serial ports going the way of the floppy
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I believe microsoft PC99 (yes 1999) spec said that windows machines should not have serial ports, parallel ports, ps2 ports or AT slots. Manufacturers are finally starting to implement that... John
John M. Drescher wrote: I believe microsoft PC99 (yes 1999) spec said that windows machines should not have serial ports, parallel ports, ps2 ports or AT slots. Manufacturers are finally starting to implement that... :omg: So, what--everything is supposed to be USB or Ethernet? Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
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John M. Drescher wrote: I believe microsoft PC99 (yes 1999) spec said that windows machines should not have serial ports, parallel ports, ps2 ports or AT slots. Manufacturers are finally starting to implement that... :omg: So, what--everything is supposed to be USB or Ethernet? Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
Marc Clifton wrote: everything is supposed to be USB Yes. USB, Firewire, ethernet, IDE and PCI. John
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LOL. I still have my null modem cable from that company (can't remember the name of it now!) that let you transfer files using serial or parallel ports. You know what's really annoying about upgrading though--all those dot matrix printers, especially old receipt printers, don't have drivers for Windows, or if they do, they're pieces of crap. I had to tailor a report for a new Star SP500 receipt printer a couple months ago. The Windows printer drivers resulted in garbage characters and bitmaps appearing randomly on the paper. I had to write the report out to a text file as straight ASCII and copy it to LPT1: to get the thing to work right. Thank God I'm using my own report generator, so it was actually pretty easy to do. I couldn't imagine doing something like that in Crystal Reports. Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
Marc Clifton wrote: --all those dot matrix printers, especially old receipt printers, don't have drivers for Windows, or if they do, they're pieces of crap... Hmmm - well gee golly - you'd think Epson would have something kicking around. In any case, he's not printing receipts and such and will probably go for an upgrade there too. Saaaaaay - maybe there's a market for Windows brrrrap matrix printer drivers! Kah'ching!:cool:
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Good grief. The latest laptop I bought a few months ago, a Toshiba, doesn't have serial ports! And I need serial ports for an app that I'm converting from DOS to Windows for a client! Well, time to google for USB-serial port or a PCMCIA card, I guess. Just what I always wanted for Christmas--a serial port device for my laptop. NOT! (and no, the laptop doesn't have a floppy either. Has built in WiFi though.) Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
Can't really blame 'em, I haven't used a serial port in years. I think the last time I had to use a serial port was for an old computer that needed a mouse, but didn't have a dedicated mouse port. I have a feeling parallel will eventually follow suit, although printers (especially expensive ones) tend to outlast computers, so there will be a lot of parallel printers out there for some time. No single raindrop believes that it is responsible for the flood.
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Good grief. The latest laptop I bought a few months ago, a Toshiba, doesn't have serial ports! And I need serial ports for an app that I'm converting from DOS to Windows for a client! Well, time to google for USB-serial port or a PCMCIA card, I guess. Just what I always wanted for Christmas--a serial port device for my laptop. NOT! (and no, the laptop doesn't have a floppy either. Has built in WiFi though.) Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
Yeah, the IBM T40 that I just got does not have any either. If you need serial you have to get a docking station.
Paul Watson wrote: "At the end of the day it is what you produce that counts, not how many doctorates you have on the wall." George Carlin wrote: "Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things." Jörgen Sigvardsson wrote: If the physicists find a universal theory describing the laws of universe, I'm sure the asshole constant will be an integral part of that theory.
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Marc Clifton wrote: The latest laptop I bought a few months ago, a Toshiba, doesn't have serial ports! Same here. And the USB<->serial converter i bought works like shit (kernel crashes if the computer goes into sleep mode) :( Fortunately, i rarely need serial. :) Marc Clifton wrote: and no, the laptop doesn't have a floppy either. Has built in WiFi though ack! Never use floppy, but got one anyway... shoulda gone for the wifi instead :sigh:
Shog9 ---
You'd better turn back, before the frost sets in. These desert nights are for weathered men, The ones who've already given in...
Shog9 wrote: Same here. And the USB<->serial converter i bought works like sh*t (kernel crashes if the computer goes into sleep mode) I've yet to see a USB<->Serial converter that actually works as claimed. :( -- In the land of the blind, be king![^]
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Can't really blame 'em, I haven't used a serial port in years. I think the last time I had to use a serial port was for an old computer that needed a mouse, but didn't have a dedicated mouse port. I have a feeling parallel will eventually follow suit, although printers (especially expensive ones) tend to outlast computers, so there will be a lot of parallel printers out there for some time. No single raindrop believes that it is responsible for the flood.
