I'm tired of having half a dozen USB cables in my for-immediate-use pile for the ridiculous number of USB connector standards. (And by "I" I mean "SWMBO".)

Does anyone know of a universal cable that includes, at least, Type B, Mini B, Micro B, and Fuji B on one side and Type A on the other? (USB connector reference) It would be awesome if it also included Firewire connectors, but that's not a huge deal. I'd also prefer one that wasn't just a random collection of adapters, as I'm likely to lose them.

On a separate subject, why the hell do we have to have so many different USB plugs? There were the original A and B, then Fuji and Kodak apparently decided to make smaller proprietary versions, then there was Mini A and Mini B, then they deprecated Mini A (but not Mini B) and released Micro A and Micro B, plus a Micro AB receptacle. That's eight different plugs and nine different receptacles.

And why do we need the whole A/B thing at all? It kinda makes sense to point out that a USB connection needs a single host, and you can't plug two computers or two hard drives together, but then with the Micro series, they released a receptacle that can accept either A or B, throwing that notion to the wind.

Argh. It's just ridiculous.