Torches (flashlights): I have no experience with single AA lights buuuut, The greatest little light that I have found (so far) is the Maratac AAA Stainless Steel flashlight. I carry at this moment and have for nearly two months. The folks at County Comm http://countycomm.com/lightindex.htm state in the advert not to use a rechargeable battery. I have been and have had no problems. It has three settings. By twisting the head one can get three different light intensities and what's more the LED is amber which seems to make for a whiter or softer light. $28.00. I use it more than the G2 Surefire that I paid $69.00 plus batteries (2-123A) and shipping.

AA torch... The INOVA X1

I've carried a single AA or AAA flashlight for years. Current favorite: Fenix E01. 1 AAA, bright LED, durable, cheap.

The Arc AAA was one of the first tiny LED flashlights. I bought one after they came out, and I've carried it almost every day for many years. It's still in my pocket and works just fine. Newer flashlights are brighter, or have several modes, but for my purposes (looking under the fridge, finding a screw loose in a computer case, illuminating a staircase when the lights go out, that kind of thing), it's perfectly fine, and it lasts for many hours on a rechargeable NiMH AAA cell. It's hard anodized and doesn't scratch easily, even if you carry it on your keychain (which I don't).

For camping and hiking, I've been looking at the Zebralight series, especially their 501 model that uses a single AA battery. It's a flood light, not a spot light, so you don't get a bright spot in the middle like you do with most flashlight. Instead, you have a wide-angle soft light that's perfect for illuminating a room, tent, or path. I don't have hands-on experience with it yet, but maybe Santa will get me one this year.

The best AA torch is clearly NiteCore SmartPD D10 or if you need advanced programming/features try the LiteFlux LF5XT.

BTW, I've got the Zebralight and it's neat to have a light with all the accessories, I just find that even when I need a flood light, I end up using LiteFlux alot more.

Not sure if I can plug this web-site, but they have great selection of torches and are very active in the community of enthusiasts: http://www.4sevens.com/

YouTube is actually a pretty good how-to site. There's usually at least one decent video on any subject I search. You just have to know how to weed out the idiots that simply have cameras and accounts. It is YouTube....

People have relied on Audobon guides for years, and sure enough, they have one for insects and spiders in North America: http://www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-Society-American-Insects/dp/0394507630/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260659887&sr=8-1

~ $15 US

Best AA flashlight that I have experienced is the Nitecore D10. Incredibly bright and has an infinitely variable brightness level. Interestingly the lowest (very dim) setting is very useful in situations where you don't want to disturb others such as when viewing a program at a play, for instance. Very well built and reliable, but not inexpensive.

I realize this might be outside the norm for submissions to your site, but the Glock pistol is probably the greatest defensive weapon ever created. It is the weapon I carry everyday as a police officer, and although there might be different weapons I would choose for different purposes like aesthetics, target shooting, etc. No weapon compares for surefire reliability, durability and every day usefulness. Let me know if you want to know more.

For DNS management I have used worldwidedns.net for ..10 years now? Prices on the site, interface is fine - beginner to expert to bulk options. They don't seem to have sold out or try and do a million different things, just focus on DNS and do it well.

Stephen Balbach

AA Flashlight:

http://www.fenixlight.com/viewproduct.asp?id=104

Fenix LD10, uses 1 AA battery, LD20 is the 2 AA type.

There are plenty of accessories, there are 6 different light modes , and the
body has a small diameter (great for holding it in the hand). The long runtime in the energy saving mode combined with the diffuser tip (see http://www.fenixlight.com/product.asp?classid=5) is great for the tent when you hike.
Special features like the SOS signal (you don't want to press for hours SOS when you are i such a trouble that you need a torch to signal somebody in). New features like the clip (i have myself the LD20, older model) are also very handy ..
There are more features, if you want a full post mail me with word count needed :)..

Etustarr

For how to info, www.instructables.com rocks.

My current favorite LED flashlight is the 9 LED by Denali. I have had many LED flashlights over the years, both big and small and this is the brightest for its size. It is certainly bright enough to use for lighting your way while walking on a very dark night. Last night I had it in my hand and noticed that it was lighting up the wall of the house across the way. Not super brightly, but the wall is over 150 feet away and the street is fairly well lit with streetlights.

