Hard Drive Power

Several people suggested that the problem I was having with the external hard drive clicking instead of spinning up was that it couldn't draw enough power through the USB3 port, especially because my laptop is pre-USB3 and therefore I have a PC card with the USB3 ports in it. A suggestion from nojay sent me back to Fry's for the fourth time in six days, where after much hunting I found the only "splitter" cable that ends in the USB3 connection for the hard drive. That allows me to plug the USB3 data line into the PC card and the power-only USB connection into another port, with the result being that the hard drive (which is an exchange for the first one, just in case it was actually defective) is working just fine now.

Close of Business

Yesterday was the deadline for submitting new proposals to the WSFS Business Meeting. A few proposals that I helped people draft did not actually get submitted in the end, and given how many things we actually have to discuss, I must admit to some relief. I currently count at least twenty items of new or continuing business, including a few things not listed below because they'll arise out of committee reports and are mostly routine.

( No More Bets )

The substantive business falls into two main categories. Links are to the Sasquan Business Meeting web site.

( I'm Giving You the Business )

There were no "surprise" submissions before the deadline. There were some things floated in the last few days, and I helped their sponsors with them, but none of them actually made it as far as being formally submitted. Some of them may have decided that waiting until next year is a more productive strategy, given the crush of proposals this year.