If you’re biking across the country or something, you may need to camp out. You could carry a full tent, but the Topeak Bikamper cuts down on weight and bulk by using your bike as a support. I love dual-use like this – making the most use out of what you have. Gizmodo is apparently [...]
The Pak-Lite is a LED light that simply clips on to the top of a 9V battery. They claim that in low power mode, it lasted for a year continuously on a lithium 9V battery. Pretty impressive. 9V batteries may be less convenient than the more standard AA size, but in addition to being able [...]
MSNBC talks about RVers using Walmart parking lots instead of RV parks in order to save a few bucks. (Well, they claim it isn’t a money issue, but come on – why else would you go without electricity and water to save $25?) The article mentions the film This is Nowhere, which might get added [...]
Slate has a decent review of various VOIP services. They like AT&T CallVantage, but it sounds like you may want to wait a bit yet based on this opinion of VOIP as a whole: Reliability also is not always up to land-line snuff. Sometimes there’s no dial tone, your outgoing calls don’t go through, or [...]
Brighthand recently ran an editorial titled Handhelds vs. Laptops — How to Lighten Your Load in One Easy Lesson. Well, that’s an appealing premise – I’d love to lighten my load, but I still take my Thinkpad with me when I need something more than my cellphone. It isn’t because handhelds and PDAs aren’t amazingly [...]
IMAP lets you have the best parts of a corporate email server for your personal life. Jennifer Berger at MacWorld recently saw the light – you should take a look. As she says: IMAP lets me keep all my e-mail on my company’s e-mail server, along with any custom folders, and my Sent items. I [...]
The very un-minimalist Uncrate (“Uncrate is a web magazine for guys who love stuff. Our team finds the best gadgets, clothes, cars and more so you can blow your rent money easier.”) has a pointer to the Zippo Cargo Case, which allows you to stow your indispensible Zippo lighter in your checked luggage. Hmmm. Now [...]
I hate cables and adapters both at home and while traveling. Problem number one is the huge number of incompatible chargers. This WaPo article says it best: “If you switch [cell phone] brands, it won’t work,” Kammerer said of his many chargers. “I wish they were standardized. My briefcase gets heavy.” Manufacturers argue that providing [...]
The NYT describes the millions of dollars Amtrak loses on their food service: Expenses for labor and food run about $83 million more than the food service brings in, according to the railroad’s inspector general. That sum, twice Amtrak’s food and beverage revenues, is without the cost of maintaining the dining cars on long-distance trains [...]
With airlines hemmoraging cash, even the pretzels are now going, saving them about $2 million. I’m looking forward to Greyhound getting into the airline business – they know a thing or two about cutting costs to the bone, especially in the cleaning and customer service departments. Seriously, I’m OK with this. It isn’t like the [...]