Completely OT, but...

[bangular]

> On Thu, Mar 09, 2006 at 02:40:51PM -0500, bangular wrote:
> > This is a completely offtopic question, but I think your expertise
> > can point me in the right direction on this...
> >
> > We have an application that spits out prints all day. For the most
> > part, we don't need them (it's for a security system and only need
> > them when something goes wrong. Maybe twice a year at most). For
> > records purposes though, they have to be somewhere. The program
> > can't save to a text file eliminating our printer. So! We want to
> > take the parallel port and plug it into another box instead of the
> > printer and take the raw prints and store them electronically. That
> > way, instead of tens of thousands of pieces of paper a year
> > completely wasted, we can just store them electronically.
> >
> > I'm sorry, this obvious has almost nothing to do with cups, but I
> > really didn't know where to start and thought someone on here had
> > some experience doing that sort of thing. I'd be nice to hear some
> > thoughts on which direction I could take this.
>
> It would probably be MUCH easier if your app could print to a serial
> port in addition to a // port. This way you could use any serial
> terminal emulator to capture the output from the other box with a
> simple null-modem cable.
>
> With a // cable I'm not sure this can be done transparently
>
> bye
>
> Jerome Alet
>

Seems like a great idea! It's a Windows program and if it uses the standard Windows printing system (and not something specialized) then this just might be crazy enough to work...