In my household I am Mr. Find It. I rarely if ever lose things myself, and have become the go-to guy to find what others have lost. Over the years of finding things, I have evolved a set of principles very similar to those laid out in this very simple book. This method really works.

You can read this book for free online. That way you'll never lose it.

But some people like the laminated-paper-pulp form to give as a gift. While there is more in the slim book, none of the extra is essential. Still, it's a handy quick reference.

-- KK

How to Find Lost Objects
Professor Solomon
1995, 120 pages

Free PDF from Professor Solomon (5 MB)

Paperback, $7 from Amazon

Sample excerpts:

Principle Ten
The Eureka Zone

The majority of lost objects are right where you figure-once you take a moment to stop and figure.
Others, however, are in the immediate vicinity of that place. They have undergone a displacement-a shift in location that, although minor, has served to render them invisible.
Some examples:
A pencil has rolled beneath a typewriter.
A tool has been shoved to the rear of a drawer.
A book on a shelf has gotten lodged behind other books.
A folder has been misfiled, several folders away from where it belongs.
Objects are apt to wander. I have found, though, that they tend to travel no more than eighteen inches from their original location. To the circle described by this eighteen-inch radius I have given a name. I call it the Eureka Zone. With the aid of a ruler, determine the Eureka Zone of your lost object. Then explore it. Meticulously.

How to Find Lost Objects
Professor Solomon

Recently I surveyed the emerging web filters which rely on consensus methods (see the CT review) as a way to quickly read what was happening in the world. I hypothesized that soon there would be a meta-site that would aggregate all the consensus filters into one. The next day Thomas Marban from Austria wrote me to say that he had already written one, called PopUrls. I've been using it daily for the past month and its great.

This single page now replaces my need to directly read Digg, Reddit, Delicious, Furl, Slashdot, BoingBoing, NewsVine, Metafilter and all the others that I subscribe too. This one page encapsulates up-to-the-minute headlines from 15 consensus filters, and top thumbnail images from the social sites Flickr, YouTube, and Google Video. The hive mind on one screen.

Here's how I use it. On one page I can scan the latest headlines of what the web collectively thinks is either popular or interesting. A simple mouse over the headline will cleverly reveal a small box of expanded text on the article. If I want even more, a click will open the original entry in the filter. In five minutes I can scan 18 social site sources thoroughly. I get an excellent feel for what is new and what is worth following up (a small amount of overlap between sources helps).

The design of PopUrls is brilliant. There's two flavors, black on white or white on black. Function drives form, buttons are minimal. It feels like a well-designed command post for a concise debriefing. Even on a large screen, like the 21-incher I use, there's a bit of scrolling. But I've come to realize that I MUCH prefer this single fixed sheet to endless RSS feeds in a reader. In fact, the page is essentially an improved interface for multiple RSS feeds, which keep PopUrls constantly updated. The dashboard doesn't move, while all the streams flowing into it keep it lively.

There's no better way to watch the hive mind.

-- KK

PopUrls

The "Third Hand" is a low cost helper that has been an indispensable assistant for many of my projects in electronics. It holds circuit boards in place as you put in components, or if you need to solder delicate parts which require a steady hand (sometimes, more than two) it gives you a few more. It's also pretty tough to find someone to help you at 3am when most of the important work seems to happen. Two adjustable metal clips hold in your circuit boards (or whatever else) and a magnifying glass gives you a little zoom in action for the really tricky constructions. Perhaps I anthropomorphize useful things, but on an otherwise cold work bench, the Third Hand looks like a little robot pal with claws raised, always eager to help.

-- Phillip Torrone

Third Hand
$6
Jameco Part#: 26690
Available from Jameco Electronics
You can also find these at most dollar / discount type stores too for $3 or $4.

A swimming hole
in the desert
is heaven.
Splash! Splash!
Here are 100 heavens.
And how to get there, without prayers
With GPS coordinates, topo maps, summaries.
No excuses.

