Last month I helped out a guy stuck on Tioga pass get his vegetable oil powered Gelaendewagen back on the road. He showed me a copy Overland Journal and I was so impressed I subscribed and ordered all the back issues once I got home. To give you an idea of the flavor of the magazine, one of the contributing editors is the author of my previously reviewed Vehicle Dependent Expeditions book.

For anyone who does car camping, 4x4 exploring, vehicle trips abroad, or just enjoys armchair exploration, I cannot recommend this publication enough. It has amazing comprehensive comparison reviews of the type of gear no other publication would cover, ranging from vehicle rooftop tents to converting a LandCruiser to bio-diesel. On top of the fantastic information and writing in the magazine, it is gorgeously designed and features beautiful expedition shots from around the world. It is the first publication I have come across in years that has me reading every word, review and even advertisement. They publish four issues per year, plus a gear guide and back-issues are available to ’97.

My brother-in-law introduced me to the neti pot, for nasal irrigation, about three years ago. He had had chronic sinus infections that have largely stopped since he started using it. Since I began using it, I’ve had fewer illnesses and just breathe easier. I used to take decongestants regularly in order to sleep soundly (due to mild allergies), but haven’t in the past three years, since the neti pot became part of my daily routine. My sinuses don't dry out as much during winter anymore, and my wife says my snoring has decreased.

The neti pot flushes your sinuses of pollutants, allergens, pollen and dust that build up during the day. By flushing your sinuses you allow your nose to do its secondary job more effectively -- keep the bad stuff out. It also has the added benefit of relieving sinus headaches and congestion. The interesting thing is, it's been around for a long time (several thousand years) and is used by many yoga practitioners to ease breathing during meditation. Eight ounces of warm tap water and 1/4 teaspoon sea salt (with no iodine) is all it takes to wash the grime away, and that's a lot cheaper than over-the-counter decongestants.

I recommend getting a neti pot with a pot belly look, like the Himalayan Institute one available from Amazon. I've tried two other brands/styles and they don’t provide as consistent water pressure through the nose. Currently I use my neti pot once a day, in the evenings, to wash the day's grime away and help with sleeping.

Try it once or twice and you'll agree your sinuses have rarely felt better or clearer. As a side note, if it burns a little, stop and add a tad more salt. Too little salt and the water won't flow well through the nasal cavity. If you've had a broken nose, please check with your doctor to make sure your nasal cavity is still properly aligned for nasal irrigation.

My initial experience with Printed Space came about when family in England bought my wife and I a couple of canvases that used photos from our wedding. An artist at Printed Space worked with my brother to edit a batch of 300 photos down to 60, then cropped and arranged them and gave my brother various digital proofs, from which he selected the one he thought we'd like the best. The canvas was shipped from England to our home in San Francisco in a custom-made picture-frame box, in perfect condition.

When we found out that Printed Space also puts your images (or stock images) on blinds and wallpaper, we got a bedroom decorated for a friend's 4-year-old son. (Pictured here).

The company now does flooring too, so I'm planning to get the lobby and other areas of my office covered with custom flooring.

What we liked: Limitless choice in images -- use your own, or images you can buy from any online source. Printed Space has partnerships with a number of stock image sources, photographers and artists, so you're not going to end up with the same all-too-obvious images you see elsewhere.

Fully customized to your space. These are not posters. I've had other canvases made by online poster vendors, but they've been just that -- posters printed on canvas. These are images that can be enlarged, cropped, rotated, whatever, to suit the space you're trying to decorate. Printed Space gave us advice about planning around windows, doors, light switches and power outlets. You pay no extra for this design service.

I couldn't be happier with the quality of their work.

Last year, Williams-Sonoma released a line of exclusive All-Clad flared roasters. They are expensive, but well worth it if you do a lot of oven cooking. I cooked a 27lb turkey in the extra large one for Thanksgiving last year, and have since been using this pan for all kinds of things. The design makes for very even cooking, especially if you don't have a convection oven: the low flared sides give good heat exposure, so you get excellent browning on the underside of roasts, and the aluminum core provides outstanding heat distribution. I was pleasantly surprised to find out how much of a difference these two design changes made. Of course, it's basically a very large saute pan, so it gives the results you'd expect from All-Clad on the stove as well.

I've also used it successfully to make a huge pan of mac and cheese (mixing the roux/bechamel right in the pan on the stove), and I use it often for large batches of braised lamb shanks and short ribs. In the latter, the low wide design encourages a lot of reduction of the braising liquid to yield a more flavorful sauce.

The extra large size is unwieldy - before buying, make sure it fits in your oven and sink. Although the curved design also makes it very easy to clean with a brush (there are no sharp corners for gunk to get stuck in), this size barely fits in my sink.

And while I love the extra large one and it's great at what it does, it is a bit of a beast to get out (but indispensable if you need the capacity). I've spent the last year wondering how I could justify spending the money for the large version as well, and they made it easier for me by recently releasing an even smaller and cheaper version for roasting chickens.

This one is essentially the same pan in a smaller form factor which makes it much more convenient if you don't need the larger capacity. This has quickly become my standard everyday pan for most things. It also comes with a suspension arm for cooking a chicken elevated.

I've experimented with the suspension arm a bit, which I initially dismissed. At least in my oven, which is not a convection oven, breast side up is a disaster. Not enough heat reaches the bottom, and the white meat gets overcooked while the thighs stay very undercooked. Breast-side down, however, gives outstanding results. Twice in a row, I've gotten evenly cooked meat (very tender and juicy breast meat, properly cooked thighs) and crispy skin, with no added oil or basting (just salt and pepper or a dry rub). The suspension arm can be a little testy. If it's jostled too much, the whole chicken will fall into the pan. It's a bit of work to get it put back up, but it does actually yield good results with less work overall.

Regardless of which size is right for you, these are just great roasting pans, and I highly recommend them. The images are pretty deceptive with respect to the size differences and it's difficult to judge from the picture how big they actually are. It's worth a trip to the store to see which size is actually best for you.

