From: Jim Witte (jswitte_at_bloomington.in.us)
Date: Sun Sep 05 2004 - 13:18:27 PDT
> I don't think Apple wants you to buy extender cables, sorry but I don't
> agree, no offense, just my opinion.
That was just an idea.. I personally don't like extender cables,
although I rarely ever use them - the exception is using an extender
for the keyspan to connect to Newton [Hammer] is easier since the
keyspan's USB cable is so short.
I wish someone would come out with a USB-serial converter dongle (as
big as as large flash-drive). I'd imagine the electronics could be
squashed down that far, although I'm not sure.
> Maybe the headphone jack could have been in front…but only maybe.
Does the new iMac have audio-in? That would be nice on the front too
(although I think both audio in and out should *also* have ports on the
back, if you wanted to connect to a stero or studio setup).
And I don't think audio or USB ports on the front would mar the
design either. Especially audio ports, since they're just little
holes, and USB ports are basically little rectangles - certainly
nothing like a old IBM PC "Parallel Port Monster' (TM) (or SCSI for
that matter - ha! can you imagine a Mac with a SCSI port on the front!)
Look at the iBook - it haas a nice neat row of ports on the side - I'm
sure that the design people took some time to make sure they looked
good - the little white insetting around the ports, the gray bezel
they're all set in - although the bezel has a tendency to get loose at
the corners)
> I would rather have a clutter free design but then everyone has a
> different way of working and demands.
Better compromise: ports on the side, with a flip door. Or maybe
even a side "port block" that you'd flip out from the macine, so they'd
face toward the back, or even make it reversible, so they could go
toward the back or the front, although might be a b@$# to engineer (but
if it just rotated around, with metal-metal contacts on the top and
bottom to carry signals to the computer - replicated the signals on the
top and bottom, so that no matter which way the "port block" was
pointed, the appropriate contacts would still line up with the machine.
Then you have engineering tolerance and conductivity issues - but
maybe if the block pushed "in" to the machine somewhat somehow..
Jim
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