Back in the "good ol' days" of computing... before USB... before FireWire... before Thunderbolt... the way you hooked up peripherals like hard drives, scanners, and such was with a SCSI port. Which most everybody called a "scuzzy port."
The Small Computer System Interface was pretty much shit. You just never knew which magical combination of device IDs, cables, and chain termination would result in a working system. And once you figured it all out, there was no guarantee that it would stay working the next time you booted up your computer. In which case you'd have to start all over again. And heaven help you if you added a second peripheral to the chain. That only doubled the amount of work you had to do to keep things running. It was horrible.
Thank heavens those days are over, right?
Except...
I just spent three hours trying to get my new cable modem to work.
In the end, I can't even tell you how I got it running. Some magical combination of resets for the modem, my Time Capsule router, and my MacBook. I just kept resetting and turning things off and on until... BLAM! My cable modem was connecting. Then I kept resetting and turning things off an on until... BLAM! My Time Capsule would connect to the modem. Then I kept resetting and turning things off an on until... BLAM! My Time Capsule could reach the internet. Then I kept resetting and turning things off an on until... BLAM! My MacBook was connecting to the Time Capsule. Then I kept resetting and turning things off an on until... BLAM! My MacBook was able to reach the internet through the Time Capsule.
Three hours of that bullshit.
It was SCSI all over again.
And now, just like in times of yore, I dread the inevitable horror of having everything randomly fail so I have to start all over.
I'm just dumbfounded that tech companies can't figure this shit out. The nonsensical problems never go away. Not really. They just change to a new generation of interfaces.
Which is why I'm sure that when my brain implant appliance is trying to send video to my holographic cornea display from my sub-etha internet connection sometime in the future... I'll be resetting and turning things off an on over and over and over again to get the crap running.
It's just the way technology works.
Or doesn't.
And I'm sure it always will.
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I just figured how to work a HDMI cable. I am unqualified to assist you but over qualified to tell you I know that feeling!
I am of the school of ‘hit it till it works’
Little known fact from the computing days of yore: the Apple CEO (the Pepsi guy) tried to say SCSI should be pronounced “Sexy” instead of Scuzzy. But everyone laughed at him. “Stop trying to make Sexy happen!” they said.
I know the pains of SCSI. Just about every server for years used some type of SCSI connection. Drives in sleds or trays put into a disk array were pretty easy. Everything else external (especially on the Mac) was a pain.
As for cable modems, Comcast seems to have it down here. I just helped my daughter get her’s setup when she moved into her apartment this summer. The TV box was the bitch to setup. I don’t think they have that one down just yet.