- It's a "parallel port progammer", but it isn't a "parallel programmer" (from the AVR perspective.) It still uses SPI/ISP for the programming, which means the AVR needs to have a clock, and it won't recover from some of the mistakes that a "real parallel programmer would."
- try AT; that's about the most basic, I think.
- No; most USB/Parallel adapters are actually USB/Printer adapters, and don't provide the programmatic per-pin access that programming requires.