> just use a well designed cable

Regardless of what you do with it, there's no way a USB cable can be called "well designed." A square connector is still a square connector, and no amount of embossing will change that. Attempts to make USB connectors reversible* are well-intentioned, but will always be more fragile and expensive than a connector that's either designed to be reversible from the start or breaks the symmetry such that you can't even attempt to put it in the wrong way.

*e.g. http://www.flipperusb.com

The Micro-USB connector is not square.

With normal USB, true, it can be annoying to find the right orientation, but they still seem to be zillions of times more sturdy than the cables before them. Remember PS2 with those tiny pins inside?

Agreed. The fact that we managed to get a versatile, standardised cable is a miracle and one I'm grateful for. But just because PS2 was bad, doesn't mean USB couldn't be better.

Sadly, every micro USB cable needs a "normal" (Male A) USB connector at the other end.

Sure, I have nothing against improvements :-)

The problem I have with USB cables isn't fixed with letting me know which side of the cable is right-side-up. The problem is that different computer manufacturers have different ways of installing USB ports. On some computers, they're right-side-up. On some, they're upside-down. Most of my fumbling comes in not knowing which way the port is flipped on the physical machine.

At least on my Thinkpad, the interior plastic is bright yellow rather than black. This makes it a bit easier. Still, switching machine to machine as often as I do becomes frustrating.

On ThinkPads the bright yellow USB ports are ones that are powered even when the computer is turned off. You can use these as charging ports for phones and other devices. Usually only a subset of the ports are powered like this and marked yellow, so this isn't a feature primarily designed to make it easy to plug stuff in correctly.

I've been a loyal Thinkpad user for how long and I never knew this? Thanks for the heads up.

The best solution is to have an omnidirectional connector like Apple's lightning port.

  But the absolute best is Logitech's solution: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-Logitech-Micro-USB-Cable-/2...

Which is? It looks like a regular USB cable with an embossed logo.

On the USB side, yes, but the micro-USB side has a HUGE bump on it. The pictures make it hard to see. The last picture in the set is the clearest.

I see it now. Yup, that's a bump. I hope my picky Nexus 7 likes it.

The Nexus 7's connector is upside down so the bump makes it sit on an angle, but it does work.

There's a limited amount of polishing you can apply to any USB turd.

I feel for the little metal tabs that hold the micro-USB connector in, the longer side is scrapey while the shorter side is not.

This is exactly what I do. I don't even have to look at the connector