Centronics Idiots and Standards (was Re: [sdiy] My latest project)

[Jay Vaughan]

>I didn't realize that AMP two Champs; a crimper and the familiar
>connectors used for SCSI and parallel port on printers. Computer
>idiots like to identify the connector as a Centronics Connector but
>Centronics never made connectors only printers.

And thus .. the connectors on their printers .. were Centronics-style 
connectors.  Its not idiotic at all; having survived the era of 
Centronics line printers, I can tell you a few things about idiocy.

I used to have to sit next to the programmers test-only Centronics 
line printer in my junior-operator days and make sure it didn't catch 
fire as a result of a few skipped line-feeds .. and lets just say 
i've had two too many halon incidents as a result ..

Anyway, "computer idiots" rarely adopt a name for something without a 
reason.  In Centronics' case, the reason was, they were the only 
vendor of decent line printers for many, many years.  Whatever 
'standard' they used, they eventually 'owned' in the minds of many an 
operator .. it may be "Centronics-style" to you, but to others its 
"IEEE 1284".

And .. you don't get IEEE ranks without being, at least, a standard 
computer idiot.

-- 

;

Jay Vaughan