April 2005 Archive
Smart grain cooker
This is the best thing with a plug. Pop water and rice in the bowl, set the timer, and you'll have a perfect bowl of rice waiting for you when you get home. Don't worry if you get hung up in traffic, the Zojirushi will keep your rice perfectly moist, and warm.
-- Chris S.
Commonly used in Japan, this type of fuzzy-logic rice cooker can be set ahead of time. I've purchased several for friends and family and have settled on the Zojirushi brand. I've used a Zojiriushi for several years, and it has held up well and completely changed my cooking habits.
In the evenings I load up the pot with oatmeal and/or grain mixture for hot breakfast the following morning. And the mornings, I load up the pot for dinner - rice, whole grains, barley, lentils, beans, and/or spices. When I walk into the house after work, the air is fragrant with cooking. The cooker can keep its contents warm and fairly fresh for a few hours after the timer goes off.
My favorite model is the Zojirushi NS-ZAC10 (5 cup capacity) though I'd get the larger model if I had a bigger family.
-- Douglas O'Heir
Zojirushi NS-ZAC10 5-cup Neuro Fuzzy Rice Cooker
$150
Available from
Comfort House
or
Amazon
[Zorjirushi also offers a 3-cup mini-model for single portions.]
Tube sealer
Nozzle caps, or nozzle socks, are great for tubes of caulking and glue bottles. They have a humorous look, but they do work better than the traditional nail or wooden plug. I've used them to store latex caulk, silicone caulk, and a marine adhesive called Sikaflex. For capping silicone caulk, Lee Valley suggests to leave a small gap at the tip, which fills with a little of the caulk to form a plug. This doesn't stick to the nozzle caps. So far they have kept everything fresh.
-- Kevin Hart
Nozzle condoms also go over anything else with precious fluids you like to keep wet: markers and color pens, for instance.
-- KK
Nozzle Caps
$5/35 caps
Available from
Amazon
Manufactured by
Little Red Cap
Hacking iron
I love this catalog. It takes DIY to a new level. Lindsay is the mother-lode for information about making your own stuff, including tools, from scratch. They publish recipes for melting metals in your backyard -- and then bootstraping the metal into a lathe which can make all other tools. Now that is cool! They've got it all covered: Amazing shop books from the past (metal hasn't changed much), and how-to-manuals from contemporary eccentrics who cobble together blast furnaces. They specialize in hacking metal. But why stop there? The same skills apply to hacking with chemicals, electricity, and home-made versions of big science equipment. In fact, if it is big, heavy or dangerous, Lindsay will tell you how to do it.
-- KK
Lindsay Publications
Free catalog
Sample books:
Building Small Cupola Furnaces
"A book on home metal casting and building your own foundry."
Now here's an excellent self-published book about melting iron in a cupola. It's a bit on the expensive side, but Marshall knows what he's talking about. And the book is worth every bit the price if you're serious about melting iron. It's one of the best I've seen. There are no photos, but lots of informative drawings, and most important, lots of operational detail. In other words, you get hints and tips that can only come from someone who has done it. If you want to melt iron, you must have this. Expensive, but it delivers. Get one! 8 1/2 x 11 wire spiral binding 100 pages
No. 1442 ... $25.00
Metal Lathe
Build a 7" capacity metal cutting lathe accurate to .001". 12" between centers. 5" swing over saddle. Uses castings produced by the charcoal foundry. Cost only about $50 (fifteen years ago). Some incredible lathes have been built as a result of this classic book. You can do it, too. Detailed, proven how-to. 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 softcover 128 pages
No. 177 ... $9.95
Build A Carbon Arc Torch
Put a large electrical current between a slightly separated pair of carbon electrodes and you get a 9000 F flame useful for melting metal, welding and brazing. Meador will show you how to build a carbon arc torch using wood, tubing and commonly available carbon electrodes. You really don't need much money or expertise to build an excellent working torch. You do need a source of high-amperage current such as an arc welder, or use the simple water resistor below. 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 booklet 30 pages
No. 1349 ... $6.95
Dirt cheap clamps
This little-known tool has a cult following. It transforms any old wire into the tightest clamp you can imagine. Unlike a hose clamp there is no limit to the diameter you can tie together. You can bundle bamboo into scaffolding, or twigs into fencing, make brooms from twigs, repair handles, and tie stuff down incredibly secure. Works great as temporary clamping for odd-sided things. Ranchers and farmers rely on cheap baling wire to band anything that doesn't want to move. Fishermen and sailors substitute stainless steel wire to make clamps for pumps and sumps. Also perfect for drip irrigation projects. I've found it takes a bit of skill to tie a clamp neatly, but it ends up far tighter than a hose clamp.
