xkcd: dual USB-C plugs

[Lynn McGuire]

xkcd: dual USB-C plugs
https://xkcd.com/2493/

Oh, nothing could go wrong with that.

Explained at:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2493:_Dual_USB-C

Lynn

[Dorothy J Heydt]

Post by Lynn McGuire
xkcd: dual USB-C plugs
https://xkcd.com/2493/
Oh, nothing could go wrong with that.
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2493:_Dual_USB-C

I keep intending to bring that up and ask Hal wotthehell it
means. He'd probably know. I can't tell the thing from a
standard two-prong plug.

[J. Clarke]

Post by Dorothy J Heydt

Post by Lynn McGuire
xkcd: dual USB-C plugs
https://xkcd.com/2493/
Oh, nothing could go wrong with that.
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2493:_Dual_USB-C

I keep intending to bring that up and ask Hal wotthehell it
means. He'd probably know. I can't tell the thing from a
standard two-prong plug.

Well that's kind of the point. You can plug it into a wall outlet.
Hilarity will Ensue.

[Dorothy J Heydt]

Post by J. Clarke

Post by Dorothy J Heydt

Post by Lynn McGuire
xkcd: dual USB-C plugs
https://xkcd.com/2493/
Oh, nothing could go wrong with that.
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2493:_Dual_USB-C

I keep intending to bring that up and ask Hal wotthehell it
means. He'd probably know. I can't tell the thing from a
standard two-prong plug.

Well that's kind of the point. You can plug it into a wall outlet.
Hilarity will Ensue.

I guess. Thanks for posting the link to the explanation, which I
have read. That I don't understand it is probably because I
majored in Linguistics rather than EECS.

One of the reasons Hal's and my marriage has endured for so long
with so little Hilarity Ensuing is that our knowledge overlaps.
Think of a Venn diagram where the intersection is about half the
area of each of the sets. That intersection has grown over the
years, because we talk to each other a lot.

[Quadibloc]

I guess. Thanks for posting the link to the explanation, which I
have read. That I don't understand it is probably because I
majored in Linguistics rather than EECS.

Odd. The explanation should have been understandable.

A USB-C connector is the plug one uses to charge one of
those smartphones these days. At least if it's Android and
not an iPhone.

If one took two of those connectors, spacing them apart
so that the result _looked_ like an ordinary wall plug, then
you would get live AC where ground should be, which
would be bad.

(Unlike a prong of an AC plug, a USB connector
has an outside and an inside. The outside is just for ground.
The inside is where the power and data lines go. As those aren't
connected, in the case of the misuse this "cursed connector" would
invite, it would be more likely for the hilarity to consist of
people getting shocks than electronics being fried.)

If the explanation was complicated and technical, instead of
focusing on the simple facts cited above, that was unfortunate.

John Savard

[Ted Nolan <tednolan>]

Post by Quadibloc

I guess. Thanks for posting the link to the explanation, which I
have read. That I don't understand it is probably because I
majored in Linguistics rather than EECS.

Odd. The explanation should have been understandable.
A USB-C connector is the plug one uses to charge one of
those smartphones these days. At least if it's Android and
not an iPhone.
If one took two of those connectors, spacing them apart
so that the result _looked_ like an ordinary wall plug, then
you would get live AC where ground should be, which
would be bad.
(Unlike a prong of an AC plug, a USB connector
has an outside and an inside. The outside is just for ground.
The inside is where the power and data lines go. As those aren't
connected, in the case of the misuse this "cursed connector" would
invite, it would be more likely for the hilarity to consist of
people getting shocks than electronics being fried.)
If the explanation was complicated and technical, instead of
focusing on the simple facts cited above, that was unfortunate.
John Savard

I just actually ran into this, in reverse at a hotel. All of the lamps
had AC plugs around the base so you didn't have to grovel around the
walls looking for a plug for you laptop or whatever. They also had USB
double female sets for charging, and those looked pretty similar to a
two prong AC outlet. I was trying to plug in my laptop by touch, and
ended up jamming the AC plug into the USB duo. I think I bent the socket
enough that it's not going to work for the next guest needing a USB charger.

[John W Kennedy]

Post by Dorothy J Heydt

Post by J. Clarke

Post by Dorothy J Heydt

Post by Lynn McGuire
xkcd: dual USB-C plugs
https://xkcd.com/2493/
Oh, nothing could go wrong with that.
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2493:_Dual_USB-C

I keep intending to bring that up and ask Hal wotthehell it
means. He'd probably know. I can't tell the thing from a
standard two-prong plug.

Well that's kind of the point. You can plug it into a wall outlet.
Hilarity will Ensue.

I guess. Thanks for posting the link to the explanation, which I
have read. That I don't understand it is probably because I
majored in Linguistics rather than EECS.
One of the reasons Hal's and my marriage has endured for so long
with so little Hilarity Ensuing is that our knowledge overlaps.
Think of a Venn diagram where the intersection is about half the
area of each of the sets. That intersection has grown over the
years, because we talk to each other a lot.

I think your problem is a bit of fine detail. A standard American power
plug has two solid-copper prongs; this imaginary plug, on each prong,
sports tiny pins like the ones in a USB plug.

[Robert Carnegie]

Post by Dorothy J Heydt

Post by Lynn McGuire
xkcd: dual USB-C plugs
https://xkcd.com/2493/
Oh, nothing could go wrong with that.
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2493:_Dual_USB-C

I keep intending to bring that up and ask Hal wotthehell it
means. He'd probably know. I can't tell the thing from a
standard two-prong plug.

Well that's kind of the point. You can plug it into a wall outlet.

But you absolutely shouldn't!

Hilarity will Ensue.

It may be a parody of the all too frequent real situation
of a computer interconnect plug being found inserted
firmly in a socket of the wrong shape, or even a socket
of the right shape but with an incompatible purpose,
such as keyboard/mouse or networking/phone line.
Experts aren't immune to doing this though usually
it precedes a user calling the IT helpdesk, but usually
only expensive equipment is hurt. This one's deadly.

A couple of other thoughts come - that some USB-A
appliances - disk drive, CD-ROM - use relatively a lot
of power and require to be plugged in to /two/
USB ports - one for power only. (Always from the
same source device.) (USB-A is the somewhat larger
rectangle that is somehow wrong-way-up the first
/two/ tries.) And also, some wall adapters to output
USB power do have USB sockets lined up. There's
pictures of a thing here, for USB-A.
<https://picclick.co.uk/Wall-Outlet-To-Triple-USB-Power-Adapter-363346871915.html>