Re: Why are laptops no longer made with serial ports?

From: Jon Parmet (jon_at_parmetpc.volpe.dot.gov)
Date: 07/01/04 

Date: 1 Jul 2004 07:04:50 -0700

"David Lee" <davidlee_malvern@dont.use.this.bit.hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<cbupbt$mcd$1@hamble.qinetiq.com>...
> Dale DePriest wrote...
> >
> > One thing that bugs me is that most laptops still have parallel ports. I
> > have much more use for a serial port than a parallel port so how is it
> > that one port is gone and the bigger port is still there. Perhaps
> > someone will write a driver for serial devices plugged into the parallel
> > port.
> >
>
> The parallel port is still very useful for other things apart from printers.
> There are still programs that use parallel port 'dongles' as licence keys.
> It is also an easily hacked interface for DIY projects needing faster
> throughput than you can get with RS232.
>
> AFAIK there were serial/parallel interfaces available for driving centronics
> priters from serial ports and vice versa.

Companies like http://www.blackbox.com have a ton of options for doing
this (interface converters).
 
> The big advantage of RS232 and parallel ports is it's very easy to get at
> the raw signal data with a minimum of driver overhead.

2,3,7,20 .... Simple (usually ;)

And in the Unix world it's nice, like when you lose a console, to be
able to quickly hook a dumb terminal up on a serial port.

> David

Reading some of the replies in this thread, it's amazing how narrow
some folk's view of the world is, restricted to "leading edge or die."
We do work for many companies and countries. There are plenty of our
international sponsors out there still using X.25, for example, to
link WANs carrying mission-critical aviation related data.

If you wait an infinite amount of time, you'll have the perfect
solution.

It's a big world out there folks, and it doesn't just revolve around a
marketing weenie's or web geek's myopic view of what the 'next best
thing' is. If some of our sponsors, whoe project's life cycles are >
12 months, didn't lock down requirements at some point - because
someone also had the 'next best thing' for them to consider - we'd
never deploy.

I'm not saying, don't progress. Far from it. We're working with a high
performance 32-CPU SGI box for doing some rather complex modelling
simulations that on super geek's latest and greatest, 64-bit whatever
box with a USB/firewire/shpredoinkle interface port, take around 10
hours ;)

So.... I guess it's time to pull out the only comeback I know, the old
tired and true "One Up"... Of course, geekoid will claim this one is
old and thus legacy. Oh well, sometimes the old ones are the best ;)
Some of you will enjoy it, and isn't that's what it's supposed to be
about?

ok:

============================= CUT HERE =============================
I found the following in newsgroup conversation that got out of hand.
One guy
made a sarcastic comment (the first on this list) and then the rest
started
one-upping. Each paragraph is _apparently_ from a different person but
since I
didn't excerpt this, I can't verify it. A professor at MIT compiled
and posted
the result for everyone to stare at.

... ======================== HERE GOES ========================

Right! I run System V on my VIC-20!

Hmmmm...well, I am getting SVR4 for my HP 48Sx.....

HA! _I'm_ just finishing up a port of VMS for my Timex Sinclair! Top
THAT!

I'm running NextStep on Atari 2600 Video Game System.

Just last night I was able to get Windows to boot on my Sears PONG
game.

I am replying to this message with my built-in VAX Mailer on my
Game-Boy.

I just installed a 10 Gigabyte Drive to handle all the replies!
However, it only
runs at 230,000 Baud due to the large drive slowing it down.

I fear I will not be getting news any longer... The batteries on my
calculator
watch are running out.

My calculator watch is Solar... And if I turned off the lights, NO ONE
would be
gettings news...

Feh. I'm so slick NASA just awarded ME the TERADATA contract to run on
my TV
remote! They liked my proposal mainly because I'm ALSO able to
shoehorn in the
TEXAS SUPERCOLLIDER computations between commercials! Beat THAT!

Well, well, well. SSC calculations, huh. I built a system out of 2
inches of
wire, 3 pennies and a AA battery that does realtime calculations of
particle
vectors during the Big Bang. A complete simulation of the first 2
years of the
life of the universe accurate to the theoretical limit, takes about 5
seconds.

And you guys think you are so great. I just spent the last half hour
getting X11
to run on my slide rule. I am still having problem connecting it to
the net
around here, but I would welcome any suggestions.

So what!!! I'm running Xinitrc, TWMRC, Internet, and 27 muds off of a
paper
clip. Not to mention the fact that I am designing a new form of
television with
7000 pixels based off a piece of tissue paper. Next!!!

Man, that's baby stuff. I'm running a particle accelerator utilizing
matter-antimatter reactions in my doorknob, and calculating everything
in the
fourth dimension using a single dip switch and a large glass of water.

Chilld's play, I have an old piece of cheese that is, at this very
moment,
raytracing an actual model of the universe five hours from now, while
at the
same time calculating the heat produced from the new Pentium.

And you people think that you are hackers! I'm currently engaged in a
project
which involves simultaneous simulation of multiple universes (To see
what would
happen if various constants change. Pi-8.4 is an interesting one.) My
hardware
consists of a single wooden pencil (no paper, With it, I can do
real-time
simulations of 2^32 universes in parallel.

You guys are wimps!! I've just finished converting a microwave oven
into a
paradimensional teleportation device., The problem I'm having so far
is that my
breakfast bagel keeps disappearing!! May have to eat it raw . . .

Sorry, that's my fault. I'm afraid that the high energy laser-pumped
negentropic
vortex generator I made from my own nostril hair, which is currently
cranking
out entire new universes at the rate of 7.6 per picosecond, was
breaking the FCC
emissions limits and gronking your microwave's control panel. It
should work
properly now. Also, my cat Arthur was FTPing hundreds of terabytes of
PD
software from Epsilon Eridani in the year 4741 A.D over the
faster-than-light
Ethernet interface I built for him, and this may have been loading the
Net a
little yesterday. My sincere apologies to everyone who noticed any
performance
degradation.

I am bribing that cat with sardines. My next project will use
sophisticated
software from 4741 A.D. to autogenerate trashy science fiction novels
from my
coffee cup. I'm almost there.... it works as well as Windows 3.0

:)
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Regards,
Jon