Often copied, never quite equaled, the Tilley Hat is the most all-purpose chapeau I know. Its broad brim keeps the sun or light rain off, the bit of foam in the flat crown pads the skull against light whacks and keeps the hat floating in water, and the double strap defeats all wind. (Use just the rear strap behind your head to hold the hat in all but strong winds; the front strap under the chin is effective but dorky looking.) The Canadian behind the Tilley line has generated a humorous but effective fetishism around his durable hats. With one or both side brims snapped up to the crown you get a rakish look which also stiffens the front brim against wind. The Tilley packs well and does last for many years; however, a lot of hot weather use will stain it incurably with sweat. You may not mind.
-- SB

Tilley Hat
About $60.00
Available from Tilley Endurables

Also from Amazon

Do you know someone going on a government-paid excursion to the middle east dressed in Army fatigues? Mosquito netting is a must. There's a misunderstanding that the Army supplies you all you need in the field. Nope. I may have been able to get my hands on an Army issued net a few months AFTER mosquito season... but instead we used the Epco TropicScreen II, the cadillac of mosquito nets. The Tropicscreen is the only freestanding mosquito net we found that would work with an army cot. It has a floor too! It also turned out to be far easier to pack than the standard "mosquito bar" such as the backpacking nets reviewed in CoolTools. Weight wasn't a huge issue (since we were never too far from vehicles), but speed of assembly/disassembly was crucial. I bought a TropicScreen from Campmor, who conveniently ships to APO addresses.

-- Frank Black

Epco TropicScreen II
$70
Available from Campmor

Manufactured by Epco Design

This sweetly intuitive program for ear-playing musicians slows down the tune without altering the pitch and/or plays the tune in any key you like. Crooked & complicated melody, complex ornamentation, blistering speed? With this you can tune it to your instrument, slow it down, isolate the tricky parts, put them on loops and play along with them over and over until you get it right. And marvel at how inventive and agile your favorite jazzmen/fiddlers/pipers/bluesmen/etc could and can be. If you play like this, I need say very little more: this is our wet dream, as big an invention as written music or the phonograph.

Works directly from the CD drive, or with any MP3/AIFF/Wave/AAC/M4A files on your HD, iTunes friendly, originally written for the Mac, now available for Windows as well. Download the demo, and see how it works; I believe you'll agree that the $45 price is an excellent value. I used to pay much more for those clunky old Maranzes that were nowhere near as useful, and then broke.

This cool tool has opened a whole realm of hard tunes to me. It's that social thing -- you need to play with people who are better than you, but you really don't want to waste the patience of good musicians by making them to go over that tricky part for you *again.* It's relaxing to let the machine do the machine work, and relaxing makes for good music.

The program is frequently upgraded, and upgrades are always free. (There's a note about "major upgrades may entail a slight fee", but the OSX version was free to people who'd bought classic.) A couple of times I had to email for help and was fixed up immediately apparently by the program's author, a Swedish musician and programmer named Rolf.

-- Tim Jennings

Amazing Slow Downer
$50
Available from
Roni Music

The Keeper and the Diva Cup are reusable menstrual cups. I have been using the Keeper for several years now and it is excellent! I enjoy not having to throw away disgusting tampons and also not having to worry about buying them and carrying them around. It is really super and I don't know why it's not better known. It comes with a little cloth pouch. Any woman can use it; in fact some women who can't use tampons (because they get pushed out) are able to use the Keeper. It takes a little practice to get used to inserting it, but you just have to have a positive attitude! It's best to practice first when you are not on your period. The Keeper website has information on how to best insert it. I usually use one or two pads along with it for the heaviest part of my period, but it's a far cry from all the disposable stuff I was wasting before. And, by the way, I'm not a real green freak--I just think it's really convenient.

The Diva Cup is the same but made of silicone, so it's claimed to be better for people with latex allergies, although I have not used one myself.

