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In Praise of Dongles
There’s more to adapters than meets the eye
So here’s a thing that I don’t usually say in public: I love cables. To be more specific, I love the connectors. The actual wire I can take or leave, really, but the metal end that fits into the port is where the power is. Cables suggest possibilities; the possibility of linking together pieces of hardware. When I see a connector, I feel a little frisson of excitement. I start thinking of peripheral devices I can make speak to each other. Often there’s a satisfying click when you plug the cable into the corresponding port. Some are better than others of course, but I have a soft spot for the annoying cables, too. Yes, even the wobbly old SCART cable that fit soggily into its port, wobbling against its rubber edge. Its name, SCART, stands for Syndicat des Constructeurs d’Appareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs, the beautifully long-winded French organization that designed the cable. It sounds so archaic; in my head, I imagine the president used to be Voltaire or Diderot or someone like that.
When I see a connector, I feel a little frisson of excitement.
Best of all is the adapter. This isn’t a popular view, I know. These days we treat the adapter, or dongle, with derision. They are a frustration, a necessary (or maybe, even, unnecessary) evil…
