One of the big secrets in computers today is that the cheap stuff will do what you want. My personal computer is the slowest processor I could buy seven years ago. It's done well. I admit that I don't play games, and I'm not a fan of the upcoming Windows' need for superpower graphics hardware.

I'm not even a fan of Windows.


And while I can explain why using Linux means that I can keep old hardware running longer (because I don't upgrade X Windows, GNOME, or KDE; if I upgraded those I'd be in the same boat as the poor Windows schmucks), I won't brag today.

What I will brag about is that when I took the clothes out of the dryer today, I found one-third of my USB thumb drive. Then I found the other two pieces. I snapped them together and things are working just fine. I need some superglue, but that's it.

The thing is, like my computer, this drive was the cheapest, slowest, and smallest one available a year ago. When I saw what the dryer had done to it, I felt (1) sad about the lost information (which, of course, turned out to not be lost), and (2) kind of happy that I now had an excuse to get a better drive -- whatever is the cheapest, slowest, and smallest today.

By the way, more comics are available at es.comp.os.linux.*. The artist has granted some permission to reproduce them.