First off, you can just pick up
one of these USB to IEEE1284 converters from newegg for about 12 bucks. I was forced to get a USB to serial converter because I had an expensive Garmin GPS that didn't offer native USB connectivity. Some day USB will be obsolete and you'll need a parallel to usb to (whatever newest interface exists). And sometimes the newer products aren't as good as the old. I agree with the older HP printers being built better. The laserjet series 2 was a tank!
All this crazy hype and "Windows 7 Parties" is just ridiculous. It's just an operating system. It's a means to an end. The year is almost 2010. Is anyone else disturbed when a company as large as Microsoft can't create a stable, reliable operating system that doesn't need weekly security patches?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a MS hater. I think they have some really great products like Visual Studio and SQL Server. I use these every day in order to put food on my table. And I really enjoy these products. The inevitable upgrade that I will be forced to make from XP to Windows7 will not make my job any better or any easier. But eventually the XP "patches" will stop coming and in order to keep my OS running securely and thus I will need to upgrade.
I don't know about you guys, but after about the 50th time I've had to install Windows (starting way back with Windows 1.0 for me) I kinda lost that wow-zowie enjoyment factor of upgrading my OS. I just look at the OS in the same light as I look at the firmware in my camera or the ECU in my car. I expect it to work and not crash.
Some day all of this won't matter as we'll be running very light weight terminals that can run any software by means of virtualization. The days of the BIG OS releases are numbered and I personally can't wait for it to conclude.
