Has this problem been resolved yet?
I ask because yesterday 810 bought a nice new Toshiba laptop (1905 - Sxxx, the one with xp home). it's an amazing machine, except for the fact that the battery is a bit small for the computer

, and the fact that there is no serial port. i was hoping to use a USB --> Serial adapter, but if that doesn't seem to be working, would a parallel --> serial work? we also have a firewire port, but beyond ipods, i've never seen firewire used

.
Another possible solution would be to simple replace the rs-232 ports on the RC/OI with USB ports, as all current laptops have USB. granted, if your's doesn't, this presents another problem, but it seems more and more people have USB, not serial (i don't care about the speed advantage, just to be able to program the robot). i'm not sure how well that would work, but we can hope, no?