May 2005 Archive
Pencil input
I don't use pen and ink anymore. I use a Wacom tablet and stylus to draw directly into Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. It's really the only way to draw with computers. I met a cartoonist who was drawing using a mouse; I have no idea how he did it. He was like a mountain man. I use the smallest of Wacom's Intuos tablets (about 4 x 5 inches) to plug into my laptop so I can lean it against the tray tables on airplanes.
-- Scott McCloud
Intuos3 4x5 Tablet
$219
Available from Wacom
or $209 from Amazon
Picture of everything
The first modern map of the known universe. Spacey. Trippy. An ingenious design locates our habitat in the very grand order of things.
-- KK
Universe Reference Map
2000, 20 x 31 inches
$11
Available from National Geographic Map Store
Or $20 from Amazon
About a dozen readers wrote in with suggestions for an accurate body
scale, one that would give you a consistent reading within less than
a pound, even if you say, stepped off the scale and back on again.
Four people recommended the Tanita digital scales as providing
repeatable readings to within 1/5 of a pound. The Tanita UM-015 was
selling at Costco for $25, which is a good deal. Three people
recommended the Soehnle line from Germany. (Thanks to Blake
Sobiloff, Bill, Ger, Dan Dubnov, John Biddle, Myles Kelvin, Peter
van Impelen, Phil Mann.) But before you head to the store, read this
note:
"I've got a low-end digital scale and in an attempt to fake quality,
the manufacturer has built in artificial repeatability. If a
subsequent weighing is within about 2 lbs. of the preceding weighing
then the previously reported weight is re-displayed -- regardless of
how much time has passed. So a person loosing a steady .1 lbs a week
will show the same weight for 14 days and then suddenly loose two
pounds. I find that in order to get an accurate re-measure I have to
step on the scale holding a weight between each actual measurement.
Just a word of warning about using repeatability as an indicator of
quality." -- Ryan Brase
With that warning in mind the scale below may be a best choice. Also,
a scale for very large folks.
-- KK
A physicians' balance beam scale is consistently accurate. We've had
one now for at least 25 years; its accuracy has remained constant
through many moves, changes in humidity, and so forth. Measurement is
in 1/4 pounds, which is good enough. There is a readjustment knob if
you think there is an error when changing the scale's placement. If
only my weight and height had remained so constant....
-- Martha Robinson
If you want consistency and accuracy in a body scale, I strongly
suggest an old-fashioned balance beam scale. Even a cheap one
(<$200) will do a better job than most expensive electronic scales.
Also, they are kind of fun to use, they have an eye level display,
and the batteries never run out.
-- Danny Hillis
Detecto Eye-Level Beam Scale
$200
(Fedex shipping $20)
Available from
NorthShore Care
***********
I'm a big dude so most scales don't even cover my weight.
Consequently I had to think different to get a decent scale. I found
this digital postage scale. It reads up to 400lbs in half pound
increments, has a remote, mountable readout auto tare (useful when
weighing the dog). It isn't particularly pretty but being in the top
percentile in weight and height has certain drawbacks and requires
special tools.
-- Bryan Covington
400-pound Digital Freight Scale
$145
Available from
Amazon
Simplest baby carrier
Like most Americans, I hauled my firstborn around in his
carseat/infant carrier. Never again. For my second child, I
researched slings extensively, and bought a New Native. It's simpler
than any other sling, including the Maya sling Cool Tools reviewed.
New Native is just one piece of fabric, hemmed and stitched into a
big pocket. That means no adjustment rings or buckles to come loose
or fiddle with. Accordingly, it's sized. I wear a medium. My
husband, who is much bigger than I am, wears my (medium) sling as
well -- there are three sizes, small, medium, and large, and the
medium fits a pretty wide range of people.
I've slung my second baby since day one. She has taken countless
naps in it. The sleek, professional look of the New Native means
that a lot of people take it for fashion. While my daughter was
small, they didn't even know I had a baby on. I wore it to the
office and even taught class with it.
At nine months I can count on one hand the number of times my
daughter has ridden in a stroller. Everywhere I go people who see it
wish they had known about it when they were carrying babies, and ask
me where I got my sling: New Native.