-- KK
ClamTite Clamp Maker
$24
Available from
Gempler's
Stainless steel versions (good for boaters)
$40-$70
Available from Clamptool
Clamptool.com
(This site also has the best step-by-step instructions on making the clamps.)
Numbers are so elemental that it seems inconceivable we could have lived without them, yet numbers are only an abstract idea that gradually dawned on humans. The evolution of numbers as they inhabited cultures, then faded, and erupted again, diversifying in hundreds of filigreed variations, is really a history of thinking itself. Beginning with numbers--even more than letters--we began living in our heads. Thousands of years later a restless man sets out to answer an almost childlike question: where did numbers come from? In his pursuit--becoming a world expert along the way--he uncovers this exponentially complex, infinitely fascinating, and forever enlightening history. This is the ultimate archive about the culture of numbers. No other source knows as much about numberhood.
-- KK
The Universal History of Numbers
From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer
Georges Ifrah
2000, 633 pages
$16
Amazon
Sample excerpt:
Most peoples throughout history failed to discover the rule of position, which was discovered in fact only four times in the history of the world. (The rule of position is the principle of a numbering system in which a 9, let's say, has a different magnitude depending on whether it comes in first, second, third... position in a numerical expression.) The first discovery of this essential tool of mathematics was made in Babylon in the second millennium BCE. It was then rediscovered by Chinese arithmeticians at around the start of the Common Era. In the third to fifth centuries CE, Mayan astronomers reinvented it, and in the fifth century CE it was rediscovered for the last time, in India.
*
Obviously, no civilization outside of these four ever felt the need to invent zero; but as soon as the rule of position became the basis for a numbering system, a zero was needed. All the same, only three of the four (the Babylonians, the Mayans, and the Indians) managed to develop this final abstraction of number; the Chinese only acquired it through Indian influences. However, the Babylonian and Mayan zeros were not conceived of as numbers, and only the Indian zero had roughly the same potential as the one we use nowadays. That is because it is indeed the Indian zero, transmitted to us through the Arabs together with the number-symbols that we call Arabic numerals and which are in reality Indian numerals, with their appearance altered somewhat by time, use and travel.
*
If you wanted to schematise the history of numbering systems, you could say that it fills the space between One and Zero, the two concepts which have become the symbols of modern technological society.
Nowadays we step with careless ease from Zero to One, so confident are we, thanks to computer scientists and our mathematical masters, that the Void always comes before the Unit. We never stop to think for a moment that in terms of time it is a huge step from the invention of the number "one", the first of all numbers even in the chronological sense, to the invention of the number "zero", the last major invention in the story of numbers. For in fact the whole history of humanity is spread out backwards between the time when it was realised that the void was "nothing" and the time when the sense of "oneness" first arose, as humans became aware of their individual solitude in the face of life and death, of the specificity of their species as distinct from other living beings, of the singularity of their selves as distinct from others, or of the difference of their sex as distinct from that of their partners.
Origin and evolution of the numeral 3.
*
Secret alphabet (still used in Turkey, Egypt, and Syria in the nineteenth century) compared with the Arabic, Palmyrenean, and Hebrew alphabets.
World's best world atlas
This is the best atlas of the world. Period. It is the most accurate, clearest, most-up-to-date, and most comprehensive atlas ever published. Unlike previous atlases, it locates and names those hundreds of thousands of towns where most of the people of the world live. Take any place you want in any other atlas you want--Afghanistan, Botswana, China--and compare that spot to the stunningly crisp and full maps here. You suddenly realize the other atlas is just waving their arms vaguely. Usually places outside of the US and Europe are reduced in size and left blank. Here, they prosper in splendid microscopic detail. In my travels I've found even large country-specific maps don't have the depth of reality of these pages. I now wince with pain if I have to use another atlas; browsing this one is bliss. It's got all the creeks of the Congo, all the roads of Russia, all the oases in the Gobi. And half this atlas is a divine index of 225,000 place names, with geographical coordinates in degrees and minutes. I'm in heaven! This is the fairest picture of human places on this planet yet.
