Partition Schemes for Mac OSX
A partition scheme is the format that is used to describe how the disk is divided up. The partition scheme will say, as a minimum, where each partition lies on the disk, its size and the type. They differ in how exactly this data is stored on the disk.
With the schemes below, the scheme used will affect whether a particular partition is bootable, and/or its compatibility with Windows.
There are three different partition schemes that Mac OS X supports:
Apple Partition Scheme
This scheme is used by PowerPC Apple Mac computers. At the time of writing, PowerPC Apple Macs can only boot from disks that have this scheme. Intel Apple Macs can actually boot from partitions of this scheme, although Apple do not officially support it and will not allow you to install Mac OS X onto a disk with this scheme.
GUID Partition Scheme
This scheme is used by Intel Macs. At the time of writing, PowerPC Macs cannot boot from this scheme (a firmware update, that doesn't exist yet, would make this possible). The current version of Windows XP and Vista (32-bit edition) do not understand this scheme. Even though PowerPC machines cannot boot from this scheme, Mac OS X Tiger (10.4) on PowerPC machines can read this scheme.
Master Boot Record
This is the scheme that Windows and DOS uses.
Boot Camp and Windows Compatibility
Intel Macs support dual booting using Boot Camp. This works by having both the GUID partition scheme and the Master Boot Record scheme on your disk at the same time. When repartitioning disks like this, care must be taken to ensure both schemes are kept consistent. iPartition will keep both schemes correctly updated; other software might not be aware.
If you want partitions to be visible in Windows, you need to make sure the "Visible in Windows" partition property in the Inspector is checked. iPartition will only allow up to three partitions to be visible in Windows. When creating new partitions iPartition will not make them visible by default."
Disks that are bootable on both PowerPC and Intel Macs require special tools unfortunately similar to unfortunately iPartiton or equivalent that can actually convert the scheme and repartition if needed. There are some other ways but they are more difficult to do usually.
Side note: with Leopard (10.5.6 and above) it can boot to either the Apple Partition Scheme or GUID Partition Scheme/
As for the USB Sticks the same is true for them also and you may find it easier to just have three separate USB Sticks of appropriate size for any of the different booting scenarios you may need.
The only other option is with specifically written EFI boot disks and partition schemes that one usually has to build themselves which is not an easy task in many instances as one has to usually not only collect the various config type files floating around at different places but also has to compile them properly also.
and so it goes...
In conclusion...
There's no present. There's only the immediate future and the recent past