-- Donna Bowman
New Native Baby Sling
$40
Available from Amazon
Manufactured by New Native Baby
A better staple gun
One of the joys of producing Cool Tools is the delightful moment a
reader turns me on to a better tool than the one I just reviewed. I
got a note (below) letting me know that the good old standby Staple
Gun which I ran last week has a superior improvement: the forward
action stapler. You increase impact by squeezing toward the point of
contact (on the left side in the illustration here.) I immediately
got one and was hooked. It's ergonomically ingenious, more effective,
and no more expensive than the standard type. Takes the usual T-50
staples. It is so much better that I will retire that early review.
This good "new" standby is the one that belongs in the most basic
toolbox.
-- KK
There's no doubt that a staple gun is, well, a staple. And far be it
for me to knock the old school tools - age, or more properly staying
power, seems to correlate very highly with usefulness when it comes
to tools, but I have to say I think there are better staple guns.
The problem with the classic design is that the stiff spring requires
you to place the bulk of your squeeze pressure as far up the handle
as possible - that is, away from the staple-point. This has the
unfortunate tendency of causing the staple point to lift in a sort of
pre-recoil when the trigger engages, leaving you with staples that
are not-quite-in. Experienced users learn to counterbalance and apply
extra pressure to the front -- also to anticipate the recoil -- but
these adaptations speak to a need for revision.
The newer school of staple guns have very sensibly reversed this
arrangement. The handle now inclines towards the front, with the
trigger mechanism at the rear. Now the strain of battling the spring
causes you to bear down directly on the staple point. You can get
both consumer and contractor-grade "forward action" staplers.
-- Johnathan Nightingale
Powershot Pro Stapler
Model 800KB
$30
Available from Amazon
EasyShot Light Duty
$9
Available from Amazon
Also $12 from Ace Hardware
Manufactured by
PowerShot
Food answers
This is the smartest book in my kitchen. It's where I go whenever I
have a question about what I am eating, or the science behind its
preparation. Simply the best source for understanding food and how it
works. Now in its updated second edition. Covers ingredients from all
over the world and time. Awesome, encyclopedic.
-- KK
On Food and Cooking
The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
Harold McGee
2004, 884 pages
$26
Available from
Amazon
Sample Excerpts:
Aromas from Altered Carotenoid Pigments.
Both drying and cooking break some of the pigment molecules in
carotenoid-rich fruits and vegetables into small, volatile fragments
that contribute to their characteristic aromas. These fragments
provide notes reminiscent of black tea, hay, honey, and violets.
*
Green Chlorphyll.
One change in the color of green vegetables as they are cooked has
nothing to do with the pigment itself. That wonderfully intense,
bright green that develops within a few seconds of throwing
vegetables into boiling water is a result of the sudden expansion and
escape of gases trapped in the spaces between cells. Ordinarily,
these microscopic air pockets cloud the color of the chloroplasts.
When they collapse, we can see the pigments much more directly.
*
Soba: Japanese Buckwheat Noodles.
Buckwheat noodles were made in northern China in the 14th century,
and had become a popular food in Japan by around 1600. It's difficult
to make noodles exclusively with buckwheat flour because the
buckwheat proteins do not form a cohesive gluten. Japanese soba
noodles may be from 10%-90% buckwheat, the remainder wheat. They're
traditionally made from freshly milled flour, which is mixed very
quickly with the water and worked until the water is evenly absorbed
and the dough firm and smooth. Salt is omitted because it interferes
with the proteins and mucilage that help bind the dough (p. 483). The
dough is rested, then rolled out to about 3 mm thick and rested
again, then cut into fine noodles. The noodles are cooked fresh, and
when done, are washed and firmed in a container of ice water,
drained, and served either in a hot broth or cold, accompanied by a
dipping sauce.
*
Maple Sugaring Without Metal or Fire.
In 1755, a young colonist was captured and "adopted" by a small group
of natives in the region that is now Ohio. In 1799 he published his
story in An Account of the Remarkable Occurrences in the Life and
Travels of Col. James Smith, which includes several descriptions of how the Indians made maple sugar. Here's the most ingenious method.
"We had no large kettles with us this year, and the squaws made the
frost, in some measure, supply the place of fire, in making sugar.
