Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, but the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

The best writing tips

Writing Tools

This two-sided page contains the wisdom of an entire book on how to write better. Nay, it distills an entire shelf of the world’s greatest writing manuals (and I have them all). After 30 years as both a writer and editor I can’t think of much I would add to these 50 short tips. This PDF is now my favorite guide to writing well. You can print it out for free. If you want its pithy reminders fleshed out with more examples, see the book form, or the website. But the free tip sheet itself — one paper printed both sides — rewards a quick review anytime you get down to serious writing.. – KK

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How to liveblog a conference

Tips for Conference Bloggers, Free PDF Bruno Giussani & Ethan Zuckerman, 2007, 6 p.

There’s an emerging new media I use more and more: an online summary of a conference. Known as liveblogging, it presents a synopsis of each presentation, talk-by-talk, in nearly real time. This saves you time and money traveling to distant cities, and suffering through introductions and equipment failures. At its best, reading the liveblog can be better than attending the talk. All the chaff has been winnowed, and almost every talk captured. (Most conference attendees don’t even get to every talk.) Video recordings of conferences are becoming more popular, but a good liveblog is much quicker to scan and digest. But at its worse, a liveblog will offer little more than snarky comments about the speaker.

At the creation end, you need some skills to separate the best from the worst. Ethan Zuckerman, of Geek Corp, is one of the best conference bloggers alive. He teamed up with Bruno Giussani, another star liveblogger, to produce this free short 6-page PDF booklet on how to blog a conference with effectiveness. When you blog a conference it forces you to pay attention. My first book Out of Control began as an online blog of every talk at the first Artificial Life Conference (although no one called it blogging in 1987). The requisite focus of summarizing each talk clarified many ideas for me, and the response to the “blog” of the conference encouraged me to write a book. Other livebloggers find the same. They listen harder, and remember more.

Get good at this and you have a free pass to many high-priced conferences. Organizers are increasingly looking for first-rate livebloggers to generate press and future attendees. Or, like Ethan you can generate your own audience who follow you because your liveblogging skills. – KK

• It’s relatively easy to blog good and great speakers: They follow a narrative path through their talks and speak at a pace the audience can understand. It’s harder to blog inexperienced speakers(because they may be too technical, confusing, fast, etc.) and multispeaker panels (because the discussion can take many different unstructured turns). But you don’t need to transcribe the whole talk, you need to capture the gist of it. A 20-minutes talk can often be summarized in a 20-lines post.
• Always remember that what you’re writing will be read by people who weren’t in the room, so they haven’t seen the slides, the video, or the gesture. Hence, you have to compensate for the lack of context. Don’t be afraid to create a narrative by saying “He shows a slide with data on …” or “She walks on stage carrying a big suitcase” or “He shows a YouTube video” etc. And if the speaker shows a YouTube video, or a picture, remember that you’re online: Open another browser window, go to YouTube, find that video, and link to it; or go to the speaker’s website, find that picture or another similar or related item, and link to it (or republish the picture within your post). Yes, this requires effective multitasking. It’s at the root of conference blogging.
• Conferences usually give out a program ahead of time. Use it to prepare for blogging: Do a quick Google search for each speaker, and save (in the same text file) links to their sites, blogs, and the institutions they’re affiliated with; write a one-or-two-sentences “biography” for each; and for the speakers you’ve never heard of, try to get a general sense of who they are and what they do. To write the mini-biography, use also the speaker information distributed by the conference organizers (booklet, website, etc.). For the key speakers, save a picture on your laptop (from their websites) and pre-format it for Web use, in case you will need it. If you prepare sufficiently, you’ve got the first paragraph of each post almost written ahead of time.

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The best thesaurus ever

The Synonym Finder

This is the best thesaurus there is. It supplies more synonyms, analogs, parallels, equivalents and comparable words in English than any other source, online or off. No other thesaurus comes near to it for completeness or breadth. Compiled in dictionary form, like the one in your word processors, there’s no index or cross-referencing. Just look up a word, any word, and it proceeds to overwhelm you with alternative choices (a total of 1.5 million synonyms are presented in 1,361 pages), including short phrases and only mildly related words. Rather than being a problem of imprecision, the Finder’s broad inclusiveness prods your imagination and prompts your recall.

Its single downside, however, is a major frustration: it is not available digitally, in a form compatible to the way most people write these days. It should live on your computer in a pull-down option, or plug-in for Word or the like. I’m totally baffled why it is not. As it is, it’s a huge fat book — a great book! — sitting within arm’s reach when I write, but not near enough for the power that it offers. – KK

https://youtu.be/udxLVHK4Q98

David Brin is an astrophysicist whose international best-selling novels include The Postman, Earth, Existence and Hugo Award winners Startide Rising and The Uplift War. He consults for NASA, companies, agencies and nonprofits about the onrushing future. Brin's first nonfiction book, The Transparent Society, won the Freedom of Speech Award. His new one is Vivid Tomorrows: Science Fiction and Hollywood. His website is davidbrin.com. You can find him on Twitter and LinkedIn @davidbrin, and on Facebook @thedavidbrin. 

TOOLS:
0:00 - Intro
1:20 - ThinOptics Keychain Case and Readers Rectangular Reading Glasses
6:00 - LED flashlight gloves
8:59 - Elikliv LCD digital microscope
12:20 - Craft cutting tool
14:40 - David Brin’s recent books

Gareth’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales is published by Cool Tools Lab. To receive the newsletter a week early, sign up here.

Happy New Year to you all and thanks so much for your tremendous support and good will throughout the year. It means a lot.

Making Your Own Steel Boxes

Metal boxes are so handy in the workshop. Image how cool it would be to make your own at whatever sizes you desire. In this Pask Makes video, he fashions metal boxes using a jig that he made. No special bending equipment required. To seal them up, you do need to weld, although, as he points out, you could easily make corner brackets and simply rivet them together.

Ask Gar: Cutting Sheet Metal

Reader Martin asks me:

I’m interested in lightweight sheet metal cutting. I have tin snips but they have their limits. I know about pneumatic cutters but that’s overkill for my application. I’ve recently seen advertisements for something that connects to a power drill to cut sheet metal. Do you know about these?

There’s a reason This Old Tony refers to tin/aviation snips as “hand cramps.” The device you’re talking about is something like the Turbo Shear. I have no experience with this tool, but I’ve seen lots of video of it in action, and it looks useful if you have a lot of sheet to cut. If other readers have used this drill-attachment shear, please chime in.

There are many other options. This Farmer Tyler video shows three: A plasma cutter (which would be overkill for light material), an angle grinder, and a jigsaw (with a metal-cutting blade). You can also use a reciprocating saw with a metal blade. Then there are manual nibblers (for light-gauge metal).

BTW: Ron Covell has a great video on how to properly use aviation snips (which would make somewhat easier work than straight-pattern tin snips).

Shop Safety Basics

Woodworker and YouTuber, Steve Ramsey, offers a really great guide to shop safety basics in this video. Amongst the common advice about wearing eye, hearing, and breathing protection, and ensuring adequate ventilation, he presents some great “meta” safety advice. While these tips are directed at woodworkers, most of them apply to all types of shop safety.