-- KK

Day Trips with a Splash: Swimming Holes of the Southwest
Pancho Doll
2000, 216 pages
$13
Available from Amazon

Sample excerpts:

The Jug

Smoothest water east of the Sierra Nevada. Water pouring out of the Salome Wilderness cuts through an exposed portion of the batholith, a large intrusion of granite that underlies many of the ranges here. It creates a sinuous channel of intriguing shapes. Directly at the bottom of the first access to the creek is a rock that so resembles the torso of a reclining woman that a crack runs directly across her back and shoulders where the bra strap would be. The rest of this miniature canyon has so many sinusoidal curves worn into the rock that you might think yourself in Yosemite except for the saguaro on the canyon walls.

Above the "sleeping lady" is one of the best late season spots I know of. I say late season because the water is awfully cool in the spring. Also because low levels let you appreciate the beautiful lines of this tub. It's a near-perfect rectangle, twelve feet long, seven feet wide and just as deep. Water exits via a narrow spout etched exquisitely in the rock lip at the bottom of the tub. There is a two-person slab adjoining the pool to the right. An overhanging rock is there if you need some shade.

Warm days in spring can attract as many as one-half dozen cars to the trailhead. Consequently, the canyon can seem busy.

*

Cave Creek

The sweetest place to sit in the whole state of Arizona. There's a perfectly flat stone the size of a park bench right next to a tiny waterfall. A juniper provides a low, dense canopy of shade that'll keep you cool when the surrounding vegetation is at the flash point. The adjoining pool occurs where a handful of large boulders have tumbled across the stream. As it rushes over the boulders, the water accelerates just enough to scrape a modest pool out of the sand and gravel streambed. The pool is circular, about 30 feet in diameter, but none too deep, maybe six feet in the center although this will vary with water level and the amount of cobble in the creek bed.

Lots of people with side arms, it seemed. Rationally I know that the reason people carry combat automatics into the mountains is because they are more afraid of you than you should be of them� this or they believe that rattlesnakes attack in packs. Still, I got a kind of weird vibe and I'm a gun owner myself.

Aside from the firearm notice, be advised to bring something to sit on because the rocks are dark and will get very hot during midday. Also, it's a short steep descent with loose rock. A walking stick is recommended.

I started a major remodel of our home last year and was being driven crazy by all of the interior and exterior measurements that had to be made. Most of them required more than one person and my wife wasn't exactly happy to go along. That doesn't include the measurements that were simply hard to make (too high, too far, etc.)

That's when I ran across the Stanley laser "measuring tape." Inexpensive ultrasonic versions of this have been around for a while,
unfortunately they're generally inaccurate and in a tight space it's never completely clear what's being measured. Professional laser tapes have been around for a while also, but at $400+ a pop weren't exactly in my budget. The Stanley comes in about $100 and is every bit as accurate as the pro models.

Put the rear of the device against the wall (or starting point), point the laser dot at the point you're measuring to, punch a button, and presto distances up to 100' measured instantly and accurate within 1/4". Awesome!!!

I finished all of my measurements in 30 minutes. My time alone was worth the cost of the tool.

-- Mike Green

TLM 100 FatMax Tru-Laser Distance Measurer
$100
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Stanley

I hate touchpads on laptop computers. What to do when traveling? The obvious answer is a travel mouse, yet I seldom see people using them. My preferred model has a Xerox brand name stamped on it, probably because it was a promotional giveaway; I bought it on eBay for $5. Since it is optical, I can use it on any surface, even the fabric of an airplane seat beside my leg. It has a spring-loaded pulley in the center of its cord, so you don't have to extend more wire than strictly necessary. Because it was so cheap, I don't worry about damaging it. Because it's so small and light, I don't notice it in my computer bag.

I tried other travel mice but like this one best. Identical versions are on eBay (without the Xerox logo) for 99 cents plus shipping, or you can buy one with a JMTek brand name from Amazon for slightly more money.