Their large bark vessels, for holding the stock-water, they made
broad and shallow; and as the weather is very cold here, it
frequently freezes at night in sugar time; and the ice they break and
cast out of the vessels. I asked them if they were not throwing away
the sugar? they said no; it was water they were casting away, sugar
did not freeze and there was scarcely any in that ice...I observed
that after several times freezing, the water that remained in the
vessel, changed its color and became brown and very sweet."
No pesticide weed killing
Are you kidding? A 500,000 BTU heat source to kill weeds? The Red Dragon is not really intended for garden weeding. Because we have a no-pesticide agreement, I use the torch to control weeds on our 600 ft long gravel driveway in the North Georgia mountains. In addition, it would be useful if you just wanted to light something on fire: burning off fields, starting piles of damp wood, etc.
There are cheaper smaller ones (only 100,00 BTUs) also made by Flame Engineering, but I sure like the one I have. Do you really need those extra 400,000 BTUs? A friend of mine has a smaller one that takes *forever* to show an effect. With mine, you can just wave it across a weed and it discolors almost instantly (usually enough to kill it). However, that's not much fun. A few more seconds of flame will incinerate the weed completely. Yeah, the extra heat makes a huge difference. When lit, the torch produces a 2 foot long, 5 inch wide column of blue flame that sounds like a (quiet) jet engine. That said, the flame doesn't spread much, so it's fairly easy to control. Every pyro needs one.
-- Greg Baumann
Red Dragon Torch Kit
$60
Available from
Ace Hardware Outlet
Also from Also from Amazon
Manufactured by
Flame Enginerring
Flexible epoxy
This is as close to "bomb-proof" as I have found a glue to be. It seems to stick to just about anything, although 3M says it's for metals and plastics. I have used it for gluing D-rings - and other things - into my whitewater canoes. The rings have been able to hold me boiling through big rapids, often upside-down. For this application the glue joint needs to be flexible and waterproof...and this stuff hasn't ever failed me. How it is different from epoxy: Fills gaps. Flexes under stress without giving away. Sticks to smooth plastics like PVC or vinyl. Seems a LOT stronger than epoxies. You'll have to find this in a specialty store or order it over the web.
-- Fen Sartorius
3M Scotch-Weld 3532 B/A Urethane Adhesive
$17/ 2 0z. tube kit (6 per case)
Available from
Hillas Packaging
Other music
Fill your iPod with something different. I don't mean more indie rock or the latest in hip-hop or electronica. I mean Norwegian jazz, Zaire club house, slide guitar from India, Russian underground, Ethiopian acid pop.
An awful lot of great world music can be easily had from the usual sources, including Amazon and iTunes, but most of the rest of the world's local music has very small audiences and must still be "imported." This source specializes in esoteric import CDs of traditional and contemporary world music not found on Amazon, iTunes and the like. This is the far end of the "long tail" music scene.
-- KK
CD Roots
Sample CDs:
Marimba Magia - Papa Roncon and Grupo Katanga - $17.99
From the town of Borbon, in the Esmeraldas district of northern Ecuador, Pap� Ronc�n is a living legend. He plays the marimba and the guitar; he is a singer and a dancer. He makes musical instruments. He lives the folk music of the region. Joined by Catalina Mina Quintero on bombo and kununu, Grupo Katanga makes music that is essential, rough and irresistible.
Discopolis (Radio Three) - Various Spanish Artists - $17.99
An interesting and personal collection of what is going on in the ever so vaguely defined roots music scene in Spain, put together by Spanish Radio 3's DJ Jos� Miguel L�pez.
The Mirrors of My Soul - Rim Banna - $18.99
The Palestinian singer who gained global recognition as part of the Lullabies from the Axis of Evil project returns with a Norwegian band with a decidedly 'pop' recording of Palestinian songs. It veers from emotionally charged, sparsely arranged to full-tilt pop-rock, and has the huge advantage of not allowing a drum machine within 4000 miles of the studio. As Arab pop goes, this is thoroughly unique.