* If an operation doesn’t feel right in your gut, it’s probably not. Think it through carefully. Consult the manual that came with the tool. Do a Google/YouTube search. Practice it with the machine turned off.

* Understand what the tool is actually doing; how it works. This goes a long way toward understanding what might do wrong and how to react if it does.

* Bad shop lighting, bad. The better you can see what you’re doing, the better the chances of doing it safely.

* Always keep your cellphone handy, in case of an accident.

* Be careful when doing repetitive tasks or tasks that you’ve done hundreds of time before. Lack of focus and complacency are dangerous. It can be helpful just to remind yourself before doing something repetitive that you’re about to do something repetitive and are therefore at higher risk of injury.

* And, one of the all-time best pieces of advice (what I call “The Kenny Rogers Rule”), knowing when something is not working and when it’s time to take a break, take a walk, grab a snack, etc. (Sayeth Kenny: “You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold 'em. Know when to walk away and know when to run.”).

TOYS! Enamel Shop Trays

I recently “borrowed” an enamel tray from my wife’s art studio and I’m not giving it back (sorry, hon). I’ve been using it for things like parts cleaning and de-rusting. Above are two combination squares I was recently given. They were extremely rusty, but not so after a few Evapo-Rust soaks and wire-brush treatments in the tray.

The Duh Dept: Don't Put Your Trash Cans Over the Edges of Your Worktable

It should go without saying, but I’ve made this mistake myself, lost items, and suspect they got knocked into the trash (I blame the cat). Put your cans well under your work surfaces or well away from them.

Systems Are Not Panaceas

I can’t find the video any more, but there’s a funny moment in an Adam Savage video from this year where he goes to apply one of his own shop rules and fails, on camera. The rule (which I’ve published several times) is about storing unique/specialty items that don’t have an obvious home. The idea is to go with the very first place that springs to mind when you think “Where should I store this tool?” It’s a great idea (‘cause that first thought is likely to come to mind when you need the item again). But it doesn’t always work, as Adam goes to find a special tool and can’t remember what his first storage thought was.

The cyberneticist Gregory Bateson famously said: “Always tie your ideas with slipknots.” Work systems are ideas that should be similarly tied. It’s great to think through the systems of your shop, tweak your workflow, and apply the wise thinking of others (e.g. Savage’s First Order Retrievability), but don’t kid yourself that these ideas will apply 100% of the time or in all situations.

Maker Slang

Technical terms, jargon, and slang from the realms of making.

Chase - In construction, a channel inside the walls of a building or a conduit outside of it used to protect and deliver wiring and pipes for plumbing, electrical, and other services.

Nadiral shading - Dark shading of an object from the bottom up. The opposite of zenithal shading, which is the light-shading of an object from the top down. Both techniques are used a lot in miniature painting.

Premature sheen - Term used by architect Rem Koolhaus to describe his fear that new technologies often make things look slicker, better designed, and more well thought out than they really are.

Toothing up - (or “toothing”) – Roughing up a surface to add texture/bite so that a paint or other finish will have more material to grab on to.

Notable Quotables

“You can never have enough woodworkers telling you you can never have enough clamps” – Dave Picciuto

Superior benefits of wood

Reverence for Wood, $9 Eric Sloane, 1965, 112 pages

Wood was the plastic of the previous era. Better than plastic today it could be found for free, and re-grew itself. This thin beautiful book is a quick orientation to the merits and features of wood. It begins with trees and ends in tools and materials. Should you appreciate the old-timey ways of working with wood, and how these skills shaped early America, as author and artist Eric Sloane does, his sketches will suggest many ways to use and reconsider wood today. – KK

• Charcoal during the 1800’s was used for many things other than making iron. People cleaned their teeth with it. Although the first results may look ghastly, there is actually nothing more beneficial for teeth than charcoal powder. Swallow some of it? Also good; there is nothing better for upset stomach. It even sweetens the breath. If you want to purify water or remove an offensive odor from anything, use charcoal. Sailors used to throw burnt muffins into their water supply when it became stale or smelly; meat packers used to pack their meats in charcoal. Ice was stored in charcoal, gunpowder was made with it; printer’s ink, black paint, medicines even highways were made form it. In 1865 someone dreamed up this idea, thinking that since charcoal is the longest lasting of materials, a road made of it would be very durable. Timber was piled along the middle of the road and burned right here; then the charred material was raked out and tamped down.

Unusual hand tools

Garrett Wade, garrettwade.com

This is my favorite source for hard to find tools. Garrett Wade has been around since 1975 as a mail order company selling fancy woodworking tools, but in recent years they offer a marvelous selection of hand and speciality tools of all types. They still have the best selection for wood planes and the classic woodworking stuff, but it’s their stock of cool and unusual pliers and saws and drill bits and fantastically weird clamps that make it worth a visit. The modern version of the Yankee screwdriver is a Garrett Wade bestseller. In general their prices are on the high side compared to say discounters like Harbor Freight, but quality is usually up a notch as well (and their prices seem better on the web). They produce a paper catalog, which some folks like. Often a great idea begins with the possibilities suggested by the existence of a tool. – KK

Woodsman’s Pal With Leather Handle

Standard US Army issue since 1941. Weighs less than 1-½ lbs. If you only work one-handed, this will feel like an extension of your arm.

Very Special Pliers

A modeler’s sail rigger tool so unusual, it is really useful for everyone.

Imagine having to reach into a very tight space in order to grab something small. Ordinary grippers will be useless, but this unusual tool has its hinge placed way down at the end of a 3” long bent arm. The small mouth opens up 1/4” and will grab whatever you need to retrieve. You’ll soon find yourself reaching for it in a variety of situations, and will be mighty glad you have it. Made in India.

This year (2023), our humble Cool Tools blog will be 20 years old. We’ve posted something new everyday for 20 years! That is only possible because of the engaged and knowledgeable readers of this site. You have kept this place going with your enthusiasm and support for reader-generated positive reviews of cool stuff. Thank you!

Now that we are a young-adult, we’d like to open an invitation to our readers to join me, Kevin Kelly, on our Cool Tools Show and Tell video podcast. If you feel you’d make a good guest on the podcast and have four uncommon tools you’d love to share, then please sign up here.  You must be comfortable talking on video, and have some of your tools at hand to show. (We record audio and video on Zoom.) Use this form to supply your name, your four favorite uncommon tools, and their links to a source.

Applications are not automatically guaranteed a slot on the podcast. We’ll consider each application based on whether the tools have been reviewed before, and how appropriate they are to the site, and how many slots for readers remain.

We welcome readers from any part of our diverse world, although any tool recommended must be currently easily available online in the US. I know that our readers are often just as interesting and informed as most of our past guests. Also, if you are a long-time reader you will realize our definition of tool is very broad — any thing handy or useful. So surprise us!  — KK

Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, but the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

Streaming technical classes

Lynda.com, $25 (one month subscription) I don’t know about you but I need constant reminders on how to use complex software packages such Photoshop, Wordpress, FinalCutPro, or InDesign (which I am using at this moment). I am a binge user, immersed deeply during a project, then a month later I’ve forgotten even basic commands. If I did programming, I’d need the same refreshers. Searching YouTube is great for narrow tips, but I often need structured lessons on how to accomplish basic things. I’ve also learned that I remember much more from online video tutorials than I do from guidebooks. Must be how my brain works. So for the past 8 years I’ve subscribed to Lynda off and on. Lynda began as Lynda Weinman making videos teaching web design but is now a collection of 2,000 courses, with an astounding 100,000 tutorials, for mastering software packages of any type. I can find a series of lessons begining with newbie introductions up to advanced shortcuts for almost any software package alive. I can watch, re-watch without limit. Besides the publishing software I use, Lynda is big on tutorials for programming languages (Python, MySQL, HTML5), specialized ware (Finale, Matlab, Maya, ProTools), and your common office packages. At $25 per month, or $250 per year, it ain’t cheap, but it’s powerful and a time-saver. I subscribe during a project when we need help the most, and let it go in between. Also it’s all streaming, no dowloads. Log in from anywhere, any device, but only one at a time, so I share my account with my son, who is constantly learning new software. A fair number of their videos are free as enticements for the rest of the course. They have apps for attending on tablets and phones, and group discounts for classrooms. For lifelong learners in a digital world, Lynda is a must. – KK

How to do research

Networking on the Network, Free I know of no better guide to becoming a researcher than this book, which exists only online. Written by a professor to help his PhD students learn how to network and develop their professional skills, it is great advice for anyone who wants to create a place for themselves in the information economy. It’s all about finding, feeding, and harvesting networks of other like-minded folks, and growing your own distinctive node. While the author naturally focuses on how academia works, there is enough valuable wisdom here for anyone doing original research (and you should!) — whether corporate, journalistic, or part-time blogging. – KK You are not choosing which network to join; rather,you are creating a new network of your own. If this seems like a lot of work, think of it as shopping: the library is a giant department store, and you are shopping for professional colleagues. Accumulate a “long list” of potential colleagues. Study their work and learn from it. Figure out what elements your work has in common with theirs. Then practice explaining your research in a way that puts those elements in the foreground and the other elements in the background. The general formula is “I’m interested in [elements you have in common with the person you’re talking to], and to this end I’m studying [elements that you don’t have in common with them]“. For example, “I’m interested in how teachers adopt computers, and to this end I’m conducting an ethnographic study of some grade-school teachers’ strategies for including computers in their lessons”, or “I’m doing ethnographic research on people adopting computers, and my fieldwork concerns grade-school teachers …”. Now you are ready to build a community for yourself that includes relevant people from several different research areas. These people will be like spokes in a wheel, of which you are the hub. In working through this exercise, you are already encountering two fundamental principles of professional social life, both of which will recur throughout this article. The first one was already well-known in classical rhetoric, and I will call it “articulating commonalities”. The point here is to develop relationships with people. And relationships are founded on commonalities. These commonalities might include shared values, shared research topics, shared goals, or anything else of a professional nature that you might share with someone. To articulate a commonality means formulating language for it. It is especially important to put your publications on your Web site. This can be difficult, given that publishers generally ask you to sign over your copyrights. But even when this happens, you can still amend the copyright form with a marginal phrase like “I retain the right to post the paper on my Web site”. Here is the procedure: (a) choose someone you wish to approach and read their work with some care; (b) make sure that your article cites their work in some substantial way (in addition to all your other citations); (c) mail the person a copy of your article; and (d) include a low-key, one-page cover letter that says something intelligent about their work. If your work and theirs could be seen to overlap, include a concise statement of the relationship you see between them. The tone of this letter counts. Project ordinary, calm self-confidence. Refrain from praising or fawning or self-deprecation or cuteness or making a big deal out of it — you’re not subordinating yourself to this person; you’re just passing along your paper. Don’t sound like you’re presupposing or demanding that you’ll get a response. Try a formula such as, “If you should happen to have any comments, I would be most interested to hear them”. A good final sentiment for your letter is, “Will you be at such-and-such conference?”.

Search 72,000 libraries

WorldCat, Free WorldCat is a publicly accessible online interface to the holdings of all types of libraries throughout the world: currently 72,000 libraries in 170 countries. Tell it what book you’re looking for and your zip code or city, and it will pinpoint the nearest library that has the book. Same goes for magazines and journals, video and audio formats. The ability to locate an obscure book is invaluable; but it’s also tremendously useful for anyone living in a region with more than one nearby library. California’s Bay Area is blessed with an abundance of excellent public and academic library systems and a majority of them are represented in WorldCat, so in my case, it’s a real time saver (I do a lot of sleuthing). The database was originally accessible only by taking a trip to the library, but in 2004, the nonprofit Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) built this interface. Beyond the core location service, WorldCat provides many other helpful services and resources, like citation exporting, list making, and text samples. I haven’t explored these options much, but you can use it to build your own private or public indexes of titles and to search public lists created by other users. You can even read and write reviews of materials – yes, you can actually write in the library catalog! And if you decide you’d actually prefer to purchase the item, there are Amazon and WorldCat purchase links (a portion of every WorldCat sale goes toward supporting a local library of your choosing or to the OCLC). You’ll need to create a WorldCat account to take advantage of these features, but account creation goes really quickly and it’s free. You can obtain WorldCat results in your preferred search engine by appending the term “WorldCat” to your search. Preceding your query with the phrase “find in a library” also works very well in Google and Yahoo. In my own experience, I’ve found these methods to work best in conjunction with titles or author names. WorldCat also offers a number of browser toolbar extensions and plug-ins to help facilitate searches. Alternatively, you can simply go directly to the WorldCat web site and use it like you would any individual library’s catalog. Search on title/author/keyword/etc., browse by topic or other citation linkages. Item pages consist of basic bibliographic data formatted out like a virtual catalog card, and below that you’ll find a set of tabs with the holding libraries information, more detailed bibliographic data, subject links, editions and reviews. Finding the exact edition of a book can be a bit tricky, and so can finding an alternative edition that may be even closer to you, so the “Editions” tab is critical. Overall, OCLC does a pretty good job of rolling duplicate catalog entries together, but you do need to watch out for alternate spellings of titles. The library links from the item page will take you to into the holding library’s OPAC (online public access catalog). You might land on the item page for that work or you might find yourself at the main catalog page for that library. Responsibility for providing accurate “deep links” to item pages falls to the participating library. I have occasionally found that after following a link for a holding library, I end up at a catalog page that says something along the lines of “Your item would be here.” At this point, I go ahead and re-enter my title in the library’s search box on that page and more often than not the item does appear in the catalog. I’m not sure why this happens, but I suspect it may have something to do with links changing or out of date record numbers being used. This is, admittedly, very frustrating, but because the item usually does end up being in the catalog I continue to be a fan of WorldCat. It’s really an excellent resource for all users of various types of libraries with broadly ranging information needs. And its main purpose of connecting patrons with materials housed in libraries near them is further supplemented by new and growing userspecific and community-based features. I couldn’t get along without it. I also look forward to watching the project continue to evolve. – Camille Cloutier Hartsell

20-volume lexicon in one

Compact Oxford English Dictionary, $73+ The classic, Compact OED is a smaller, handy version of what is the best English dictionary, bar none, the famous OED. Because it’s photo-reduced, it contains the entire OED, all 20 large volumes in one convenient reference (it comes with a reading glass). Aside from saving space on your shelf, it’s also significantly cheaper. It’s quite large, but you could definitely fit it in a regular backpack, if you’re a student or need to transport it (although it is about 10 pounds!). I’ve been using it for 3 years now, at least twice a week for general queries, as I enjoy discovering and using obscure words and I also often look up words and dive into etymology as part of my Wikipedia editing. For example, recently I used my OED to look up an archaic usage of the word “quaint”. Apparently Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” makes use of the old meaning where “quaint” also refers to female anatomy. Who knew?! – Gwern Branwen

https://youtu.be/5Yah5tlxVR4

Aaron Dignan is the Founder of The Ready and Murmur, author of Brave New Work and a forthcoming book on agreements, co-host of Brave New Work podcast, friend to misfit toys everywhere.

TOOLS:
0:00 - Intro
1:02 - Jasper AI
9:41 - Cadence capsules
13:21 - Killspencer backback
17:56 - Sunsama task organizer
25:11 - Murmur

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

Take That Last Trip to Indonesia Now…
Bali was already getting bad press this year for pollution and traffic issues but the Indonesian legislature is determined to turn the clock back a century and make the nation even less desirable. They’re banning sex outside of marriage, outlawing criticism of government leaders, and more. You’ve got three years before the prosecutions start.

Top Flight Searches for 2022
Google Flights released its top 10 searches for 2022 from the USA, following years of closed borders, and there were a few surprises. London and Paris were predictable in the top 3, but #2 was Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The two largest Indian cities made the list, as did nomad hotspot Lisbon. Apparently Americans were ready to dust off their passport: NYC was the only domestic destination (at #10), while Toronto and Vancouver both beat it out.

Schengen Zone Changes
The score was 2-1. No, not Croatia over Brazil in the World Cup, but rather two countries being denied entry into the Schengen Zone and Croatia getting the yes vote. This is a relative win for nomads and remote workers from outside the EU, like a sigh of relief. It leaves Bulgaria and Romania open as countries to travel to that won’t count toward your three-month limit in Europe before you have to leave for at least 90 days.

A Very Special Gift for Travelers
If you’re looking for something truly memorable to give your favorite international traveler this year, check out Vanishing Asia, the lush photo book set from Nomadico co-founder Kevin Kelly, with the best shots from his days of backpacking through Asia in the 1970s. Make sure your recipient has a home base though: this 3-volume coffee table book box weighs in at 30 pounds!

Sign up here to get What’s in my NOW? a week early in your inbox.

Matt Nichols is a transportation planner who has worked in shared mobility, equity, and climate planning in the San Francisco Bay Area to improve cities for people with disabilities, pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users. Matt spends the rest of his time volunteering for the Bay Area Childcare Collective and making drawings, songs, and jokes. Most conversations will include personalized graphic novel recommendations at no extra charge.

PHYSICAL

CLC Ultraflex Kneepads
A couple of us helped a friend with some grunt work at his coffee roastery. As thanks, he bought us all these CLC Ultraflex Kneepads. I’ve tried those foam and elastic “volleyball”-style pads, but they just don’t work well for gardening or carpentry. These, I can wear these all day. I really do kneel and crawl around the veggie patch in comfort now. Total game-changer.

Moment Lens
I love photography on my iPhone 12, but I love it even more with my Moment 58mm Telephoto Lens. It does require a special phone case, and it can be a little awkward to keep it at the ready on hikes. But the lens quality feels really good, and the extra zoom pays off repeatedly in my casual birdwatching and amateur photography.

Rock Against Racism T-Shirt
The amazing 2019 documentary “White Riot” sent me searching for this retro design - and the folks at the U.K.-based T-shirt store, Red Molotov, came through. They have a ton (tonne?) of British references that I don’t understand, but this one, in the original pink and green, is fun, powerful and (sadly) timeless.

DIGITAL

Reddit’s r/Contagious Laughter
People busting up. Simple premise that reliably delivers high-quality joy bombs. Besides the obvious pleasure, I just love dropping in on such a wild diversity of people’s lives at their funniest. People play internet challenges I’ve never heard of, try (and fail) to keep a straight face, snort accidentally, or listen to their daft granny tell a naughty joke, etc. You just never know. Medical-grade mood booster stuff.

Robert Christgau’s Music Reviews
He’s old and white, he writes some really convoluted sentences. And no one reads music reviews or buys music anymore. But here’s the thing: this old guy’s one-paragraph reviews (with letter grades) are a laser-guided guide to great music. If algorithmic music is enough for you, that’s cool. But if you want dense writing that’ll lead you to the top shelf stuff, here’s your favorite professor. Rock, pop, African music, African-American music, rap, Americana/country and more. I subscribe to his Substack, but you can find recent reviews on his website.

INVISIBLE

• Certainty is the opposite of thinking; I’m certain of it. — Sarah Manguso, 300 Arguments
• I think I’ll just let the mystery be. — Iris Dement
• Militant Agnostic: I Don’t Know, and You Don’t Either — bumper sticker

Gareth’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales is published by Cool Tools Lab. To receive the newsletter a week early, sign up here.

And the winner of this year’s tips and tools bundle is: GREG HAYES! Greg wins my two tips books (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2), the Williams ratcheting screwdriver, the Canary cardboard cutter, and a plastic razor blade. Thanks to all who signed up new readers. I got a nice little bump from it.

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What were your favorite tips and tools from this past year? Please share with us!

My Favorite Newsletter Tips of 2022

Over on Boing Boing, I posted my annual round-up of favorite tips from this newsletter. You can see all of those tips here. Below are my top five. BTW: Here are my tips round-ups for 2019, 2020 (part 1 and part 2), and 2021.

Using Bits of Left Over Molding Rubber to Volumize New Molds

In this Robert Tolene video, he offers a tip for saving on molding materials. He calls it “dunkin’ chunkies” — he cuts old mold pieces into small chunks and adds them into a new mold pour (in the areas where they won’t interfere with the object being molded).

Using a Shop Towel to Constrain Snipped Bits

From a Pask Makes video: When cutting/nipping bits of metal or other material that might fly away, line up your cut and then cover the workpiece with a towel before doing the cutting. This will prevent the waste pieces from flying all over your work area.

A Web App for Creating Project Boxes

Via Bob Clagett’s I Like to Make Stuff: MakerCase is a free web app that allows you to design boxes and project cases that can then be laser- or CNC cut. Once you’re satisfied with your design, MakerCase turns the model into an SVG or DXF file that can be sent to a laser cutter or CNC router.

Put Screws Back When Disassembling

Via this Tested video from Adam Savage: In disassembling parts you’ll be reassembling, rather than storing the hardware somewhere and then trying to remember where it all goes back, temporarily hand-screw it into the threaded part of the piece for safe keeping.

Animations of 75 Different Knots

Via the Tools for Possibilities newsletter comes this amazingly useful resource. I don’t know about you, but seeing these knot animations immediately makes me want to grab a rope and go to lashing school.

Favorite Tools of 2022

Here are some of my favorite tool mentions from the newsletter this year.

Recommended by reader Emory Kimbrough: Titmus SW09R Livewire sealed glasses – they combine ANSI-rated impact protection with dust seals, a removable head strap that creates an even better seal against sneaky dust, and keeps the glasses from slipping down or slipping off at a bad moment. Finally, these were available with progressive lenses and in my strong prescription. Got mine with good customer service and prompt shipping from safetygearpro.com.

On the subject bit drivers, reader KokoTheTalkingApe, chimed in: “My favorite is the Wiha Ultra Driver. It stores 13 double-ended bits in the handle, so it has 26 tips. The bits are stored in two rotating carousels that fan open when you pull them out. I don’t usually like proprietary bits, but these have held up well and replacements are readily available. The bitholder locks onto the bit. Made in Germany. Not ratcheting.”

In discussing tool bags, newsletter reader cccrews recommended the Klein Tools 24" leather tool bag. They also point out that there are much cheaper canvas versions of these bags.

Via Stumpy Nubs came this brilliant idea of wrapping your tool handles in stretchy, grippy hockey tape.

The iFixit electronics driver set is well thought out and designed, solidly built, with 64 bits of every configuration you’re likely to encounter: Slotted, Phillips, Torx, Torx Security, Square, Pentalobe, Hex, five nutdrivers, and more. There is also a flex extension shaft and the lid acts as a small parts sorting tray.

Mentioned in newsletter 118, at only $119, the Craftsman 7-¼" cordless circular saw is amazingly good for the price.

In issue 122, I included testing of folding knives by Todd at Project Farm. The surprise knife was the Kingmax at an amazing price of $13. And from an earlier Project Farm knife test: Smith & Wesson ($15.50).

This was the year I finally fell in love with Carhartt work shirts. Don’t know what took me so long. Also available in women’s sizes.

Need mechanical shop pencils? You want a FastCap FatBoy.

Maker Slang for 2022

I rounded up all of the content from the maker jargon and slang columns this year and did a Boing Boing post. You can see the entire list here. And last year’s list here.

Support This Newsletter, Buy My Merch

If you’re looking for great gift ideas for any maker on your shopping list, consider my two Amazon best-selling tips books (Volume 1, Volume 2). They are filled with tips on things like cutting, gluing, fastening, painting, finishing, electronics, soldering, 3D printing, hobby tips, and much more. The books are designed to appeal to DIYers of all skill levels and interest areas.

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Mindfully curated Recomendos
My personal recommendations always lean more toward mindfulness and productivity hacks, and a lot of what I’ve shared with you are daily habits which have significantly improved my quality of life. So I went back in time to pull my own essential recomendos and I put them in a paperback book called Reco•mind•o: Mindful Recomendos for Life and Work ($14, 120 pages). It has less products to buy and more tips on how to be a better human. It is now available on Amazon and should arrive before Christmas. — CD

Cheap dent repair
Repairing even a small dent in a car to its immaculate like-new condition is very expensive. But a new technique called PDR, can bring it back to a good-enough state. This Paintless Dent Repair (PDR) uses hot glue to attached grips to the outside in order to pull out the dent to its former shape, and then buffs out any scrapes, without taking panels off or repainting. This hand craft requires decent skill but only minimal tools so lots of small-time mobile practitioners outside of a body shop use it. Of course you can also buy a beginner’s PDR Kit for $35 and try it yourself with help from YouTube. Otherwise, if you have a dent or ding without paint damage, google “PDR near to me” for local service. — KK

Interactive Game Theory tutorial
You’ve probably heard of the Prisoners’ Dilemma, a scenario in two prisoners independently decide whether to cooperate or betray each other in order to minimize their own punishment. The best strategy for a single game is to betray the other player. But what happens if you have to repeat the scenario over and over again with the same prisoner? The betrayal strategy will fall short of other strategies, such as tit-for-tat. This website, called The Evolution of Trust, is an exciting way to learn about game theory, trust, and human behavior. — MF

Holiday wishlist for the creative-minded
Our Cool Tools Lab colleague Camille Hartsell put together a holiday wishlist of unique writing instruments and other crafty things. I really want this “fine line” painting pen and this hardcover journal with super thick paper. — CD

Minimal Teflon
Something new worth worrying about: PFAS. Basically non-stick coatings like Teflon, but on many containers, and not just in food, but also in drinking water, etc. In this video Adam Ragusea does a hard look at the early science on these very hardy and persistant molecules. We’re converging on something similar to Adam: one Teflon pan, used sparingly. — KK

Natural language music playlist
Use this website to describe the kind of music you want and it will generate a Spotify playlist for you. I entered “1966 psychedelic garage rock for AM radio” and loved the 100 songs it found for me. I also entered “melancholy yet strangely optimist music for the last person alive on a dying earth” and got another 100 amazing songs, most of which were new to me. This is a great way to discover music you might otherwise miss. — MF

— Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, Claudia Dawson

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

Gifts That Travelers Actually Want
Yeah I know, every blogger and her brother does some kind of “gifts for travelers” post over the holidays, but these from me are different, promise. No aromatherapy candles or goops, just items that will actually get used and some under-$25 ones to consider, including a few that we’ve featured in this newsletter.

Geography Misconceptions
Even the savviest world traveler will probably find a few beliefs upended in this beautiful Misconceptions world map presentation. A few that might blow your mind: 1) All of South America is east of Jacksonville, FL. 2) The northern coast of Africa is at roughly the same latitude as Norfolk, VA.

Caravans of Americans Headed to Mexico
In a surprise to nobody except news outlets, the Mexican government noted that a record number of Americans applied for and received residency this year in the first nine months, up 85% over 2019. Putting the media chatter in perspective though, it was less than 9,000 people, which is probably Tuesday’s customer count for a busy Mexico City taco stand.

Saving the Planet by Train Trips
What if your travel choices had to be environmentally friendly? What if the answer to, “I need to get there quickly” was “Too bad.”? That question is now in the public discussion in France thanks to a ban on short-haul flights designed to make you take the power-efficient train.

Rob Ray is an artist, Associate Professor of Design at California State University, San Bernardino, and a senior technical experience designer at Electronic Arts. Previously, Rob was a senior designer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he led human-centered design for ProtoSpace, the Lab’s collaborative mixed reality (MR) platform. His website is shimmeringtrashpile.com. You can find him online here.

PHYSICAL

Panasonic RQ-2102 Cassette Recorder
I have been recording a few minutes of my thoughts each morning into my Panasonic RQ-2102 Cassette Recorder. My recorder lives next to my coffee maker, so I can record while the coffee is being made. The RQ-2102 is straightforward to use. It has a built-in microphone, so I can press the REC and PLAY buttons and just start talking. The recorder can be powered with four “C” batteries or a wall plug. I don’t like buying C batteries, so I use rechargeable AA batteries with those little plastic AA-to-C battery adapters, which work great. These recorders are popular in elementary schools, which makes them easy to obtain off of eBay for about 20 dollars + shipping. Some even have great “Property of” stickers on them! Blank tapes are easy to find on Amazon and eBay.

Hagoromo Fulltouch Chalk
Hagoromo Fulltouch Chalk describes itself as the “Rolls Royce of Chalk.” I’m not so sure about that, but I do really enjoy using it. Hagoromo chalk sticks have excellent density and rigidity while also writing very smoothly. There are many excellent vibrant colors to pick from, but I stick to white. Ten sticks of chalk cost about twelve dollars. It makes me feel smart when I use it.

Visualizing Complexity: Modular Information Design Handbook
I’m a design professor, so I can’t resist recommending at least one design book! Nicole Lachenmeier and Darjan Hil’s excellent “Visualizing Complexity: Modular Information Design Handbook” will delight designers and design-adjacent humans such as cartographers and data scientists. The book shares 80 simple approaches for clearly communicating information-dense ideas. Now when I bike or drive around my town, I find myself taking apart the information design systems used to create road signage and user interfaces.

DIGITAL

Metatext
I find the Mastodon platform to be a fun way to meet people and have conversations. I quite like that a person’s local Mastodon server can be a mini-community with unique energies and enthusiasms within the larger “fediverse.” There are many excellent mobile apps for using Mastodon. My favorite so far is the open-source Metatext client created for the iPhone by Justin Mazzocchi. It makes switching between the Home, Local and Federated feeds very easy.

QGIS
QGIS is an open-source GIS system for manipulating map data. I’m not a GIS expert, but I enjoy pulling in Open Street Map information into QGIS and making my own maps. QGIS is a bit intimidating at first, but there are many blog posts and youtube videos that make it easier to get going. In my experiments with QGIS, I have discovered it can be really fun to take a map and liberate the buildings, bodies of water, and streets by giving them more imaginative names. I recently renamed “Niagara Falls” to “Is the Fame Worth Dying in this Barrel? Falls.” Making your own little map is a great introduction to more elaborate world-building creativities.

INVISIBLE

“Even professional writers have days when they’d rather clean the toilet than do the writing.” — Octavia E. Butler

Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, but the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

Best DIY instrument how-to

Here are three great guides for making your own musical instruments. Advantages of making your own: 1) Personalized, 2) Cheaper, 3) Types no one else sells, 4) Satisfaction of making. There is not much overlap of instruments featured between these three books. The coolest of the three guides is Making Gourd Musical Instruments. It has very explicit step-by-step instructions for making 60 instruments using lightweight gourds as the sound amplifiers. Gourds enable wind, string and percussion instruments – so you could make an entire orchestra. This book has the most variety of musical options and great examples of world-wide traditional instruments for inspiration. If you can get only one of these three books, this should be it.

Making Musical Instruments by Hand is a good guide for making instruments from wood and wood veneers. Their builds are a little more complex resulting in instruments that may look more “professional.” They require a bit more skills and tools, although none out of the ordinary.

But if you are making your own instruments, why not make ones that have never existed before? Sound Designs, an older book, lays out helpful hints for making 50 different unorthodox instruments using salvage materials. It stresses innovative interpretations: how about oxygen bottles for bells, or electrical conduit xylophones? Its intent is to encourage you to not just make your own musical instruments, but to invent them as well. – KK

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Search everything instantly
Swurl.com is a web search engine that is optimally designed for mobile. It instantly searches Google, LinkedIn, Instagram, Amazon, YouTube, Images, News and Reddit, and all results are viewed by scrolling or swiping — no clicking. Definite timesaver. — CD

3 rules for gift giving
This article “How to become a truly excellent gift giver” has some great advice for gift-giving, including 3 questions to consider when gift-giving. “Can I introduce someone to something they might not otherwise know about? Can I get them a nicer version of something than they would buy for themselves? Or can I make them feel seen?” Another helpful trip is to write a mini-bio of the recipient to help you hone in on their enthusiasms and interests. — CD

Cheap collapsible selfie stick
I bought the ​​Ustine Portable Selfie Stick Tripod for $8 to take better selfies of my wife and myself while traveling. It exceeded my expectations. It has a detachable bluetooth button on the handle that makes it easy to take photos and video. It extends from 7 inches to 22 inches. And it has tripod legs so I can set it on the ground and take photos from farther back. I wish I’d gotten it sooner. — MF

Fun incremental game: Progress Knight
I had fun playing the “incremental games” A Dark Room and Universal Paperclips a few years ago, and someone recently recommended Progress Knight. (There are a lot of different versions available for web and mobile; search to find one that works on your computer or device.) You start the game as a beggar with few skills or resources, and by wisely allocating your time and money, you try to level up as much as you can in the 70 years allotted to you. Once you die, you can start again with an added experience boost. — MF

Best shoe store
I’ve noticed that shoe stores have fewer and fewer styles or sizes. Their selections are particularly slim for anything not trendy. I’ve gone back to Zappos, the online shoe store, because they have fantastic choices in all sizes and widths. I order a bunch of variations at once, to get the perfect fit, and they make it super easy to return the unused for free. Despite this apparent inefficiency in shipping to and fro, in the end, Zappos is the most efficient way for me to find the kind of untrendy (and wide) shoes I like. — KK

Best of Recomendo
We are proud that we’ve published Recomendo every week for the past 6 years. It’s free, but not cheap. You can show your support for our service by forwarding an issue you enjoyed to a friend, or sharing your support on the socials with a link. We also still have copies of the “best of” Recomendo book (2020) which makes a great holiday gift, with over 1,000 of our best recomendos. — KK

— Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, Claudia Dawson

https://youtu.be/t7YfJJ4FOKM

David Spira is a user experience and product designer, and a general maker of things, as well as the co-founder of RoomEscapeArtist.com. 

TOOLS:
0:00 - Intro
1:19 - Silicone Stove Counter Gap Cover
5:32 - Custom wax seals and Vintage Sealing Glue
12:50 - Descript editing software
18:52 - The Light in the Mist card-based game
23:57 - Reality Escape Pod

Nabhan Islam is a Medical Science Liaison (MSL) in the biopharmaceutical industry. When not behind his desk or traveling for conferences, you will find him hiking or visiting UNESCO sites according to a well-defined bucket list. His other interests include good design, ultralight gear, coffee, gin, sci-fi, video games, and cycling.

Physical
Mountain Hardwear Ghost Whisperer Hoody
Years later, I’m still amazed by the performance and versatility offered by my Mountain Hardwear Ghost Whisperer Hoody. It offers enough warmth for a windy summit bid, making coffee on a crisp morning, or stargazing at 1am, but isn’t heavy, bulky, or restrictive. The wispy shell fabric is windproof and none the worse for wear despite carrying firewood and the occasional bushwhack. The warranty is solid too. The insert pin sheared off during my last hike, and Mountain Hardwear replaced the entire zipper free of charge. This is one of the first items I pack for any 3-season hike and I can’t imagine my outdoor life without it. Just an amazing piece of kit.

