[OT] Looking for a notebook

[Bill Davidsen]

Joe Tseng wrote:
> I've been asked to look for notebooks for my office that have built-in 
> serial ports.  We've already used USB-to-serial adapters and port 
> multipliers with mixed success; we are kind of leery of using PCMCIA 
> serial ports.  And we'd like to use these notebooks on the go so docks 
> are out of the question.  Can I get the big OEMs to sell me a few of 
> these or am I out of luck with them?

The ASUS have/had them recently, I have a few here. Beware the USB 
stuff, in general they aren't really RS-232 compliant, the standard 
calls for +/-12v signalling, and many "serial ports" try to fake it with 
0-12v, which really, really, doesn't make it talking to some devices.

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot