The Brooks Review

When Benchmade launched this knife it was everywhere — the distinctive bright blue handle and silver blade. It was loud, and those buying it were even louder. Everyone loves it, the only complaint seemed to be that maybe the handle couldn’t survive (insert contrived extreme example not likely to occur). But the thing is, I resisted getting this knife because it was large, and despite people talking about the low weight, I was unconvinced I needed it.

Continue reading: Benchmade Bugout, Believe The Hype

This week: Quick Draft, get it; missing office work; distributed work; blogs; Mac and Windows users; a recommended clothing company.

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Simon Crompton writing for the style journal Financial Times:

The vogue for men’s bags has now hit full stride,” says Alessandro Sartori, creative director of menswear brand Berluti. “It has taken a decade to get here but bags are now an essential part of every menswear collection. Men carry them; we design them. They are everywhere.

Oh, hell to the yes.

Continue reading: Get a Purse, or ‘Man’ Bag, EDC Bag, Dad Bag, ‘Kit’ — It’s Highly Recommended

This week: Comparison tables; changes I think will stick; face masks; Magic Keyboard battery issues; GIPHY; a sweet duffle bag; and a knife review preview.

Reviews at The Wirecutter

It has been a while since I wrote about The Wirecutter, but they posted something interesting: how they make their selections for what they recommend. They use comparison tables to track everything and clearly see what product should be the winner.

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Note: These pants were sent to me at no charge for review.

One of the most popular items out there is to make performance denim — to take your standard blue jeans and tweak them somehow to make them better than denim. Ministry of Supply seems to have went for all of that, and then some with the Chroma denim. They claim: no color fade, ‘smart stretch’, and durable construction.

And, in my testing, I think they are on to something here.

Continue reading: Ministry of Supply Chroma Denim Pants

This week: retired Mac mini; Instacart thoughts; Shemaghs, buy some; long term remote work; copper touch tools.

Retired Mac mini

Back in 2012 I spun up a remote Mac Mini with Mac Stadium, and over the years I used the hell out of it. It was, for a very long time, the web server and email server for this website. At the time, it was so much faster than any hosting I could get.

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The new Ruck Plate carrier is sweet looking, I snagged one. The founder of GORUCK mentioned on Reddit that this is more of a conditioning tool for people and not really something to look at as a means for replacing the more expensive rucks. In other words, for most rucking activities a Ruck is better, but I am going to give this a go for my rucks.

Continue reading: New GORUCK Goods

The Garmin Instinct Tactical is the first “smart” watch I like. Actually, I like it a lot. Because this isn’t really what you would expect of a smart watch, this is more like a modern incarnation of what G-SHOCK should be building. This is worth talking about.

Continue reading: Garmin Instinct Tactical

This week: Magic Keyboard part two; Trackpad is the real story; give me a Magic KVM; Kondo; restaurants are really wanting to go out of business; and let’s not forget what it was like to be alone.

Magic Keyboard, Week 2

I spent the last week only using my Magic Keyboard to do all my work, and all my personal writing (which there wasn’t any of until the weekend this go around). A simple desk, with just a powerful tablet, Magic Keyboard — and then you know another iPad and a trackpad next to it so I could monitor the rapidness with which the world around me is changing.

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This Week: magic keyboard is here; pandemic gadget; Zoom; the end of life hacking; bad bosses take two.

iPad Magic Keyboard, Let’s Talk About It

Like many of you, I have spent the past few days reading hot takes from around the web about the iPad Magic Keyboard — is it good, is it worth nearly $400 for the 12.9” version (after you account for taxes)? Will I like it?

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