit: Checked the dingdong history... not seeing too much relevant but I might give it a shot when I have a slow weekend. Thanks again!
Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work
#397BTW, he put instructions for how to test at https://plus.google.com/+BensonLeung/posts/jGP5249NppF
I thought that would be how to test all usb-c's really it's how to test usb-c if you have a pixel (or in other words $1000 in your fun-time budget)
True, maybe I should rephrase that as "he wrote down details for how he tested them..."
Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work
#398Why is this one of the all-time most popular posts on HN about Google?
Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work
#399Earlier quoted context omitted.
What sparked the myth?
No idea - it's just one of those things that arise out of nothing. Someone thinks "OMG someone could cook a pet hamster in it!" and it just goes from there, like a game of Chinese Whispers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_whispers
That's a very intriguing thing. Thanks for that. :-)
Re: Google engineer writing Amazon reviews on USB-C cables that don't work
#400It would be good if he did resistance tests as well. I killed my phone's battery by absentmindedly using a shitty cable that was basically tinsel wire. (details: I was full-time tethering while plugged in. I assume the charge controller thought the battery was charging but it was actually slowly discharging)
That info deserves being tied to the model of the phone, at least. Not because that phone's thus inherently bad, but because that's a buggy design. I understand you're saying that the cable fooled the charge controller into letting the battery fall completely flat? Wow. Getting said info to the right place so next version's charge controller is fixed would be nigh impossible, but dropping the info in lots of high-exp…
It was an HTC EVO 4G (non-"LTE"). Quite old at this point.
I can only surmise what actually happened. I was full-time wifi tethering for a month or two and the symptoms along the way seemed to point to this cause. The phone eventually stopped taking power at all, until I plugged it into a USB port instead of the OEM 1A charger. At which point I realized the higher current was the problem, and investigated the cable.
It actually felt like a really nice cable - very robust and strain-reliefy. But apparently that's because the whole thing was mostly plastic and essentially headphone wires. Lesson learned!
If my theory is correct , it's a pretty stupid design. But I feel like there's probably many weird corner cases in consumer electronics that don't matter because 99% of people won't find them, and the ones that do won't realize it's a bug, and by the time anybody could put it together that specific model has been obsoleted anyway.