When weather permits, I live in sandals. Over the years I’ve tried all the major brands. A few years ago a friend suggested that I try a brand, Chaco, that I had never heard of. Initially I balked at the price, but when I found a pair that was closeout priced I decided to give them a try. I’ve never looked back.

While I own a variety of Chaco sandals, I primarily wear the general purpose Z/1.The primary advantage of these sandals is their unique means of attachment to your foot; a single slide buckle. The strap for the front of the sandal is one continuous length that is threaded through slots in the sole. You initially adjust the sandal to your feet by pulling until you’ve got the fit you want. You then take the sandal off and on by using the slide buckle. To put the sandal on you slip in your foot and pull down on the buckle strap. To loosen the strap to remove the sandal you pull up on the buckle bottom. This is so easy and natural to do that with reasonable balance you can take them on and off while standing on one foot, then the other. This design provides a superbly comfortable fit, primarily through the elimination of the typical stiff Velcro closures.

Another feature of all Chaco sandals is their unique contoured footbed. First, it has an aggressive arch support (that the manufacturer claims counters pronation). Second, it has a deep heel cup that helps your foot stay centered. For my foot, they are more comfortable than any other shoe I have ever worn. This is, of course, a very personal observation, and you should probably try a pair on before buying. Also, the company has recently switched to a newer footbed material that I haven’t yet tried.

While they aren’t marketed as such, I consider them a hiking sandal. They have a stiff Vibram sole with a very aggressive tread, just like what you’d find on a hiking boot. The slightly oversize footbed protects toes from being stubbed. I wear them for everything: strolling around town, driving, canoeing, biking and hiking. In all these roles they are every bit as comfortable as well-fitting shoes, while also providing the glorious open-air experience. As added bonuses, they float, and can be re-webbed or re-soled.

When I travel to warm countries this is the only shoe I pack. My sandals have experienced Angkor Wat, Machu Picchu, Death Valley and Petra. The only concession I make for exceptional conditions is to also pack a pair of lightweight neoprene socks. The only place I seldom wear the sandals is hiking in heavily forested areas, where exposed tree roots can be toe-killers.

In the (previously reviewed) Keens, your feet are quite confined, and I can't imagine that they feel anything like sandals. I don't really think of the Keens as sandals; they are really quick-dry athletic shoes with cut-outs. The Keen's soles are similar to those of an athletic shoe, while the Chaco's are more similar to the soles on hiking boots. I wouldn't want to do any serious hiking or rock scrambling, where stiff soles are important, in the Keens.

The Keens definitely offer better toe protection. Still, I've put many hundreds of hiking and biking miles on my Chacos and have never once stubbed my toe. I think that the thick, oversize soles are what provide the protection. If you don't seek the open-air feeling of true sandals such as the Chacos, the Keens would be a fine choice for everyday use. However, for serious hiking and river travel, Chacos are the answer.

As far as cost, the sandals list for $95, but annual design updates result in numerous Internet closeout opportunities in the early spring, and I’ve never paid more than $65 for a pair.

Klean Kanteen offers a range of stainless steel water bottles that are well made, relatively lightweight, and come with a variety of interchangeable tops. They seal tightly (I pack them in my briefcase with my computer), even with the sport top. They're light enough to compare well with a plastic water bottle, but without the ecological waste of disposable bottles or the odor of reusable plastic bottles.

They come in various sizes (12 oz. to 40 oz.) and the 18 oz size fits nicely in a bicycle bottle cage. I take mine through airport security empty and fill it on the other side.

This chair caught my eye immediately because it looked like a clever solution to a problem I've wrestled with for a long time — how to carry comfortable seating that takes up minimal weight and space. As a motorcycle rider, meeting friends for "car camping" means I'm much more limited than they are in the luxuries I can bring along.

One way this chair saves weight is by eliminating the two front legs; you lean back in it as you would when tipping a chair back on its hind legs, using your own legs for control and balance. At first I thought this would be tiring, but it really isn't. Nearly all of my weight rests comfortably in the seat, with the kind of lumbar support I need. When collapsed, the Monarch fits into not much more space than a water bottle, and it weighs only 18 oz. At least as importantly, it's simple to set up and it seems very solidly constructed.

I've had problems with foam seats such as the Crazy Creek chairs because the stress points don't hold up well to repeated use. And another chair I've used, the GCI Trail-Sling (no longer made, though still available through some online stores) is a light, comfortable chair, but it can be a little tricky to set up and doesn't seem likely to hold up to too much wear and tear. I still have a couple Trail-Slings, but I believe they'll get left behind in favor of the Monarch going forward.

The Monarch's legs are sturdy milled aluminum poles, connected with shock cords like tent poles, and seem designed for years of use. Similarly, the seat appears thoughtfully shaped to minimize possible points of failure, and the pockets into which the poles fit are thick and reinforced beyond what I've come to expect from most consumer outdoor gear. Really, the whole chair has a feeling of quality and craftsmanship. It's not inexpensive at $60, but I find it's worth it.

I love to cook but I don't have many recipes memorized, and much as I like cooking from any of the several cookbooks in my library, I often look for new recipes online. It's not an easy task. I'm amazed at the number of ad-riddled pages I find when typing the name of any dish into Google. I do have an online subscription to Cook's Illustrated (previously reviewed), and there are a handful of other individual free sites I turn to for recipes and technique info. However, as a research librarian, I'm always keen to execute a search in a manner that maximizes the number of relevant results by querying a specific set of targeted resources. For scientific queries, I use freely accessible databases such as Public Library of Science or PubMed, or I use one of my library accounts to access subscription-based databases such as Wiley InterScience or Elsevier's Science Direct. When I put my home-cook hat on, I approach recipe-finding with a similar set of expectations. Though there's no shortage of recipe information online, there's not really an equivalent set of databases for cookery. Here's a round-up of the best recipe aggregation resources I've found.

Epicurious is my go-to recipe site; I've used it for four years. One of the aspects I like most about it is the user comments. Because the site is older, most recipes have at least a handful of comments, and I've found that most users leave really helpful feedback (usually suggestions for how to scale or tweak recipes). However, it's also very easy to ignore user comments if you just want to stick to the original recipe. I usually cook from printed versions of the recipes (rather than bringing my laptop in the kitchen), and Epicurious offers several options for the size of the printed page, whether or not images are included, and even the option to print a separate shopping list.

