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A macOS terminal command that tells you if your USB-C cable is bad

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Re: A macOS terminal command that tells you if your USB-C cable is bad

#11

Post by sorcercode »

Hasnep wrote: post #7
bediger4000 wrote: post #4

Two years ago, I wouldn’t have bothered with the rewrite, let alone creating the script in the first place. The friction was too high. Now, small utility scripts like this are almost free to build. This aligns with the hypothesis that we should see and lots lots of "personalized" or single purpose software if vibe coding works. This particular project is one example. Are there a ton more out there?

Simon Willison's list has a few: https://tools.simonwillison.net/

nice! thanks for sharing this. as always, Simon seems to be multiple steps ahead on this game.

Re: A macOS terminal command that tells you if your USB-C cable is bad

#12

Post by dotancohen »

AceJohnny2 wrote: post #8
bediger4000 wrote: post #4

Two years ago, I wouldn’t have bothered with the rewrite, let alone creating the script in the first place. The friction was too high. Now, small utility scripts like this are almost free to build. This aligns with the hypothesis that we should see and lots lots of "personalized" or single purpose software if vibe coding works. This particular project is one example. Are there a ton more out there?

I have a bunch at work, yes. Can't publish them. Just an hour ago I "made" one in 2 minutes to iterate through some files, extract metadata, and convert to CSV. I'm convinced that hypothesis is true. The activation energy (with a subscription to one of the big 3, in the current pre-enshittification phase) is approximately 0. Edit: I also wouldn't even want to publish these one-off, AI-generated scripts, because for o…

Who's the third? I'm assuming OpenAI and Anthropic are 1 and 2.

Re: A macOS terminal command that tells you if your USB-C cable is bad

#13

Post by sorcercode »

rmunn wrote: post #9

Please update the title to mention that this is MacOS only; I got excited to try this out, but I only have laptops running Linux and Windows.

yeah sorry about that. I don't have access to a Linux/Windows machine.

if I got a hold of the output and commands run, would gladly modify it.

Re: A macOS terminal command that tells you if your USB-C cable is bad

#14

Post by duttish »

Izkata wrote: post #5

It's more complicated than "this cable is good/bad". I had a suspicion about one of my cables for months, but just last week I confirmed it with a device that shows the volts/amps/watts/total kwh passing through it: I have a USB-C cable with orientation. Plugged in one way it transfers about 5x more power than the other way, and in the lower orientation it's low enough for the earbud case I use it with to not charge.

Wait what. I thought half the point of usb c was to not rely on orientation.

Is there any way to check this other than experiment?

My "solution" so far has been to not buy cheap cables and just hope I get quality in return.

Re: A macOS terminal command that tells you if your USB-C cable is bad

#15

Post by AceJohnny2 »

dotancohen wrote: post #12
AceJohnny2 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a bunch at work, yes. Can't publish them. Just an hour ago I "made" one in 2 minutes to iterate through some files, extract metadata, and convert to CSV. I'm convinced that hypothesis is true. The activation energy (with a subscription to one of the big 3, in the current pre-enshittification phase) is approximately 0. Edit: I also wouldn't even want to publish these one-off, AI-generated scripts, because for o…

Who's the third? I'm assuming OpenAI and Anthropic are 1 and 2.

Yeah, Anthropic & OpenAI for two, the third being Google. I hear Gemini's gotten quite good.

Re: A macOS terminal command that tells you if your USB-C cable is bad

#16

Post by tennysont »

duttish wrote: post #14
Izkata wrote: post #5

It's more complicated than "this cable is good/bad". I had a suspicion about one of my cables for months, but just last week I confirmed it with a device that shows the volts/amps/watts/total kwh passing through it: I have a USB-C cable with orientation. Plugged in one way it transfers about 5x more power than the other way, and in the lower orientation it's low enough for the earbud case I use it with to not charge.

Wait what. I thought half the point of usb c was to not rely on orientation. Is there any way to check this other than experiment? My "solution" so far has been to not buy cheap cables and just hope I get quality in return.

I think that I have a specific cable-device-orientation that is broken. Meaning, I think a particular USB C cable won't charge my phone if it's plugged in 'backwards'.

I always assumed that USB C cables use different pins depending on orientation, and that some pins on the cable wore down.

Maybe that's what happened here?

Re: A macOS terminal command that tells you if your USB-C cable is bad

#17

Post by nurettin »

bediger4000 wrote: post #4

Two years ago, I wouldn’t have bothered with the rewrite, let alone creating the script in the first place. The friction was too high. Now, small utility scripts like this are almost free to build. This aligns with the hypothesis that we should see and lots lots of "personalized" or single purpose software if vibe coding works. This particular project is one example. Are there a ton more out there?

For me, claude churns like 10-15 python scripts a day. Some of these could be called utilities. It helps with debugging program outputs, quick statistical calculations, stuff I would use excel for. Yesterday it noticed a discrepancy that lead to us finding a bug.

So yes there is a ton but why bother publishing and maintaining them now that anyone can produce them? Your project is not special or worthwhile anymore.

Re: A macOS terminal command that tells you if your USB-C cable is bad

#18

Post by kenperkins »

sorcercode wrote: post #13
rmunn wrote: post #9

Please update the title to mention that this is MacOS only; I got excited to try this out, but I only have laptops running Linux and Windows.

yeah sorry about that. I don't have access to a Linux/Windows machine. if I got a hold of the output and commands run, would gladly modify it.

fwiw, it would take 10 minutes to download a linux docker image and build it in go to test. The harder part is getting the information from a different API on Linux.

Re: A macOS terminal command that tells you if your USB-C cable is bad

#19

Post by jasonjayr »

sorcercode wrote: post #13
rmunn wrote: post #9

Please update the title to mention that this is MacOS only; I got excited to try this out, but I only have laptops running Linux and Windows.

yeah sorry about that. I don't have access to a Linux/Windows machine. if I got a hold of the output and commands run, would gladly modify it.

> lsusb -v

On Linux that produces a lot of info similar to the macos screenshots, but with values and labels specific to the Linux USB stack.

I wonder if AI could map the linux lsusb output to a form your tool can use...

Re: A macOS terminal command that tells you if your USB-C cable is bad

#20

Post by atoav »

Izkata wrote: post #5

It's more complicated than "this cable is good/bad". I had a suspicion about one of my cables for months, but just last week I confirmed it with a device that shows the volts/amps/watts/total kwh passing through it: I have a USB-C cable with orientation. Plugged in one way it transfers about 5x more power than the other way, and in the lower orientation it's low enough for the earbud case I use it with to not charge.

It is not unheard of to have single damaged lines/connector-joints within a cable. The question is whether your cable was designed that way or whether it was damaged in a way that made it do this.
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