-- Maria Blees

[What do I know? But several women readers have suggested the silicone Diva Cup as the improved version. They claim it is non-allergic, it tends to deform less over time, offers an easier grip to removal, and lasts longer. A good discussion of the merits of both, and tips for use, can be found on Metafilter. -- KK]

The Keeper
$35
Available from
The Keeper
Also from Amazon

Diva Cup
$36
Available from
Diva Cup

For several years I've been producing books, CDS, and DVD in small quantities for small audiences. Micro-publishing. Or to use the apt phrase of Chris Anderson at Wired: mining the Long Tail, a place where the little that sells a lot is equaled by a lot that sells a little.

I've had numerous requests from readers for the secrets of getting their self-published material on Amazon. It's no secret, but here is what I have learned in the last few years about how to get your book, CD or DVD listed on Amazon.

First, why? I began listing self-published material on Amazon because I wanted a way to reach the wider public with my stuff but I did not want to have to deal with shipping out copies to each customer who ordered on my website. For a small-timer like me, mailing out, and keeping track of onesies and twosies is very disruptive for my day job. By having my stuff on Amazon, Amazon's mighty enterprise became my shipper (they are very good at this), so the only place I have to ship my copies to is to their warehouse.

More importantly, as popular as my website may or may not be, it doesn't compare to the traffic headed to Amazon to search for books and DVDs. By having my stuff pop up among the big publisher's offerings for "similar books" or even in reader's lists and guides, my titles gain a greater chance to be seen and ordered. In a certain way, unless your stuff is available on Amazon, it ain't available. In fact for better or worse, the only way you can purchase my books is via Amazon. As a side benefit, by focusing all my sales via Amazon, tiny advances in sales are magnified by Amazon's sales rank, which garner it more attention, more links via recommendations, which increases sales in the hoped for virtuous circle.

The cost of using Amazon is high. They take 55% of the "official" price (not the sale price but the price you originally determine). That means that even if they discount the book (good for sales), the discount is coming out of their half. But it means you are only getting 45% of your listed price. In addition you pay for shipping books there, and of course for printing them, so the math does not encourage fortune making. Most self-published books are in the "long tail" zone, selling only a few copies per month. I've done better, selling several thousand copies over a couple of years, but still: This is not a way to make money; this is a way to distribute your message.

In 8 easy steps, here is how to get your book, CD, or DVD listed on the long tail of Amazon:

1 Get an ISBN (for a book), or a UPC (for a CD or DVD). For one book it costs $125, for one CD, $55, for one DVD, $89.
2 Get a bar code based on the ISBN or UPC. Costs $10, or may be included in UPC.
3 Sign up with Amazon, $30 per year.
4 Duplicate your stuff; include the bar code on the outside.
5 Ship two copies to Amazon
6 Send cover scan
7 Track sales
8 Resgister it (optional)

-- KK (with Michele McGinnis)

The full details, with how-to tips and links to recommended sources, are as follows.

For $3.50 you can get a full-color, indexed, hot-linked version of the Cool Tools book.

This 140-page collection of cool tools very much resembles the old Whole Earth Catalog in style and substance. If you liked those old Catalogs, you'll find this one just as invigorating and chirpy. It's compiled from evaluations taken from this site.

But with a copyright date of 2003, some reviewed items are now stale, outdated or obsolete. However, many more -- probably most -- remain the best things to use and won't be easily superceded. I still use the book myself. If you want a black & white version you can order one from Amazon (below).

But I have a better offer: a digital download. Halfway between a book and a website, PDF digital books are pioneering a third way. With this Cool Tools PDF you get several things the printed version does not have (but the web does): an index, clickable active hyperlinks in the text, and glorious full-color. At the same time the PDF version retains the easy to browse design and rapid navigation of a book, which the web does not have. And it is a lot cheaper than a book, immediate in its delivery, and smaller to store. I find myself reading a lot of PDFs and growing comfortable in their habits.

The form is still experimental; I'd love to hear your feedback.

