They finally settled on Samsung's micro-USB connector, but shit - there were over 40 different ones out there and it was all about coercing you into staying with the same connector for whatever phone you had. Shit, a simple laptop charging port would work. Even there, they've got three diameters of plugs and at least 20 voltage/amperage "standards". This shit isn't difficult. It's technology for profit getting in the way of progress in technology. The auto industry figured out LONG ago that standardizing certain things like GAS FILLING pipes would benefit everyone. If they'd concentrate on cooperating, they'd not only save a lot of legal fees but would jointly profit from the rise in usage. Things have changed, dudes (and dudettes). No wonder the shit is so expensive.

Both these general benefits directly harm their bottom lines. As our government has refused to enforce violations of the Sherman Act for over 30 years now, we see the results, we've fallen behind and are falling further every year.

I used to have to figure out and solder cables for various parallel printers because they ALWAYS had to find an unused line that needed to be tied into some other line to make the damn fucker work. Lines 2,3,4,5,7 and 20 were all most needed, but they'd just throw in a random 17-23 or something bridge. At least I was good at soldering, but the lines they used never made any sense. The 286 bridge board on the Amiga 500 ran faster and had fewer crashes than an IBM 286.

Patents aren't worth shit anymore. They just jack up prices with all of the perpetual lawsuits over stuff that everyone knows is generic. Lotus sued M$ over Excel. That's funny since Lotus stole 123 from VisiCalc. The guy who filed a patent for those ice-cycle Christmas lights got royally screwed BECAUSE he filed a patent. Within two weeks of filing it, a Chinese firm had them in WalMarts (where else would they be made). He lost big. The guy who invented variable speed wipers spent decades fighting GM and finally won a settlement that was significantly less than what he spent on the fight.

You can't win.

the old idea keeps the new idea down for years, sometimes decades.

We really need to change how we think about our world, what is important and where do we want to go?