On 6 May 2012 at 13:43, Fred Cisin wrote:
  USB ports are intrinsically much better than any other
kind of port
 because the others are on the back of the machine, and USB ports are
 always on the front (except on some machines). 
That should be "except when they're not".  I've had a couple of  PC
machines where an RS232 port was also on the front along with the USB
connector.
--Chuck