-- KK

Cool Tools
2003.1 PDF version
146 pages, 24mb
$3.50
Available via Pay Pal

Cool Tools
$17
Amazon

My favorite amateur science experimenter has gathered the coolest hacks from his website into a browseable book. Here Simon Field tells you how to use disposable trash to make very small versions of hi-tech machines -- like a Van de Graaff generator, or magnetic train gun, or what he calls a plastic hydrogen bomb. The secret to the fun and enlightenment is to keep everything very small -- which makes it cheap, fast, and safe.

There's lots more amateur exploration at his wonderful website, but this plain book (black and white printing) contains a fine selection of his best stuff, and is great for an introductory gift.

-- KK

Gonzo Gizmos: Projects & Devices to Channel Your Inner Geek
by Simon Field
2003, 228 pages
$12
Available from
Amazon

Sample excerpts:

In the previous two projects, we stole high voltage from a television set to power our high voltage motors. In this project we will build a device that can generate 12,000 volts from an empty soda can and a rubber band.
�
The device is called a Van de Graaff generator. Science museums and research facilities have large versions that generate potentials in the hundreds of thousands of volts. Ours is more modest, but is still capable of drawing 1/2 inch sparks from the soda can to my finger. The spark is harmless, and similar to the jolt you get from a doorknob after scuffing your feet on the carpet.

This very simple toy uses a magnetic chain reaction to launch a steel marble at a target at high speed. The toy is very simple to build, going together in minutes, and is very simple to understand and explain, and yet fascinating to watch and to use.

*

My review of Simon Field's website, Science Toys You Can Make With Your Kids, is here:

Science Toys You Can Make With Your Kids

The need: a very tiny woodstove suitable for a small space in a home. I received many suggestions after posting an inquiry here last month. Here is the consensus from Cool Tools readers.

The original Very Small Woodstove is the Jotul 602, from Norway. This model is a mere 12 inches wide, 19 inches deep. They are found most often in cottages and cabins in the woods, where the 602's good looks are a highlight. It's been around almost forever. Jotul claims over 1 million of these have been manufactured. Waterford and Garden Way produced a near identical stove called the Reginald 101, but it is no longer in production, but available used, as is the Jotul 602. Although very small it can heat amazingly well.

Jotul 602
12 x 19
$700
Available from Jotul

But the tiniest very small woodstoves are those built for boats. These are designed for very tight quarters, and often have a railing on the top to keep pots from rolling off. Here is a typical one from the Canadian coast measuring all of 12 inches by 12 inches. They are made of cast iron and porcelain and are so cute and enchanting, folks have thought of getting a sailboat just so they need one.

Sardine
12 x12
$650
Available from Marine Stove

The third option for extremely small woodstoves are those manufactured for camping. Sometimes known as wall tent stoves, or pack trail stoves, or ice shack, or even shepherding stoves, these are meant for nomadic or seasonal camps. Like the marine varieties they double as cookstoves. More expensive varieties are produced in titanium, the cleverest are even collapsible, but the cheapest are steel, and they are as plain and basic as camp coffee.

Two Dog Stove
10 x 12
$185
Available from Wall Tent Shop

THE source for pack trail stoves is Pack Saddle Shop

Wilderness Shanty Wood Stove
8 x 15
$140
Available from Shewchuk Outdoor Supplies

Slightly larger-- that is small, but not extremely small -- home woodstoves can also be found at Lehman's

Thanks to Chris, Gordon Crone, John Simons, Art Johnson, Cate, Helge Gudmundsen, CJ Cramer, Christopher Wanko, Rob McCartney, Todd Holloway, Eagle, Scott KS, Stephen Foss, Rick Smith, Dean Johnson, Matt Murray, Curt Jopling, Justin Anthony, Egil Hogholt, and Russell Hall.

-- KK

This is where you go when Google shrugs. A community of 20,000 of the smartest people you know will answer your question. I use Ask Metafilter when I have a question that can't be reduced to a key word search. Say you want to know the name of that song that was played during the closing credits in a science fiction film that begins in a boy's bedroom, or you've been curious what that bumper sticker you keep seeing is, or maybe you need advice about whether you should see a therapist, or a psychologist, or a psychiatrist? You need a human for these inquiries. Ask Metafilter is not great for questions requiring detailed and heavily researched answers. For that use Google Answers for a small fee. What Ask Metafilter is great for, are things that a smart friend could easily answer if only you knew which friend to ask. The Metafilter community is your all-purpose smartest friend.

