HOW TO – Build parallel port prototypes
Hardwaresecrets has a goo how-to on doing projects with a parallel ports – “The computer parallel port is the easiest way to control devices outside the PC, like LEDs, lights and even home appliances. In this tutorial we will teach you how to use the computer parallel port to control circuits outside your computer. The greatest thing about printers nowadays is that they use USB connection. Thus, on the majority of modern PCs the parallel is not used, so it is available for us to use it to control circuits outside the computer box.” Link.
Refik writes – “Have you ever wanted to create professional looking devices, video players, show maps and GPS data on it? Your imagination is the only limit now. A DIY project on how to use a color graphic LCD display and how to design your own gadgets….” 
If you are one of those people who never has the right cable when they need it then this project is for you. Turn one cat5 network cable into the Megatron of cabling by wiring custom adaptors and bridges. This straight through cable can transform into a crossover, serial, serial null-modem, cisco console, vga or vga extension cable by using four adapters, two links and one couple. 
Tom writes “The first of 2 planned Robotic Feral Public Authors has been completed and is ready for its first field trial in London Fields next week: The robot has two sensors (air quality and carbon dioxide) and GPS location sensing. The sensors were selected to reflect the concerns voiced in our community pollution mapping workshop back in November, which identified air pollution as the key environmental issue of local residents. The robot communicates its Lat/Long position and sensor readings back to the Urban Tapestries public authoring system via a WiFi connection.” [
Alexandre made his own door opener – “I sit about 5m from my office’s door. So, every time someone ringed the bell I had to stand up and open the door. That would be fine if the door did not have an electric door opener just next to it! An ingenious device that allows you to open the door by simply pressing a button. Because of this, the device had no use at all. After all, if you were in front of the door, you could simply open it using the handle. Thus my goal was to give a purpose for the simple life of this poor electric door opener (and, of course, to save a walk of 5m ten times per day).” [
This might be a good Roomba mod project…“Grower is a small ‘rover’ vehicle which navigates around the periphery of a room. It hugs the room’s walls and responds to the carbon dioxide levels in the air by actually drawing varying heights of ‘grass’ on the walls in green ink. The Grower robot senses the carbon dioxide (CO2) level in the air via a small digital CO2 sensor.” Thanks James!