Manually controlling USB pins

I worked on a project a little while back where I manually controlled the individual pins of the parallel port using "outb" and "inb" in c++. For my next project, I'd like to transition to the USB port (mostly because I like the readily available 5V supply... and those serial cables are big and clunky). I did a bit of research online and didn't find any references to specific port commands to manually control the USB pins.

Is there a fundamental difference between the old style parallel ports and the new USB ports that you can't actually control the USB pins yourself?

-Dan

The para port has individual bits which can be manipulated via software control. USB is a serial bus and transmits data in packet form using the USB protocol.
If you read up on the USB protocol you will get your answer. Have a look at this link.
**broken link removed**

That should keep 'em busy for a while...

The "simple" solution would be an FT245R