There is a one-time fee of $5 to join the community in order to post a question (but its free to read). To keep the frantic rate of new questions under control you are limited to asking no more than one a week. (You can answer all you want, and please do.) The quality of answers varies, but in general the tips, referrals and advice are pretty good, and often astoundingly on the mark. For example, here are some fairly typical questions I've asked (with fairly typical answers).

I've tried a couple of other "ask your question" sites on the web and generally their answer to question ratio is so low I've found them worthless. Ask Metafilter has managed to retain its intelligence while scaling up sufficiently to cover all subjects; that's a magical balance.

In fact, even when I don't have a question I find myself reading Ask Metafilter everyday because people will ask questions that I didn't even know I wanted to know until they asked it, and then I realize I've been dying to ask that. It's a true hive mind and it really works.

[Ask Metafilter is one service of the Metafilter community blog. Reading is free. Registration allows you to post questions and answers as well as posts to the other parts of the blog.]

-- KK

Ask Metafilter
$5 registration

For taking your blood pressure at home, I recommend this excellent, beautifully engineered wrist sphygmomanometer. The great wizards at Panasonic have taken the cumbersome apparatus used to measure blood pressure, shrunk it into a little box and made it easy to use by anyone. That, to me, is wizardry.

You push the yellow button, the cuff squeezes your wrist and then deflates, showing your blood pressure in a nice, easy-to-read digital readout along with your heart rate. The whole unit measures 2.5" x 2" x 1"; and uses two AAA batteries. It costs $42 from Amazon*.

But will it deliver valid blood pressure measurements? Unequivocally, yes.

I took my little Panasonic into the Operating Room where I work and put it on the wrist of my patients, on the same arm on which I put my professional-grade anesthesia machine blood pressure cuff which, by the way, costs around $5,000. As soon as the anesthesia machine-value came up on my monitor screen, I pushed the little button on my Panasonic and then recorded both readings on a flow chart I'd created.

My conclusion after doing this informal study on six or seven patients was that the Panasonic is accurate, reliable and in fact better than the medical-grade equipment I use in two areas:

1) It's much easier to use: goes on in a couple seconds, as opposed to screwing around trying to get the blood pressure cuff and Velcro seal positioned just so, and then having to move the long rubber connecting tube to the anesthesia machine out of the way.
2) It's much faster: a reading from the Panasonic takes maybe 30 seconds from button push to obtaining a value; the anesthesia version takes 1-2 minutes.

I keep my little Panasonic in my fanny pack when I'm in the OR, as a backup, 'cause you just never know when your monitor's gonna crash.

-- Joe Stirt, MD

I hope you don't need one of these, but we do. This little gizmo is incredibly compact, fast, easy to use and trouble free (no mercury either). It's one small marvel, and now part of our home medical kit.

-- KK

Panasonic Precise Logic Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor
#EW3002W
$42
Previously available from Amazon

[*This model has been discontinued and replaced with the more recently-reviewed #EW3006S from Panasonic --sl]

I'm a part-time musician and have to deal with suitcases of coiled cables every time we set ourselves up. I needed a re-useable, quick release kind of strap to keep this kind of gear in order, and wasn't sold on the limits and expense of the plastic zip ties, or beaded ties that I had found.

A roll of Velcro Plant Ties is perfect. Rather than the usual two part Velcro, one side of this stuff is fuzzy, the other side has hooks, so it sticks to itself. I can snip off exactly the length I need, and then with one wrap, the cables are secured. I am finding other uses....behind the stereo and computer desk, the cables are now neatly routed and secured ... why stop there? Anywhere you need a light-duty, non-marring reusable, quick release wrap. These strips will virtually last forever, and if you lose them, no big deal. Find the roll and snip another length off.

