[OT] USB KVM switches

From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
Date: Wed Feb 2 13:48:27 2005

Tom Jennings wrote:
> I like USB. Of course I don't develop for it :-)
[...]
> * It never requires adapters.

And when it does require adapters, you're just SOL, because the
adapters don't exist.

In the olden days (which were only a few years ago), I had a PDA,
a modem, and a computer, all with EIA-232 serial ports. The PDA
cable and modem were wired as DCE, and the computer was DTE. Most
of the time, I would plug the modem or the PDA into the computer, and
that worked fine. But when travelling, I would take the modem along
and plug it into the PDA using a null modem cable. This all worked
fine.

Now I have a PDA, a modem, and a computer, all with USB ports. The
computer is a USB host, and the PDA and modem are USB devices. I
can still use the PDA or the modem with the computer. But when I
travel, I cannot use the modem with the PDA, since they're both
USB devices, and USB devices can't talk to each other. (Yes, there's
a USB On-the-Go spec which is supposed to address this, but it doesn't
seem to be going anywhere, and I'm not sure it would solve the PDA and
modem problem.)

This is progress?

USB vs. EIA-232 is like a point-and-click GUI vs. a command line. A
point-and-click GUI makes simple things easy, and more complicated things
impossible. So does USB.

Eric
Received on Wed Feb 02 2005 - 13:48:27 GMT