De-unplug USB device?

[BillW50]

In message <[email protected]>, BillW50 <[email protected]>
writes:
[]

I buy those short 6 inch USB extensions. And I use them not for
extra length, but when I plan on plugging and unplugging from an USB
port a lot. Thus not much wear on the laptop side, just mostly on
the cheap extension cable. I call them plug savers. ;-)

Where do you get them?

Amazon.com has them for $4.98 US.

I dunno Ken, that sounds a bit pricy to me. As Microbarn has them for
$0.89 each.

USB 2.0 Extension Cable A/M to A/F, 6 inches, Blue
http://www.microbarn.com/details.aspx?rid=102660

 

[VanguardLH]

VanguardLH wrote ...


I buy those short 6 inch USB extensions. And I use them not for extra
length, but when I plan on plugging and unplugging from an USB port a
lot. Thus not much wear on the laptop side, just mostly on the cheap
extension cable. I call them plug savers. ;-)

Cool idea. I've got one sitting in a drawer (left over from a defective
MagicJack dongle) but didn't think about using it for this.

 

[VanguardLH]

VanguardLH wrote ...


Actually in the help file, it explains it restarts the hub (not an
individual device). Although I believe the terminology reset and restart
is the same thing in this case.

I've seen the two terms differentiated from each other by USB driver
programmers. Reset is a signal sent to the hub whereas restart is
unloading and reloading the driver. It's a hardware versus software
thing. When you read the USB spec, it gets confusing when they mention
detached as a logic state so it gets tough to describe detaching the
device as most users would think that means to unplug it.

I've been playing with Zentimo with stopping a device (same as safely
remove) and returning back a device. And USBSR and Zentimo will stop and
warn you if restarting the hub would cause problems. As it lists
processes that has the other device(s) locked for some reason.

Ah, a safety check after you safely remove but want to undo it.

USBSR and Zentimo ...

As I've heard, Zentimo is considered the more mature and robust product.
Is that your perception, too? It's 50% more expensive than Safely
Remove.

 

[Mark F]

Nobody has mentioned about some USB devices that has their own power
supply and I never have to do the reconnect thing with them. For example
my 3.5 inch external hard drives. As I just safely remove them and kill
the power on the external drive.

Turning off the power is risky unless the device is specifically
designed that way. Some devices fail over to trying to get power from
the USB cable, and some (poorly designed) USB interfaces on cards or
motherboards then die because the load was too great. (The same
problem happens for IEEE-1394. I've sometimes been able to use
cables that don't pass though power to get things to work safely,
but some self-powered hardware doesn't seem to work if the interface
power connections aren't passed through; maybe they need a ground
or something that isn't passed by the pin-conversion thingies that
I tried.)

 

[Stan Brown]

True, as I've seen users literally rape the connectors.

I don't think you mean "literally" literally.

 

[Ken Blake]

I don't think you mean "literally" literally.

It's often been said that the word "literally" has come to mean
"figuratively."

 

[Gene Wirchenko]

It's often been said that the word "literally" has come to mean
"figuratively."

'"literally" is literally used to mean "figuratively"', Tom said
figuratively.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

 

[BillW50]

As I've heard, Zentimo is considered the more mature and robust
product. Is that your perception, too? It's 50% more expensive than
Safely Remove.

That isn't how I see it. They are exactly the same except Zentimo has
five extra features that USBSR doesn't have. Here are the differences.

Zentimo vs. USB Safely Remove
http://zentimo.com/zentimovsusbsr.htm

 

[BillW50]

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
True, as I've seen users literally rape the connectors. To be honest,
I always keep a couple spares for my keyboard since I too often pound
on it (mostly during games) but that is easy to replace...

This comment is very fascinating to me. As I learned to type on an old
Remington model 18 typewriter which I found in the trash at the age of 6
or so. The only thing wrong with it was it needed to be oiled and the
return belt was disconnected. And that darn thing you had to really
smack the keys to make a good impression on the paper. I still have it,
but it is sits as a museum piece nowadays. ;-)

Anyway that habit of smacking keys never disappeared. And I have never
had a keyboard failure in all of these decades. And I chalk it up to
still smacking the hell out of the keys.