Heavy duty band maker
The Straptite appears to be the exact same tool formerly known as the Bandit, a tool I've used forever. This thing works very well indeed; it makes extremely heavy-duty straps. It has long been considered essential emergency equipment by blue water sailors -- for splinting broken spars on long voyages. The device is used to clamp traffic signals to their poles, as well as in more mundane hose clamping duties, for instance to repair the hydraulic hoses on farm machinery. I have used mine as a huge clamp to secure perimeter details of domes, and it has been particularly useful reinforcing wiggly deck railings. Stainless steel strap is ideal and most common (and expensive) but permanent. Of course it can be used with blue-black steel strapping to bundle lumber, pipes, crates etc. (The Poly strapping used in shipping uses a different tool). This tool is not particularly cheap, but it sure does work well; mine is showing little wear after 35 years. Cackle, wheeze.
-- J. Bladwin
Straptite
$105
Available from
Straptite
Instant personal logos
Get yer logos here. Only 25 bucks! Quick, dirt-cheap custom logos for your blog, website, garage band, or start-up. You give 'em as much guidance and background as you can jot down, and this outfit will send you one --and only one -- finished design a few days later for 25 dollars. It's a take or leave it job, so inspect their galleries of previous jobs to set your expectations. You can get revisions for $10 more, or purchase more premium packages for fancier "branding" needs. For this price, I figure I can't lose to much if it fails, but it's cheap and cool if they get it right.
I bought my first $25 logo for my True Films website. Its style (identical to Cool Tools) is pretty minimal, an approach which is actually hard to design for. Here is the logo they sent me via email a a few days later.
I paid $10 for a revision, requesting even more simplicity, and a few hours later they provided this:
So that is what I used.
I got my second $25 GotLogo for my Street Use blog about the street use of technology. I gave them a few guideline: keep it black and red; make it like graffiti. I was happy what they came up with so I used it.
It's a great service for the Brand of You.
-- KK
GotLogos
$25
Available from GotLogos
Super-brightest flashlights
By far the brightest pocketable flashlights these days are powered by a pair of 3-volt lithium batteries (the kind used in cameras -- 123A). Smaller than your hand they throw out four times more light than huge D-cell monsters. Lithium beacons were pioneered by the law enforcement and military supplier Surefire. They are issued in delux $200 plus anodized versions.
Now catering to the rest of us, SureFire puts the same innards into this cheap(er) indestructible plastic version -- the G2 Nitrolon for $34. Like the other SureFires, its xenon bulb is so blindingly bright that it's hot to the touch after a few minutes. It WILL temporarily blind someone closeup in the dark. These torches are the opposite of nifty LED lights which supply a cool light that keeps going forever. Instead these bright xenon lights exhale the sun while inhaling lithium batteries at shocking rate; a pair of lithiums will last only one hour uninterrupted.
Keeping this spotlight going in constant use means finding a bulk source of lithiums. SureFire sells a dozen generic lithium batteries for $15, a marked bargain compared to drugstore prices ($4/each).
You can dial up the intensity of the G2 even further by substituting a more intense bulb (P61); that doubles the lumens to quasar level of 120 lumens, but it reduces the run time for the batteries to only 20 minutes! You can also get a SureFire model that takes 3 lithium batteries for yet more photons, but this longer stick edges away from being pocketable.
You want cool and long, go with an LED. You want super bright, go with the G2.
There is one exception, a hybrid, if you are willing to pay for it. SureFire now offers the ultimate light: a lithium-powered chip-controlled LED light. Very bright, very long-lived (40 hours per pair of batteries) and extremely expensive; see below.
For my more occasional use, the G2 is more than adequate.
-- KK
For the price, I don't think you can get a better flashlight than the SureFire G2 Nitrolon. I once guided the Canadian Coast Guard into our disabled boat with this light. They couldn't believe how far away they saw the beam. The lithium batteries will last years just sitting there (I have one in the brief case and one in the night stand). SureFire's entire product line is tops, if a little law enforcement/military heavy. But hey, if the guys who go into harm's way bet their lives on it, I got no problem throwing it into my backpack.
-- Jimmy Hill
SureFire G2 Nitrolon
$34
Available from
SureFire
*
SureFire's U2 Digital Ultra
SureFire's latest tactical flashlight, the U2 Digital Ultra, packs a blinding 80 lumens from the 5-watt LED. Unique circuitry and a selector ring allow the user to dial between six different levels of bright white light. Carved from aerospace-grade aluminum and anodized matte black, the U2 Digital Ultra is the ultimate flashlight, with a suggested retail price of $270. One LED diode outlasts dozens of tungsten or xenon bulbs; efficiently producing more light and less heat; insuring this next generation of flashlights will last longer when you need them.
