From: Ronald W. Heiby (heiby_at_falkor.chi.il.us)
Date: Wed Feb 20 2002 - 16:28:28 EST
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Wednesday, February 20, 2002, 6:05:59 AM, Pete wrote:
> Integrated wi-fi
Of no use until the security is fixed.
> No legacy ports
NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! It seems like I am always going somewhere where I
need a serial port, parallel port, or both. Having them built in is
*really* nice. I'd hate to have to drag along a bunch of USB junk in
addition to serial / parallel cables.
Why do you find these ports offensive?
Why do I need these ports?
Well, let's say that I am at a client site and they do not want to set
my ThinkPad up on their network, but I still need to print some stuff.
It's really handy to be able to walk up to a network printer that
*also* happens to have a parallel printer port, plug in, and send it
my print job.
As to the serial port, I find that I am frequently interacting with
serial port hardware. It is really important to have known reliable
hardware and software to debug a flakey communication. Also, I have
had several occasions where the only way to get more than a floppy's
worth of stuff to another machine was serial port file transfer. Sure,
one can use various utilities (like WinZip) to create a multiple
floppy data set. But, that requires first putting WinZip onto the
target machine, and it requires that I lug around a box of floppies.
In a fraction of the size/weight, I have a coiled length of ribbon
cable with both male and female DB-9 connectors at *each* end. The
coil is wrapped around a DB-9 null-modem adapter.
Now that I finally have a TP with reliable IR capability, that's an
option *rarely*, depending on the target machine. (I suspect that the
reliability I'm seeing with my A21p is due to Win2K Pro finally
getting its act together in this area, since my 770ED's IR port also
has been working pretty well since getting a Win2K Pro install.)
I also carry around a cute CAT5 cable from Targus that retracts back
into a hunk of plastic about the size of my Palm computer. Maybe a bit
bigger, more like those big WinCE devices. Ethernet is a good option
for transferring data, too. More common than IR, but not as common as
serial, and there's more setup generally required for the Ethernet
link.
As a companion to the Targus cable, I need a little gizmo about the
size of a person's thumb that has CAT5 cable ends, one male and one
female, and implements a crossover between. With that, I could do a
direct PC to PC hookup with the Targus cable and stop carrying around
a big (3-6 ft) crossover cable. If anyone knows where I can buy such a
"Null Ethernet" adapter, I'd love to hear about it. (In my opinion,
Targus should make/sell such a gizmo, ideally one that would be
integrally stored in the retractable cable's case to reduce the
chances of losing it.) Someone could probably make good money making
these.
Ron.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP Personal Privacy 6.5.8
Comment: The last PGP with full source disclosure.
iQA/AwUBPHQU828pw+2/9pUJEQJicwCcCPku8zJ9+761Qm3S8h3rZBNh1vcAoLPE
FlekG5KrSg/HIqImNnwbBriP
=9Rl9
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Thu Jan 23 2003 - 09:58:22 EST