There is something else I do that I guess most doesn't which might make
all of the difference. As I don't like oil or anything else on my hands
(your hands normally ooze oil automatically -- thus why people leave
fingerprints). So I wash them a lot. Although it doesn't bother me a lot
if I can't wash them or anything, but if I can I do.

And I noticed that my keyboards and even remote controls just keeps
working for what seems like forever. But when other people use them too,
all bets are off. Luckily I don't have to share most of my stuff so that
isn't normally a problem.

There was only one very cheap keyboard that I would call problematic
after years of use. And that was one IR wireless keyboard that came with
the early Avatar HTPC. And the keys moved with a plastic pin in a
plastic sleeve. And under heavy use, only a dead center hit would
depress a key (otherwise it would bind and not depress). But all other
keyboards I had were never like this one. This one was just never made
to last. But when new, I did like it a lot (the extra keys only worked
under Windows 98 with a driver). ;-)

I have never ran into somebody with the luck I have with keyboards. The
closest I have found was those that like the old PS/2 IBM keyboards
which seems to never quit no matter who uses them (I don't own any of
them myself actually).

The only thing I have trouble with keyboards was I tried to use a
secretary's keyboard once who wears out all of the labels very quickly
(I guess she liked rubbing things with her fingers). And that was a
weird experience. As I know darn where the keys are on a standard QWERTY
keyboard. But one glance at this keyboard and my mind went blank also.
:-0

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

It's often been said that the word "literally" has come to mean
"figuratively."

which therefore makes it useless.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

`The wireless telegraph is not difficult to understand. The ordinary telegraph
is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York, and it meows in Los
Angeles. The wireless is the same, only without the cat.' Attributed to Albert
Einstein 1879-1955 (Computing, 1999-12-16).

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>, BillW50 <[email protected]>
writes:
[]

The only thing I have trouble with keyboards was I tried to use a
secretary's keyboard once who wears out all of the labels very quickly
(I guess she liked rubbing things with her fingers). And that was a
weird experience. As I know darn where the keys are on a standard QWERTY
keyboard. But one glance at this keyboard and my mind went blank also.
:-0

I once found a completely blank keyboard at a computer fair: my blind
friend (who is a trained touch-typist) was delighted with it, as she
liked having an advantage over most sighted people who might want to use
it! It wasn't totally standard - the space bar was split in two, and I
think there were one or two other things. I think it _might_ have been
sold for some gaming purpose.

She also (having trained on manual typewriters) doesn't half thump the
keys - without any ill-effects, AFAIK; she does have definite
preferences for how a keyboard should feel, though, and doesn't like
most of the ones we see in shops or at computer fairs.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

`The wireless telegraph is not difficult to understand. The ordinary telegraph
is like a very long cat. You pull the tail in New York, and it meows in Los
Angeles. The wireless is the same, only without the cat.' Attributed to Albert
Einstein 1879-1955 (Computing, 1999-12-16).

 

[Dave \Crash\ Dummy]

I don't think you mean "literally" literally.

I dunno. Some computer geeks are pret-ty strange, and really hard up!

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

This comment is very fascinating to me. As I learned to type on an old
Remington model 18 typewriter which I found in the trash at the age of 6
or so. The only thing wrong with it was it needed to be oiled and the
return belt was disconnected. And that darn thing you had to really
smack the keys to make a good impression on the paper. I still have it,
but it is sits as a museum piece nowadays. ;-)

Anyway that habit of smacking keys never disappeared. And I have never
had a keyboard failure in all of these decades. And I chalk it up to
still smacking the hell out of the keys.

There is something else I do that I guess most doesn't which might make
all of the difference. As I don't like oil or anything else on my hands
(your hands normally ooze oil automatically -- thus why people leave
fingerprints). So I wash them a lot. Although it doesn't bother me a lot
if I can't wash them or anything, but if I can I do.

And I noticed that my keyboards and even remote controls just keeps
working for what seems like forever. But when other people use them too,
all bets are off. Luckily I don't have to share most of my stuff so that
isn't normally a problem.

There was only one very cheap keyboard that I would call problematic
after years of use. And that was one IR wireless keyboard that came with
the early Avatar HTPC. And the keys moved with a plastic pin in a
plastic sleeve. And under heavy use, only a dead center hit would
depress a key (otherwise it would bind and not depress). But all other
keyboards I had were never like this one. This one was just never made
to last. But when new, I did like it a lot (the extra keys only worked
under Windows 98 with a driver). ;-)

I have never ran into somebody with the luck I have with keyboards. The
closest I have found was those that like the old PS/2 IBM keyboards
which seems to never quit no matter who uses them (I don't own any of
them myself actually).