Mini Optical Mouse
$15
Available from Amazon

For purely financial reasons, I'm going to talk about the original 1Ds, not the newer model II.

This camera was introduced three-and-a-half years ago as a true SLR with a digital sensor the same size as a 35mm film frame, allowing legacy Canon lenses to retain their correct view angle. The CMOS sensor produces images that are notably "gentle," ideal for skin tones, and subtler than the typical colors of a CCD device. The disadvantages of the 1Ds are its price (originally it was $8,000), its bulk (it is built for durability), its frustratingly nonintuitive controls, and slight chromatic aberration when using wider lenses that were designed for the different performance characteristics of film. Now that the Model II is available, anyone who was reluctant to pay the price of a new Model I should be aware that they can be found on eBay for a mere $2,000. Rated at just over 11 megapixels, the picture quality is actually higher than the raw pixel count suggests, because the noise in the sensor is so unobtrusive. I have enlarged images up to 18" x 12" with virtually no noise visible, even in shadow areas after unsharp masking. When you push the sensitivity to the equivalent of ISO 1000, you do see some noise, but it resembles the pleasantly random distribution of film grain and is not streaky.

Tim Burton's stop-motion movie The Corpse Bride was shot frame-by-frame using modified Canon 1Ds cameras, which were chosen after their image quality was compared with all available alternatives, including motion-picture film. The very subtle tones in that movie are a tribute to Canon electronics.

Canon 1Ds
$2000 to $3000 depending on condition and history (body only, not including lenses).
Available from eBay

I don't go out of my way to destroy phones, but my absent-mindedness makes it seem as if I do. Also, I want a phone to be primarily a practical device, not a fetish object loaded with gimmicks. Hence my enduring affection for the humble Motorola v.60.

Protected by a metal clamshell case, this phone has survived more abuse than any other that I've owned. I have dropped the v.60 on wood floors, kitchen tiles, and concrete parking lots (many times). Once, while I was in a distracted frame of mind, I dropped it, then trod on it (hard), and then kicked it inadvertently across the room. When it hit the wall its back panel flew off and its battery fell out, but after reassembly, everything still worked. The phone is now scuffed, scratched, and dented (see photos) but I think its battle-scarred look adds character.

Also I like its unfashionable retro functionality: It doesn't take photos and has only a small monochrome screen with limited backlighting (thus a long battery life). It lacks an extensible antenna yet performs better than my friends' phones in marginal reception areas in Northern Arizona. It does have speakerphone built in. Motorola doesn't make them anymore but you can still buy them on eBay--in fact they're so cheap, I bought a second one to keep as backup, pending the day when my inconsiderate treatment finally destroys the first one.

If 1960s cars can be fashionable in Hollywood, surely late-1990s phones must stage a comeback at some point. When people look with surprise at my "piece of junk," I tell them I'm just ahead of my time.
Motorola v.60
$30 approx.
Available from eBay

I don't do enough serious fabrication work to spend thousands of dollars on a real milling machine, but for about $500 this provides much more precision and versatility than a drill press. The handle on the right moves the table from side to side. The handle in front moves the table in and out. Both are calibrated in 1/1000 of an inch. Add a couple of small vises (I bought mine from McMaster-Carr) and you can position holes exactly where they should be, or make slots and more intricately shaped cutouts using an appropriate bit while moving the table. The speed control is a simple knob, like a lamp dimmer, enabling me to reduce the speed conveniently when drilling plastics.

The Grizzly catalogue has other similar tools in what I would describe as the intermediate category: Not quite professional level, but more upscale than Home Depot.

Grizzly G8689 Mini Milling Machine
$525
Available from Amazon

I have seen many attempts to improve that humble tool, the wire stripper. This is the one that pleases me most. It clamps the wire, makes an incision into the insulation without cutting the copper underneath, and removes the insulation, all in a single action. The best part is that you don't have to hold the wire, because the tool grips it for you. You can use it with only one hand.