--Dan Dubno
SureFire U2 Ultra
$270
Available from
Surfire
Box of 12 SureFire 123A Lithium Batteries
$15
Available from
Surefire
Essential road maps
The vastness of Africa is vastly rural. Driving a car or van is the best way to get around. But African road maps are as scarce and inadequate as the mostly unpaved roads themselves. This heavy, oversized, and humungous 336-page atlas (definitely not backpackable) contains the best -- and sometimes only -- road maps for the entire continent.
Crafted by the cartographic gnomes at National Geographic, this set of maps is meant to be more of an adventure guide. It succeeds as both. These maps indicate the exact information you need while on the road: known ferry crossings, known border posts, known park entrances, local airfields, ruins, mileage markers, as well as the major African towns and national parks interiors. I can't think of any other maps anywhere else in the developing world that provide this kind of vital information ahead of time. And to top it off, this full-color atlas concludes with 80 good itineraries (with maps!) for creative explorations on the continent. It's a remarkable achievement; I wish there was one for Asia and South America as well. [Recommended by Stephen Balbach]
-- KK
African Adventure Atlas
National Geographic
2003, 336 pages
$50
Available from
Amazon
Sample page:
Hole maker
This lovely tool can punch through multiple layers of paper, mat board, etc. It is great for making eyelet holes in fabric as well as leather. Used by book makers and mixed media artists. It is amazing in its ease and is very durable! Earns Extra Foofy Points to be able to say you have a "Japanese Screw Punch."
-- Jane Wynn
The advantage of this tool (sometimes called a Paper Drill) is that unlike your usual plier-like paper punch, this one is not constrained by where you want a hole. You can drill a hole anywhere on any size sheet -- not just the edges -- by bearing down on the handle. To compensate for the lack of leverage you do get in a plier-like punch, the shaft of this screw punch rotates as you press, neatly slicing a trim hole. It will go through 15 pages of paper at once; thicker materials will require multiple passes. It comes with five bits, but the largest one will be smaller than the typical paper punch hole, so I've found more careful alignment is required.
-- KK
Screw Punch with one 3mm bit
$33
Available from
Mister Art
Screw Punch with 5 bits
$40
Available from Paper Source
Paper Source
Ten-dollar AI
The other day Will Wright, the genius behind Sim City and the Sims, handed me this tennis ball-size orb and said, "It knows what you are thinking." Most of the time it will guess what you have in mind after asking you twenty yes/no questions. It is eerily smart, and slightly addictive. I see it as an educational toy.
Burned into its 8-bit chip is a neural net that has been learning for 17 years. Inventor Robin Burgener programmed a simple neural net on a DOS machine 1988. He taught it 20 questions about a cat. He than passed the program around to friends on a floppy and had them challenge the neural net with their yes/no answers to the object they had in mind. The neural net learns only when it plays a game; no data is added except for the yes/no answers of visitors. So the more people who test it, the more they teach it. In 1995 Burgener put the now robust neural net onto the new web where anyone could play it (that is, train it) 24 hours a day. And they did. Burgener's genius was to turn the hard tedious work of training a neural net into a fun game for humans.
Last year, after 1 million rounds of 20 questions online, the neural net had accumulated 10 million synaptic associations. It has a 73% success rate of guessing what you thought. Burgener then compressed the 20Q code to run on a chip, and had the neural net select 2,000 of the most popular 10,000 objects it then knew about. He then had the neural net select out the most useful 250,000 synaptic connections related to those 2,000 objects, and hard wired that learning into the chip in the orb. In other words, this sphere is a handheld version of Burgener's Twenty Questions web site. (Because it knows about fewer objects than the web version, it gets confused less often, so its success rate is ironically higher.)