The only thing I have trouble with keyboards was I tried to use a
secretary's keyboard once who wears out all of the labels very quickly
(I guess she liked rubbing things with her fingers). And that was a
weird experience. As I know darn where the keys are on a standard QWERTY
keyboard. But one glance at this keyboard and my mind went blank also.
:-0

Back in the day, where I worked we had the older 026 keypunch. When
they were replaced by the 029 models, certain keytops (special
character keys, mostly) were now marked with different characters,
while the key with the old label, in its new location, now produced new
holes.

What I was working on used the old style punched cards, but it turned
out all I had to do was close my eyes and I could punch my cards
correctly.

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

Aargh, no, I didn't write that. Someone in the stack must be using WLM
15 ...
[]

Back in the day, where I worked we had the older 026 keypunch. When
they were replaced by the 029 models, certain keytops (special
character keys, mostly) were now marked with different characters,
while the key with the old label, in its new location, now produced new
holes.

What I was working on used the old style punched cards, but it turned
out all I had to do was close my eyes and I could punch my cards
correctly.

(-:

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

On Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:18:09 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"

Aargh, no, I didn't write that. Someone in the stack must be using WLM
15 ...

Looks like BillW50 messed up the quoting/attribution in the post Gene
replied to, but he's using WLM14 so it looks more like a PEBCAK error.

 

[Ken Blake]

Back in the day, where I worked we had the older 026 keypunch. When
they were replaced by the 029 models, certain keytops (special
character keys, mostly) were now marked with different characters,
while the key with the old label, in its new location, now produced new
holes.

It's been too many years, and I can no longer remember the differences
between the 026 and the 029. But I remember that our keypunch
department had some of each.

What I was working on used the old style punched cards, but it turned
out all I had to do was close my eyes and I could punch my cards
correctly.

Sorry, I don't understand that. Both the 026 and the 029 used the same
punched cards.


I think they're finally gone by now, but for years I had a few punched
cards around. I also had some "unpunched" cards, which I used to use
as bookmarks.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

On Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:18:09 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"

Looks like BillW50 messed up the quoting/attribution in the post Gene
replied to, but he's using WLM14 so it looks more like a PEBCAK error.

John and Zaphod: All I meant to reply to was the idea of not looking at
- or not having - character glyphs on the key tops.

My reply was to the (subsequently clipped) text just above what I
wrote, and it really didn't matter to me who had written it, just that
it was there and reminded me of a personal anecdote I had forgotten.

Any attributions by me of any other text to any other person (or even
*any* person) was unintentional. Obviously, for clarity, I really
should have quoted only what I was replying to, rather than the whole
post. I apologize for that error of non-omission.

 

[Cecil]

What I was working on used the old style punched cards, but it turned
out all I had to do was close my eyes and I could punch my cards
correctly.

Lord help you if you lost a card or someone accidentally misplaced one.
We had a program that we ran once a quarter and we had to make
substantial changes to some of the data input. I learned quick to count
cards before and after.

Top

 

[Paul]

Lord help you if you lost a card or someone accidentally misplaced one.
We had a program that we ran once a quarter and we had to make
substantial changes to some of the data input. I learned quick to count
cards before and after.

Top

If you worked with punch cards, you soon learned to number them.
In a programming language, the numbering might be on the left.
For data decks, the numbers could be on the right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card

"Sometimes the ignored columns (usually 73–80) were used to contain a sequence
number for each card, so the card deck could be sorted to the correct order
in case it was dropped."

Paul

 

[Chris S.]

If you worked with punch cards, you soon learned to number them.
In a programming language, the numbering might be on the left.
For data decks, the numbers could be on the right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card

"Sometimes the ignored columns (usually 73–80) were used to contain a
sequence
number for each card, so the card deck could be sorted to the correct
order
in case it was dropped."

Paul

I remember slogging through the snow to the data center, deck in hand, (no
rubber band)
and slipping on the bottom step and watching several days of work go flying
through the air.... National Bureau of Standards, 1963... *sigh* A learning
experience.

Chris