Maybe it's a problem with the MSNBC site and my settings.

For a while I could not go to the MSNBC Opinions section using Mozilla, as it would crash every single time.

eta: On OS X. Hasn't happened for about six months or a year.

Oooooh...

Now this IDE To USB Drive Adapter would be useful for anyone, even techs when helping, transferring old hard drive data to a new hard drive. You won't even have to open the new machine and attach the drive.

Not that the concept is new, but the dropping of the price point is welcome.

eta: Re: Oooooh...

When it says, "Bus Power design," does that mean it's powered from the computer's USB port? That would be unusual, as Firewire can supply a lot more power to devices than USB can. (Or did they improve that on USB 2?)

Anyway, my iBook has Firewire but only USB 1 or 1.1 or whatever.

Not that the concept is new, but the dropping of the price point is welcome.

Yeah, that is cheap. I paid about $79 (I think) for the same thing, except it has the enclosure. (Also, Firewire, but USB was the same price.)

I believe it is indeed powered by the USB connection.

However, even since 1.0 USB there have been people making lights to run off USB. Notebook hard drives are fairly low in power consumption, so I can see that as acceptable.

Yeah, that is cheap. I paid about $79 (I think) for the same thing, except it has the enclosure. (Also, Firewire, but USB was the same price.)

I like the enclosureless design, because it makes the task at hand quicker. If I wanted to enclose it, it wouldn't take much, tho.

But for short term use? It would be quite handy. Easily transportable from site to site.

Quick question about DVD-Rs. You can use them like a huge-ass storage device for any ole types of files, instead of for burning DVD-format movies, right? I have all these avi-files that I've bit-torrented that's taking up room on my hard drive, but some of them are too big for a 700MB CD-R and I'm too lazy (and also not in possession of a DVD-writer) to learn to convert them and burn them as DVD. Can I just write a bunch them as regular data files onto a single DVD-R (which I understand can hold 4GB+ data)?

You can use them like a huge-ass storage device for any ole types of files, instead of for burning DVD-format movies, right?

Yes.

Can I just write a bunch them as regular data files onto a single DVD-R (which I understand can hold 4GB+ data)?

The dual-layer blank DVDs can hold almost 8GB. We just got a dual layer burner at work, but I haven't had a chance to play with it yet. Huh, I could back up my entire mp3 collection onto 4 DVDs.

If you don't have a DVD writer, you can't burn DVD-Rs, though.

You can't just stick a blank DVD in a CD burner.