Short Cables

Lately I have been increasingly frustrated about the length of cables. (Say, don't I have anything else to be frustrated about?)

I have a portable computer, and I have my Nomad. When I sync the Nomad I place it next to the portable, and insert a FireWire 4-pin cable into it, then into the dongle, and further into the CardBus PCMCIA slot where my FireWire controller lives.

As I have the dongle I would estimate cable need to be about 20cm. Why does I then have to settle for a 1m long one? Why does noone produce short FireWire cables? *grump* (And as shielding is crucial at 400Mbps one cannot make them oneself either...)

Why is my ear-plug-and-wired-remote combo for the Nomad more than 2m long? Am I 2 meters tall? I think not...