It is very bright, light weight (2.9 oz with the battery), small (3.625" long by less than 1" in diameter) and amazingly only $3.33 each when you buy a 3-pack from Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Denali-Heavy-Duty-Compact-Aluminum-Flashlight/dp/B0014C2BGO

I have been using the Fenix gear PD20 http://www.fenixgear.com/flashlight/fenix_PD20_Olive.html
for about a year now and I absolutely love it. it does run off a CR123 but the do make a AA version that runs a little less bright. One of my friends has the 2AA version and loves it too

Your request for an insect field guide recommendation made me think instantly of iBird Explorer, the field guide for birds that runs on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Not exactly and insect field guide but it really is the most amazing birding field guide. I pretty much stopped using my paper field guides since I started using it. The iPhone and iPod are a natural platform for this kind of reference material. I can do complex searches, zoom in on illustrations and play sounds of birds. And best of all, I always have my field guide with me wherever I go. Kind of reminds me of that saying, the best camera is the one you have with you.

Full disclosure, I've done occasional work for the developer of iBird, but that shouldn't take anything away from how cool the app is. It even made Apple's best apps of 2009 list.

Thanks for your contributions. Please keep them coming. We enjoy our flashlights almost as much as our knives. I keep a Photon X-Light Micro on my keychain and use it much more frequently than the handful of more powerful flashlights we have around the house.

@NigelHall: I've seen that app, and it's wonderful. A friend claims he's had birds respond to the recorded calls. If I remember correctly, there are many more images of a given bird than a standard field guide would provide. Something tells me an insect guide won't get developed quite as quickly.--es

There seems to be a new AA flashlight released every five minutes, but the Fenix AA lights have been the benchmark for the last four years. The current model (LD10) is even starting to show up in some US brick and mortar stores.

Single AAA Flashlight: Fenix E01 $15 very bright, very well engineered. Had a $10 Gerber and It stopped working. REI replaced for FRee and same. Fenix just keeps going.

Their single AA is Fenix L1T V2.0 Q2 Black for $48. This is the one that convinced me to get the Fenix in the first place.

But since mine lives on my keychain, the AAA sized one fit my needs better.

Domain manager - check out www.godaddy.com - it's cheap, it has hundreds of options and it remembers everything you buy from them for ever, reminds you of things several times before expiry, allows you to pre-order, back-order, co-terminate etc etcex

Even better than iBird are the actual Audubon guides for the iPhone. I think they're at AudubonGuides.com, and they're stunning. If they don't have insects yet I bet they're working on developing that guide.

For domain management I like (and use) http://www.site-assistant.com/

Headlights are more useful in many situations than normal flashlights, especially in the light/small/AAA category. I originally was exposed to these for outdoors uses such as backpacking and climbing. I now keep one handy around the house for getting light in the right place under a sink or in the attic. Petzl has made these things a long time, but there are many good brands. http://www.petzl.com

Hands down, the best single AA flashlight is the Fenix LD10+: https://www.fenix-store.com/product_info.php?products_id=466

I've had mine for a couple weeks, and just don't know what I'd do without it now!

I agree that a headlamp is more useful than a regular flashlight, I use a Petzl Tikka XP which has one of the most smooth diffusers I've seen. It takes 3 AAA batteries.

For in pocket carry, I also vote for the Fenix line of flashlights, specifically the PD10 or the older P1D which take a single CR123. For AA lights the LD10 or the older L1D. Personally, I like the CR123 versions because they are more compact and the lithium batteries have a longer storage life.

Another vote for Fenix flashlights. I've had a L0D AAA cell on my keychain for a while. Very bright and durable and tiny. Nitecore sounds even better, but more expensive and it looks like they only have the bigger AA cell and up.

For domains I've been very happy with http://www.dynadot.com/ Some of the lowest prices around and a nice clean interface without lots of upsell pushed in your face like GoDaddy. No hidden fees, gimmicks or deceptive introductory pricing. Warns me a couple times before expiration (60 days, 30 days, etc). You can also delete domains, which some places don't seem to have an option for. I've got about a dozen domains with them.

I can't recommend anything for managing a massive number of domains, but at the other end of the spectrum http://iwantmyname.com beats all. It's not the cheapest, but it is the simplest. Especially for those folks who are buying a domain to point at a tumblr and a google apps install, nothing could be easier. It also includes delightfully simple tools for editing DNS records.

As for flashlights, I've never been let down by my Fenix.

