About this object

This 2-inch-long Apple Computer VGA-to-Thunderbolt cable or “dongle”, adapts video signal from the narrow Thunderbolt output port to a standard VGA video input.

Why this object matters

I got it, when I was teaching high school and needed it on a mostly daily basis to hook up my Macbook to the projector, and I’m pretty sure I got it to replace another just like it that I lost. I’ve brought it along to many conferences and countless presentations I’ve done, sometimes using it, sometimes not needing it, but I vividly recall, in my nervous preparation and packing, always making sure that I had that in my bag when I went.

It’s a practical tool, but I associate it with presentations I have made at various conferences and in classrooms. I still carry it in my bag, even though I haven’t used it in probably, in a few years. It also evokes the broader, more common experience of plugging your computer into a projector and trying to figure out why the hell the image won’t come up the way you want it to. It’s this visceral kind of feeling you get when you think of that experience in front of a crowd that’s waiting for you to speak and you can’t get it to work. That is part of the definition of this particular age of technology that we have lived through in the last couple of decades.