My camera uses a CF card but I think the principle is the same as yours.
Likewise for my laptop I have CF to PCMCIA adaptor (approx £10)works brilliantly as an extra drive, I can copy 300 pics from the card to PC in about 5 seconds.
At home I have a USB CF reader which works quite well but nowhere near as fast as the other method and that cost me about £40.
Using the camera and supplied serail lead takes one minute per pic!!!!