XPost: rec.arts.comics.strips   
   From: mjackson@alumni.caltech.edu   
      
   On 10/25/2025 11:27 AM, Paul S Person wrote:   
   > On Fri, 24 Oct 2025 12:05:43 -0400, Cryptoengineer   
   >  wrote:   
   >   
   >> On 10/23/2025 10:32 PM, Titus G wrote:   
   >>> On 23/10/25 04:28, Paul S Person wrote:   
      
   >>>> Perhaps you are thinking of IBM in the pre-PC days, when competitors   
   >>>> were kept busy matching the new proprietary plugs IBM kept coming up   
   >>>> with. Or so I recall having read in the far distant past.   
   >>>   
   >>> My recollection is of having read in the far distant past that it was   
   >>> Apple that used non standard interfaces/plugs. Maybe it was only their   
   >>> phones?   
   >>   
   >> The term 'Connector Conspiracy' was originally applied to IBM big iron,   
   >> back in the 60s and 70s. It was thought to be an attempt to shut out   
   >> compatible products, but making unique, patented connectors, and then   
   >> refusing to license them.   
   >>   
   >> Apple certainly had unique 'Lightning' connectors up until just a few   
   >> years ago. The EU forced all cell phones to use USB-C, and now that's   
   >> the standard.   
   >>   
   >> Don't get me started on EV power connectors....   
   >   
   > And the Tandy 1000 I purchased back in the late 80s had a parallel   
   > port that required a special connector. That was, IIRC, toward the end   
   > of "our PC must be unique even though we sell it as an IBM PC clone   
   > idiocy".   
      
   The Xerox Alto had a 50-pin connector of unknown function (to me) on the   
   back.  Fortunately there was documentation of which pins constituted an   
   RS232 configuration, and I was able to have a long adapter cable made up   
   to run over the wall into the lab where the Intel iRMX86 system I was   
   working with lived.  The editor on the Intel box was completely   
   unacceptable, but by transferring Pascal files back and forth to the   
   Alto I could use the lovely Laurel editor, then transfer them back for   
   testing.   
      
   --   
   Mark Jackson - https://mark-jackson.online/   
      Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.   
                                  - Mark Twain   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)