For domains, I recommend joker.com. They've been around a long time. They're prices are good, though not the best, but always very stable. Their web site is still simple and web-1.0-ish. Once I let a domain expire because i was on vacation..they held it for me, and renewing it was simple. I also use their DNS; I've never seen any downtime with it.

As for flashlights, everyone should keep one on their keychain. If you're not a flashlight addict it's usually not worth spending a huge amount on it--LEDs are still advancing rapidly and something better will be out next year.

It's been around awhile, but http://www.builditsolar.com is the best how-to site for do-it-yourselfers interested in reducing their carbon footprint and saving money.

Also, expanding the definition of "how-to" a bit, the novel 'Invisible Hand' by Larry K. Mason contains an intriguing vision of how to solve the world's economic and environmental woes. It describes a near-future America transformed by an economic system that financially rewards only the creation of net benefit for other people. Helpfulness at any scale becomes the path to riches, while evils like crime and pollution no longer pay. It's brilliant! You can read the book free online at http://www.payfornetbenefit.com or http://www.nopom.info , or buy a paperback at http://www.lulu.com/content/372669

DNS: I've been with http://nearlyfreespeech.net/ for just over a year. Only five domains at the moment, but I'll be transferring my others as they expire. I love their openness and free-speech attitude.

Here's another vote for the Fenix LD10 flashlight. I've had mine for a year or so, and have been very happy with it. It's proven bright enough for night hiking in the rain forest, and watertight for night snorkeling. I have a CR123A flashlight too, but prefer the LD10 - it's just as bright, and I can use AA NiMH batteries regularly, or lithium AAs when traveling.

For the holiday gift guide, I recommend All-Ett billfolds. While they're not the most durable (you'll maybe get three years of life before they start looking scrungy), they're thin and lightweight. I carry the sports model as an everyday minimal wallet, and the travel wallet when I need to carry my passport.

I will add yet another vote for the Arc Light.

I've been carrying one around for going on 5 years with weekly use and have yet to change the battery. It's small, plenty bright for everything I've needed it for and very durable.

http://www.arcflashlight.com/arc-aaa.shtml

I apologize for my stupidity, but what does free speech have to do with reliable domain and dns hosting?

How-to sites are a dime a dozen, and when you're in need that's about how much most of them are worth. In my ongoing struggle to keep the current moneypit livable, I've searched for help on the Net at length. What's come up on search engines has been pretty much either detail-free assurances that you can do xxxx if you really try and get some good information, unsubtle product shilling, or just info that even I know from experience is wrong.

I did find one site that proved useful, accurate, and comprehensive enough most of the time. It's called Ask the Builder, run by "syndicated newspaper columnist" Tim Carter. I find it more helpful than, say, This Old House and most other such sites I've come across. I think the tuckpointing article is a good example of Carter's ability to provide enough detail without drowning you in exotica: http://www.askthebuilder.com/B170_Tuckpointing.shtml

The site also offers pretty useful video demos of many shelter-related procedures. See what you think.

Ther are a lot of really nice AA flashlights out there, but for the general population, I like the Nitecore EZ AA over any of the others mentioned. It is smaller than most with a dead simple user interface. Twist a little for low power, more for high. Low is 10 lumens for 20 hours and high is 130 lumens for 50 minutes.
Other flashlights have infinite variation in beam intensity, but are much harder to use. Anybody can pick up the EZ AA and use it right the first time. It isn't cheap at just over $50, but it's bullet proof and has excellent runtime, a nice low power, and bright high power and a great UI.

The best tiny flashlight, at about 2" x 3/8", is available at Lowe's, near the checkout. It costs an incredible $2.27, and lasts forever. Throw away the keyring clip, and drop it in your pocket, glove compartment, dop kit, tool box. Good light at a great price.

I carry a Quark AA(2) Tactical light every day on an ambulance. It's bright, exceptionally durable, and reasonably priced. I have it programmed to run at maximum brightness with the bezel tightened, and moonlight mode (to replace a penlight for eye exams) with the bezel loose. I run it on NiMH rechargeable batteries, and the runtime is out of this world.

Question: in terms of "cool tools," why is it that we should recommend things that we've bought and tested for your blog, enabling you to get ad and other revenue? That is, put more simply, why are we giving you our content/knowledge for free only for you to leverage it to your needs? I know I'm being provocative, but its not a troll, its an honest question; it strikes me that many blogs like yours are kind of a pyramid scheme, selling products and harnessing your name but leaving the labor to others.