Most recipes come from Gourmet and Bon Appetit magazines (the site is owned by Conde Nast). Some come from cookbooks published by Random House, with whom Epicurious has some kind of republication agreement, it seems. Some have also been reprinted from other cookbooks, with permission. In addition to the 25,000 recipes from these professional resources, they also boast 50,000 member-submitted recipes. Epicurious is the online food site to beat.

Cookstr publishes recipes by professional chefs, including Mario Batali, Jamie Oliver, Alice Waters, Jacques Pepin, Michael Recchiuti, Mark Bittman, and on and on. In addition to recipes, the site also provides informative profiles for each chef. Features are fairly minimal, with a video section still under development, but I do like the simplicity of the site. Site registration allows you to save and comment on recipes. Although Cookstr only has a few recipes from each chef, it's the closest thing to a massively cross-cook[book] database I've found. I hope it grows.

I learned about Food52 when the New York Times ran a round-up of new, crowd-sourced food sites. The hook of this site, founded by two food writers, is that every week there's a theme-based competition; after a year of these contests, the winning recipes will be collected in a book. Any registered user can compete in the competitions, the founders select finalists and post slideshows of them testing the recipes, and then users vote for a winner. The focus of the site is the contests, and all recipes submitted for the contests are accessible, but registered users can upload any type of recipe. Although there is a pretty sizable diversity of recipes on the site, I most often use it when I'm looking for inspiration to try something new, not when I have a few keystone ingredients I'm trying to hang together.

Serious Eats is another curated food community with some social features, including a set of forums, and original video content in addition to a large collection of recipes. Recipes come largely from featured cookbook writers and chefs, but also the wider community base (in the forums). It's more inclusive than Food52, because of its forums, and it's more polyphonous because its cast of contributors is quite long and revolving. However, it's less inclusive in the sense that the Recipes section of the site is limited to those curated by contributors (mostly recipes from featured books and chefs).

Foodbuzz is a network of foodbloggers (more than 10,000). They offer a set of services for "featured publishers," including ad management and other perks, as well as several social networking-type features for individual users. Foodbuzz is one of the few sites I've found that actually aggregates recipes from across the web. You can submit links to recipes to be indexed, and you can also submit recipes for direct publication at the site. It displays some characteristics of a curated site in as much as it highlights recipes from members of its featured publishers network, but overall it's quite open since anyone can submit a recipe or recipe link.

Epicurious, Cookstr, Food52, SeriousEats, and Foodbuzz are my favorite recipe aggregators. To reduce my search load even further, I've created a custom Google search engine that queries these sites in addition to a few of my favorite individual sources (you can see it here).

This Band-Aid for tennis rackets saved the day for me during a tournament when I was playing well with a favorite racket, but the strings were frayed and close to breaking. It’s a little tool that lifts the string and inserts and leaves behind a small piece of plastic that sits right at the intersection where the two strings cross, preventing them from sawing across one another and breaking. Extra plastic inserts are stored in the handle.

If you carry it in your tennis bag you can use it to extend the life of your strings, though obviously not indefinitely. It’s essential if you have only one racket and you don’t want to sit any games out.

There may be a better product here and there in a particular piece of luggage, but it’s just not worth my time messing around to find out. I’ve replaced all of my duffels, carry-ons and backpacks with Eagle Creek products, and have been using them for the past two years. I’ve standardized on Eagle Creek luggage because I've found their stuff to be uniformly excellent, and it just saves me the frustration of trying stuff out and finding it has deficiencies.

Eagle Creek makes a handful of practical accessories for space-saving and orderly packing. Their Pack-It Folders compress lots of shirts, pants or skirts into a compact, wrinkle-free stack. And their Cubes are ideal for organizing underwear and socks while compressing them and maximizing space. They also offer Compression Sacs, giant Ziploc-like bags with one-way air valves that can compress your dirties into a fraction of their uncompressed size. All of these accessories work quite well with other brands of luggage; they are by no means specific to Eagle Creek.

Another reason I’ve chosen Eagle Creek: the company’s products are extremely rugged and have a lifetime warranty. I took them up on their warranty on a bag that got slashed. I live in San Diego and found that I could just take it by their headquarters rather than mail it in. They gave me a new bag, no questions asked.

Just to qualify as an experienced traveler, I’ve accumulated more than 6 million lifetime miles in the American Airlines AAdvantage program, more than two million on United, and a million on two or three others.

Thanks to all of our readers who have written in to notify us about malware warnings that the site has prompted in the past couple days. I wanted to update you that the malware was all removed by Thursday afternoon, although it took a bit longer for the warning messages to come down.

Please accept my apologies for not publishing this notice sooner. When we discovered the issue, we immediately and completely locked down site publishing for the clean-up and initial diagnosis, hence the silence on our end. I do want to address a couple of specific concerns you may have. The malware that the hackers injected onto the site was located in an invisible link -- this is not something you could have accidentally "clicked on." So visiting Cool Tools would not put you in any danger of malware. The reason these folks embed links in high-traffic sites like this in order to get higher page ranks from Google. Second, our sys admin has tested the site extensively on multiple machines, both Windows and OSX -- all of our machines remain uninfected.

We're continuing site updates this weekend and should be back to a normal publishing schedule Monday morning. You may notice some lag time in comment publication until then. Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience, and our thanks and appreciation for your concern.

-- CC

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Online source for 3D table maps from around the world
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What do you use and love? Tell us about it. Tell me about it: elon {at} schoenholz.com

Keith Smith published Non-Adhesive Binding in 1990. At the time there were few other bookbinding manuals in print (and in comparison with other crafts, there still aren’t many). Books by Arthur Johnson, Edith Diehl and Douglas Cockerell offered instruction according to specific craft tradition. These manuals told how to bind a book with very little room for creativity other than decorative choices (what color would you like the leather on the spine to be?). The books were hard to find and contained long lists of tools and desirable equipment that a bookbinder should have.