-- Eric Litman

[Electrical stores sell black versions of this wrap as Velcro One-Wrap Tape, but in smaller rolls at higher prices. Or in very expensive pre-cut strips. Velcro Plant Ties rolls are a fantastic bargain if you can live with green. They also work great in the garden (bundling hoses, tieing up vines, etc) and you can get it in rolls as long as 70 feet. -- KK]

Velcro Plant Ties
2 pk of 1/2 inch by 30 ft. rolls
$3
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Velcro

This book is a classic. It is a relatively small instructional book on knitting. It is wonderful because it teaches one how to construct good looking garments without the use of knitting patterns. Her hallmark is a seamless pullover sweater. This book not only delivers quality knitting instruction - it is a great read!

-- Mary Cavanaugh

This is not so much a how-to-knit book, though it excels as that, as much as it is a glorious how-to-enjoy, and how to live while knitting book, penned by a remarkable woman who found happiness at the end of her yarns. This short but famous primer is a good place to start knitting for life. I doubt I personally will suddenly pick up needles -- although my teenage kids and all their friends have -- but nonetheless I did read every page of her instructions with great pleasure.

-- KK

Knitting Without Tears
Basic Techniques and Easy-to-Follow Directions for Garments to Fit All Sizes
By Elizabeth Zimmerman
1995, 120 pages
$12
Available from Amazon

Sample excerpts:

If you are a habitually tight knitter, try to kick the habit. Loose knitting tends to make your stitches look somewhat uneven, but what of it? Are you trying to reproduce a boughten machine-made sweater? Besides, it is surprising what blocking and a few washings will do to uneven knitting.

I used to think that people in the Olden Days were marvelously even knitters, because all really ancient sweaters are so smooth and regular. Now I realize that they probably knitted just as I do, rather erratically, and that it is Time, the Great Leveller, which has wrought the change - Time and many washings.

*

The human being is so constructed that it can be completely covered by a series of shaped tubes. Tailors and dressmakers succeed excellently and skillfully in making tubes out of flat woven material; their achievements are nothing short of marvelous. But we, the humble knitters, can fabricate natural-born tubes by the very nature of our craft of circular knitting. With the techniques of increasing and decreasing at our command, we can shape or even bend the tubes as we will, without seams, gussets, or darts. It is then only a matter of uniting the various tubes by knitting them together, or sometimes weaving them together, and we could, if he desired them, make long-johns for a octopus.

*

For a small baby, take 4 ounces of baby wool, work at any GAUGE you feel like, and see what happens. Babies vary so much in size, and grow so fast, that the jacket will be gratefully worn at some period during the first year.

*

Caps are quickly made, and invaluable for using up scraps of wool for color patterns and stripes. They are excellent bazaar material, as people will pay more for them than for mittens, and they are quicker and more fun to make. (For me the great drawback to knitting mittens is that, having created one, you have to turn around and copy it exactly, for a pair.)

*

Knitting can be solace, inspiration, adventure. It is manual and mental therapy. It keeps us warm, as well as those we like and love. It has existed almost as long as the soft sheep, and in giving us wool they deprive themselves of no more than an uncomfortably warm fur coat in the heat of summer.

This is a new plant propagation method/tool that allows you to produce large, rooted plantlets from woody plants (with stems up to 25 mm diameter) within one growing season (~ 2-3 months). Since I got them 2 months ago, I very easily rooted a large, marketable Schefflera in about 45 days and a 12" - 14" tall Ficus in ~60 days. I talked to an associate in Australia who has rooted almond. The concept is exciting because you should be able to produce a usable plant in 1/3 the time (one growing season vs three). I do expect that, with grower experience, almost any woody species that can be grafted can be propagated faster / less expensively using the Rooter Pot.

I bought them specifically to (try to) clone American chestnut selections for preservation without grafting. I expect to successfully clone mature conifers which are usually grafted for seed production. Rooter Pots are reusable. A larger-sized pot is now available for stems up to 1 inch in diameter.