The toy is remarkable. Because it is so small, so autonomous, its intelligence is shocking to the unprepared. Most children can't stump it, and if you stick to objects it will stump smart adults about 80% of the time with 20 questions and most of the time with an additional 5 questions. I love to watch people's reactions when they think of a "hard" thing, and after a seemingly irrational set of questions you are convinced are dumb, the sly ball tells you what you had in mind. (For instance, it can correctly guess "flying squirrel"without asking "does it fly?") People who play chess machines won't be surprised, but just about everyone else is tickled. It feels like the future.
While the 20Q orb doesn't learn, the web neural net continues to learn and grow. It has now played 16 million games of 20 questions, and is racking up 2 million additional games every month. I asked Robin Burgener if it was still getting smarter. "It is learning, but it is not increasing its success rate. What happens is that it is learning to play more kinds of people, people who don't speak English easily, or who have never played 20 questions, or who come from different cultures, and to understand more difficult kinds of things." Has he given this intelligence a name? "No, but it sure does have a personality. Some days it does well, and some days, it's just off." Right now, 20Q is being ported over to Apple servers to keep up with the traffic, and it is being trained in new languages: French, Spanish, Chinese, Italian to start with (it will become separate neural nets for each language). In the future, there may be medical versions of 20 questions to help emergency triage, or other expert uses.
But right now, for ten bucks, you can get an amazing little artificial intelligence, about as smart as an insect -- but an insect which specializes in guessing what object you are thinking of. And in that part of the brain, it's smarter than you are.
-- KK
Radica 20Q
$10 at retail discounters
$14 from
Amazon
Manufactured by Radica Games
Human powered high torque
This hand tool is used to unscrew bolts that may have become rusted into place. One end has a 3/8th inch socket stub over which you fit with the appropriate socket head. You place this over the bolt and then use a hammer/mallet to hit the other end of the cylindrical tool while applying a slight twisting force on the the body of the impact wrench. The perpendicular motion of the hammer is translated (via a system of springs and prawls) into a sudden twisting motion at the head of the troublesome bolt. Since static friction decreases so much when the force is applied over a very short duration ---like the time it takes a hammer to smack the end of the impact wrench -- bolts that would otherwise require so much force that they might snap off can be easily removed. Very cool tool. Other tool makers make things very similar, but in my experience, the Snap-on version works best.
-- Gabriel Pilar
Snap-On Impact Driver
$50
Available from
Snap -On
This hand-held Impact Driver is not to be confused with the hundreds of pneumatic and power Impact Drivers which have largely replaced it. For occasional use, this little guy will do -- although it takes some skill to keep it on the bolt when you hammer it. I've used the Craftman's brand, which is half the cost of the Snap-On.
-- KK
Craftsman Impact Driver
Sears item #00947641000
$25
Available from
Sears
I released a small number of this self-published book on Amazon, but they are now sold out. Because of the demand for the book, I've now made an inexpensive PDF version available.
What it is: "True Films" contains the best 100 documentaries I've reviewed here as of December, 2004. I winnowed some from the larger list, and came up with an alphabetical collection of 100 documentaries I feel are worth your time. Most people will enjoy the majority included. There's been one private film club launched around this list.
What you get for your $3: a downloadable PDF file of a color version of the book (which was printed in B&W).
Enjoy, and let me know what great documentaries or factuals I've missed.
-- KK
True Films 1.1 -- PDF version
2004, 52 pages, 15 MB
$3
Available via PayPal
Digital goods storefront
I've been using Payloadz to sell digital PDF files for a while now. It's a great way for me to charge a few dollars for a digital document. Users pay me with Paypal, then they get a url good for 48 hours, and from there they can download the files. It's done automatically. In my case I'm selling hyperlinked PDF versions of my books for $3.50. The alternative to Payloadz is to send a file out by hand for each purchase, which would be insane.
It's not hard for the unscrupulous to cheat a bit (very few do) yet Payloadz removes the temptation of completely unregulated free downloads. I experienced a burp or two setting up the files the first time, but since then the system is pretty invisible. Customers download the books anytime, and the money flows into my Paypal account. I do nothing. Yet when all is accounted for my total profit from a digital file is equal to the total profit from selling the equivalent paper book -- with about 1/100th the trouble.
Payloadz can be used to deliver any digital good -- software, ebooks, movies, ringtones, or CDs worth of material. Biggest downside is their monthly fee ($15 minimum), in addition to the usual modest Paypal charge per transaction. You'll need some brisk traffic to keep it going. Payloadz has a completely free version, but since your files are unprotected in that version (not on the paid) I don't see any advantage to it.