-- KK
The Times Atlas of the World
1999 (10th Comprehensive Edition), 400 pages
$158
Available from Amazon
This is the part of the world that is normally left blank. Known as the Empty Quarter, it isn't empty here.
Best Wi-Fi hotspot finder
Canary's hot spot finder is the best of the several stand-alone Wi-Fi detectors that I've tried -- three of which I've gone so far as to purchase. The Canary uses AAA batteries, rather than the button cells that some detectors do (harder to replace in a pinch); consequently it's not quite as svelte as some, but the extra goodies are worth the chubbier, still-palmable housing. Canary's unit scrolls across its 12-character LCD display the name, channel and signal strength (4 bars is the highest) of the networks it finds, which makes it truly useful for checking where your own access point's signal reaches.
It also displays each network's encryption status. (Encryption isn't the only means of preventing access, though, so an "open" network may not be open to you if your MAC isn't on the "approved" list.) Bonus: Canary's is the most sensitive of the detectors I've tried; my older Kensington sometimes didn't want to light up unless it was nearly on top of an access point. I've used the Canary to find the best parking spot when working from Flying J truckstops around the country, which sure beats walking around with an open laptop playing "find the antenna."
-- Timothy Lord
Canary Wireless HS10 Digital Hotspotter Wireless Network Tester
$60
Available from
Amazon
Manufactured by
Canary Wireless
Outdoor tool supermarket
The most he-man cool tool catalog I've come across yet. Gemplers began by supplying the hardware needs of commercial farmers. It now also serves gentleman farmers and dude ranchers, and anyone else working outside -- like contractors, surveyors, landscapers and groundskeepers. The catalog is huge: 563 pages of outdoor gear and heavy-duty tools that real men covet. Many of these tools are specialized or little known. Not just another industrial supply catalog, it's the ultimate backyard wishbook. Their service is good.
-- KK
Gemplers
Catalog free with order
Gemplers
Their 2003 paper catalog is reproduced at
Google Catalogs
Crash course on budget European travel
I rely on Rick Steves' masterly command of travel minutia to guide me in Europe. The guy spends 3 months traveling there *every* year updating his advice in his expanding line of eponymous books. Rick has the drill down perfectly, and possess a real gift for teaching what he knows. Yet as great as his books are, the very best way to get educated in how to travel Europe with ease and grace is to watch his short course in Travel Skills on DVD or tape. He does great video: quick, dense, informative, easy. I am a hardened veteran traveller and I picked up some handy tips I didn't know. If you are just starting out to Europe, I can't recommend this enough.
-- KK
Rick Steves Travel Skills
Parts 1,2,3
$5 for VHS (limited supplies and price) from
Rick Steves Travel Store
$20 for DVD (included on the Germany, Swiss & Travel Skills DVD)
Rick Steves Travel Store
Previously available from Amazon
Bargain personal timekeeper
I recently conducted a survey asking readers what technologies they have relinquished. Much to my surprise, watches topped the list (replaced in most cases by the clock in a cell phone). Personally, my watch is my most used mobile equipment. Always on, featherweight, quick to read. Every couple of years I check out what's available for watches as tools and I come back to the model I have worn 24/7 for 20 years: a classic Swatch Original. I wear it in the shower, swimming, and while I sleep. It's what a watch should be: waterproof, nearly indestructible, accurate, and radically legible. Clear, black-on-white glow-in-the-dark numbers (no hour ticks) in an analog face. Day/date optional. And best of all, at $40 the Swatch is probably the cheapest rugged watch you can buy. Luxury watches perplex me: what are you getting extra? Sure, the plastic wristbands of the Swatch wear out and are cheaply replaced every five years, but you'll lose a Swatch before it crashes. There are other models for making a fashion statement; for a straightforward design worthy of Apple, look for the Original (or Classic) Gents or Ladies. It is still the best bargain going for a personal timekeeping tool.
-- KK
Swatch Original
$50
Available from Amazon
Manufactured by Swatch
Non-recharable battery recharger
Disposable alkaline batteries are not perceived by most people to be rechargeable, and that's how the manufacturers like it. Until digital pulse-technology chargers came out a few years ago, it was NOT an option for most people. Alkaline battery walls are very thin, and the heat generated by simple brute-force recharging frequently split them open with a bang.
