Talk:2503: Memo Spike Connector

2021-08-17T03:56:56Z

141.101.76.253:

Just made my first ever wiki edit! There was no text yet so I filled in some basic info. I guarantee what I wrote will be removed though :( . Oh well, I tried! [[User:Zman350x|Zman350x]] ([[User talk:Zman350x|talk]]) 15:20, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

:Your first edit inspired me to my own first edit. Maybe at the end there will be a good article made entirely by noobs. :) [[Special:Contributions/172.68.110.115|172.68.110.115]] 16:33, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

In restaurants these are not used for orders for the kitchen. Those are usually put on an order wheel or ticket holder, which have clips that the order can easily pulled out of. The spike is at the checkout counter, and it's used after the bill is paid. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 19:57, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

Do we want to mention the vampire taps in both the article and trivia? Cause that's how it currently is. [[User:Zman350x|Zman350x]] ([[User talk:Zman350x|talk]]) 21:27, 16 August 2021 (UTC)

My first comment too! Where it says... "The implication is that any cable can be connected to any other cable as a form of universal adapter/splitter/combiner"... That's not the title text joke. It's that a device like an iPad could also be impaled on the spike, making electrical connection to its innards. It says nothing about cable to cable connections. [[Special:Contributions/108.162.246.18|108.162.246.18]] 21:47, 16 August 2021 (UTC)
:Didn't see this comment until I intervened, under the same impression, but I totally agree. Looked like an orphan comment intended for the pre-titletext 'explanation'. Still valid, and rather than move it I expanded it to fit better where it is. Doubt it'll be the 'final' version, though.
:(Anecdotal explanation of my thinking: If I put my tablet down on my opened laptop, it'll sometimes 'agitate' the laptop trackpad. Technically I could probably get the tablet to control this inbuilt mouse deliberately through whatever ¿field-effect? is interacting with the ¿capacitative? finger-sensor. I am imagining something like this (only more puncturing!) is what is 'promised' if I impale two otherwise incompatible devices on the same spike. But also lets one connect otherwise incompatible cables to further cables/devices. Like I don't have an ethernet dongle that works with the tablet, but spike them both and I'd be laughing.... Right?) [[Special:Contributions/172.69.54.202|172.69.54.202]] 03:14, 17 August 2021 (UTC)

This explanation does not answer the one question I came here to find the answer to, namely why it is named “memo spike.” [[Special:Contributions/108.162.219.79|108.162.219.79]] 03:19, 17 August 2021 (UTC)
:Some (not me, but that's because I've never used one in anger, maybe) seem to call the non-connector thing that the connector is based around a "memo spike". Apparently one can impale successive memos (in a memo-heavy administration job?) upon the spike and then later thread a chord (or treasury tag?) through the holes to perpetuate their 'spiked collection' status.
:It's possible there are other names (like: thumb-tack <=> drawing pin), but this is how Randall identifies it. Better than "that thing you spike paper onto - but now with ''power!!!111oneoneone''", etc... 'Though YMMV. [[Special:Contributions/141.101.76.253|141.101.76.253]] 03:56, 17 August 2021 (UTC)

2503: Memo Spike Connector

2021-08-17T03:41:37Z

141.101.76.253: (The tip facing away ''may'' actually be capped, but it just shows as a line. Could be a crimp-mark from a prior installation or the mark of an aborted cable-cutting/stripping attempt. Seems to match diameter, and could be a UTP of some sort. Or not.

{{comic
| number = 2503
| date = August 16, 2021
| title = Memo Spike Connector
| image = memo spike connector.png
| titletext = Backward-compatible with many existing cables, and can connect directly to phones or tablets if you press them down hard enough.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Created by an IMPALED PHONE-TABLET. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}

This is the 3rd entry in the [[:Category:Cursed Connectors|Cursed Connectors]] series.

The comic depicts a large metal spike with a wire coming from the base. The spike stabs through two other wires, thus creating an electrical connection between the three. As the name suggests, the spike resembles a {{w|Spindle_(stationery)|stationery spindle}}, colloquially known as a spike. However, unlike normal spindles, this one has a cable of some kind coming out of it, suggesting this is a hub of some sort.

Spindles are used to temporarily hold paper by "spindling" or impaling the paper onto the spike (as depicted in the comic). They're most known for their use in restaurants as a way to hold bills that have been paid, or traditionally in offices that work with many bits of paper, e.g. with invoices in a finance department or hardcopy in newspaper editing, to prevent accidental disturbance/shuffling, at the expense of a small puncture mark in each sheet so impaled. In the latter context, the editor might put all the rejected stories onto a spike (rather than into a wastebasket) to prevent them going astray, and this might be the source of the term '{{w|Spike (journalism)|spiked}}'.

The joke of the comic is while any number of non-destructive connection standards exist, a large spike can provide much of the same results: a conductive object that retains a connection of multiple wires in a way that allows electricity to pass through. Indeed, in the early days of Ethernet, {{w|Vampire tap|vampire taps}} were used, essentially spikes that bit into a cable to establish a new branch in the network. Another type of connection which involves piercing the wire is a {{w|Punch-down block|punch-down block}} where one or more wires are pushed into a cutting channel instead of onto a spike.

Depending on the type of cable it is also likely to create a short circuit, e.g. by connecting both strands of a twisted pair of strands in a typical ethernet cable, or the central wire and the sheath of a coaxial cable. In an enterprise environment, this could even happen on a {{w|Power_over_Ethernet|PoE-Connection}}, which actually carry more noticeable amounts of power (up to 25.5W). Even if this avoided, the single spike may be large enough to mechanically sever a random subset of the finer strands that exist within a multicore cable such as is commonly in use today.

The title text takes this a bit further, saying that phones and other devices can also be connected using this method if you press hard enough to penetrate the device's coverings to reach the electrical parts. The implication is that any device or cable can be connected to any other device or cable as a form of universal adapter/splitter/combiner across arbitrary hardware and communications/power standards. In reality, this could be even more dangerous and destroy one or more of the pieces of equipment either directly or by overloading their cable connection.{{Citation needed}}

==Transcript==
{{incomplete transcript}}
''[A memo spike—a long spike that is often used to hold pieces of paper in place—is shown. There are three wires coming from off-image. One appears to be hardwired into the spike's base element. The two are firmly impaled down upon the spike, penetrated completely through shortly before their apparently unterminated ends that are on-image. The visible ends of one of the spiked wires faces in the viewer's direction and the details appeare to show it to be of some variety of multicore (rather than co-axial) manufacture. Above is a title and below is a label.]''

Cursed Connectors #102

The Memo Spike

==Trivia==
The {{W|Vampire tap}} is an actual connector that pierces into a coaxial cable to create an 10BASE5 Ethernet connection.

{{comic discussion}}


[[Category:Cursed Connectors]]

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Talk:2503: Memo Spike Connector

2503: Memo Spike Connector