-- Carl L. Haag

Rooter Pots
Available from:
Manhattan Bonsai
Small Pots (Stems 1/4" - 1/2" Diameter)
Set of 5 for $8.95.�

Large Pots (Stems 1/2" - 1" Diameter)
Manhattan Bonsai
Set of 5 for $17.50

Manufactured by Rooterpot

Float over snow. Go slow, steady. Be thrifty. One of the least expensive pair of snowshoes you can get is the best. Unfashionably molded of single piece of unbreakable bomb-proof plastic these Denali are idiot-proof easy to get on and off, very lightweight, and small enough to fit into your carry-on luggage! Try that with fancy ones. A classic model by now, any bugs in the near-solid-state Denalis have long been worked out, so these economical shoes have a huge following. I find them far more comfortable than other snowshoes I've used for casual excursions. They have optional extenders for heavier weight or snow conditions.

-- KK

MSR Denali Classic Snowshoes
$100
Available from, among others, Amazon

Manufactured by MSR

This unique tool provides instant adjustment, memory retention of jaw opening and single handed, self gripping operation with a grip that won't let go. The Knipex jaws really grip. You can literally hang from the handles and they will not slip. The upper and lower jaws are notched. This allows the user to grip a hex nut on the corner and the flat side so as not to round off the nut.�They have a flat nose where the jaws meet that allows you to do some pretty fine work. The jaws are very tough. The Cobra is designed to eliminate "knuckle-busting" and the "burring" of nuts, bolts and fittings. Its thin profile and light weight ensure ease of operation.

On first glance they look like the classic Channel Locks (on the right in the picture below). But the Channel Lock handles actually touch together in the extreme "wide" position. This can and has led�to pinched hands and fingers if you slip off the work piece. The Knipex handles do not touch, which leaves you with that little bit of saving grace if you slip off the work piece. Also the Channel Lock has�5 jaw positions that slip/slide into place, while the Knipex has 12 jaw positions and, each position is spring-pin locked into place. For example you are working in a�blind, tight space and drop the Knipex: the jaw will still be�set to the position you started with and you suffer no aggravation except that due to�your own clumsiness. Not so with Channel locks. You will have to fiddle around with them�to get them back where you want them, and if you bump or roll them around the work, while trying to get a bite, the jaws will slip back�out of position.�
����

I have used this tool almost every day for the past 18 years working with elevator and escalator system installations, repairs, servicing and maintenance. It is always the first tool I grab to take with me to do a job at home or at work.

-- Shaler Derickson

Knipex Cobra Pliers, 10 inch
$23
Available from Amazon

RadioTime is a web-based interface to the vast invisible world of sound publishing -- music, talk, news, sports, journalism, and non-fiction stories -- or what used to be called "radio."

These days you can get "radio" over the web at your convenience and in your preferred format: live in real time, downloaded, or archived. Just about any respectable station will provide some of their programs over the internet. However RadioTime aggregates the full schedules of 5,000 commercial and public radio stations and provides a uniform web-based interface to their schedules and your preferences of how and when you'd like to hear them. Like a TiVo for radio, you can browse, sort and shift the universe. You can use RadioTime to program your RadioShark, or you can simply program RadioTime to record certain select programs to your computer, or even better, drop them right into iTunes. It's then an easy hop into the iPod for playing in the car (which is how I like to use it since I am never driving when This American Life is playing on the radio.) Their web-based guide is free; to record from it they charge a $39/year subscription.

What's the difference between RadioShark and RadioTime (other than one is hardware and one is software)? If you want to time-shift or migrate to your iPod only one or two locally broadcast radios shows, then your best bet is to pay up front and plunk down your money for a RadioShark, which you can program once and thereafter pay no fees: the free radio model. A RadioShark is also great for the 50% (as of 2005) of all radio broadcasts which are still NOT bit-streamed, including many talk shows, certain sports events and so on. It's a cheap way to record the free radio you can hear -- but only what you can hear.