There are new chip-controlled chargers which will safely and effectively recharge "disposable" alkaline batteries. I have a Buddy-L Super Charger, one of the first designed this way. Bought it about 7 years ago, and I still use it to recharge all my alkaline batteries. Saves me a BUNDLE!
The newest of the new chargers claim to be able to charge Ni-Cad, NiMH, AND Alkaline in the same unit. (Don't know if this means mixed types at the same time.)
-- Nestey
Battery Xtender
$40
Available from Battery Recharger
This is superb little light fits on your keychain, runs 100 - 150 hours on a commonly available watch type battery. It has the perfect indent to sit on your finger because it was designed to be a bicycle headlight sitting on the handlebar, where the elastic band reaches around and hooks on the little turtle legs. The kicker is that this light is only $3.50 CDN, and a red version is available for $3.00 CDN.
-- Gina Rheault
MEC Turtle Front White LED light
Product Number: 5006-705
$3.50 Canadian
Available from MEC
Ultimate (and open source) flight simulator
Everyone's heard of Microsoft Flight Simulator and other consumer flight simulators for PC's, but the real McCoy is X-Plane, an unbelievable simulator written (and re-written and re-written) by a manic flight (and gadget) crazy independent programmer named Austin Meyer.
While difficult to set up and learn, the experience of flying a 767 in X-Plane from San Francisco to JFK (with actual weather and way-true-to-life instrumentation) is almost an eery experience. X-Plane (unlike the other consumer toys) has even earned FAA approval towards the airline transport certificate. All you need is a PC and $50.
747 cockpit
Like many tools, X-Plane allows you to deeply immerse in a "place" where most people never get to go (especially these days): the cockpit. You can pilot virtually any aircraft you can imagine (including helicopters, zeppelins, and even Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne). I've heard of pilots spending a lot of time in an X-Plane cockpit (say a new all-glass Cirrus) before actually buying a plane (Austin owns a Cirrus).
For others (more like me) it just offers a potentially immersive glimpse into an area I find fascinating but may not be able to experience. MSFT/FS is fine for just playing around -- most newbies would actually find X-Plane boring compared to MSFT/FS. But taking an evening -- with spouse and kids gone -- and working through a successful (and extremely realistic), sunset round trip from SFO to the little un-manned airstrip in Half-Moon Bay in a Cirrus - using all the instruments including the GPS -- makes this sim a unique thing.
X-Plane is a lot closer to "open source" than the consumer-friendly sims like MSFT/FS. As such, lots of people actively contribute to the world of X-Plane in terms of new (unbelievably accurate) planes, scenery, even tower and ground crew radio chatter. Here's a sample of the detail in one update: "New engine failure type option: engine fire. If you specify an engine fire, then the engine smokes as it fails...regular engine failure does not leave a trail of smoke though. Pilot system failure resulting in airspeed indication error. Engine SIEZURE, and engine INDICATION failures. Low battery failure, resulting in an inability to get up to starting N1. Transponder can fail." Or, on a more positive note: "Real-Weather now checks the entire planet, not just USA!" There are weird third-party websites for pre-flight checklists, obscure throttle controls (that strap to your desk), PDF scans of antiquated aircraft manuals, logbooks, menus... So the "world" of X-Plane (Google X-Plane) changes more frequently than other packages.
-- Tim Smith
X-Plane
Mac, Windows, or Linux
$50
(Version 8.6)
Available from X-Plane
Or $32 (Version 8.0) from Amazon
See open source and freeware add ons, X-Plane Freeware
Odor-free thermal undergarments
Many varieties of synthetic underwear claim to shed perspiration, breathe easily, and provide great comfort. I disagree.
On a recent winter backcountry skiing trip, I finally swore off wearing synthetic underwear due to the horrific body odor generated. I don't care what the manufacturers say in denial (I have sampled nearly every brand and variety from Patagonia to REI to North Face) -- they all smell. All of my skiing companions notice the same with their clothing, so it's not a personal quirk.