Keith Smith’s book is completely different. He illustrates basic techniques that can be used to create a wide variety of bindings. He encourages the binder to explore how books move, how structural variations influence that movement, and how both movement and structure can lead the binder to fully engage the creative intent of the author’s work. He is even more enthusiastic about the possibilities for binders who are the creators of content or those who we now call book artists.

I started bookbinding in 1991 and Keith Smith’s Non-Adhesive Bookbinding was the first manual I ever bought. As Smith required very few tools and almost no equipment, I was able immediately to start making dozens of books based on his instructions. His drawings of often complex sewing patterns sometimes confused me (and sometimes still do!), but after having now tried to illustrate bookbinding or repair techniques of my own, I’m amazed at how much he conveys so clearly.

It has become more apparent to me with time and experience that his book is a deeper resource than it may first appear. While his methods are simple and often result in astonishingly modern looking bindings, his book is profoundly informed by historical methods and models. Unlike a bookbinding manual that represents a defined tradition, he uses the knowledge of earlier binders to encourage new binders to create their own paths.

Smith’s Non-Adhesive Binding may be almost 20 years old, but it remains a vital resource for bookbinders, book artists, and anyone who wants to creatively understand the book form.

Far and away the best travel mug I've used is the Contigo Autoseal Stainless Steel Mug. The Autoseal mechanism is the most leak-proof design I've found; it seals automatically when you're not actively drinking from it, so there's no worry about knocking it over with the top open. This is the only mug I'll use around my computers now.

I had a terrible experience with the Oxo mug. It was impossible to clean due to the enclosed design of the lid, and eventually accumulated way too much gunk inside for me to be comfortable using it. The lid on Contigo’s mug is fairly open and easy to clean, and the entire thing is dishwasher safe, though they also sell a model with a colored body that isn't. They sell replacement lids for $7 if you have a problem, but I've been using four of them for over a year in heavy rotation with no issues.

Contigo also makes plastic smaller containers for kids and larger water bottles (both of which are BPA-free) with the same Autoseal design.

One way to keep fingerprints off of a quality lens is to keep a filter on the lens at all times. If you prefer not to, or get a print on a lens while changing filters, this small tool will come in handy. The Lenspen offers two cleaning options. On one end, there’s a retractable dust brush. I just extend the brush, and sweep away any visible dust particles. I also use the brush every time I replace the lens. Dust particles almost always appear around the area where the lens and camera body meet. I make sure to clean up this area before removing and changing lenses, thus reducing the chance of getting dust on the sensor.

The Lenspen’s other end, has "a special non-liquid cleaning element" that can be used for more aggressive cleaning. Wipe it over the lens and magically watch fingerprints disappear. The manufacturer explains that there’s a carbon compound under the cap that cleans lenses much like the ink in newspaper works to clean glass. It does work. It can be used many times over, as long as every time you put the cap back on and rotate it, to clean and recharge the pad.

This has become my most used cleaning tool, second only to the Giottos Rocket Blaster. And the two complement each other: while the Lenspen works to clean the glass surfaces of the lens and the camera’s lens mount, I use the Rocket to remove dust from the sensor.

There are so many baby carriers on the market right now, and I've tried a good deal of them: various slings, the Ergo Baby (previously reviewed), Baby Bjorn, and the like all tend to put the bulk of the baby's weight on one part of the back. While there is some distribution with shoulder or hip straps, the weight is still focused primarily on one area (shoulder/hips). I had seen the Moby Wrap and had decidedly avoided trying it, as it looked complicated and uncomfortable. A friend finally convinced me to try one, and I fell in love.

Not only is my baby securely snuggled up against my body, but it is incredibly comfortable to wear. It looks to be about 20 feet of fabric that you wrap around your body and slip the baby into. No doubt based on some age-old method of carrying babies, it is by far the most comfortable and versatile carrier I've seen. Because it crosses around your body so many times in different locations, it distributes the weight of the child to a variety of places: shoulders, upper back, lower back and hips. Plus, the baby can face forwards, backwards or sideways when worn on your front, and she can be worn on your hips or back as well.

While it does require an introduction on how to put it on, once you have figured out how it works, it could not be simpler to use. The basic concept is that you create a cross of fabric on your body and slip the baby between you and the cross, with her legs hanging out between. Also, because of the criss-cross over your shoulders you can nestle the baby's head under the wrap, allowing full protection from the sun or, more importantly for the new parent, a quiet zone in which to nap, even at a bustling market. For all its simplicity this is simply the best baby carrier available.

There are several variations on this idea -- one with rings, one made of more stretchy material, one with fancy patterns -- from various manufacturers, but the basic design is all the same -- wrap the fabric around your body, slide the baby in and enjoy.

Shovels get stuck turning thick compost piles. A garden fork, known also as a compost or spading fork, moves more freely through the debris, and is my favorite means of turning compost, a task that, with this tool, I enjoy. I’ve seen devices such as the Compost Crank, designed solely for aerating a pile of decomposing organic matter, but they’re apparently not up for much else.

I value my garden fork because it’s also the best tool I have for aerating soil without tilling it. It’s good for lifting and moving stuff around the garden, some digging and uprooting, too. I bought mine from Seeds of Change a few years ago, recommended by a friend who’s had one for many years. It has a hearty ash handle and a head of four pointy sharp carbon steel tines. There surely are other worthy versions of this essential garden tool. I’m more than happy with this one.

What got me started on the Really Right Stuff products was just the idea of committing to a system that would work with everything. Their tripod head consists of three components: an L-bracket custom made for your camera model; a standardized Arca-Swiss-style quick-release clamping plate; and the ballhead base, itself. Committing to this system is a big expense. The fact that each new piece continually adds more value makes it easier to justify. This system’s advantages over something such as a simpler Manfrotto ballhead with a quick-release plate are increased stability and quicker changes from portrait to landscape mode.

RRS is big on system synergy. They are top-notch, beautifully made, perfect products. I have a BH-40 Ballhead on a Gitzo tripod as my main rig and a BH-25 on a Gitzo Traveler for an ultralight rig, perfect for backpacking. Each of my cameras -- Nikon D200 and Canon G9 -- has an RRS L-plate, which makes for a quick and solid connection atop both tripods, either in landscape or portrait mode.

