USB? Simple, straightforward, easy to use. All you need to do is look at the thing to see which is the top and the bottom--not unlike grounded (three-pronged) plugs.

On the laptop I'm using right now, I have three such sockets. I use a chordless USB "laser" mouse, and nearby I have a USB floppy-drive. Also nearby is a safely stashed flash drive that I can carry in a pocket and use on any computer that has a USB port. I also have a Zoom H2 digital recorder (SD card) that connects to the computer with a USB chord for either downloading the contents of the card or I can use it as an interface and record directly onto my hard disk. My wife has an identical laptop and she downloads her digital camera to it with a USB chord.

My laser printer connects with a USB chord, and so does the scanner. I also have a Lexicon Omega analog-to-digital interface "desktop recording studio" that connects to a computer with a USB chord (on the other hand, the inputs for my two condenser mics plug into the Omega through XLR connections that also supply phantom power, and a couple of quarter-inch plugs, which I don't usually use).

One simple gizmo. I also have a large box that contains a snake's nest of different cables with about eleventy-fourteen different kinds of plugs and sockets that the USB connections rendered obsolete.

Yippee! And furthermore, Hooray!!

Don Firth