Size comparason: From left to right - a USB 'B' socket, a surface mount SOIC-20 IC, the SSOP-28 USB chip, a 14 pin DIP and a transistor.
The board assembled and ready to test. The FTDI FT245R USB FIFO dwarfed by its decoupling capacitors.
And... it works first time, the device showing up in the laptop's dmesg straight away.