I just noticed that my last broken adapter had a burn in the cable right at the junction of the flimsy cable and the white box. This is on top of the split cable at the ribbing. I think you are right, the least they can do is add ribs to the flimsy cable. The protectors I always lost within a week, I would rather have a rubber cap that stays tied to the cable whenever it is not being used. Oh, and check this out, I just broke one of the two pop-out hooks that you use to wrap the thin cable. This is the adapter on my Ti 867, so officially I have had issues with FOUR of these adapter. Aw crap ... Pedro - http://pedrovera.com (public GPG/PGP key available at http://pedrovera.com/public.asc)