this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2024
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UK are safest, EU are both practical and almost as safe (as it supports a variety of plugs, both with and without grounding), and US is complete and utter garbage built for garbage voltage. Plus, the US one looks scared.
Even our outlets are terrified of how bad the plug design is.
Try going to Japan. They took the US design, but most outlets there don't have the grounding plug (in hotels it was practically non-existent). My travel adapter didn't even work xP
It's goes far beyond grounding, half of Japan use 50hz and half use 60hz.
Itβs the same in The Philippines. One place I stayed had a three-way splitter & I snuck my laptop charger in the top, just letting the ground hang out. Luckily my gears has gotten lighter & with GaN chargers, two-prong is just fine.
Until you step on a plug...
You thought Lego was bad on bare feet? Hoo boy
At least the UK one is blunt. I'm trying, without success, to find a picture of the old style telephone (and my modem) connectors we had here in Norway. Imagine the UK power plug, but the pins are pointy. I've drawn blood stepping on these. I would run a marathon on Lego to avoid stepping on one of those again. Luckily they were gradually replaced by wallmounted RJ11 (or RJ45 if you had ISDN) during the 90's.
EDIT: Found it.
FFFFUUUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuu
Stepping on one feels like getting shanked under your foot by Poseidon and his trident.
Oh dude that's medieval lol
Holy shit that's just sadistic!!
is that PoE adapter
No, it's just an adapter to get the rj11 to connect to the wall socket that most houses built before 1990 had for their phones here.
I've seen plenty UK plugs where the ground plug has a weird wedge shape to it.
Like a bored knife designed was angry they're designing plugs now...
The β90s was also the era of Mortal Kombat, so at least it makes sense in its historical context
Plugs are for beginners. I once managd to step on a Motorola 68020 processor which embedded its pins intomy foot and drew blood.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_68020
Makes your house very safe from burglars!
The UK ones are only safe from an electric point of view. As stepping hazards for shoe-less feet they are only slightly less lethal than Lego bricks
UK's are hilariously over-engineered. Might as well have a puzzle mechanism on the back, to make sure you really meant to power that toaster.
Breakers in every socket are a neat idea, though. And power switches at the socket make a lot more sense than US homes where some wall switches control some sockets, somewhere. Good luck!
And AUS doesn't exist!
I've seen an Australian guy bend an American plug enough so that it fits into his outlet. Let's just say that ~~his house burned down~~ his studio lights started flickering.