The subject came up with regard to wastefulness in harvesting millions of Christmas trees only to throw all that away two weeks later. It's already been made clear this is not a War on Christmas but rather a substantial distaste for waste.
In a more immediate example, there are two USB hubs connected to this iMac. One is USB 3.0 with four ports and the other is USB 2.0 with seven ports.
The four-porter is hardly used because the quality of the ports is so shoddy while the seven-porter is fully-populated. There are four more USB 3.0 ports on the iMac and those are fully-populated as well.
Now for the beauty part in which this starts getting convoluted. It was such a hassle with the four-porter that I stopped screwing with it altogether after it was at least stable. However, it had two cables connected and I thought I knew where they went. It turns out one of the cables didn't go anywhere so that's now disconnected. It gets better with the other one since that goes back to the seven-porter to supply the power the four-porter gets from the iMac.
Ed: that was creative, wasn't it!
(larfs)
There's one more peach since the four-porter was so unreliable that I could not use it for the devices which require it the most (i.e. the external disk and the audio mixer). Instead, they plug directly into two of the iMac's ports.
Ed: usually it takes a politician to get things so confused!
Unlike a politician, I have a solution.
I've been dragging on this one since a ten-port USB hub is fifty bucks and I really, really did not want to spend that on something so dull. There's a number of boring reasons it was necessary so this happened:
Cadillac Man: you pushed this one over the top into Do It status and thank you. The biggest reason is a replacement USB 3.0 drive is coming for the USB 2.0 backup drive which failed. I believe it can be daisy-chained behind the current USB 3.0 drive but if it can't then it's a boat anchor without the new hub.
Note: that failed drive is yet more waste since there's no good way to recycle it.
The Anker device has nine USB 3.0 data ports and the tenth port is for charging an iPad, iPhone, etc. The charging port cannot be used for I/O operations such as syncing the iPad, etc. Some gave it a demerit for that but I don't see it matters much.
Amazon has a beefy title for it: [Upgraded Version] Anker USB 3.0 SuperSpeed 10-Port Hub Including a BC 1.2 Charging Port with 60W (12V / 5A) Power Adapter [VIA VL812-B2 Chipset and updated Firmware 9081] AH231
If the reviews are accurate, this device will solve the problem and it may also bring the iPad back into play. Usually its battery is dead because it's a hassle charging it.
Here's the wastefulness part since the USB 3.0 four-porter is crap and can't be repaired. There's no good answer except to throw it. The USB 2.0 seven-porter is functional but useless since it's too slow and is now obsolete. Yevette needs a USB hub but she needs USB 3.0 as well so likely the existing seven-porter goes to the trash as well.
We're already clear the concern about wastefulness has no focus on Christmas and any concern about wasting things needs to start at home but we all know the litany.
Ed: and you're breaking it!
Yep.
Computer people hardly ever throw anything if it still works and there are two or three different varieties of SD card readers floating about and other types of outdated miscellany. They're useless because iMacs have such readers builtin now.
Ed: evolution is necessarily wasteful.
Maybe so but I still don't like it. Maybe there's some irony as the computers aren't so much the wasteful part anymore since one can reasonably expect ten good years out of a Mac. Unknown for PC machines but I do know it's true for Macs. The parts which go obsolete constantly are the plugs and switches, things which otherwise mean absolutely nothing to anyone and yet they're vital.
Boiling that down a tad, it's really not just the wastefulness in Christmas trees which bugs me but rather wastefulness in anything.
In a more immediate example, there are two USB hubs connected to this iMac. One is USB 3.0 with four ports and the other is USB 2.0 with seven ports.
The four-porter is hardly used because the quality of the ports is so shoddy while the seven-porter is fully-populated. There are four more USB 3.0 ports on the iMac and those are fully-populated as well.
Now for the beauty part in which this starts getting convoluted. It was such a hassle with the four-porter that I stopped screwing with it altogether after it was at least stable. However, it had two cables connected and I thought I knew where they went. It turns out one of the cables didn't go anywhere so that's now disconnected. It gets better with the other one since that goes back to the seven-porter to supply the power the four-porter gets from the iMac.
Ed: that was creative, wasn't it!
(larfs)
There's one more peach since the four-porter was so unreliable that I could not use it for the devices which require it the most (i.e. the external disk and the audio mixer). Instead, they plug directly into two of the iMac's ports.
Ed: usually it takes a politician to get things so confused!
Unlike a politician, I have a solution.
I've been dragging on this one since a ten-port USB hub is fifty bucks and I really, really did not want to spend that on something so dull. There's a number of boring reasons it was necessary so this happened:
Cadillac Man: you pushed this one over the top into Do It status and thank you. The biggest reason is a replacement USB 3.0 drive is coming for the USB 2.0 backup drive which failed. I believe it can be daisy-chained behind the current USB 3.0 drive but if it can't then it's a boat anchor without the new hub.
Note: that failed drive is yet more waste since there's no good way to recycle it.
The Anker device has nine USB 3.0 data ports and the tenth port is for charging an iPad, iPhone, etc. The charging port cannot be used for I/O operations such as syncing the iPad, etc. Some gave it a demerit for that but I don't see it matters much.
Amazon has a beefy title for it: [Upgraded Version] Anker USB 3.0 SuperSpeed 10-Port Hub Including a BC 1.2 Charging Port with 60W (12V / 5A) Power Adapter [VIA VL812-B2 Chipset and updated Firmware 9081] AH231
If the reviews are accurate, this device will solve the problem and it may also bring the iPad back into play. Usually its battery is dead because it's a hassle charging it.
Here's the wastefulness part since the USB 3.0 four-porter is crap and can't be repaired. There's no good answer except to throw it. The USB 2.0 seven-porter is functional but useless since it's too slow and is now obsolete. Yevette needs a USB hub but she needs USB 3.0 as well so likely the existing seven-porter goes to the trash as well.
We're already clear the concern about wastefulness has no focus on Christmas and any concern about wasting things needs to start at home but we all know the litany.
Ed: and you're breaking it!
Yep.
Computer people hardly ever throw anything if it still works and there are two or three different varieties of SD card readers floating about and other types of outdated miscellany. They're useless because iMacs have such readers builtin now.
Ed: evolution is necessarily wasteful.
Maybe so but I still don't like it. Maybe there's some irony as the computers aren't so much the wasteful part anymore since one can reasonably expect ten good years out of a Mac. Unknown for PC machines but I do know it's true for Macs. The parts which go obsolete constantly are the plugs and switches, things which otherwise mean absolutely nothing to anyone and yet they're vital.
Boiling that down a tad, it's really not just the wastefulness in Christmas trees which bugs me but rather wastefulness in anything.
No comments:
Post a Comment