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LOL. I still have my null modem cable from that company (can't remember the name of it now!) that let you transfer files using serial or parallel ports. You know what's really annoying about upgrading though--all those dot matrix printers, especially old receipt printers, don't have drivers for Windows, or if they do, they're pieces of crap. I had to tailor a report for a new Star SP500 receipt printer a couple months ago. The Windows printer drivers resulted in garbage characters and bitmaps appearing randomly on the paper. I had to write the report out to a text file as straight ASCII and copy it to LPT1: to get the thing to work right. Thank God I'm using my own report generator, so it was actually pretty easy to do. I couldn't imagine doing something like that in Crystal Reports. Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
Marc Clifton wrote: I couldn't imagine doing something like that in Crystal Reports Note to self: go talk to Print Engine team to determine if we can write to a Star SP500 receipt printer. :-D The kindest thing you can do for a stupid person, and for the gene pool, is to let him expire of his own dumb choices. [Roger Wright on stupid people] We're like private member functions [John Theal on R&D] We're figuring out the parent thing as we go though. Kinda like setting up Linux for the first time ya' know... [Nitron]
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Good grief. The latest laptop I bought a few months ago, a Toshiba, doesn't have serial ports! And I need serial ports for an app that I'm converting from DOS to Windows for a client! Well, time to google for USB-serial port or a PCMCIA card, I guess. Just what I always wanted for Christmas--a serial port device for my laptop. NOT! (and no, the laptop doesn't have a floppy either. Has built in WiFi though.) Marc Latest AAL Article My blog Join my forum!
When the company I work for offered to get me a new laptop, I specifically requested that it include a floppy drive and a serial port - so I ended up with one that has almost everything - Floppy, Serial, Parallel, 3 USB 2.0, Firewire, SVideo out, RGB Out, DVD/CDRW, Modem, Ethernet, 2 PCMCIA slots, 512MB RAM, 40GB Hard drive, 2.0GHz P4-M and a nice 15.1" Screen, XP-Pro - all for around $1800. The only thing I had to add was an 802.11g wireless card. Battery life is really good - over 4 hours. Weight is under 4lbs. Steve
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Marc Clifton wrote: --all those dot matrix printers, especially old receipt printers, don't have drivers for Windows, or if they do, they're pieces of crap... Hmmm - well gee golly - you'd think Epson would have something kicking around. In any case, he's not printing receipts and such and will probably go for an upgrade there too. Saaaaaay - maybe there's a market for Windows brrrrap matrix printer drivers! Kah'ching!:cool:
>maybe there's a market for Windows brrrrap matrix printer drivers! Hell yeah. a: Lasers/bubble-jets can't be used for multi-copy paper and b: a fine Kayosha printer outperforms any laser on the market. My dad's firm still uses them and they are incredible. Hundreds of pages per minute, the paper literally flies through them. regards, Paul Watson Bluegrass South Africa Brian Welsch wrote: "blah blah blah, maybe a potato?" while translating my Afrikaans. Crikey! ain't life grand? Einstein says...
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Can't really blame 'em, I haven't used a serial port in years. I think the last time I had to use a serial port was for an old computer that needed a mouse, but didn't have a dedicated mouse port. I have a feeling parallel will eventually follow suit, although printers (especially expensive ones) tend to outlast computers, so there will be a lot of parallel printers out there for some time. No single raindrop believes that it is responsible for the flood.
We're still using com ports to sync our old Palms, in those docking stations. "For all of our languages, we cannot communicate" - Christy Moore, Natives
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Can't really blame 'em, I haven't used a serial port in years. I think the last time I had to use a serial port was for an old computer that needed a mouse, but didn't have a dedicated mouse port. I have a feeling parallel will eventually follow suit, although printers (especially expensive ones) tend to outlast computers, so there will be a lot of parallel printers out there for some time. No single raindrop believes that it is responsible for the flood.
Navin wrote: Can't really blame 'em, I haven't used a serial port in years. I use them all the time - for controlling LCD projectors remotely. And I've still got a crappy 56k serial modem.
Ryan
"Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late" John Nichol "Point Of Impact"
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Shog9 wrote: Same here. And the USB<->serial converter i bought works like sh*t (kernel crashes if the computer goes into sleep mode) I've yet to see a USB<->Serial converter that actually works as claimed. :( -- In the land of the blind, be king![^]
I've got a USB->IRDa dongle which works quite nicly. It's sort of similar :)**
*¨¨`) ¸¸.·´ ¸.·*¨¨`) (¸¸.·* ¸ .·* ¸¸.·* (¸¸.~~> Joel Holdsworth.
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When the company I work for offered to get me a new laptop, I specifically requested that it include a floppy drive and a serial port - so I ended up with one that has almost everything - Floppy, Serial, Parallel, 3 USB 2.0, Firewire, SVideo out, RGB Out, DVD/CDRW, Modem, Ethernet, 2 PCMCIA slots, 512MB RAM, 40GB Hard drive, 2.0GHz P4-M and a nice 15.1" Screen, XP-Pro - all for around $1800. The only thing I had to add was an 802.11g wireless card. Battery life is really good - over 4 hours. Weight is under 4lbs. Steve
Yes I had to buy a laptop for my boss, who programs PICs down the RS232. The machine turned out to be a real chunky sucker**
*¨¨`) ¸¸.·´ ¸.·*¨¨`) (¸¸.·* ¸ .·* ¸¸.·* (¸¸.~~> Joel Holdsworth.
**