You can't hear much locally. Most of the great radio made will not reach your RadioShark, but it will come through RadioTime. There are 36,000 radio stations world-wide streaming some part of their programs. Only a tiny sliver of all that is produced is aired in one locale. In fact only a tiny portion of all the material produced in American public radio will play on your local station. Whole rivers of great stuff -- music, stories, interviews, talk, sports -- are flowing by invisibly. A monthly subscription to RadioTime will record your favorites, but also make visible and manageable this sonic tide, an entirely new territory. Indeed, on first entry the amount of audio material, much of it excellent, is overwhelming. I am reminded of the early web; so much so fast. RadioTime is in the first days of figuring out how to navigate through this immense hidden library (much greater than the world of TV and video); their actual launch date is March 2005. BTW, you don't need to pay RadioTime to benefit from their aggregation. You can explore and play (but not record) simply by registering.

In fact if your tastes tend toward the intellectual, then you might consider the Public Radio Fan base, which is a great index to all the public radio programs on the air. This heroic treasure is compiled and maintained by the OTHER Kevin Kelly (!). Dip into it to discover some amazing interviews, stories, and reportage that never makes it to your local station. You can then download or stream at will, or use RadioTime (its database is incorporated into RadioTime) to schedule regular recordings.

-- KK

RadioTime

Public Radio Fan

What I have wanted for some time is TiVo for the radio. The Griffin RadioSHARK is it. It's a $70 USB device that plays, pauses, and records live radio on a Mac or PC.

I want the convenience of being able to listen my favorite shows on my own schedule. If I get interrupted, I want to be able to pause the program. More than that, I want to be able to schedule recordings in advance, and I want to listen to them on my iPod. The RadioSHARK obliges.

I kept expecting something to go wrong, but nothing did. Setup was a snap, and reception was good. As I was going away for the weekend, I programmed it to record "Prairie Home Companion" and "This American Life", two of my favorite shows. When I came back, there they were. There is even an option to add a scheduled recording to an ITunes playlist, so as soon as I synched my iPod, I could take them with me.

One nit: You have to enter the date, time, station, and duration manually as there is no integrated program guide (though there is one you can get online at RadioTime.)

RadioShark
$63
Available from
Amazon

Manufactured by Griffin

I have a 13 month old who's been eating "solids" for about 7 months now and these excessive-heat sensitive spoons by Munchkin have made that a much easier adventure. The marketing blurb about the spoon is very accurate: "Heat sensor tip turns white when food is too hot! Suction base allows utensils to stand upright and avoid contact with germs. Flexible soft tip is gentle on baby's gums while handle is comfortable and easy to hold. Dishwasher safe."

In addition to the above, the spoons are longer than most of the others on the market which means you have better reach and better lines of attack when your little one tries to parry the incoming food.

-- Todd Holloway

[Editor's note: As of late 2006, Munchkin has redesigned the White Hot Safety Spoon. It no longer has a suction base.]

Munchkin White Hot Infant Feeding Spoon
$6
Available from KidSurplus

Manufactured by Munchkin

I have searched for years for a high-quality, flexible project management system. I found it in Basecamp. Basecamp is scaleable to handle a handful of projects for a sole proprietor on a tight budget, or countless initiatives for a large, distributed network. It requires no downloads or software beyond the web browser. It has swiftly become THE key tool in managing our project pipeline, with milestones, to-do lists, team members and essential files. I have set up three of my own clients with the software and they all love it because they finally have a cheap, efficient knowledge management tool that does not follow a "per seat fee." Non-profit organizations seem to benefit most from this software because usually they don't have much tech support, while Basecamp offers them a seamless way to connect a project.

There is a free 30-day trial version. Pricing is based on number of projects, not users. It begins at 1 project=free, and then ends at unlimited projects = $150/month. We started with the $12/month 3 project plan, and it swiftly became so core to our business processes, we upgraded immediately. Sounds expensive, except that the program allows the owners (us) to set permissions for unlimited users, who aren't required to pay anything.

The company posted a great manifesto and so far they are living up to it and making our mom-and-pop shop a happier place to work.

-- Peter Durand

Basecamp
Free for 1 project
$12/month and up for 3 or more
Available from Basecamp