But first (you know me), a little background. Back in 1979 when Jef Raskin created the Macintosh project (named after his favorite eating apple: the McIntosh), he introduced Apple to the concept of a Graphic User Interface (GUI). While popular fiction often attributes the first use of a GUI to the Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center), Raskin centered his Phd thesis in 1967 around the concept of using graphics to manipulate computers rather than the then-common text line commands. Some of the ideas incorporated at PARC actually originated with Jef Raskin when he participated in talks at PARC during the 1970s. |
| Unfortunately the very use of the term GUI tends to confuse rather than to illuminate since language often affects how we think. Mac users tend to take it for granted that somehow a GUI is superior to the alternative of using text line commands. This line of thinking leads to another fallacy, one introduced by Bill Gates. If a GUI is superior to text commands, one GUI is as good as another. So if the Mac operating system is better than DOS, all you have to do to equal the Mac operating system is come up with something like Windows. |
But every Mac user ever born can sit at a Windows computer for a few minutes, tapping away, to realize one GUI does not necessarily equal all other GUIs. A favorite term in the PC world is to call something Mac-like when the only thing it has in common with Mac is the fact it happens to be graphic. I wish someone had used the term HUI rather than GUI because it would have saved us a lot of time by getting to the point. Jef Raskin understood back as early as 1967 that for computers to be easy to use they should be designed for humans to use. Computers were still controlled by large stacks of 80 column punch cards. Computers need a Human User Interface, not a Graphic User Interface. Windows uses a GUI but as every Mac user recognizes intuitively, Macs are designed for humans to use. You don't have to arm wrestle a Mac to launch a program, or delete a file, or add an accessory. Once in awhile I come across a piece of hardware or a program perfectly designed for humans to use. Adaptec's Toast program for burning CDs is like that. Toast is so simple that a monkey could burn CDs in fifteen minutes. It's just a really great program where the guy who designed it realized humans had to use his program: so he might as well design it to be easy to use. |
My first glance at the Pertech 7 port USB hub led me to believe it was two-bag-ugly. I still think it is ugly. But something nagged at me within my head and I called Pertech. I spent about fifteen minutes talking to Pertech's owner Perry Rothenbaum about the hub. I mentioned it was ugly. He said, "So, who said hubs are supposed to be beautiful? Hubs are supposed to be hubs." I had to think about that. I've tested other hubs, both 4-port and 7-port. In the beginning when the iMac came in one Bondi blue shade, the ten or fifteen hub makers out there came up with one color hub: Bondi blue. Then Apple released five more colors, so the guys making hubs came up with five more colors of hubs. Cool, right? I dunno! When you think about it, hubs are not desk accessories. They are floor accessories. My desk doesn't have one spare inch of space. Barbara calls it a rat's nest which is both uncharitable, inaccurate and cruel to rats. Rats need space. And hubs belong on the floor, near the wall socket. That way, a hub is a single device rather than the two separate pieces: (power supply and hub). So the Pertech hub is engineered better. And while it may be ugly, it is out of the way on the floor where rats can have all the room in the world. |
With the Ugly hub, the cable to your USB devices leads directly out of the top rather than the side. I've seen the pictures of other hubs and they tend to show the hub without cables. But when I was testing hubs, I soon realized that if I was going to have spaghetti junction, which I did, I'd rather have it out of the way. I asked Perry if they had any plans for a 4-port hub since I'd rather deal with fewer suppliers rather than lots. He pointed out that while a 4-port hub appears to be cheaper to buy initially, in many cases it's another situation where saving money up front may well cost you down the road. We are all familiar with the concept of USB, lots of inexpensive gear which will make your computer more functional. The keyword is LOTS. Adding a printer and either a floppy or Zip or scanner is a fairly basic configuration. So needing two or three ports right away is common to almost all iMac owners. But when the magnetic card readers appear and the joy sticks become mandatory, how many ports will you need six months or a year from now? Why not consider your maximum needs more than your minimum needs? You will need more ports eventually, why not get what you need rather than waste money in the future? |
We got a Pertech hub and tested it. It works. They all work; all hubs from all manufacturers. The Pertech hub is designed for humans to use in the way humans work. It's as functional as heck, beautifully engineered and will fit your needs. Hubs require no software. Plug it in and go to work. The Pertech 7-port hub comes with our highest 5-turtle award for superior design and cost-effectiveness. Bob Moriarty |
special AUG 2000! 7-port USB Ugly hub was $69 - now $59! Greatest USB hub on earth. Perry at Pertech is one of the nicest people to deal with.
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