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It’s unknown if this parallel DB25 to serial Mini DIN-8 to USB converting ghetto chain works, but a people says it does. It can be doctored, but the world would be better place if it were real – even if it probably breaks the laws of quantum physics.
load of crap
Not possible. For starters, the USB-to-PS/2 mouse adapter (the green one) merely crosses wires over from the USB plug in the mouse to the PS/2 connector in the computer. The mouse can either function as a USB device or a PS/2 device. Keyboards and mice are the only things that can function over PS/2, with the exception of some older devices, such as cameras, which use the PS/2 port for power.
The PS/2-to-serial adapter is where the idea really begins to break down. USB, PS/2, and serial mice do indeed share a common method for transmitting their signals, but an optical mouse requires 5V DC to operate, and serial does not carry power at all. Therefore, it would be impossible even to connect a USB mouse to a serial port, let alone a USB mass storage device, which also requires five volts.
There is no such thing as a serial to parallel adapter. The closest two representations of such a device are as follows: A S/P protocol converter, which converts serial data (a steady stream of bits across a single pair of conductors) to parallel data (a stream of eight or sixteen bits across sixteen or thirty-two wires, respectively), and the DB-9 (standard serial connector) to DB-25 (standard parallel connector), which happens to be the device pictured. This device does NOT convert serial data to parallel data. Parallel ports also do not carry power and as such cannot power the USB drive, and therefore the device cannot be mounted as a volume for the user to access.
Based on the 2U Dell Poweredge server (my guess is it’s a 2650 or a 2850) in the picture, it was taken by a sysadmin who found himself bored with a large number of spare old adapters lying around.
tl;dr it’s fake and impossible.
Besides the fact that this is not possible I’m going to be a complete idiot and believe it… THIS IS AWESOME!
The parallel port not dead.. Great! 🙂