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Graham Sutherland / Polynomial

if you've ever messed up a dimension or a hole position on something you're building, don't be too hard on yourself.

at least you're not the Cisco design engineer who caused an entire product line recall by placing the mode button (which resets the switch if held) directly above an RJ45 port.

228 comments
Nifty1A

@gsuberland who designs a reset button that doesn't use the paperclip hole standard?

Dunelayn

@gsuberland just use a different cable! /Joking 😃

Dave Byrne

@gsuberland Something tells me their testing process was not as extensive as it might be…..How did that get released to production? Hilarious and outrageous in equal measure.

Nifty1A

@gsuberland does this mean, if you see a 3650 in a rack, you can mess up a network by pressing and holding the mode button? 🫢

Programmer 832-529 🍅

@gsuberland I remember having to deal with this too.

While it was only some plugs that would push the button you had to be very careful with any plug as it was easy to hit with your fingers.

Tom

@gsuberland@chaos.social The sad thing is, I once worked in a company that actually had them in productive use 😆

kkearns

@gsuberland Did no one actually USE the thing?! Wow.. What year was this? I left in 2007.

mirabilos

@gsuberland and those access ports for console and USB…

Kiron Bondale

@gsuberland - wow, that is a real failure from a UX perspective. I'd also question their quality commitment if such a defect couldn't be identified prior to manufacturing.

John Strunk

@gsuberland Reason #87 to avoid Ethernet cables with boots. ✂️

🌻 Thoralf Will 🇺🇦🇮🇱

@gsuberland I wonder how bad QA must have been to not recognize such a fundamental flaw.

Chris Kline

@gsuberland do I not also see a USB and some other port also in bad positions?

b9AcE

@gsuberland Needed accessory: "protective boot reboot protection, unbooted".
;-D

Per Funke

@gsuberland
If you need to fuck up royally, use a computer.

The Voltist

@gsuberland QA, Product Management, and many others failed as well.

AtariXbox

@gsuberland thank you for sharing Cisco's finest moment :)

CAVIAT

@gsuberland this is quality content for my step dad. And I am immediately sending it to him. 😂

dghughes

@gsuberland why is it even on the front? Didn't old models have it on the back? Or am not remembering my Cisco lab classes well?

Vicki

@gsuberland I suspect that they went on to design the small HP dock that is all on/off button on the top? You know the part you hold to make sure cables are in tightly etc?

sendilkumarn

@gsuberland Looks like a classic integration testing fail from the world

Gleepy the Hen

@gsuberland I have to check my dimensions very closely on circuit boards I design, or else I get expensive scrap

Moses Renegade

@gsuberland I mean to be fair… these things happens when your building hardware…

Michele

@gsuberland how many bosses signed off on that before it went into production? 😂

CAP'N (he/him)

@gsuberland

A supreme example of how things don't have to break or fail to cause accidents

BMcRaeC@mastadon.social

@gsuberland buttons are not my department, says newly freelance designer.

villon

@gsuberland Scheiße gelaufen, würde ich sagen. Erinnert mich an den Typen, der sich in "Out of sight" am Ende mit der eigenen Waffe auf der Treppe erschießt, weil er keinen Fuß vor den anderen setzen kann, ohne zu stolpern.

Icepick87

@gsuberland Just randomnly saw this from elsewhere, but had also observed this in the hopes the protective boot is more limber than it appears. 😬

shironeko
@gsuberland absolutely hate these cables, I have an tp-link router that have the upper shell overhang the ports, with these type of cables they are impossible to unplug, I had to use a knife.
Volkan Özçelik 🦄

By the way, one of the startups that I was lucky to be the CTO of was as slow as how hachyderm is right now.

We sold the company for 4.2 million euros, like 15+ years ago.

Just, sayin‘.

DrJekyll

@gsuberland All you admins, this why why you need to carry a knife. Cut that offending boot off, problem solved*

*Until the next person comes along and switches the cable of course

Aniquaza

@gsuberland Yikes, but I still couldn't help laugh at this, and how it got through especially with how common those snagless connectors are now.

Javielico 🌖

@gsuberland It is quite impressive to make the button fall exactly on that same position as the protective boot.

shadow_absorber

@gsuberland ah good old memories of design failures by cisco

Eragon

@gsuberland This was easy to prevent in the prototyping phase… how did that got to the production line ?

Sharkie

@gsuberland

Admittedly, that "protective boot" is silly, and not part of the standard for RJ-45.

(I'll also argue that what that boot protects against is the sort of action you should not be performing in a proper rack.)

Still, oops.

Jacket

@gsuberland Yeah. We had some of those in college. It's a mess. XD

Rudi (ryjelsum)

@gsuberland i feel like if this happened in 2023 they'd just do the apple "you're holding it wrong" thing and tell people to not use the booted cables

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