this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- No politics
- If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
- A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
- Posts must be original/unique
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS
If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.
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The 90's were even more lead-addled than that. You remember these things:
Barrel jacks and plugs. Typically used for DC power, and that's all I can reliably say. The socket had an inner pin and and outer ring that engaged with the inner and outer surfaces of the plug. Which was positive and which was negative? BOTH! A given power brick or device could be wired either way, which is why most of them had one of these diagrams printed on them somewhere:
There was no attempt at standardizing sizes or lengths for different polarities or voltages. It was entirely possible you could own a 12V center positive power brick that would plug straight into a 6V center negative device. If you were lucky, the device had reverse current protection, maybe a self-resetting fuse. Some didn't. Or, somehow worse, you'd find a brick with the right voltage and polarity that wouldn't physically fit.
So the current state of USB-C charging is considerably less lead-brained than what I grew up with.
The barrel pin system could have been great if it was standardized. Only one valid polarity with barrel size being keyed to voltage while pin size was keyed to amperage, for example. A plug would only fit if it was the correct specs, and would always fit if it was the correct specs. Unfortunately, nobody ever had this idea while they were popular and it's much too late now.