i've tried stuff like this, but i never got it to actually work 100% of the time. i think it has something to do with the serial port or the PBASIC chip, but i was never able to find the problem, as i kinda gave up after a while. i based my "counter" off the BasicRun LED, which toggled between 0 and 1 every loop, so i think it may have gone too fast, or slow, or something, for it to properly sync with the computer. if anyone wants to see my 2002 dashboard program (simple C/C++ console app), i'm more than willing to post it, but it doesn't work.
rob, thanks for the tip with OUTH, i never knew it existed till now, although it may or may not be important next year.
brandon, would it be that hard to add a tag button, or are we just so close to vB3 now that it doesn't pay to go and edit the vB2 code (the latter, i hope

)?