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EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

engadget.com

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Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#681

Post by enkid »

ponow wrote: post #676

I don't accept the right of governments to intervene in what I and a seller agree to transact. It's an inalienable right where people care about such things. Definitely not in the EU. If you have a problem with pollution, then properly cost that pollution on an even basis, instead of picking and choosing deep pockets and other politically palatable targets. Man, the 2nd amendment is there for a reason.

The second amendment has absolutely nothing to do with this. This is the EU and the second amendment is about "bearing arms," not selling electronic equipment.

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#682

Post by rkangel »

nocoolnametom wrote: post #633
bsnal wrote: post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like history of computing goes against this

In order to talk to my friends, family, and coworkers I need to have the following apps installed and running: Slack, Teams, Telegram, Signal, WhatsApp, Google Chat/Hangouts/Allo/Whatever, FB Messenger, Discord, Twitter, etc. It'd take a pretty strong argument to convince me that this is so much more productive and allows for more innovation than the old days when the spec for things like Email, HTTP, IRC, XMPP allow…

I'm using Element One these days (https://element.io/element-one) which at least gets me Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram, Matrix and IRC all in one place.

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#683

Post by binarynate »

phabricator wrote: post #622
binarynate wrote: post #600

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also reminds me of this Paul Graham tweet: https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1231699385525903360

As an American, I'm surprised to see so much lip service paid to reducing waste in our country and then describing a universal plug as "overreaching regulation that will stifle innovation." Want to roll back the styrofoam ban too? Lots of new innovative (and greener) packaging resulted. (you could have just edited your first reply to include the appeal to authority)

The plug itself its fine, it's the government mandating that it's illegal to use alternatives that's overreaching. I believe people should have the choice to decide and try better alternatives. That's how innovations are made.

> Want to roll back the styrofoam ban too?

That's different because it bans one thing rather than declaring a single material as the only legal one. A better analogy would be if a state passed a law declaring cardboard as the only legal packing material and outlawing everything else. Also, the styrofoam ban is a state law, not a federal law. I don't personally feel strongly about a styrofoam ban, but if your state wants to try that, that's fine with me.

> (you could have just edited your first reply to include the appeal to authority)

Who cares?

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#684

Post by ciupicri »

mrtksn wrote: post #233
samatman wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Will EU block innovation? It already has. Tesla's connector is nicer (you can call that subjective but it isn't) and the supercharging network in the US is deploying the clunky standard sort of connector as well. If EU legislation were universal, that would preclude any future where the superior connector is licensed and takes over from the crappy designed-by-committee alternative, because Tesla would be forced to…

EU is a densely populated place where having multiple charging networks of incomparable plugs will be horrible. When you are not happy with decisions the governments make, it usually means that you should be involved in the process of making the decisions. Europeans don't trust that the industry will always come up with the best solutions for the user, Americans usually don't trust the government doing something well…

No post body was provided.

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#685

Post by dundarious »

hda2 wrote: post #538
dundarious wrote: post #479

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no benefit to new standards coming out all the time in this domain. There is major benefit to standardizing for many years at a time.

The same was once believed in south Korea with regards to online commerce and ActiveX. Their law left their infrastructure rigid, less secure, and incompatible with the rest of the world when everyone moved on.

The USB standard and the processes and groups governing it are quite unlike those for ActiveX.

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#686

Post by ciupicri »

nocoolnametom wrote: post #633
bsnal wrote: post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like history of computing goes against this

In order to talk to my friends, family, and coworkers I need to have the following apps installed and running: Slack, Teams, Telegram, Signal, WhatsApp, Google Chat/Hangouts/Allo/Whatever, FB Messenger, Discord, Twitter, etc. It'd take a pretty strong argument to convince me that this is so much more productive and allows for more innovation than the old days when the spec for things like Email, HTTP, IRC, XMPP allow…

I'm willing to bet that your friends and family wouldn't be happy if the European Union would mandate using IRC everywhere. Heck, why not go further and stick to the good old ntalk [1].

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk_(software)

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#688

Post by ponow »

enkid wrote: post #681
ponow wrote: post #676

I don't accept the right of governments to intervene in what I and a seller agree to transact. It's an inalienable right where people care about such things. Definitely not in the EU. If you have a problem with pollution, then properly cost that pollution on an even basis, instead of picking and choosing deep pockets and other politically palatable targets. Man, the 2nd amendment is there for a reason.

The second amendment has absolutely nothing to do with this. This is the EU and the second amendment is about "bearing arms," not selling electronic equipment.

Yes, it does: an armed populace is harder to push around.

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#689

Post by ghaff »

dfox wrote: post #631
notJim wrote: post #560

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very strange to read this comment on article about USB, which has been developed by committee from the beginning. To me it seems quite innovative, and arguably disruptive to have a single standard for all these things. Maybe USB doesn't clear your personal bar, but then why worry about this at all?

From time to time Intel's marketing tries to sell the idea that USB was invented by this one Intel engineer. Somewhat obviously that is not true. On the other hand if you compare USB 1.0 to 1.1 it is quite obvious that real implementation experience and throwing out artifacts of the design by committee was quite important for the success.

I was going to disagree as I used to know one the standards people at Intel quite well (who always regretted that USB was orientation specific)--and I didn't remember anything like that. But you're right. Intel was pushing Ajay Bhatt was one of the people Intel highlighted as a face behind Intel's technology. (Although the campaign wasn't specific to USB.) https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2009/05/intel_ad_campaig...

Re: EU reaches deal to make USB-C a common charger for most electronic devices

#690

Post by Panoramix »

leadingthenet wrote: post #643
akira2501 wrote: post #568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Innovation, particularly disruptive and / or breakthrough innovation We are talking about power cables here. Are you anticipating something major in this space? Is it reasonable to do so?

Disruptive technology cannot be anticipated. It's tautological.

It can be disproved within reason. The only new thing a magic new cable would bring to the table is more power, which is not practical to have.

The big innovation I'd love to have? Having only ONE charger for all my devices, forever. That absolutely destroys any "innovation" Apple or whoever can bring to the table.

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