hahaha! It does exist!
www.efi101.com
Some of the efi classes are even taught by Matt Wright from haltech.
Oh yeah, your serial port issue. You would/could have the same issue with a haltech using a newer laptop w/o a serial port. You need to purchase a USB/Serial Converter.
DO NOT GET A CHEAP ONE. IE: PDA Link ETC.
You should spend between $20-$60 on your link cable. It should have a data light. It should come with installing software. After this, you need to make sure you PORT # selections between windows and your software are the same. IDK if megasquirt lets you assign com port settings, but halwin does, but mega squirt is kind of a pile. I am making sure i go through all the crap with each haltech unit first, that way when i sell a unit to someone, they pick up the phone and call me, and 99% of the time, I have allready experienced/fixed their issue.
So by the time i say "heh buy this", you can trust you have 100% support behind you from steve, nathan and myself.