Of the two ballheads, the BH-25 is my favorite for its super compactness. When I’m traveling or backpacking, I need a lightweight, minimal setup. The BH-25 paired with Gitzo’s Traveler is it.

I’ve been using the RRS products for about five years now, and I have to admit that part of the appeal is simply the joy of using perfectly made gear. Sometimes the tools can inspire us.

Traveling with my family, I prefer staying in houses to sterile hotel rooms. Eating out gets tired after a few nights, and I like to have a full kitchen to make a home-cooked meal. If we’re visiting a city where friends live, we’ll cook a meal and have them over. It’s more comfortable and feels homier.

VRBO.com is an excellent means of finding reasonably priced accommodations, in the U.S. and abroad, that are often larger and more comfortable than hotel rooms, at a lower price. I’ve used it to find great short-term vacation rentals in California, Michigan and Florida. Making arrangements with the homeowners or property managers is easily handled through e-mail, and a deposit is usually required. You do have to clean up after yourself a little more than you would in a hotel room, but the savings and access to a city’s residential neighborhoods rather than its commercial districts make it a worthwhile exchange.

My work includes design and fabrication for an antenna measurement systems company. For years we had used a modular building product that was very expensive and not adequately flexible. It was also limiting in its lack of accessories. Worse still was its 6-8 week lead time for parts orders. I started looking and discovered 80/20, which not only eliminated all of the negative aspects of the old product, but even provided many new benefits. It isn't cheap, but it is a great value. We all know that for the most part, you really do get what you pay for. Cheap products usually aren't good, and good products usually aren't cheap.

Firstly, its modular design is fantastic. It allows prototyping of fixtures, stands, bases and many other items we need to build for in-house use or bring to market very quickly. The number of accessories available is mind boggling. They have wheels, handles, latches, panels, leveling feet, linear slides, hinges and many more components. You can build some pretty slick items and it all just bolts together with a few simple hand tools. The finished product looks very professional, as all of the individual components are designed to work together.

All components are pre-finished. Our in-house fabricated and/or machined assemblies require outside processing (anodizing, cadmium plating, painting or powder coating), which means additional time and cost. With the 80/20, all structural extrusions and components already come painted, powder coated or anodized -- simply assemble and ship.

While 80/20 certainly will find more applications in an industrial environment, where the cost is also offset by the utility, the possibilities for home use are limited only by your imagination. You could build things such as a work bench, bicycle storage system, cabinets, stands or many other home items that will likely last a lifetime.

As with anything, 80/20 has its limitations but they are far outweighed by its capabilities. I have discovered zero fault with this product. Many of our products require very large, product-specific and engineered weldments and machined assemblies. The 80/20 will never fulfill all of our needs, but for the smaller systems we frequently design and build this "Industrial Erector Set" is superb.

I live in a 112-year-old brick house. Brick lasts a long time. Mortar does not. Most of my house’s tuck pointing is in great condition, but a few isolated spots are almost completely devoid of mortar. Small spots, but bothersome. And bound to become bigger spots if I don’t take care of them soon. So today I decided to take care of them.

I assumed that I would mix mortar for the repairs, but the prospect of carrying a 60-pound bag of dry mix inspired a change of heart. Scrounging around Home Depot’s cement aisle I stumbled upon Quikrete Mortar Repair. It’s sold in tubes for use in a caulking gun, but it’s not caulking. It’s a sanded acrylic designed to do the job of mortar, without the mess of mixing and applying the real stuff by hand.

The square applicator tip is supposed to make finishing the surface easier, and in fact it worked well. Although a wet finger did an equally nice job. Water is key to patching mortar, and with this stuff a wet sponge was extra helpful not only for smoothing the mortar as it cured but for wiping excess off the face of the bricks.

The 10-ounce tube cost me about $4; still a premium over dry mix. (It’s also available in a 5.5-ounce hand-squeezable size.) But for the handful of single-brick-sized repairs I needed to make, I was very thankful to avoid the setup and cleanup that mortar mix would have required. Not to mention the hassle of effectively getting the mortar from my unskilled hands into the open joints.

It is neither practical nor advisable to use Quikrete Mortar Repair to cover a large area of wall. The acrylic isn’t designed for structural tuck pointing so much as it is intended to fill in the gaps and keep water out—which is crucial if you want your brick wall to last a long time.

A really great chef knife will be insanely sharp, yet retain its edge easily, and be well balanced and welcoming to hold. These days a decent high-grade chef knife can cost between $100-$200. Several cooking publications (including Cook's Illustrated) recently identified a bargain $27 chef knife that in their tests rated just about as good as the $100 plus knives. This is the one we use.

The Forschner Victorinox is a hybrid of a thin Japanese blade with its 15 degree edge (western knives have a 20 degree edge) but with the longer, broader blade of European knives. It is lightweight, nicely balanced, and lethally sharp. It has a comfortable very grippy handle that won't slip even when wet. We have 5 cooks at our household and this is the knife they all grab first. It may not be as super great as the chef knives previously reviewed, but for the $27 price it can't be beat.

Bicycle saddles, like beds, should be firm, with pressure mainly on the sit bones. Lying down on a bed, the pressure is spread throughout our bodies, but on a bike, a good percentage of our upper body weight is bearing down on the saddle area. The problem with a soft bike saddle is that it can create pressure in places where it's not healthy to have pressure. Numbness and other problems can stem from that. A padded short, combined with a firm saddle that fits your dimensions, puts targeted cushioning only where you need it, and minimizes pressure in sensitive areas.

I ride in different ways at different times. Slow, less slow, with groceries, out to dinner at a nice restaurant, for a three-hour stretch or for a quick 15 minutes away from my computer. It's been my experience that the longer I spend on a ride, and the harder I'm exerting myself, the more I appreciate highly technical clothing, commonly referred to as Lycra or a pro kit. The skintight stuff. The contoured, articulated padding (or chamois) in high-end cycling shorts by makers such as Pearl Izumi, Castelli and Assos, can go a long way toward increasing comfort for those who ride road and mountain bikes for hours at a time.

