I've mentioned it before, but one of my first jobs during summer breaks from college was as a help desk technician.

This was one of the first times I had mass exposure to the PS2, Personal System 2, port on computers.

I remember the purple and green ports on the family computer growing up, but once you plugged devices into them, they were pretty much set and forget.

But working as a help desk technician, at least three times a week, someone was having issues with their keyboard or mouse.

Whenever this happened, I would walk to their desk, unplug the devices, plug them back in, reboot, and see if it worked.

The issue was either the port or the hardware, but either way, we just started switching users to USB keyboards and mice.

We always kept a few of those PS2 devices around, just in case an older computer required them, but they were quickly fading out of existence.

And thinking about it now...

I can't even recall the last time I saw one.

While keyboards and mice are just everyday things sitting on a desk,

it's important to remember just how vital these peripherals are.

They are the human interface to the computer.

From PS2, not the gaming console, to USB-C, on this episode of In the Shell.

The wrong thing to do is just go out and buy a computer and then learn about it.

And you'll learn, but you'll learn a lot of things that maybe you didn't want to learn.

A computer that you buy today will likely be obsolete six months from now,

and there's not a dang thing that you can do about it.

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Input devices are how we tell our computers and gadgets what to do.

The classic duo is the keyboard and mouse, which have been staples of desktop computing for decades.

A keyboard remains the fastest way to enter text. Having a physical keyboard allows typing

that's much faster and less error-prone than tapping on a touchscreen. Each key press is

distinct, and people like myself often prefer mechanical keyboards for their tactile feedback

and durability. Mechanical key switches can endure tens of millions of presses,

far outlasting typical membrane keyboards. The mouse gives us precise pointing control

and graphical interfaces. The rise of the mouse in the 1980s revolutionized user interaction

by making graphical user interfaces like Windows and

Mac feasible. A mouse pointer can click tiny icons or drag files with pixel-level accuracy,

something touchscreens struggle with due to the fat finger problem. It's worth noting that how

we connect our input devices has evolved as well. Older PCs, like I mentioned in the intro,

use dedicated ports for keyboards and mice. The most famous was the round PS2 port,

purple for keyboards and green for mice. These ports worked fine, but they came with limitations.

PS2 devices were not hot-swappable, which meant you needed to plug them in before turning on your PC,

and unplugging them while running wasn't officially supported. The connectors themselves were small

and could be finicky, the PS2 plug had to be oriented correctly, or you could easily bend

the tiny pins while plugging it in. But starting in the late 1990s, the USB standard took over.

USB was designed to be a one-size-fif-

all connection, replacing the tangle of serial, parallel, and PS2 ports that PCs used to have.

With USB, the same kind of port could handle your keyboard, mouse, printer, external drive,

and it also provided power, so devices like mice or webcams didn't need a separate power brick.

USB also made peripherals plug and play, which meant you could connect or disconnect devices

on the fly and the system would auto-detect them without a reboot. USB itself has continued to

improve over the years. The standard rectangular USB-A plugs gave us convenience, but they only

inserted one way, which is always guaranteed to be the wrong way. Modern devices are increasingly

using USB-C, which is the oval-shaped connector that is fully reversible, even though some

manufacturers and products keep including USB-A cables. Beyond convenience, USB-C

supports much faster data transfer,

and significantly more power delivery than older USB ports.

It's versatile enough that a single USB-C cable

can carry video, audio, data, and power simultaneously.

On my setup, I have a single USB-C cable

that outputs video to my 4K monitor

and charges my laptop at the same time.

Just as input devices feed commands into a computer,

output devices present the results back to us,

most importantly, through displays.

Monitors and laptop screens traditionally use LCD technology,

liquid crystal display, usually with LED backlighting.

They come in various sizes, and for a long time,

most monitors were around 60 hertz refresh rate,

meaning the image could update 60 times per second.

A 60 hertz screen is adequate for office work or movies,

which are often 24 frames per second,

but higher refresh rate.

make motion look smoother. In recent years, higher refresh rate monitors, 120, 144, and even 240 hertz

have become popular, especially for gaming. A 120 hertz monitor refreshes 120 times a second,

so fast action sports or games appear much more fluid. Monitors also prioritize resolution and

size. It's common now to see 4K resolutions, which is 3840 by 2160 pixels, on a monitor or TV.

However, a big screen spreads those pixels out. As an example, a 55-inch 1080p TV has a pixel density

of only 40 pixels per inch, whereas a small smartphone with a 1080p resolution has around

400 pixels per inch. This is why a phone display looks super crisp from up close.

It crams many more pixels per inch, achieving a retina

effect, where you can't discern individual pixels at a normal viewing distance. In contrast to a

majority of monitors, most high-end phones today use OLED, which stands for organic LED, rather

than LCD. OLEDs have individually lit pixels, allowing for perfect blacks and high contrast.

If part of the image is black, those pixels completely shut off, yielding inky black darkness

next to bright colors. They also have fast response times, but pixels can change state quickly,

which can reduce motion blur. OLED's advantages make it great for portable devices,

where visual quality and power efficiency are a priority. Mobile displays have also started

adopting high refresh rates recently. For years, virtually all phones were fixed at 60 hertz,

but as users noticed the buttery smooth scrolling on newer screens, 90 and 120 hertz phones

current languages, 10 per cent, and more around.

...

have become common. By 2023, many flagship phones, and even mid-range models, boasted 120Hz

displays for a more responsive feel. This higher refresh rate not only benefits gaming on the phone,

but even basic interactions like swiping through pages or animations when opening apps look

smoother. To manage battery life, since refreshing twice as often uses more power, many phones use

adaptive refresh rates, ramping up to 120Hz when needed for motion, then dropping to lower refresh

rates for static content to save energy. On the other hand, desktop monitors can do high refresh

rates more easily, since they are plugged into power, and often paired with powerful graphics cards

that can push very high frame rates in games. And finally, peripherals greatly influence

accessibility and comfort. Ergonomic keyboards and mice can help prevent fatigue and repetitive

strain injuries for heavy computer users.

Beyond ergonomics, a wide range of accessibility-focused peripherals exist to ensure that people with

disabilities have the same opportunities to interact with computers and devices.

These include alternative keyboards, adaptive mice, eye-tracking systems, switch-based inputs,

and voice-controlled interfaces.

Peripherals are often called the human interface.

They are the touch points where human meets machine.

Well-designed peripherals can make using technology feel like an extension of yourself.

In the Shell is written, researched, and recorded by me, the podcaster, plus keyboard, mouse,

mic, and monitor.

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I would truly appreciate it.

USB-A has two orientations.

I would really appreciate it.

and both are wrong the first time that's it take care and i'll see you next time