It looks clunky and over-elaborate but is absolutely functional. I enjoy all aspects of its design, even including the snick-snick sound of its clever mechanical linkage.

Although the one I own bears Radio Shack's "Kronus" brand name (available on their web site and in their stores) an identical version is available more cheaply from Grizzly Tools at the URL below.

Kronus Automatic Wire Stripper
$10
Available from Amazon

This on-line DVD publishing option just changed the world of self-distribution of videos and documentaries. Put a DVD online at Lulu. They take orders and professionally print, package, and mail the dvd. They automatically calculate royalties and send them to you. Their cut is 20% of royalties, or a minimum of 20 cents per DVD whichever is more.

After setting it up, all you need to do is give your potential buyers a web address and lulu takes care of everything else. I'm going to put a short hospice documentary on Lulu in a couple weeks, where it should sell for about $8, shipping included. That's about the minimum cost for a single DVD.

You don't have to manage the copying, packaging, shipping or billing.

-- Tony Levelle
[Kevin Kelly's recommendations for self-publishing on Amazon.com were distributed in a previous Cool Tools dispatch, archived here. Amazon takes a bigger percentage than Lulu, however. -- CP]

$ price varies
Available from
Lulu

Gripmaster consists of four little buttons on springs (think of a trumpet) and lets you exercise each finger separately. It really helps keep hands strong & healthy. I'm on a computer at least 8 hours a day, and using Gripmaster has helped me tremendously.

I gave my mother one (a yellow one) for her arthritis and she's able to open soda bottles again. They come in 4 colors each of different resistance. I use the blue one which is light. The yellow one I gave my mom is extra light. They also have more difficult ones.

-- Joe Spadaro

[I assume everyone understands that the Cool Tools list is not intended as a source of definitive medical advice. If you suffer significant inflammation of tendons in the carpal sheath, perhaps you should check with a physician before embarking on an exercise regime. -- CP]

Gripmaster
$9
Available from
Amazon

Manufactured by
Gripmaster

This stuff is incredible. It essentially undoes any sticky sticker from any surface, and then totally evaporates leaving no mark. As an art teacher, I'd find that masking tape, for example, when left too long on the back of a displayed piece of artwork, was impossible to remove. Un-Du released its stickiness, and AMAZINGLY, after a few moments of evaporation, the masking tape reverts to it's original sticky state. The original ad for it demonstrated removing a piece of duct tape from a piece of toilet paper. BOTH were intact after a few seconds of application.

-- Duffy Franco

Un-Du
$9
Available from
Amazon

*

Un-du is nice but it's way overpriced. I buy the same thing but a quart at a time. It's called Grip Solvent and it's for regripping golf clubs. $5.69 for a quart instead of $9 for an ounce.

-- Rob

Grip Solvent
$6
Available from Golfsmith

I'm ten and I love my awesome snowball maker. When we go to Tahoe I use it to make tons of perfect snowballs quickly. It's a big help in a snowball fight--and super fun, too!

-- Daniel Steigman

Sno-Baller
$10
Available from
Amazon

Manufactured by
Beach Comber

Wonder if you got this: It's the World Time Clock from designer Charlotte Van Der Waals. Think it's an incredibly clever piece. I appreciate a lot the ability of seeing "upside down" things and problems :)

-- hexholden
[There are four variations of the World Time Clock design. You can find them pictured together at Ameico. Each can be turned to one of 12 positions to indicate the time in selected global regions. I love the concept because I consider a regular 12-sided polygon (a dodecagon) to be the most aesthetically pleasing shape in nature. Maybe it's no accident that there are 12 hours in a day and 12 months in a year--also 12 pennies in an old English shilling, before the metric system came along and condemned us to the rule of 10, merely because we happen to have 5 digits on each hand. -- CP]

World Time Clock
$150
Available from Junro

This thing makes a really good cup of coffee fast. It's well made, compact, and clean up is easy.