However, a lot of people don't like the look of Lycra, and not everyone can get away with skintight bike clothing. And not everyone needs to. Some riders like to have padded shorts, but also to appear civil when they dismount their bikes and enter a business or their office for the day's work. There are plenty of padded shorts intended to be worn under regular clothing, but I've found them to be generally flawed. They're designed as scaled-down versions of the aforementioned Lycra style and are uncomfortably underventilated.

Andiamo's garment design approaches the problem from the opposite, um, end. It's lightweight underwear, with a pad added. I wouldn't attempt a century in these, or even half that, but I've found them excellent for commutes, errands and other plainclothes spins, less likely to make me miserable if I don't get a chance to change as soon as I'm off my bike. They're more breathable and lightweight than anything similar I've tried.

I live in London, which is pretty rainy, and so the Knirps X1 I’ve had for many years has seen plenty of use. It’s both highly durable and extremely compact: it folds down to the size of a two D-cell Maglite (about 6 ½ inches). Folded, it’s much smaller than the GoLite umbrella previously reviewed on Cool Tools, which is 25.5 inches long and doesn’t collapse. The Knirps is just a few grams heavier, and its coverage radius (37 inches) is 16 inches wider than the GoLite’s.

It's an excellent compact umbrella, but the trade-off for its extreme portability is a too-small handle. The minimal size of the X1 leaves little room for a proper handle, and therefore the design incorporates a shallow cup into which the canopy tips slot when the umbrella is folded. The cup is about an inch and a half in diameter — too small and shallow to offer much purchase in windy weather.

This makes using the wrist-loop (which, to its credit, is strong and firmly attached to the cup) a must. I hold the cup low in my hand and grip the tube above it like a golf club — thumb pressed on the tube, with the first two fingers wrapped around it. This isn’t so comfortable for prolonged use, but it’s enough to hold the umbrella steady in gusty weather, although not steady enough to stop it being blown about a bit.

I've been using Storus' simple wallet/money clip for four years now, and highly recommend it. It's just enough wallet to qualify as one, but no more: light, simple, minimalist. The money clip is great, and the other side can hold five credit cards. The cards are wedged in there -- the channel gets narrower as the card slides in. I carry my ID facing out, plus four credit cards. It's a bit tight like that, but it works. As few as one or two cards still works fine, though, and they won’t slide out.

-- Luke Kanies

I have used the smart money clip for six years. No more wallet, just the five cards I use all the time, and a little bit of cash if someone doesn’t want to take my MasterCard. It keeps my pockets free, and I have never seen anything else like it.

-- Jeremy Sluyters

Look on the hands of the person wrangling chairs or patrolling at your local ski hill. You'll probably see an old-school insulated leather glove made by workwear supplier Kinco. Now, there are slightly warmer and more dexterous technical gloves out there made specifically for skiing, but would you change your oil or weld with $100 Hestra Army gloves? I haven't found a more durable, warm, or better value work glove than Kinco’s for the cold and snow.

The pair I have so far has lasted through four years of welding, skiing, snow shoveling and carpentry. They've been drenched in motor oil, covered in antifreeze, and nearly frozen solid in an ice storm while I was skiing. My hands have stayed happy.

The most care they require is a coat or two of Sno-Seal every season. Unlike synthetic gloves, they aren't fazed by heat and flame. I've found that the Kinco 901 gloves paired with some cheap silk liners is enough to keep my hands warm until it gets below 5F or so.

I am always looking for offbeat educational places to visit on my travels. The Geek Atlas has rounded up 128 great candidates from around the world. The Atlas calls them "places where science and technology come alive." I think of these destinations as places that make you think. The possibilities run the gamut from birthplaces of famous inventors and scientists (yawn) to really cool tours of working technological systems (a nuclear power plant, a dam turbine, a solar furnace) to a spectrum of interesting but little known museums, to just cool places like the prime meridian. A lot of these destinations are in the US and UK, but a fair number hail elsewhere. In addition to a description of a destination, author Graham-Cumming writes up a page explaining the key concept behind each spot. I've visited a dozen of these science hot spots and they are well worth a short detour, or in some cases a trip just for the purpose. You could probably fill another volume of brainy tourist traps missed by this book: I predict a sequel.

Artful Sentences has increased my understanding as to how syntax creates and conveys meaning. Virginia Tufte guides the reader through more than a thousand sentences she’s culled from some of the best writing of the 20th and 21st centuries. Her commentaries highlight the (easily overlooked) contribution of syntax to the expressive success of a well-crafted sentence.

This book is unlike any other on writing I’ve seen. It is not about basic rules. It is not a standardized style guide to be used as a reference manual. Artful Sentences is divided up into 14 chapters; each chapter covers a different concept related to syntax. Tufte provides her analysis first and then follows with an example. Sometimes she quotes an entire paragraph to demonstrate the impact the chosen sentence has within its original context.

Don’t let dry chapter titles such as “Short Sentences,” “Noun Phrases,” “Prepositions,” etc., deter you; the content is highly academic and at times dense, but it's a pleasurable read in proper doses. I prefer to explore Artful Sentences in short spurts. The sample sentences often catch my attention first and then I dig in to see what Tufte says about them. (You can also use the index to choose a favorite author and then search out his/her quotes.) I process what I’ve read and return to the book at a later time -- opening it up to any one of its 14 chapters and starting again. Reading Tufte’s book gives me the immediate pleasure of saying, “Damn, that’s a good sentence!” often followed by, “Now how do I create one of my own?” The experience is similar to learning about visual art or playing music.

I haven't tried the Thermapen, but I still think I'd prefer the Polder timer/thermometer because of the 43-inch cord that runs from the thermometer to the probe. It allows me to place the thermometer outside of the oven, magnetically attached to the oven’s side. I like being able to hold the thermometer in my hands and adjust the cook time, or reset the finish temperature while the dish I’m preparing is still in the oven and the thermometer is actively taking a reading. The Polder thermometer also allows me to preset a desired temperature (one high and one low, simultaneously), so when that temperature is reached, the unit’s beeping alarm sounds. I use it to check the temperature of liquids and meats, and my 8-year-old son has even used it to check the temperature outside -- you can insert the metal probe underneath your window, and it's quite accurate.

