Friday Hodgepodge

Three Things

1. I no longer remember why I first bought this (take a deep breath here) SATA/PATA/IDE Drive to USB 2.0 Adapter Converter Cable for Hard Drive Disk HDD 2.5" 3.5" with External AC Power Adapter, but it has helped me pull the fat from the fire on a handful of occasions. Last weekend was one: I'd noticed I was missing a handful of files from back before we moved from St. Louis -- and that the error had propagated though my backup system. Luckily, since my desktop died right before the move, and I still had its disk, I was able to recover the files with this nifty contraption. Figuring out how to decrypt the disk, and then my home ditrectory -- each requiring different procedures -- was the hard part.

2. My wife needed to bring something for her department's Christmas potluck, so she enlisted my aid. My chicken/sausage jambalaya (scroll down and double the sausage) went over so well that I will probably be called on to make it each year from now on. That's fine, since I enjoy cooking it.

3. Although the news is not unexpected, it is good. Wired reports that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, who wanted to regulate the internet like a utility, will be stepping down.

Weekend Reading

"[I]f the priorities remain firm and constant, life will flow steadily in the right direction." -- Michael Hurd, in "Examine your Priorities!" at The Delaware Wave

"What many people refer to as rebellion is actually nothing more than individuation." -- Michael Hurd, in "Teenagers: Rebellion vs. Reason" at The Delaware Coast Press

"[T]his chaos has spawned uncertainty, which is undercutting the foundations of the American innovation economy." -- Adam Mossoff and Charles Sauer, in "Congress Saved Software in 1980, and It Should Do It Again Today" at The Weekly Standard

-- CAV