Friday afternoon hardware questions

[Ben Scott]

On Jan 22, 2008 3:47 PM, Bill McGonigle <bill at bfccomputing.com> wrote:
> The [SATA] connectors are the worst of any technology I've ever seen ...

  Some manufactuers have come up with own auxiliary latching
mechanisms, but AFAIK, there's no standard and none of them fit
anything else.

  From my "Best of Slashdot" file...


Subject: Overheard at the SATA connector design meeting:
From: Ancient_Hacker (751168)
Date: Mon 19 Mar 12:54PM

"Everyone please now and listen to OverLord Amphe Knoll!"

AK: "You have done well, pilgrims. The connector conspiracy advances!
Let us review our proud history:

    * 1938: The holy RCA Phono connector! The one that connects the
center conductor FIRST and blows out the speakers with hum! Also, it
has no detent so it can fall out given a light breeze! That was a
goodie!
    * 1941: The Ubiquitous UHF connector! The one that connects the
center pin first and either blows out the receiver, or burns up the
hapless HAM or CB user! Also it seems to have a detent, but there's aq
50% chance its a false fit and will wiggle loose
    * 1961: The Japanese hollow tube power plug! 10001 different
voltages and currents in one connector! Lotsa sales there of
replacement radios.
    * 1972: Of the Ma Bell RJ modular connectors, we will not speak.
Anybody can make a mistake and make a sturdy, usable, latching
connector once in a while. Luckily our agents infiltrated the
factories and made the latches prone to snag on wires and break off
after five uses. A partial recovery for the forces of connector
darkness!
    * 1974: 40-pin flat cable connectors: Another goal for our side!
Connectors with no latching or detents, plus 180 degree ambiguity!
Lots of smoke if you guess wrong!
    * 1985: The Mac AppleTalk connector! Supposedly a DIN standard,
but we sneaked in plenty of gotchas, like no detent and easily
confused with and smashed into the DIN 3 connector!
    * 2003: The SATA connector! A home run! No useful grounding, no
shielding, and it falls out if you just look at it!
    * 2006: External SATA connector: Well,a partial win. A few
improvements got sneaked in. Our hope is the users will confuse the
old and new styles and break off some disk drive pins. No soup for
anybody until you dream up a new SATA3 connector with more confounding
features. I'm thinking: explosions, or at least melt-downs