BiKASE Bottle Cage
I’m particularly adverse to the plasticky taste imparted by LDPE, but non-cycling water bottles don’t fit well in standard bottle cages. It was a ridiculous catch-22 situation until I discovered the BiKASE ABC bottle cage. ABC stands for Any Bottle Cage, which is made possible by an adjustable retention strap. Now I’m able to use my bottle of choice, a 710mL Nalgene with a capCAP. According to the specs, you can fit up to a 1L Nalgene or similar bottles from Hydro Flask, Yeti, etc. I have noticed the ratcheting mechanism has scratched my Tritan-based Nalgene, which doesn’t bother me, but it’s worth noting if you want to keep your bottle in pristine condition.

LG Portable Air Conditioner
The increasing frequency and severity of heat waves in North America has sharply demonstrated how important home A/C is going to be to our physical well-being for the foreseeable future. What makes this model unique is the use of a variable-speed compressor, which adjusts performance based on the ambient temperature. As a result, the compressor can run continuously (no more on-off cycling), and is much quieter and energy efficient than a standard A/C. Compared to baseline use, running the A/C all day during this summer’s heat waves (approximately 1 week/month) only incurred an extra $10/month in electricity (YMMV). Highly recommended.

Digital
SiriusXM subscription
My car includes a complementary SiriusXM subscription, but I didn’t really explore the channels until this summer while on road trips in areas without cellphone or FM reception. In addition to the refreshing lack of commercials, I truly enjoyed (re)discovering music from my grade school and university days, some of which I haven’t heard in years or even decades. There will still be a place in my heart for FM radio and iTunes (namely areas without satellite reception, go figure) but I’m definitely hooked.

MSL Talk Podcast
This podcast is directly relevant to my line of work but likely quite esoteric to the general public. Nonetheless, you may find some topics relatable to other areas of the pharmaceutical industry or working for a large corporation in general. Tom has a pleasant personality and each episode is usually 30-40 minutes so it’s an easy listen during a commute or workout. Suggested episodes are #124 (story telling), #117 (core values), #95 (emotional intelligence), #93 (strengths-based psychology), and #80 (gratitude). Disclaimer: I have been a guest on the podcast but did not/do not receive any remuneration for my time or content.

Invisible
Expanding on “Thank you”
Severe weather events, COVID-19, mass shootings, political acrimony, ongoing wars, the plight of refugees, inflation… the last few years have been arduous for everyone. I need to thank my friends, family, co-workers, and front-line workers more often for helping to shoulder the burden of life in this new normal. It’s amazing how expanding a rote “thank you” to “that was very helpful, thank you for your advice” or “thank you for helping, I really appreciate your effort” can really brighten someone’s day and in turn improves your mood. Try it!

What’s in your NOW?

We want to know what’s in your now — a list of 6 things that are significant to you now — 3 physical, 2 digital and 1 invisible. 

If you’re interested in contributing an issue, use this form to submit: https://forms.gle/Pf9BMuombeg1gCid9

If we run your submission in our newsletter and blog, we’ll paypal you $25.

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Supremely comfortable pedal-wheels

Sun USX Recumbent Tricycle, $1,300+ The Sun EZ-3 USX is a human-powered, recumbent, three-wheeled vehicle. It engages me in a way that the Segway did not. I am amazed this product, what some call a “bent trike,” is not better known. The USX is the most comfortable human powered vehicle ever, more comfortable than many cars. It’s safe, practical, and affordable. I hate exercise but I find myself impatient to get my next chance to ride this thing. Riding the USX is eerie, because it feels like relaxing on a perfect easy chair and performing aerobic exercise at once. You can go fast or slow, and both are wonderful. You can load the thing with 450 total pounds. You can pull carts. Some riders have decked out USX’s with iPod sound systems and other amenities. You can get rain roofs and car hitches. There are some downsides. It’s heavy: 65 pounds. Going up hills is pleasant, but slower than on a bicycle. Some of the parts (bolts, screws, and bearings, in particular) are low-end and might need to be replaced sooner than you’d expect. It doesn’t come with some essential features, like rear view mirrors. (Mirrycle handlebar mirrors are the best after-market choice.) It’s hard to mount a front headlight. Some other upsides: Unlike a lot of bent trikes, the USX folds for easy transportation. I put it inside the back of our SUV instead of on a rack. Another big plus: you sit high enough to be noticed by car drivers, though I also added a flag and extra lights to err on the side of caution. Although it looks wide, and encourages cars to give more room than is commanded by bicyclists, it is actually narrow enough to roll through a standard door. You can stand it up on end so it takes minimal room when parked. You can just stop and rest while going uphill - it has a parking brake. There are lots of other bent trikes — dozens — but most are “performance-oriented” — made for athletes. Some of the athletic brands are Greenspeed, Catrike, and Windcheetah. I have tried some of them, and I think they are fun and interesting, but not what I want. They are expensive, very low slung (you’re practically on the ground while riding), and not so practical for non-athletes. What I want is something that’s super easy to get in and out of, that’s fun to sit on while standing still, that’s high up enough to be safe around cars, and that is fun to ride slow, while on the phone or catching up on treo email. I want something for life, not for sport, and there’s not much competition in this niche. There is another interesting comfort-oriented bent trike, the Hase Leupus, from Germany. The Leupus is lighter and made of higher-end parts, but is disproportionately more expensive. The seat isn’t as comfortable as the USX — though it does have better suspension. Hase also makes super light versions, including titanium models. The USX is available online. If you buy online, know that Sun ships the USX without the parts well-tightened. If you can afford it, it makes more sense to buy retail from a good local bike shop for about $1,300. The service will be very much worth it! – Jaron Lanier

Front wheel drive recumbent bicycle

Cruzbike Freerider, $1,195 Although it takes time to master the ride, the Cruzbike’s a blast once you do get the hang of it. It’s a front-wheel drive bike, so it gives you the comfort and speed of a recumbent without the long, long chain. The lack of chain in the rear makes it a perfect complement to the Xtracycle free radical sport utility bike, which is specifically why I bought the Cruzbike. I have the stock 65 psi tires on my Freerider now, but I’m thinking of upgrading to disc brakes and 100 psi tires to make it even more of a cargo-hauling truck. (As much as possible, I try to avoid driving a car entirely.) I first bought a recumbent in 2000, after testing several, and never looked back. I’ve ridden bikes like the EZ-1 and have four recumbents currently: a Rans Rocket (my first), a Rans tandem, a BikeE (for my wife) and the Cruzbike, which I bought last fall. The Cruzbike’s grip-shift handles the same as any other bike, and it takes hills pretty well for a ‘bent, albeit with the proviso that no ‘bent climbs as well as an upright because you can’t stand up on the pedals (a small price to pay for being able to ride for hours without feeling any pain and for having a pleasurable touring ride experience). It feels great to glide through the world with your head in a normal, comfortable position, at a comfortable height, instead of craning to see traffic. I find I’m faster because you are more aerodynamic than on an upright. Thus, it also takes less work to maintain the same speed. Even with the Xtracycle, the Cruzbike feels amazingly light. – John Gear