In their place, I have been very pleased to substitute underwear made both by Smartwool and Ibex. The difference in comfort is palpable - wool simply doesn't hold an odor, and they breathe and dry about the same as the best synthetics. I find wool also feels less clammy when soaked with perspiration. The only downside is a slightly increased cost, but you can cover that by buying only one or two shirts and washing them easily by hand on an extended trip. While I do use wool for underwear and longjohns (although synthetics aren't too bad for them), you'll see a dramatic difference in using a wool longjohn shirt because of the decrease in pit odor.
I've extended my woolen wear to T-shirts worn under sweaters during urban travel in the winter and find them entirely comfortable and easily washable on the road.
Highly recommended.
-- Douglas O'Heir
Ibex Wool Briefs
$28
Available from Amazon
Manufactured by Ibex
Smartwool Underwear
Available from, among others, Campmor
Manufactured by Smartwool
Closeup SFX
It sounds so trivial, but a simple piece of gray-colored foamcore, purchased at a local craft store, is a godsend for digital photography. The board's flat surface serves as a perfectly uniform, non-glare background for shooting gizmos and stuff. Stuff, as in stuff you want put up for auction on eBay, stuff to illustrate articles, stuff for your blog. The stiff gray card -- 20 by 30 inches -- produces no highlights, even in full sunlight. The objects appear to float in limbo (or all white). Moving and removing objects from the image using Photoshop is a cinch.
-- Stefan E. Jones
A foam gray card is one of the cheapest useful photo accessories you can get. I use mine all the time. There are plenty of ways to enhance close-up shots, but none simpler or cheaper. If you want to get fancy in your clipping, you can try some green card, as in greenscreen.
-- KK
Foam Board, Graystone
20" x 30"
$9.74 (2 pieces)
Available from Office Depot
Also in quantities of 10 for $71 from Amazon
Backpacking bootcamp
Spot-on cartoons make this crash course in backpacking incredibly effective. No matter how much you think you know about trail living, you probably can't teach it as well as these guys do. The humor is geeky, the advice is excellent, the presentation unforgettable. It is simply the best introduction to the art of living off your back. This is the book you want to hand to the friend, sibling, significant other who has never been backpacking, but is ready to try. If it doesn't click with them, they probably shouldn't be on the trail with you. [Recommended by Ari Bader-Natal]
-- KK
Allen & Mike's Really Cool Backpackin' Book: Traveling & Camping Skills for a Wilderness Environment
Allen O'Bannon & Mike Clelland
2001, 161 pages
$10
Available from
Amazon
Optimizing your Windows OS
I really did not like MS Windows before reading this book. I prefer a UNIX-based OS, and I could care less for the Windows OS, but this book explains how to tweak everything. Not only the looks of Windows (the boot screen, the logon screen, your icons, the start button, etc.), but also performance modifications that can decrease the boot time and overall performance of your OS. It also gives tips on how to secure the system from spyware programs, viruses, etc. Most of these tips can be implemented for free (even the anti-virus software)! The book is well-written and easy to follow; I highly recommend it.
-- Ken Chien
Hacking Windows XP
Steve Sinchak
2004, 384 pages
$16
Available from Amazon
Toy roomba
Robomaid is a low tech, very cheap version of Roomba cleaner. It doesn't clean rugs, but has done a great job on our wood, tile, and stone floors. The design is wonderful in its elegance: a powered ball propelling a sweeping "hat". Like Roomba it cleans along walls, under tables and desks, and in corners where it would be difficult to clean otherwise. It uses no intelligence, so it randomly changes direction, but is surprisingly thorough. Especially since I don't care how long it takes.
It has some lovable quirks: you need to block it from going down stairs (going down the stairs has not damaged it, but I worry). It does not find its way back to its recharger when done, so you need to locate it after it has cleaned. The electrostatic cleaning pads need replacing after 5-10 cleanings, and cost 30-40 cents each, so the cost per cleaning is 3 to 8 cents.
I got it for Christmas from friends who thought our pets would enjoy it. I had low expectations. Our pets ignored it after the first time, but it cleaned so well it has become a fixture around our house.
-- James Tierney
Robomaid
$8
Available from Amazon
Best source for gardening tech
Organic gardeners, both backyard and commercial, know this mail-order outfit as the premier source for organic farming supplies. They've got everything: Natural pest controls, insect traps, cover crop seeds in bulk, sticky tape in all varieties. I mean where else can you buy a gallon of milky spore disease (for Japanese beetles), or white fly parasites in quantities of a thousand, or red worm *eggs*, with a side order of bat guano? Not only do they carry mulching film in standard black, but they also have it in innovative silver, green or red colors as well -- each spectrum producing different effects for different plants.
