Re: almost whoops
I remember going into Maplin and seeing A-A cables. No idea who they sold them to.
When cheap digital cameras first acquired USB, many had A sockets, so you needed an A plug to A plug cable. I recall some early MP3 players being the same.
I have quite a few. They are very useful for back-powering headless Raspberry Pi computers, avoiding the need to have a power connection to the side. You only need to solder a flying wire to bypass the USB current limiter to make it work.