I'd be crazy to call for the end of paper publishing (been there, done that wrong) but I have no hesitation in heralding the dawn of digital publishing. I think digital downloads FOR PAY will be a viable part of the gift economy. So far Payloadz has been an essential tool in exploring this new publishing model. I recommend the service to anyone selling intangibles.
-- KK
My PDF books available via Payloadz
Cool Tools
True Films
Flat prevention and repair
Yes, this little thing really will fix your flat. Even huge pick-up and SUV tires. No need to jack up. Just press the nozzle -- whizzzz -- and it repairs and re-inflates your tire. You definitely should carry one in your car or truck. At $5 it is cheaper than getting your tire repaired at a shop.
But that's not the best thing it offers. This amazing can of stuff will also PREVENT flats and slow leaks. Fix-A-Flat inserts a complex liquid into your tire. Leaking air instantly polymerizes it to plug up any hole. This magic material is similar to the stuff which keeps bicycle tires intact -- see the amazing video in this review. Although I have not used the industrial version of this invention, farmers and the army use a similar compound to keep their gigantic tires going.
This consumer version works great as a flat cure. I need to pump up my treated tires far less often, even the tires with chronic leaks in them, and have had no flats on well-worn tires.
For non-emergency prevention you can buy the sealant in a non-aerosol squeeze bottle, but I found this hard to find in stores. They make a bicycle version which I have not tried yet; if you have, let me know.
-- KK
Fix-A-Flat
$5 /16 oz.
Available from most hardware stores and
Amazon
Fix-A-Flat Tire Sealant and Preventative
$4.50 / 20 oz.
Available from
Amazon
 
Shown here is bullet proofing for jeeps; the liquid rubber inside a tire will instantly heal a bullet hole. It hardly notices nail and screw pokes.
Available from
Gempler's
Nice bears
Bears are back in the woods. There's lots of folklore about what to do around them. Most of it wrong. Here, in a small book, is the latest straight dope about what you should do if you meet one -- and how not to meet one.
-- KK
Back Country Bear Basics: The Definitive Guide to Avoiding Unpleasant Encounters
David Smith
1997, 109 pages
$8
Availabile from Amazon
Sample excerpts:
There are three key behaviors you need to be aware of:
1. The bear that approaches is usually in command of the situation.
2. The subordinate bear does not end an engagement with a dominant bear; the dominant bear is the first to leave.
3. Merely standing still has signal value; standing still will often alter the ongoing behavior of an approaching bear.
*
The magic circle around every bear is different and constantly changes in size and shape. As an example, the magic circle of a female grizzly with spring cubs will probably be larger than the magic circle of the same bear when she doesn't have cubs. ... Don't forget that you have a magic circle, too. A seasoned black bear biologist might be comfortable with a bear that's only 10 yards away, but you or I might be nervous about a black bear that's 40 yards away.
Years of experience in Denali and other national parks have proven that properly secured bear resistant food containers work.
*
For some reason, bears are interested in petroleum products. When they come across a spot of oil or gas on the ground, they sometimes roll in it like a dog rolls on a carcass. After the Exxon Valdez oil spill, some bears looked like they'd been using Brylcream. My friend Hod Coburn, a bush pilot who's flown all over Alaska, told me that a black bear once got into a case of oil he stashed at a remote runway in the western part of the state. It didn't bite one can and assume there was more of the same in the others - it bit into every can.
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What about tree-climbing? You startle a bear that's 100 feet away and decide to run and climb a tree that's only 10 feet away. The bear will arrive in about 3 seconds. You wouldn't have time to climb a stepladder, let alone a tree. Even full-grown black bears can scoot up any tree with astonishing speed. An adult grizzly can "ladder" its way up a tree if the limbs are right, with a known record of 33 feet high.
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Bears key on movement and quickly notice a silhouette on a ridgeline. Steve French, an M.D. and bear researcher who's co-director of the Yellowstone Grizzly Foundation, has an excellent rule of thumb regarding the vision of bears; If you can see a bear, you should assume it can see you.