The timer function (which counts up or down) is very handy, not only for setting my cook time, but for a range of household uses (such as, "You have three minutes to pick up your room before I come in with a trash bag that's headed for Goodwill!"). Best of all, we’ve had ours for at least four years, have dropped it many times, and the thing is amazingly durable. A final handy feature is that I can set it to display in Celsius or Fahrenheit, which proved to be a huge help when we spent some time living in Ireland. I had my American recipe books and was able to use the Polder thermometer to convert temperatures for our Celsius-based oven.

I used to use dish soap to clean oil paint from my brushes and my hands, but it didn’t do a great job. My brushes didn’t get perfectly clean and didn’t last long. My hands were raw because I had to use a wire scrub brush with the dish soap, removing not only the paint but the top layer of my skin, too. A friend told me about The Masters brush cleaner and hand soap, both of which work better than anything else I’ve seen.

This soap’s not cheap. I paint a lot, and therefore go through tubs quickly. Still, the brush soap’s a great product, and it has allowed me to continue to use the same $.99 brush for the past year, if not longer.

The pumice-like brush soap has a little grit to it, and I’ve found it leaves a bit of residue on the towel I use to dry my brush. I can wipe my hands on the towel afterwards, and get them mostly clean. I keep The Masters hand soap bar around for the finishing touches.

Naturalist David Sibley, like Tory Peterson before him, made his reputation painting and annotating birds before expanding to other biological realms. Sibley's guides to birds and bird behavior (recommended on Cool Tools) are the best all-around guides to the birds of North America. Sibley's beats out Peterson's, and the dozens of others published today. Sibley's newest book, also written and illustrated by him, is the best all-around guide to the trees of North America, again displacing the many other field guides to trees in print.

Sibley's illustrations are clear, crisp, and accurate. He manages to maintain distinctions in tree types where species get fuzzy, like in the oaks, or firs. His maps are specific. He includes more parts of the tree than most guides -- buds, bark, branches, seeds, silhouettes, flowers, cones, etc. -- which really help in identification. And he includes not only native trees but many feral varieties, and even widely planted ornamentals. One detail I appreciate: he lists alternative common names to trees, since trees seem to have local names.

With Sibley's guide I've been able to identify more trees than with other guides. However the book is big, not at all pocketable, or the kind of thing you are likely to take with you into the field on a hike. Perhaps future editions might remedy this. I use this quality softcover edition (a delight to browse) by taking samples and photos outside and returning home to identify.

While the need for a two-legged kickstand on a large tandem is fairly obvious, it’s not as clear why you’d need one for smaller bikes -- until you start riding with children aboard. Whether you’re using a front-mounted Kangaroo WeeRide or a traditional rear-mounted child seat, preventing the bike from falling over when a child is strapped into the seat is a serious safety concern.

I first saw this Pletscher kickstand about seven years ago, when it came on our Bike Friday Family Triple. It’s an aluminum kickstand with two legs; the second pivots via a cam mechanism, so that it stows alongside the first leg. Made in Switzerland, it’s a cool piece of hardware for the folding design alone. Stowed, it looks like a standard Greenfield kickstand, with an extra leg.

The double-legged stand makes a big or heavily loaded bike far more stable when you dismount, and it can also double as a makeshift workstand for back-end fixes, as it lifts the rear wheel off the ground. We now have two bikes outfitted with this kickstand, and with our youngest still 17 months old, we’re considering a third.

I’ve had this coffee mug for about five years (coincidentally the length of the warranty), and it’s held up very well. It keeps stuff hot, and is usually on-hand thanks to the included carabiner.

I haven’t tried the OXO Liquiseal Travel Mug for comparison, but my Thermos Nissan mug is very easy to keep clean. It’s dishwasher safe; the OXO mug isn’t. The lid on my mug can be popped apart with a small coin for cleaning, and its silicone O-ring is also easily removed if it needs a wash. The bottom rubber cap can also be pulled off to be cleaned, and the black silicone hand grip around the mug can be removed, too.

I am never worried about leaks in my car, on my camera bag or inside my backpack. I love the handle-ring combination because the handle fits into my pocket while the mug remains outside; though not the most secure way to carry the mug, it is a great option when my hands are full. When I lose or destroy this mug I'm going to get the exact same one because it is the ultimate on-the-go coffee cup.

There are few chores I remember from my years growing up on my family’s Missouri farm more thankless, backbreaking, low paying and messier than picking up black walnuts. Our yards had numerous walnut trees, which every autumn produced as many walnuts as there were large whirring cicadas in their giant canopies. Picking them up, however, wasn't just done for the pocket change my brother and I earned as much as it was necessary to get them off the ground and out of the lawnmower's path. As walnuts lay in the grass their soft pulpy shells quickly turn mushy and black, oozing a dark staining juice that makes them unpleasant to handle.

Enter the most effective tool I've come across in a long time, the Nut Wizard. My brother discovered this tool on the Internet and brought one over to our farm during a recent family reunion, amazing everyone with its utility. So simple and elegant, the Nut Wizard is a wire basket reminiscent of an egg whisk, attached to rotating hubs on either end with a long wooden pole handle. You roll the wire basket around on the ground and walnuts or other similarly sized objects just pop right into it. When it's full, you simply lower the wire basket onto a heavy wire spreader (included) that clips onto the top of any five-gallon bucket and, voila, the gathered contents are quickly dumped!

I was impressed that it succeeds in picking up walnuts that have embedded themselves deep in the grass, as well as those that have lost their outer soft shell. Gooey walnuts are picked right up, and sometimes if the outer shells are really rotten, the messy parts get left behind and the rotating basket picks up just the more woody inner shell. By far the most impressive feat of the Nut Wizard is how it can get kids arguing over who gets to push it around the yard.

This tool is available in three sizes, collectively capable of picking up a wide range of items: acorns, pecans, hickory nuts, chestnuts, marbles, apples, baseballs, tennis balls, golf balls. And there's also now an even smaller version, the Ammo Wizard, that will pick up spent bullet casings.

