(I think your CA-42 post that appeared on uChobby was the first I had heard of this source of cheap USB/Serial converters (I think I had known that they WERE such, but had never noticed that they were cheap via the mass-market, or that they used standard-enough chipsets to be useful without special phone software.) *I* found it useful, and have since bought about half-a-dozen such cables, aimed at all sorts of serial things that I'd like to talk to with USB-equipped computers. (Don't be dismayed by the negative comments on hack-a-day; they seem to be mostly complaining about the long lag between your original posting and HaD picking it up, rather than the idea in general.))