If you're a computer person chances are that you've accumulated a fair amount of older hard drives, and have important archival data spread across all of them. Cracking open the desktop just to check a drive is ultra annoying when you're cycling through a whole stack of them - power up, check drive, reboot, change drive... You get the point.

The Granite USB to SATA / IDE Bridge Adapter has an external power supply, and data connectors for 2.5", 3.5", and 5.25" PATA and SATA drives. It connects via USB 2.0, and it's a super convenient piece of kit to keep in the PC repair toolbox for those days when you have a hard drive to check, and don't have an empty external enclosure sitting around. Just throw a drive on the table, hook the cables up, and plug it in.

This isn't a glamorous piece of hardware at all, but it is a tool you'll be happy to have for emergencies. However, it is a device so simple and effective that it deserves to be chronicled in a post by Kevin Kelly.