when you build something foolproof...

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

... they invent a better fool.

(I'm behind the times, I know.)

I got a slap-bracelet / USB flash memory as swag a while back.

We just tried it for transporting pictures.  I plugged it into my 
computer's USB port, and nothing happened.  It turns out that the usb plug 
had no housing, only a tongue, and so could be plugged in backwards (and 
not work).

One of the few things USB got half right was that you could not plug it in 
backwards.  But we've now had innovation.

(I say "half right" because the obviously right approach would be to have 
it work whichever way it is plugged in.  The *next* USB connector is 
supposed to do that.)

(My Lenovo ThinkPads, like most notebooks, have barrel plugs, with 
complete rotational symmetry.  My latest Lenovo (IdeaPad) has a 
rectangular plug with 180-degree symmetry, like the new USB.  This doesn't 
seem like progress.)
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