Inexpensive recumbent bicycle

EZ-1 SX Recumbent, $899 I recommend the cheap recumbent, EZ-1, designed by the makers of the classy Tour Easy touring recumbent. I ride a BikeE recumbent myself, but they went out of business. My bro has an EZ-1. They’re not the lightest, fastest, or coolest recumbent, but they have the ergonomics of a $1500 bike and are a blast to ride. They start at $900. The EZ-1 is a comfortable workhorse that lets you stay in the saddle for a *long* time. – Mark Crane

Lightweight tri-wheel bent

Greenspeed Trike, $2,390+ Although I’ve known about recumbents for years, until recently I had a prejudice against them. Whenever I observed middle- aged riders of two-wheeled recumbents obviously just getting started on regular daily exercise, they seemed unstable when starting to pedal from a dead stop. That led me to trying out a three-wheel tadpole trike, which allows you to remain in a stable, ready-to-ride position. Tadpoles have the two wheels in the front, one in back. Deltas have the two wheels in the back. After just two minutes riding a trike, I was addicted. The Greenspeed sits closer to the ground and is much lighter than most delta trikes — my GT3 weighs 37.5 lbs compared to the 65 lbs. of the previously- reviewed Sun USX. Unlike deltas, the tadpole provides a greater sense of the same freedom, speed and agility that people are used to on good upright bikes. My GT3 is much faster and infinitely more sporty and maneuverable than a delta. If deltas are sedans; tadpoles are the sport coupes. Sitting with one’s head upright enables you to enjoy your surroundings much more than on regular cycles. This is true of all recumbents, but for me, there’s something especially thrilling about a tadpole. Though all tadpoles whip around like human-powered go-carts, the Greenspeed has 16-inch wheels rather than 20-inch ones on most tadpoles. Thus, it has a much tighter turning radius and even more responsive steering. It’s also really fun to move along at a good clip that close to the ground. It’s worth noting that if you’re older and/ or fairly overweight, the Greenspeed can be harder to get in and out of than other tadpoles (again, it’s lower to the ground). Greenspeeds aren’t the cheapest tadpoles. Sun now makes fairly inexpensive tadpoles and that entry-level Catrike is a real deal. The new Greenspeed GT1 is more affordable than the GT3, but obviously the higher price brings with it better components and a noticeable difference in performance that I value. Throughout my 20’s and early 30’s I was an avid distance cyclist; indeed, one of the most life-affirming events in my life was touring cross country in 1978. That said, I always had discomfort in my neck, crotch and butt and developed some knee problems. Finally, in my late 30’s I started to have back problems that became stenosis and sciatica. I had to quit cycling. Until I discovered bent rides and the GT3, I thought I’d never ride again. Like many people my age (I’m 54), I have battled my weight. Having a significant gut makes riding traditional bikes that are meant to be quick, not feasible. Since starting to ride my GT3, I’ve lost 30 lbs and have been able to make good progress on a new routine of sensible eating that suits my body and age better. The machine motivates me greatly. During the summer, I rode nearly every day, ten to thirty miles. I’ve joined a gym to continue conditioning through the Minnesota winter before I begin bike touring again next year. – Curtis Wenzel

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Free photo colorizer
I use Palette to colorize my old black and white photos into fresh color ones. It’s a free webpage that uses AI. I tested it by feeding it black and white versions of color images I had and it is remarkably accurate. And even when it is not 100% precise, it will produce very pleasing images you can save. Instantly. For free. I’m going through my scrapbook now, updating grey ones to energetic colors, sometimes using Palette’s bright filter options. — KK

Ultralight trail running shoes + foam insoles
After a couple of years of walking five miles a day on my treadmill desk, my knees and feet were starting to feel worse for wear. I read Craig Mod’s recommendation for TSLA lightweight trail running shoes with a wide toebox and high-quality insoles and bought them. A month later, I’m pleasantly surprised that my knee and feet pain is gone. I just bought a second pair in another color because I don’t want to wear any other shoe. — MF

AI tools directory
Futurepedia.io is a great way to keep up with all the AI tools as they’re released and currently available in categories like Image, Text, Writing, Video, Design, etc. New tools are added daily and you can sort by New, Popular and Verified. There’s almost 1,000 tools listed as of now. — CD

Kevin’s wish list
I made my holiday gift wish list for Cool Tools. This year instead of selecting the best tools we discovered in the past 12 months, we are listing cool stuff we desire. So contrary to our usual process, we have no idea if what we wish for is actually any good. My wish list is here. If you have opinions about what I am wishing for, add them in the comments. — KK

Definitive list of good and bad apples
A highly opinionated ranked list of different apple varieties. I enthusiastically agreed with AppleRanking’s opinion of some apples (e.g., Red Delicious: “coffee grinds in a leather glove") and shaking my fist in objection at others (e.g., Fuji: “the taste of used sponge water and the consistency of the dirty leftovers it cleaned”). How does your favorite apple rank here? — MF

Snippets of wisdom
A collection of quotes I’ve come across in the last few months that I’m still thinking about. — CD

• Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. — Daniel Burnham
• Patience is not passive, on the contrary, it is concentrated strength. ― Bruce Lee 
• To attract something that you want, become as joyful as you think that thing would make you. — Martha Beck
• Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are. — Chinese proverb
• If we could see the whole truth of any situation, our only response would be one of compassion.” — Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

— Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, Claudia Dawson

This year we are doing something different for our holiday gift lists. Instead of carefully selecting some of the best tools and gifts that we own and can personally recommend, this time we are carefully listing things we don’t have but would like to get. This is a wish list. We’ve searched for uncommon gifts that seem wonderful, although contrary to the usual policy of this site, we don’t actually have any personal experience with the items on this list. If you do, leave some comments. — Editors

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Here’s what Mark Frauenfelder would like for the holidays.

OP-1 Synthesizer by Teenage Engineering
I've been dreaming about this $1300 synthesizer (top left) ever since it came out about seven years ago. It's tiny, but feature-packed (synth, drums, recording, mixer, EQ, effects). One person I know has written entire movie scores with it. Watch this demo on YouTube.

Leica D-LUX 7 4K Compact Camera
My iPhone 12 Mini is my camera, but if I had $1400 to spare, I’d buy the Leica D-LUX 7 (top right). I don’t know enough about photography to explain what makes it a great camera. I just like the way it looks, and I like the photos my professional photographer friends take with it.

RTX 3090 Graphics Card
I’m fascinated by AI art generators like MidJourney and Stable Diffusion. I would like to be able to run Stable Diffusion locally on my computer, but that requires a graphics card to do the heavy number crunching required. The RTX 3090 (bottom left) at about $1,500, would be great. For now, I’ll just keep using Google Colab credits and rely on cloud computing.

Apple Watch Ultra
I have a perfectly good Apple Watch Series 3, but since this is a wish list, I might as well add the $800 Apple Watch Ultra (bottom right) It has an appealingly chunky design, a larger display, and a much longer battery life than the one I own.