4 ms·

Literally every other device is usb-c, thats why

ajr0 1y ago
I'm a big fan of this change, however, I think to a black mirror episode [0] where essentially little robot dogs could interface with everything they came into contact with because every connection was the same, it may be trivial to have multiple connections for a weapon like this but the take away I had from this is that 'variety' may be better than a single standardized solution. Partly because it is more expensive to plan for multiple types of inputs and making the cost of war go up will make it more difficult which I think inherently is the idea behind some of the larger cybersecurity companies, a hack can only work once then everyone has defenses for it after that single successful attack, this makes it more expensive to successfully stage attacks. Huge digression from this convo... but I think back to this constantly. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metalhead_(Black_Mirror) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metalhead_(Black_Mirror)
- lxgr 1y ago
  Proprietary ports are textbook security by obscurity.
- intended 1y ago
  Many defensive are a trade off between the convenience of non attackers, and the trouble created for attackers. Given the sheer number of devices we interact with in a single day, USB-C as a standard is worth the trade off for an increase in our threat surface area. 1000 Attackers can carry around N extra charging wires anyway. 10^7 users having to keep say, 3 extra charging wires on average? That’s a huge increase in costs and resources. (Numbers made up)
- bee_rider 1y ago
  Two thoughts: 1) Surely the world conquering robo-army could get some adapters. 2) To the extend to which this makes anything more difficult, it is just that it makes everything a tiny bit less convenient. This includes the world-conquering robo-army, but also everything else we do. It is a general argument against capacity, which can’t be right, right?
- lou1306 1y ago
  So I suppose Lightning's abysmally slow transfer speed is also a security feature? No way you can exfiltrate my photo roll at 60 MBps :)
itake 1y ago
All of my devices are lightening. Now I have to carry around 2 cables.
- broodbucket 1y ago
  There's simply more people with the opposite problem, especially in markets where Apple is less prevalent, which is most of them around the world. When there's more than one type of cable, plenty of people are going to be inconvenienced when one is chosen as the cable to rule them all, but in the end everyone wins, it's just annoying to get there.
  - jjk166 1y ago
    > plenty of people are going to be inconvenienced when one is chosen as the cable to rule them all, but in the end everyone wins That's not everyone wins. The people that actually bought these devices now have cables that don't work and need to replace with a lower quality product, and the people who were already using something else are continuing to not need cables for these devices. The majority breaks even, a significant minority loses. Simply not choosing one cable to rule them all lets everyone win. There is no compelling reason for one size to fit all.
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
    - FeepingCreature 1y ago
      It's a temporary drawback; everyone wins in the long term because there's only one standard.
      - jjk166 1y ago
        Again, that's not a win for anybody. No one winds up in a better position than where they started, there is no payback in exchange for the temporary drawback, which also isn't temporary if the final standard is inferior. If some people like hip hop but more people like country, it's not a win for everybody to eliminate the hip hop radio stations so we can all listen to a single country station.

ajr0 1y ago

I'm a big fan of this change, however, I think to a black mirror episode [0] where essentially little robot dogs could interface with everything they came into contact with because every connection was the same, it may be trivial to have multiple connections for a weapon like this but the take away I had from this is that 'variety' may be better than a single standardized solution. Partly because it is more expensive to plan for multiple types of inputs and making the cost of war go up will make it more difficult which I think inherently is the idea behind some of the larger cybersecurity companies, a hack can only work once then everyone has defenses for it after that single successful attack, this makes it more expensive to successfully stage attacks. Huge digression from this convo... but I think back to this constantly. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metalhead_(Black_Mirror) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metalhead_(Black_Mirror)

lxgr 1y ago
Proprietary ports are textbook security by obscurity.
intended 1y ago
Many defensive are a trade off between the convenience of non attackers, and the trouble created for attackers. Given the sheer number of devices we interact with in a single day, USB-C as a standard is worth the trade off for an increase in our threat surface area. 1000 Attackers can carry around N extra charging wires anyway. 10^7 users having to keep say, 3 extra charging wires on average? That’s a huge increase in costs and resources. (Numbers made up)
bee_rider 1y ago
Two thoughts: 1) Surely the world conquering robo-army could get some adapters. 2) To the extend to which this makes anything more difficult, it is just that it makes everything a tiny bit less convenient. This includes the world-conquering robo-army, but also everything else we do. It is a general argument against capacity, which can’t be right, right?
lou1306 1y ago
So I suppose Lightning's abysmally slow transfer speed is also a security feature? No way you can exfiltrate my photo roll at 60 MBps :)

itake 1y ago

All of my devices are lightening. Now I have to carry around 2 cables.

broodbucket 1y ago
There's simply more people with the opposite problem, especially in markets where Apple is less prevalent, which is most of them around the world. When there's more than one type of cable, plenty of people are going to be inconvenienced when one is chosen as the cable to rule them all, but in the end everyone wins, it's just annoying to get there.
- jjk166 1y ago
  > plenty of people are going to be inconvenienced when one is chosen as the cable to rule them all, but in the end everyone wins That's not everyone wins. The people that actually bought these devices now have cables that don't work and need to replace with a lower quality product, and the people who were already using something else are continuing to not need cables for these devices. The majority breaks even, a significant minority loses. Simply not choosing one cable to rule them all lets everyone win. There is no compelling reason for one size to fit all.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - FeepingCreature 1y ago
    It's a temporary drawback; everyone wins in the long term because there's only one standard.
    - jjk166 1y ago
      Again, that's not a win for anybody. No one winds up in a better position than where they started, there is no payback in exchange for the temporary drawback, which also isn't temporary if the final standard is inferior. If some people like hip hop but more people like country, it's not a win for everybody to eliminate the hip hop radio stations so we can all listen to a single country station.