this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2023
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I found it at the dollar store.

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[–] jet@hackertalks.com 168 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Don't think of it as a tiny cable, think of it as a gender bender. You can put on the end of some female cable.

You're more likely to see dongles like this at fixed installations. Like somebody puts a USB port into a wall, like a speaker's podium, or a presentation stand. So one side is fixed, depending on what you want to hook up to it, you might need to have a gender bender.

[–] Starshader@lemmy.ml 56 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is the cable considered transgender after that ?

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 69 points 1 year ago (1 children)

USB is bi-directional. So it really doesn't care about the plug gender. Some other protocols are directional, then the plug gender is very important, so adapters for directional protocols tend to be more expensive, it may even require external power.

Once USB on the go was invented it cease to matter at all.

[–] essellburns@beehaw.org 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Today I learnt my sexuality is USB

[–] lud@lemm.ee 22 points 1 year ago

Universal Sexual Bus?

[–] x4740N@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What your describing sounds more like a double ended dildo

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)

As long as the double ended dildo provided low impedance electrical through ways, and distinct electrical paths for at least four conduits, with minimal capacitive cross talk... then yes

[–] meyotch@slrpnk.net 16 points 1 year ago

I like you and your style. Do not let a stupid dirty joke get in the way of proper electrical and data connections. It tells me where your priorities are and I respect that.

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[–] Hurensohn@lemmy.world 125 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] FUsername@feddit.de 36 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The stars of username, comment and upvotes aligned

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[–] Hellstormy@lemmy.world 103 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Have you never just wanted to plug 2 PCs into each other back to back?

[–] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 73 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] Artaca@lemdro.id 37 points 1 year ago (2 children)
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Back and forth, forever.

[–] x4740N@lemmy.world 71 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you think about it, this is the USB equivalent of a double ended dildo

[–] stebo02@sopuli.xyz 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

does this mean there's also double ended flesh lights?

[–] n00b001@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

Isn't that the nickname of your mum?

[–] Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 71 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It turn@ a usb extension cable into a regular usb

I guess that could be a use case?

[–] ook_the_librarian@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Or turn 2 extension cords into a long one.

But a serious answer is that these are sometimes sold in a kit of adapters that would let you change the head. Most kits like used a normal cord as the base cord, but some used USB extension cords as the base cord. So this is meant to be a replacement part, not useful in its own right.

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[–] stebo02@sopuli.xyz 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

wouldn't that just make this thing longer? we'd still have the same problem

[–] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 1 year ago (3 children)

There are female-female USB extension cables. As to why those exist...

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[–] flakeshake@feddit.de 56 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Such A-to-A adaptors and cables always have been prohibited by the USB spec, but people built them anyway. A common usecase for "illegal" A-A cables i remember was connecting PCIe cards (especially GPUs and mining cards) externally to riser sockets.

[–] accideath@lemmy.world 23 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I have an external 3,5β€œ HDD enclosure that needs a male to male USB 3.0 A cable to plug into a PC. Still wondering, why they didn’t use B…

[–] lud@lemm.ee 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's really odd. Why use a host connector when a client connector is intended for the purpose.

Did they entirely miss the purpose of USB?

[–] accideath@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Cost? A USB-A 3.0 connector is probably a few cents cheaper than a B 3.0 connector

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[–] jet@hackertalks.com 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_On-The-Go

In 2001 the directionality became kind of moot. Especially if you want to do attach something with an on-the-go host

[–] nottheengineer@feddit.de 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

An OTG setup needs all 5 pins of the micro-B connector. USB A cannot be used for OTG. If a USB-A port can act as a client, that's not OTG, it's a botched implementation.

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[–] Z4rK@lemmy.world 51 points 1 year ago (9 children)

I’ve used them for extension, as it allows you to attach a second, regular USB cable to it.

[–] iAmTheTot@kbin.social 14 points 1 year ago

Well, what do you mean by "regular"? The cable would need to be female on at least one end, which I usually see in... USB extension cables.

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[–] trailing9@lemmy.ml 42 points 1 year ago

Sometimes you have a female to female cable.

[–] Murais@lemmy.one 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You ever watch Requiem For A Dream?

[–] Fraylor@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago

ASSSSSSS TO ASSSSSSSS

[–] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] Fizz 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)
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[–] tkk13909@sopuli.xyz 23 points 1 year ago

LUSBian sex obviously!

[–] blackn1ght@feddit.uk 20 points 1 year ago

I dunno but it bothers me how much plastic wrapping that fucking thing apparently needs.

[–] theKalash@feddit.ch 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

To connect two USB-A ports.

Basically the same as a USB-A to USB-A cable, just really short.

[–] BorgDrone@lemmy.one 9 points 1 year ago (12 children)

USB-A to USB-A cables do not exist, the USB standard does not allow them, if you have a cable with two USB-A connectors then it’s not actually a certified USB cable. The same goes for USB extension cables and this adapter. Note how there isn’t a β€˜USB certified’ logo on the package.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The cables exist; they just don't follow the standard. I've used them when developing consumer electronics: the host controller on the device switches to device mode in the bootloader, allowing a host machine to connect and debug/flash the device.

[–] theKalash@feddit.ch 14 points 1 year ago (12 children)

USB-A to USB-A cables do not exist

wtf are you talking about, of course they do.

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[–] LazaroFilm@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

I used to have a portable hard drive that had a usb-A/ e-sata hybrid connector and I had to use a USB A to A cable (or e-data) to use it.

[–] Rand0mA@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Get 2 laptops, put them side by side with usb ports wide open and plug them bitches together. Likely will short with 5v being fed both sides.

But in reality its a usb coupler (plugging together 2x usb extension cables). Not a great lot of use from them in my opinion. I've seen shit bodged together in low budget it offices using edge case crap like this.

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[–] nicocool84@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] Ravi@feddit.de 10 points 1 year ago

It's an Usb-A gender changer. It's not that useful but you could use it to turn an otg adapter (female usb-a to male usb-c) into a regular usb-c cable. I'd rather buy a usb-c cable though.

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