Re:They make nice stopgaps though.... (Score 1)

I'm with you on the lack of serial port on some new laptops and computers. The USB-serial converters are troublesome with their software drivers when you need to work across multiple platform, i.e. Linux, MacOS X, and Windows XP. Once it took more than a few weeks for us to get a Keyspan USB-serial adapter and driver to work under linux. And don't get me started on parallel ports...I work with CCD cameras in astronomical applications. Some of cameras are just a few years old and required bi-directional parallel ports. And NONE of the USB-parallel converters work right with anything other than printers. Even the ones that claim to fully support IEEE1284 do not support bi-directional data transfer.