Windows 7 RC1 experiences

[Arclight]

Programming serial devices? Sounds interesting, please explain.

Also have 1 or 2 old 386 thingies (and Commodore), but they were stripped for components looong time ago. Man, I should really get rid of unusable cases taking up space. My bedroom looks like a PC graveyard, ain't got nowhere else to put them.

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Arclight

Programming serial devices? Sounds interesting, please explain.

Also have 1 or 2 old 386 thingies, but they were stripped for components looong time ago. Man, I should really get rid of unusable cases taking up space. My bedroom looks like a PC graveyard, ain't got nowhere else to put them.

Try and find a serial port on a laptop these days! That is why I keep it around! Runs Win95. I should upgrade it to Windows 98SE. I think I have ME around here too but that was a POS.

For example, here is one impulse buy I made once that I need that laptops serial port for:

http://cdecas.free.fr/robots/wonderborg.php



A lot of devices like routers and servers can only be talked to with a serial port too. So I need that little laptop for more than one thing.

-S

[Arclight]

Oh, that's awesome! One of the things I had in the back of my mind was to use stuff from old PCs and build my own robot, but I have no clue how to do that. Don't even know if it's possible.

Last serial port I saw was on a P3 I think, but sadly that board died recently. CPU was fine (1ghz) and went to a friend of mine whose CPU just died, so some part of that system still lives on. I got that P3 board from a friend of mine, was my first "real" PC (was always far behind current tech due to lack of money), was still using a P1 100MHZ before that. I remember playing a lot of Ceasar II... good memories.

[CaptainHaplo]

My normal job heavily involves devices that require pc serial ports. Most end users buy a pc - then go "where do I plug this 9 pin thingy in?"

I think my company probably has kept a couple of usb-serial adapter firms in business by ourselves.....

USB Serial adapters usually work fine for most uses, however avoid PCI serial cards.... they have gotten to be about useless....

Subman1 - why is it I have the idea that like me, you have spent way too much time in telnet and hyperterminal?

BTW - did anyone else notice that hyperterminal was removed in Vista and has NOT made a reapearance in 7?

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by CaptainHaplo

...Subman1 - why is it I have the idea that like me, you have spent way too much time in telnet and hyperterminal?

BTW - did anyone else notice that hyperterminal was removed in Vista and has NOT made a reapearance in 7?

You still use that stuff? Crud! Upgrade already to PuTTY! - http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/

And if you must know, I use SSH every day. Not only are my servers at (they lack video cards - this is one of them - http://www.revogear.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=KURO%2DBOX%2FHG%2DW R&Show=TechSpecs) require it, my job requires that I use SSH almost daily.

-S

PS. That Kurobox makes an awesome media server. I run Twonky on it mainly (V4.1 will run forever if you never allow it to call home - hint hint).

[JSLTIGER]

So far, problem free for me. I have no complaints about either this version or the beta.