How to site: http://rouxbe.com - the best video based cooking site on the web. Both recipe videos (all free) and an amazing cooking school (premium content).

James: Cool Tools is a community built by reviews from its readers. The value that the readers get out of it is far, far greater than any revenue that might be earned by the ads or affiliate links on the site.

People contribute to communities because they understand that that is what makes communities thrive. People are social creatures who like to share knowledge. There's no "pyramid scheme" here--everyone is a winner (if people didn't win, they wouldn't visit!).

I have no affiliation aside from being a happy reader.

I have tried many small flashlights and stumbled on this jewel: F-NF07: 110 Lumen LED Flashlight with CREE P4 Bulb. I found it on www.goldengadgets.com for $11.99. This little light can run on 1 x AA or 1 x AAA or 1 x CR123A. I was suspicious at first, but for the price I though I would give it a try. I have used it with each of the batteries listed and found it to be very bright and conservative with battery consumption (although I have not done any real testing on battery life). Since my initial purchase I have picked up several more for each vehicle and my tool boxes. While I love my Surefire lights, this little light is now one of my favorites.

@James: That's a fair question.

I can't speak for why others post stuff on this blog (including comments as well as reviews) but I can tell you why *I* post things on other blogs that make revenue from ads. I do so because I want to join in a conversation about something I care about or want to share. I like being able to help others. I like sharing what I have learned. I like being proven right. I like having a conversation. I am not bothered by the fact that I don't get paid for my comments, or suggestions. I am not doing it on a regular basis. I am not bothered by the fact my host may be making revenue because they do have a few expenses for servers and the like, and I know from my own blog, they are putting time and effort into keeping the site going, weeding out spam, selecting the material etc. (In the case of Cool Tools there are two part time employees in addition to me who keep the site attention-worthy.) I am aware that my efforts do "enrich" the owners of the blog, but they also enrich the community at large, and so I consider it a fair trade. I am also encouraged to keep contributing to other places (like Cool Tools, Instructables, GeekDad, Boing Boing Gadgets, etc.) because I often greatly benefit from those thousands of other folks who have posted great stuff on these blogs. In fact the greater web is built on this same curious dynamic. I am surfing along on the generous work of others who have for the most part made unpaid contributions to profitable small businesses. Or even big businesses, in the case of the millions of unpaid reviews on Amazon. I use Amazon reviews all the time, and so in one sense I post on other sites in a form of repayment for that treasure.

As to why *other people* post reviews on Amazon, or on Cool Tools, I can't explain it.

A flashlight aficionado, my vote is for the Fenix LD20 as best all-around. At about $55, it's not exactly cheap, but on high it throws a piercing searchlight beam of about 180 lumens, while running on two standard AA's. It also has 6 output settings, including SOS, runs for hours and hours, fits in a pocket, and has great build quality.

As an all-around utility light, the Fenix E01 is only $12, runs on a single AAA battery for 24 hours, and is so bright you really don't want to look into the beam.

I suppose the "best" flashlight depends on the task at hand. I also have a Streamlight Twin-Task which is machined from aircraft-grade aluminum and uses 2 x "D" cells; and a large MagLite in the car (3 "D" cells?); and assorted MagLite carcasses lying around in a drawer. But the Fenixes really "outshine" the others and these are the flashlights I reach for first.

The Wagner TurboRoll... I just used it to paint three bedrooms. Rolls a room in about a 1/3 to a 1/4 of the time of a standard roller. I'm sold on it. Would make a great gift for someone who has some painting in their future.

The best single AA flashlight I've seen is the Nitecore D10. It has variable brightness, good runtime off a single AA, and an easy to use interface. I like it better than the Fenix LD10 due to its smaller size, more reliable piston "switch", a lower low for when you don't want to disturb someone, and no annoying strobe or SOS modes that get in the way. They cost about the same. That said, the Fenix is a very good light, as are offerings from Jetbeam, Liteflux, and Peak LED Solutions.

There is a great diy site that happens to be mine and it is http://greensolutionshelp.com. It gives great information on making solar panels at home and has a great review of a product that helps you build your own solar panel at Home Made Energy Review

I voted for the Fenix LD20 as an outstanding, all-around flashlight for about $50. I posted a review on it for those who are considering the LD20.
http://keithspr.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/review-fenix-ld20-led-flashlight/