But this catalog is also useful in other ways. Non-gardeners and green householders will find hard-to-find products such as poison-free cockroach traps which use cockroach pheromones.
Best of all, Peaceful Valley collects the best gear for growers of any type. Here is your source for plastic deer fencing, the world's best walk-behind Italian tillers, superlative hand tools, the best selection of drip irrigation supplies, and -- my favorite -- reusable foam seedling trays. You'll find this source absolutely essential if you grow anything.
This catalog is a throwback to the mail order catalogs of old. 1) They tend to only sell the best stuff, not just the best-selling or most profitable , and 2) they still print it on paper. You can spend several evenings reading it with great profit. You get a short course in state of the art practices for small time farmer and serious gardening.
They have a pretty good website, too (but not as informative as the paper catalog). And they are easy to work with.
-- KK
Speedling Tray 128 Cells (1-1/2" sq x 2-1/2" deep), $6
BCS - Harvester 722 Tiller, $2400
Peaceful Valley Farm and Garden Supply Catalog
Instant whiteboards
Polysheet instant whiteboards are thick, static-laden sheets of plastic, like ultra-heavy garbage bags. Just unroll one, slap it on the wall, and instant whiteboard! Best of all, in the corporate world, at the end of the meeting, you can roll them up, take them back to your desk, and process them. After capturing the contents in your computer, wipe them off for next time!
-- S.A.
These cling to walls, to each other and most dry surfaces by static electricity. They come in very handy since you can pretty much place them anywhere you want. Put many of them against the wall and you have an instant whiteboard of any size. Dry erase markers wipe off fairly easily. Their 27 x 34 inch pad fits standard flip chart easels or conference cabinets. Rolls up for travel and storage. Perforated sheets tear off cleanly.
-- Philip Papadopoulos
[For more ways to do whiteboards, see the previously reviewed Marker Board Walls and Quartet Easel. KK]
Write-on Poly Static Cling Sheets
$28
(35 sheets)
Available from Amazon
Or $33 from Instawares
Insta Wares
Bargain pocket knife
I've gotten more recommendations for a particular pocket knife than any other tool. Knives are the original tool; everyone has one, and after 10,000 years there's endless variety. They are intensely personal, too. I've seen and tried many of the suggested knives I've received, and I've published a few of the more well-proven ones.
So, after many trials, here is the one I actually carry: it's a dollar plastic box cutter. There is no knife lighter weight, none cheaper, few as sharp, and not very many as quick. I can open it one handed in less than a second from the moment I reach for it. It is as fast as a sheath knife. Keeping its edge a razor is as easy as nicking off the tip. This plastic snap blade is as thin as a pen and so light that I carry in my pants pocket without even knowing it is there; no special holster needed, and it won't wear the pocket out. It's cheap enough that I hide one in all the clothes I ordinarily wear. I'm not afraid to lose it, and yes, I keep it away from airports.
The cheaper the version of the box cutter the better. You don't want rugged metal ones, like those offered by respectable tool companies; they are bigger, heavier, costlier and no better. What you want is a cheap all-plastic made-in-China throw-away that should cost about a buck. Mine are day-glo orange for easy retrieval if I lay one down.
Other than it being butt-ugly I can't think of why I would want one fancier. I use this one at least 5 times a day, and its quick handiness gives me pleasure each time.
-- KK
Plastic Snap Blade Knife
$1.28
Available from Internet Trains
Also available from Amazon
What painters use
The one thing that I hate most about painting is the taping. We all know that if you don't tape, then it will not look as good. So, I'm always looking for an easier way to tape. This little device holds a roll of tape and has rollers to ensure adhesion of the tape to the surface. This is the first device that I've ever used that would work on baseboards, my personal nemesis in painting. I picked mine up at Home Depot and was able to tape an entire room is less than half the time of doing it without a dispenser.
-- Michael McDonald
3M Paper Tape Dispenser
Model M-1000
Internet/Catalog # 105065
Store SKU# 4590
$18
Available from Amazon
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