After detaching the ribbon cable I soldered a serial cable to the miniscule contacts. No problem so far (you need sharp vision though).
I tested the cable and poured on the 2-component glue to create a solid plug. When I looked at my creation again after 15 minutes I found that the glue hardened beutifully. I also found that the laws of fluid physics did a nice job; the glue entered the holes through the backdoor and filled every hole.
So now I'm looking at every old hd to see if there's a small connector on the side because I would love to have a *decent* modem cable.
Gert-Jan Maas
The Netherlands