The AeroPress is 2.5 inch diameter syringe with a paper micro filter mounted across the bottom. It sits on top of a common coffee mug for brewing. You put in fine ground coffee measured with the included scoop. The scoop is about 1.5 times bigger than the ones you might get with regular a drip coffee maker. You put in hot water at the recommended 175 degrees which is cooler than other methods. You stir for 10 seconds and push the plunger in. Compressed air pushes the coffee out in 10 - 20 seconds. What you have in the cup is concentrated coffee. If you dilute it about 50/50 with hot water you get the strength of a regular cup of good coffee. It tastes great!

I have a French press, a vacuum brewer, various kinds of drip brewers, a good espresso machine, and I roast my own coffee. Since I got my AeroPress two months ago I favor it for all my coffee except espresso. It's not fair to call the AeroPress concentrate espresso as the manufacture does but that's a minor point.

-- Frank Cox

Aeropress
$28
Available from Sweet Maria's

Manufactured by Aerobie

Some years ago my then-girlfriend smelled something burning in her house. We finally tracked it down to a bad electrical connection up in a ceiling fixture. A bit scary, though. Poor connections have a higher resistance, and when you ask for lots of current through them, they can heat up, and in some cases cause a fire.

So how can you find these bad connections? Just measuring the voltage at outlets won't tell you anything. You need a special tester that first measures the voltage at an outlet, then places a brief but heavy load (typically 12, 15, or 20 amps) and measures the new voltage. The amount by which the voltage drops tells you if you have a problem. Anything over 5-6% drop is not good. By testing outlets sequentially on a single circuit, you can generally figure out where any big drop is.

A lot of house inspectors and even electricians don't seem to know about testing for voltage drop under load, but once you start doing so, you won't want to go back. And yes, I've found one or two instances where an outlet that otherwise looked fine had an unacceptable voltage drop.

-- Dale Grover

Ideal Suretest 61-164
$280
Available from Telephone Stuff
(Some cheaper models are available; see manufacturer's site below.)

Manufactured by Ideal Industries

This case costs a full order of magnitude more than a regular case, but if you can't live with noisy fans any longer, then be assured that this really lives up to its name: Totally No Noise.

Ten heat pipes and about 50 lbs of carefully machined aluminum draw the heat away from your computer's delicate parts, so that even a reasonably powerful pc can run cool without any fans at all. This case is about more than just quiet, though; it's a work of real engineering art (well, nerd art, anyway) with many nice touches that make installation and operation a pleasure. No stamped sheet metal, just carefully rounded machined edges, means no more cutting yourself when working in tight spaces. Clearly labeled built-in wiring for the front panel ports and switches, integrated silent 400W power supply with profuse connectors, super-heavy-duty casters with individual locking and leveling, and more. Besides, this thing looks like a Krell relic (Krell or the Krell, either one.) I love it, and I'm getting another.

-- Carl Shapiro

[For a very extensive review of this item see System Cooling.
-- CP]

Zalman Totally No Noise TNN500AF
$1200
Available from Unique PC Gear

Manufactured by Zalman

You already know why it's good!

-- Jeff Hoover

[After you flush the toilet, incoming water cycles up through the sink before going down to refill the toilet tank. Water is used twice: Once for hand washing, and a second time for the next flush. -- CP]

Toilet Lid Sink
$89
Available from Gaiam

Manufacturer not listed.

Previously listed on Cool Tools as a Source Wanted

I hate struggling with a desktop stapler if there are more than a few sheets of paper involved. Sometimes you really have to pound on it, and the staple may not go all the way through, or it gets bent. This new stapler is supposed to have the power of an electric model, and can go through 25 sheets of paper with a very gentle tap. I was skeptical until I tried a demo, where they had a couple of sheets of thick cardboard a regular stapler would croak on. Effortless, and a perfect staple every time! Makes me almost look forward to paperwork now.

-- Phil Glatz

PaperPro Prodigy
$17
Available from
Amazon

Manufactured by PaperPro