+ why not treat all the parallel port input pins with transistors?
+
+ http://emergent.unpythonic.net/01165081407 has an answer, that they
+ are used as inverters because the FPGA has weak pull-ups on those
+ pins yet those pins need to be driven low or the PC can't configure
+ the FPGA by "printing to it" .. apparently that only applies to the
+ two pins that have the inverters on them.
+
+ Duh. Of course they're inverting... how'd I miss that?
+
+ **DONE**
+