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Black bears are creatures of the forest, so in response to a threat they've always had the option of slipping into the underbrush and hiding or climbing a tree. When threatened, black bears flee. Even when black bear biologists hold squalling cubs while mama bear is just yards away, the females almost always retreat. They may make a blowing sound and clack teeth and make a rush or two toward the biologists, but ultimately, they retreat.
Not so with grizzlies. Grizzlies evolved in more open terrain. At times, there wasn't enough cover for a female and her cubs to hide from other bears or mammals. There were no trees to climb. When threatened, a female had to defend her cubs.
Desktop animation how-to
All films will become animations. That prediction is based on the rate at which special effects become standard effects in big-budget films. Even a "live action" movie these days is composed frame by frame, and the skills and logic of animation take over. An ordinary digital camera, a hi-end PC or Mac, with iMovie software or equivalent, gives anyone the tools to do cinematic animation without tears. The Complete Animation Course is the best of many recent books riding the re-newed popularity of animated films. This guide is a great how-to orientation for making your own animated film using affordable technology. It introduces you to classic animation basics, and the many methods which combine old fashioned techniques (cartoon, paper collages, claymation) with computer based tools. I found it had just the right level of detail -- sufficient to get you going without bogging down in how to do what's already been done.
The Complete Animation Course is not as thorough on basic technique as the new Digital Edition of Kit Laybourne's classic The Animation Book, but it is far more up-to-date and digitally oriented. The Animation Book goes deep; there's none better for grasping the secrets of traditional cell animation. Many of those techniques are still essential. The Complete Animation Course goes fast: there's none better if you want to use a digital camera, scanner, and home computer to make an animated short.
-- KK
Sample excerpts:
Twelve Principles of Animation
1. Squash and Stretch.
2. Anticipation. This is setting up the action before it happens, usually with a slight movement in the opposite direction to the main one.
3. Staging. This is related to the way the film as a whole is "shot," considering angles, framing, and scene length.
4. Straight-ahead Action and Pose-to-Pose. Straight-ahead action starts at one point and finishes at another in a single continuous movement, such as running, whereas pose-to-pose is a variety of actions in one scene requiring clearly delineated key frames to mark the action's extreme point. How the in-betweens are executed can alter the whole rhythm of the action.
5. Follow-through and Overlapping Action. Follow-through is the opposite of anticipation. When a character stops, certain parts remain in motion, such as hair or clothes. Overlapping action is when the follow-through of one action becomes the anticipation of the next one.
6. Slow In -- Slow Out. This means using more drawings at the beginning and end of an action and fewer in the middle. This creates a more lifelike feeling to the movement.
7. Arcs. These are used to describe natural movement. All actions create circular movements because they usually pivot around a central point, usually a joint. Arcs are also used to describe a line of action through a character.
8. Secondary Action is just that, another action that takes place at the same time as the main one. This may be something as simple as turning the head from side to side during a walk sequence.
9. Timing. This is something that can't be taught. In the same way that comedians who rely on it to get the most from their gags have to learn it through experience, you too will get it right only through practice. Timing is how you get characters to interact naturally. Timing also has to do with the technical side of deciding how many drawings are used to portray an action.
10. Exaggeration. This is the enhancement of a physical attribute or movement, but don't make the mistake of exaggerating the exaggeration.
11. Solid Drawing. This conveys a sense of three-dimensionality through linework, color, and shading.
12. Appeal This is giving personality to the characters you draw. If you can convey it without the sound track, you know you are on the right track.
These are not hard and fast rules, but they have been found to work since the early days of animation. Bear them in mind at the storyboard stage and your animation will definitely have more fluidity and believability.
In these two shots, from Rustboy by Brian Taylor, we can see the dramatic effect shaders and lighting can have on a scene. The top picture is the flat model produced by the software while you are working on it. The picture below is a fully rendered scene, with all the shaders, textures, and lighting added to give it depth, atmosphere, and believability.
The Complete Animation Course: The Principles, Practice, and Techniques of Successful Animation
Chris Patmore
2003, 160 pages
$17
Amazon
The Animation Book: A Complete Guide to Animated Filmmaking -- from Flip-books to Sound Cartoons to 3-D Animation
Kit Laybourne
1998, 426 pages
$17
Amazon
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