Dead On 18-Inch Annihilator

Demolition hammer-use for breaking down hard surfaces

Bought this wrecking bar several years ago for drywall removal. A very aggressive tool indeed! I used it to punch a hole in the drywall, grip the drywall and pry it off in big chunks. I even knocked down and removed 2 x 4s in the wall with it. Weighing nearly 4 pounds, it is much heavier than the hammer I would have used, and that weight adds to its destructive power. Not a bad choice to leave near my earthquake buckets. And an awesome zombie-stopper when the apocalypse comes!

(Dead-On also sells a 14-inch version, which is less massive. — editors)

Pelican Progear Keychain Flashlight

Best keychain flashlight

There are quite a few key chain flashlight reviews on this site. And before I added another, I wanted to make sure I put this one to the test (although I wanted to put up a review of it the moment I saw it online as it has everything I’m looking for in my everyday carry flashlight). And, after a year of use, I feel even stronger about my recommendation for this light.

Here’s why:

– It fits on my key chain (a small, symmetrical tube). It can easily disconnect from the rest of my key chain, but not so easily that it falls off. The flashlight is connected to a split ring, and the split ring connects to a sturdy clip. It has just the right amount of play so it moves easily but doesn’t get in the way.

– It hasn’t turned on unexpectedly. With some other key chain flashlights, the “on” switch gets activated accidentally, and the battery runs out while illuminating the inside of your pocket. For this one, you twist the cap and the body closed to turn the flashlight on. I was a bit worried about the cap and the body separating. But, evidently, so was the designer. There are a LONG set of threads inside the barrel, and you really have to give it quite a few turns to separate them.

– There is only one mode. It’s on or it’s off. No low. No blink. Which is exactly the sort of “no fiddling” I want when I suddenly find myself in the dark and am trying to figure out what the heck is going on.

– It’s small, light, and durable. I’d forget about it if it wasn’t so useful.

– It’s bright and has a good angle. For its size, it puts out a nice amount of light, and a not too wide or too narrow of a beam.

– The battery has lasted a long time. Been using it for most of a year, and the batteries are as good as the day I got them. (It did dim a few months ago but I took the batteries out and put them back in again, and good as new.)

– It comes in black. And the powder coating wears off in the most satisfying way. I like to think it looks like a prop out of a sci-fi movie now.

– It’s made by Pelican Case, who seems to know a thing or two about making durable, usable products.

– At around $10, it’s the right price for a piece of gear that my life could depend on, but if I happen to lose, the crying will be over the loss of a trusty piece of kit, not the loss of a small fortune. And believe me, this is something that I will replace with the same item immediately if it’s ever lost.

Easiest Pliers for Looping Wire

Loop Wires in One Step

Tool:
Beadsmith 1-Step Looper Pliers, 3mm

Also shown:
KNIPEX – Long Nose Pliers, Round Tips

Transcript

Paderno Spiral Vegetable Slicer

Vegetable slicer creates spiral cuts

The Paderno spiral vegetable slicer is made of plastic and it looks like it would snap into pieces as soon as the crank is turned, but don’t let its appearance fool you. This thing has a set of three sharp blade attachments that make short work of sweet potatoes (and, I assume white potatoes).

Using one of the three-blade attachments, you can shred, chip, or thinly slice vegetables. The hand-cranked operation is pleasingly, almost effortlessly, smooth.

When you are done peeling the potato, you’re left with a cute non-hallucinogenic mushroom.

I tossed a couple of potatoes into a skillet with salt and coconut oil.

Then I fried the potatoes, flipping them from time to time until a lot of the water burned out and I ended up with something that looked like bacon and tasted better than bacon. This stuff is crack to me. I could eat it all day, every day.

