* * * * *
                                        
                    Of course the serial port doesn't work …
                                        
I mentioned to Mark [1] the trouble I was having with the serial port [2] on
the laptop and he mentioned that most laptops have such ports normally turned
off to save power. 

Of course. My very first laptop (Image of a Data General-One laptop) [3] was
like that—you would have to enable the serial ports before using them. Forgot
about that.

A quick Google [4] search and I find:

> The serial port is disabled by default in the TP (IBM ThinkPad)600. The
> TP600 can only run one of the serial and infrared ports at a time. The
> easiest way to enable the serial port is to go into Windows 95 and use the
> config tool there.
> 

“Linux on IBM ThinkPad 600 [5]”

(I also learned about potential battery problems [6] but for me, that's par
for course—this is the first laptop I've had that I could run for any amount
of time off the battery)

Looks like I'll have to download tpctl (ThinkPad Configuration Tool for
Linux) [7] to enable the serial port.

[1] http://www.conman.org/people/myg/
[2] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2003/02/05.1
[3] http://www.simulogics.com/museum/DG1_1.JPG
[4] http://www.google.com/
[5] http://www.levien.com/tp600.html
[6] http://www.levien.com/tp600-battery.html
[7] http://tpctl.sourceforge.net/tpctlhome.htm

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

.