A quick note on the USB-A "rotate 3 times to insert" bit: If the device and cable are actually compliant with the standard then there is no guessing or flipping. The USB trident logo will be on the visible side of the cable when it is inserted. This doesn't help for vertically oriented USB-A connections where you could reasonably be viewing from either side but on your laptop it should always go in first try when standard compliant devices are used correctly.