Super glue gel/2-way door rule/AllTrails

Recomendo: issue no. 263

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Super glue gel
Super glue is runny, which can cause it to drip when you apply it to a vertical surface or be absorbed when you apply it to a porous surface. Gorilla make Super Glue Gel, which solves both of these problems. I used it to glue together pieces of laser cut plywood to make these bowls. — MF

Reframe your decision-making process
I love this concept of the 2-way-door rule in Inc.com’s article “Why Emotionally Intelligent People Embrace the 2-Way-Door Rule to Make Better and Faster Decisions” (possibly behind a paywall). We avoid making decisions because we tend to think most are one-way door decisions, meaning irreversible because the door swings only one way, like quitting your job. In reality, most decisions are two-way door decisions where the door swings both ways, so if you step through and don’t like what you see, you can always turn around and go back through. Once you recognize this difference, you’ll find you actually seek out opportunities to make more decisions! — CD

Best hiking trail resource
My first stop for hiking trail information is AllTrails. This free website has the best trail maps, access location of trail heads, dog notes, elevation profiles, user reviews — almost anything you want. And they cover trails in most of the world. Their Pro version gives you mobile maps you can follow on trails outside of mobile service. — KK

Marvelous Korean melodrama
I just finished enjoying 21 hours of a Korean drama on Netflix called Start-Up. It’s a heart-tugging, tear-jerking, melodramatic soap opera about ransomware attacks and self-driving car code! Super well-done, with world-class craft. And it has an absolutely terrific K-Pop soundtrack. It’s sweet, sappy, but not too predictable, and a great view into today’s Korea. — KK

Our favorite note app
Recomendo reader Kartini Cooper asked to hear recommendations for a good note-taking app. I asked Kevin and Mark and their answer was the same as mine: Apple’s built-in Notes app. It’s the easiest and it syncs with all the other devices. I’ve gotten better at the up-keep — revisiting and culling my notes. My longest running notes that I pinned to the top are: To-do Today, Do Not Buy List, Questions I Have, Stress Note, and Things to tell my Therapist. I’ve also started organizing them into folders like: Recipes, Instructions, Crafts, Dreams, Writing Ideas, Rabbit Holes, and my favorite folder: Revelations — all my late-night genius ideas that are some times hilarious in the light of day. — CD

Geometric Arabic typographic design
Mohamed Samir is a senior product designer at Apple. In his spare time, he creates stunning geometric graphics using Arabic typography. Printmag assembled a selection of his posters, which are also on display on his Instagram account. — MF

Joe Grand, Hardware hacker

Cool Tools Show 289: Joe Grand

Our guest this week is Joe Grand. Also known as Kingpin, Joe is a computer engineer, hardware hacker, teacher, daddy, honorary doctor, TV host, member of legendary hacker group L0pht (pronounced “Loft”) Heavy Industries, and former technological juvenile delinquent. He has been creating, exploring, and manipulating electronic systems since the 1980s.You can find Joe on Twitter and YouTube @joegrand.

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Show notes:

Oscilloscope
An oscilloscope lets you visually see signals and how they change over time. My go-to tool for daily engineering and reverse engineering. I use a now-discontinued Agilent (Keysight) MSO7054B that’s been hacked to enable all the extra features built into the firmware, but there are a lot of entry-level and mid-range affordable scopes (Rigol, Pico Technology) to handle most engineering needs!

ChipWhisperer
ChipWhisperer is a set of hardware hacking tools that make traditionally complex attacks (fault injection and power analysis) more accessible. Lets you do some really interesting techniques to force hardware to misbehave and recover secrets it might be leaking.

Spork
This spork is a combination spoon, fork, bottle opener, screw driver, hex wrench set, and more? I travel a lot and often find myself somewhere with food, but not a way to gracefully eat it. This is the most used tool in my bag, though TSA tends to get confused and pull it out each time I go to the airport.

Insight Timer
After years of trying to make it part of my daily routine, I finally started to practice meditation. The app makes it easy to try a variety of guided meditations, classes, and music to suit my mood and personal preference. Meditation has helped me stay in the present moment and be more accepting of myself and those around me.

What’s in my cigar box? — Josh Glenn