Well, after 20 years, USB (another specification which aims at making a hundred kinds of different coffees, like about every specification designed in the last 20 years) kind of works nowadays, so there might be a bit of hope. Hmmm wait, except twice a week when I plug USB devices in the 'wrong' order on my computer. Oh well...

On the bleeding edge, the future with reversible connectors is here, with USB-C style connectors (on both ends!) for everything.

'course, now there's a hundred dollars in various adaptors to rebuy...