No, it's not. The longer a standard lasts the better. 8 years is really short. I can still connect new earphones to the jack of my CD player from 20 years ago, or my even older mini-cassette player. That's a good standard. What kind of standard lasts less than 10 years?

I mean, if you want to stick to the 1.5 MB/s transfer rates of USB 1, more power to you.

Analog audio technology was basically perfected 40 years ago with the Walkman. You couldn't develop a significantly better connector today, even the size was optimal for small portable devices.

Data transfer technology OTOH is still improving by leaps and bounds, and the old ports are too big for modern portable devices like tablets and phones.

Agreed! Now XLR, THATS a good standard. Been around since the 1950s at least, and still the de facto connector today. Sure, you need to insulate against background interference and account for ground hum, but honestly that makes me for a clean connection when done right. XLR and Ethernet is all we need.

i still pine for the world envisioned by the first PoE working group; a world where every house's power outlets are just rj45s.

Wow! Never knew this was a thing. Would that be enough to power heavier load appliances (toaster ovens, window AC, etc)?

it's at that state now, yes. 100W PoE is standardized and available on the market. the standards body dragged their feet for a couple decades, vendors implemented their own proprietary high-power PoE injectors and devices, and a lot of the momentum behind PoE died out due to incompatibility hell. imagine every power outlet in your house was networked, could support gigabit data transfer, and the whole thing was so safe you could jam a fork into the outlet whenever the whim struck you -- that was the original dream.

60Hz Electric Grid: 122 years in service.

NEMA 1-15: 115 years in service.

IPv4: 41 years in service.

IPv6: 24 years in service.

Seatbelts: 53 years in service.

Some things are better not replaced every 8 years.

I super agree with everything, with the probable exception of Seatbelts. Is that even a standard with a concern for compatibility? I'm not sure if I can plug the belt of one car to the seat of another. Would be cool, I guess. If my seatbelt ever breaks, I guess that would mean I can obtain a "standard" seatbelt without worrying about compatibility.

There are "heavy" people who carry a seat belt extender because most cars don't have a long enough seat belt without it. So yes there is a compatibility concern.

Though there isn't a standard. Different manufactures use different connectors, not to mention air planes.

There's a standard in that cars must have them, and they must have certain properties in terms of abrasion, strength, surface area etc.

I agree with your general sentiment but NEMA 1-15 must go (it kills a few people each year) and so must IPv4 (it spawned NAT which destroyed the Internet).