Back to the old bag

Great Sunday afternoon; balmy temps (for here and now), a nice amber-coloured libation, and a few minutes spent switching from the new daily carry bag back to the old daily carry bag.

By old I mean the bag that I've been using since before I was old; namely the standard, generic canvas map case from days long gone by. This is the one I'm talking about. It's sold by just about anyone with anything camo or OD in their inventory for about $12, give or take a buck or two. There have been several updates over the past twenty years (a pocket here, a snap there) but I still prefer the model that I picked up my first day at Benning; 2 big interior sections, a small pocket on the outer wall, and some stitched elastic for pens and pencils. These days I only carry black, but you can get OD, woodland (for nostalgists, I guess), and a couple other colours.

The bag that I switched back from, which I had been giving a protracted test drive, is the Swiss Gear Vertical Travel bag.  A pretty good bag, all in all. I generally have few beefs with Swiss Gear gear, which tends to be pretty solidly constructed for what it is.  But this one had a few minor marks against it:

1. It  is noticeably smaller than the generic map case, and unfortunately it is smaller in all the wrong places. The main cargo area is not quite large enough to hold a normal-sized magazine (although Monocle just barely fits) - I should have taken the hint on day one.
2. Had to cut off the pad on the shoulder strap, which was apparently made of teflon and lard and ensured that the shoulder strap could NOT POSSIBLY stay on your shoulder. Once the pad was off, though, it stayed in place pretty well.
3. There is a conspicuous Swiss flag on the outer wall - an deviation from my usual 'no logo' policy, but I never got around to removing it.

The Swiss Gear bag was also about $25. Not an unreasonable price for what it is, but sort of a smack in light of the fact that the generic map case is at least twice the bag for half the price.

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Tactical Pen Roundup on Boing Boing

Some of you know that I've been a fan of Boing Boing since it was a smeary, hand-stapled physical object on the top shelf of the magazine rack at the local indie bookstore (back when we had those). They are so eclectic that I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by anything at makes its way to their virtual pages.

Even so, I was still a little surprised to see this article by Sean Bonner on a pretty good sampling of today's Tactical Pen market. The writer seems like he would be more comfortable tagging with these stilos than using them for their intended purpose, but overall was still fun to see Boing Boing devote some column inches to a truly useful topic.

"What the crap is a tactical pen? A pen that kicks ass, basically. And I don't just mean it's "a kick-ass pen," I mean: this pen could literally kick your ass. To death, maybe. But it's also a pen, so it's civilized..."

Follow the links for the full article.

Planet Pocket Tool

Sure, the name of the site might raise an inquiring eyebrow or two, but since we're actually talking about extremely useful, precision-crafted, mini tools we can all just get over ourselves.

Designed and created by "Gadget Fiend and Knifemaker" Peter Atwood, the items on offer at Planet Pocket Tool are solid additions to just about anyone's list of 'can't do without' gear (except for the brass whistle, perhaps, although I'm sure there are folks who have a need for such).

Here are a few examples, but be sure to check out the site.

Planet Pocket Tool

Street Slide. Useful tool could become more useful.

There's no need to go into the various ways that tools like Google's Street View can be used in planning. Oftentimes, especially in the private sector, you just don't have access to detailed photographs of street level  features (building facades, alley entrances, overhangs, alcoves, and the rest) shot by trained assets on the ground. But in many areas of the US, and increasingly in other parts of the world, you can get reasonable-quality imagery of those features and more with products like Street View and Bing's Streetside.

This video, featured the other day on Digital Urban, shows some interesting new interface ideas that could make these tools even more useful.

APC-80 crew seen in the wild

Nice shot of an APC-80 (and crew) in its natural environment. One of about twenty great images from English Russia. Also, several good shots of the Russian 'Blue Tiger' camo pattern.

Israeli Emergency Bandage

Cool Tools posted a solid review of the Israeli Emergency Bandage a couple days ago. Sandy nailed the overview, couldn't agree more. I've kept these in my bags for awhile now and have had several opportunities to use them (on both sides of the equation). Excellent product.

Israeli Emergency Bandage
4" or 6" widths
$5-$11

On Amazon

Manufactured by First Care Products

Formal absence of not-so-precious things

Those of you who have been keeping an eye on my dispatches here for the past couple years or so may note the conspicuous absence of  all my posts prior to this one.

Don't ask.

Let's just say the root cause as been addressed and I will do what I can to add back anything that is worth adding back. Many of the posts were specifically temporal, so there is no point in reposting them. If you you need the details on something from the past, let me know and I'll see if I can find it.