Should just note that the above contraption doesn't plug into a Parallel Port. It has female pin holes so it plugs into a DB 25pin male port... aka old school 25 pin Serial. The only way it could be engineered to work would be to wire the required pins in the DB25 to the right pins on a USB port. Would certainly make some of your tech friends turn their heads

In the mid-80's I managed to get 2 Commodore PETs to communicate through a home made adapter between their IEEE ports. Bit of code and you could type on one screen and watch it come up on the other / visa versa. A ton of work for the worlds shortest distance chat program But it was a great experiment!