Sleep-deprived nursing mothers need to be aware of time, specifically when a middle-of-the-night feeding begins and how long it lasts. Projection clocks make keeping track of time easier. Another mother told me about these clocks, and I bought one for each of the rooms I spent late-night/early-morning dazed hours with my newborn daughter.

Like the previously reviewed Analog Atomic Wall Clock, this is an atomic self-setting timekeeper, so Daylight Saving changes occur automatically. While the clock’s face is visible from a fair distance, the unobtrusive projected red readout measures about 10 inches across when the clock’s placed at a distance of about 6 feet from the ceiling, so it’s legible from any point in a small- to medium-sized room. It doesn’t, however, show up at all in a bright room. Oregon Scientific makes a projection clock that’s bright enough to read during daylight hours, but it costs significantly more.

Projection aside, Oregon Scientific’s Projection Clock functions reliably as a user-friendly and intuitively simple alarm clock. It also displays room temperature. My daughter’s older now and I’m no longer nursing, but I still enjoy being able to just open my eyes in bed and see the time displayed on the ceiling, without having to roll over or contort my neck or body in any way to check the clock.

For the longest time I was one of those motorcyclists you see walking along the street carrying his helmet everywhere he goes. I didn’t trust the flimsy D-ring lock that came with my motorcycle: it wasn’t strong enough, and it left my helmet strap vulnerable to being cut. I wasn’t interested in carrying a cable lock in my pocket, in case I crashed and landed right on it.

The solution I found, and have been using for seven months now, is the HelmetSecure. It attaches to my handlebars, and stays there, using hidden bolts that are only accessible if you have the key. I arrive at my destination, loop the 15in.-long integral steel cable through the face of my helmet (and the D-ring of a second helmet too, if I have a passenger) and leave it behind.

And the lock looks great. It’s show-quality chrome, and I get plenty of questions about it. It fits the round handlebars on my Ducati, but it also comes with rubber spacers to fit Harleys and a range of different handlebars.

When I bought my refrigerator it wasn’t until it had been delivered that I realized there was no light in the freezer compartment. It wasn’t enough of a pain to go through exchanging refrigerators, but for the past 15 or so years, it’s been a minor annoyance, requiring me to turn on a kitchen light to see what’s in there. Until I remembered these motion-sensing LED lights I’d already placed in about a dozen spots throughout my house. Who says I can’t put one of those in the freezer compartment, such that the motion of opening the door turns on the light? So I did just that and darned if it doesn’t work beautifully. Better 15 years late than never.

These small Philips lights (3.1 x 2.7 x 0.8 in ) automatically go on when something in their motion-sensing field moves, give a nice bright light, and automatically turn off after 15-20 seconds without detectable motion. I’ve found them great for closets, cupboards and cabinets -- much better than those press-to-turn-on iterations that automatically go off but require you to first find them in the dark to turn them on.

You have three ways to mount them if you choose that option: included double-sided adhesive pad; included magnets; screws/nails through the pre-drilled holes in the back panel. Battery replacements are simple and don’t require dismounting. The one change I’d like to see would be an off switch to disable them during daylight hours.

- Place that will print your own custom-designed wallpaper in small runs
- Best (cheapest/most efficient) dimmable replacement for a 60-watt tungsten bulb
- Ideal backpacking tripod, sufficient for an SLR
- Best super-compact folding umbrella that won't fall apart in a week
- Best projection clock

Is there a tool you use and love, not on this list and not in the archive? Tell us about it. We look forward to hearing from you.

-- es (elon {at} schoenholz dot com)

The MountainSmith Day Pack is a cool tool that I've been using continuously for eight years now, and can't imagine how I lived without it prior to that. It can be carried with the shoulder strap like a messenger or shoulder bag, by the handles like a normal utility bag or using the comfortable lumbar waistbelt.

The size of this pack is ideal for me, with enough room for a 12" PowerBook and a couple of books or a full-size DSLR with spare lenses and room left over. The two water bottle pockets give easy access to water when hiking or walking. The bag’s exterior has multiple points to strap or clip to (extending carrying capacity) and the elastic rigging adds flexibility as well. The main compartment has an additional hanging pocket that is a great place to keep a few pens, a small Moleskine and more.

After seven years using my original Day Pack, I upgraded to the new model last year, which has some design improvements and is made from 100% recycled PET plastics.

--Mark Helberg

You can carry a Mountainsmith over one shoulder, two shoulders, in your hand or clipped onto your hips -- like a fannypack but not a fannypack. The belt cinches the pack into you; properly adjusted, it's as close to you as your own skin. No sway, no shift, no rub.

Buy a Day or Tour pack with Strapettes, to convert it into a daypack, and your grandkids will inherit it and take it to space camp on the moon.

-- Jeff Pulice

I set out to replace the boards on our backyard deck this summer, and initially tried removing the old boards with a three-foot crowbar. The main problem was getting it between the deck board and the joist, so I could start prying. This required a hammer to drive it under the board. Then with a lot of effort, time and hammering I eventually removed one board. Clearly not the way to do the entire deck.

After some searching I discovered the Duckbill Deck Wrecker. This thing is a monster. It sits on the joist and has two legs that straddle the joist and slip under the board you’re removing. With almost 4 1/2 feet of leverage it’s easy to pry up the board, progressing along its length every one or two joists. You stand on the old section of deck and push the handle of the Duckbill up, thus prying up the old board in front of you. As far as other tools go, Mayhew’s Cats Paw functions with a similar design, though without the rotating head. The Cats Paw has a little less leverage and costs a little more.

The first, outermost, board(s) must be removed some other way to expose enough joist so that the Duckbill can fit under a board. As you make your way closer to the house -- putting down new boards as you take old ones up -- eventually there isn’t room to stand behind the Duckbill. At this point you remove the Duckbill head (it’s pinned to the shaft and can be rotated 180°), turn it around and now you are standing on the new decking and pulling the handle of the Duckbill to remove the last few old boards.

I’m sure I will find some other uses for this thing, but even if it’s only good for decks, it was well worth the money.