The Brooks Review

In browsing around tech-blog-land, I came across this post which I was naturally excited to see, despite the overall condescending nature of the title. I took a read and quickly realized the article was a pile of trash, so we start this week looking at that, before moving on to good tips, Nebo, and backpack sale.

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When I reviewed the Lum-Tec, I talked about what I am looking for in a watch, and truth be told I have tried to sell that Lum-Tec a couple of times, not because I dislike it, but because I wanted to try this watch. Luckily, I found this watch for a bargain price and thus I was able to keep both watches for the time being. This Gravitymaster is one I’ve been drooling over for quite some time.

And yes, we are really talking about a G-SHOCK.

Continue reading: Casio G-SHOCK GPW-2000 ‘Gravitymaster’

I’ve got a lot of random things to go over as it relates to apps today.

iPhone Home Screen Changes

Talking about your iPhone home screen used to be a thing, even on this site, but it’s been quite some time since I’ve talked about it. With the iPhone X I originally set up the device with 3 rows of apps and the dock. Recently though I changed that to 5 rows and the dock, or all but one row. I’d do the full screen of icons, but I really can’t figure out which others ones I would possibly want.

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A new brass pen, that uses a Space Pen refill and just might be far more durable than the Space Pen refills themselves — which is saying quite a bit. But it’s quite heavy, so let’s start by talking about that.

Continue reading: Machine Era Field Pen

There’s long been a development tool called “Charles” and in simple terms (as I understand it for you readers, not developers) it’s a way to see what you are sending over the network from software projects you are developing. Think of it as a way to debug where the problem lies in a piece of software (am I sending the wrong data, to the wrong place, or everything from the app is fine). Just a bit ago Charles Proxy came out for iOS, and it’s pretty amazing and terrifying at the same time.

What Charles for iOS allows you to do is to create a local VPN proxy, which sends all your network traffic on your device through the Charles app — thus allowing it to see everything sent, and record that for you. This data doesn’t leave your device, it’s not some remote server providing the logs, it’s all local. This is kind of like running Little Snitch on your Mac, except it’s a log and not a tool you can use to block stuff.

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The first thing we need to get out of the way is that this is a quartz watch. I wrote a bit about my evolving thinking about quartz versus mechanical watches, here. Basically, the lack of accuracy and the delicacy of mechanical movements can make bad options for watches when used particular ways. More than that, I wanted something which could be a better everyday watch, which can blend in many circumstances, while looking sharp.

This is where the Steinhart Ocean Vintage Military failed me: has lovely as the watch is, it really only worked with a couple NATO straps and the bracelet it came on. But it had one feature I didn’t want to lose: great lume on the hands and dials. I could read the time at 4am without squinting.

Continue reading: Lum-Tec B38 GMT

I’ve been talking about watches a bit recently, and will keep doing so for a bit longer, so I thought a quick post on what water resistance ratings mean to me would be handy to post.

The first thing to note is that no watch is really “waterproof” which is why you see the term “water resistant” and typically this is given in one of two metrics. As a pressure metric, 10bar/ATM (I’ve seen it both ways, no clue) water resistance, or as a depth, 100m water resistant. Both of those are the same (because of how watches are tested) what is being tested is how resistant the watch is to pressure from water. The deeper you go in the ocean, for example, the more pressure is being exerted on the watch.

Continue reading: Watch Water Resistance

Some apps are really starting to get good, and the tools are really shining through, let’s take another moment to talk about why most people don’t actually need anything more than an iPad Pro.

After all, what’s a computer?

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I’ve long been critical of two things: overly long blog posts, and podcasts. I’ve done both, to be clear, but I’ve come to realize that both of these things suffer from one core problem: a distinct lack of care.

If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter. – Someone, depending on who you ask

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Note: this backpack was sent to me for review purposes.

Aer has built a brand around well-designed, purpose-built, bags. From their excellent Travel Pack, to the hybrid EDC-Gym backpacks they are known for. They recently released a new line they are calling “Work Collection” which as the name implies is for those who need a bag for work, not for travel or gym/work. The designs in this collection stand out as they all utilize a coated nylon as a key feature.

The Tech Pack is the largest offering of this collection and is what we’ll be talking about today in a brief post as I’ve only had it a couple of weeks.

Continue reading: First Look: Aer’s Tech Pack

Some random musings and thoughts about air travel, which I have been observing over the last couple of years of travel for work and pleasure. Your mileage may vary.

Continue reading: Airlines and Airports

A popular post last week was from Farhad Manjoo, where he talked about his experience only reading newspapers for two months (or maybe not). In the article, Manjoo wonders how he can replicate something similar in a digital landscape — and this is more or less what I’ve been doing on my iPad. So let me detail how I got over my “all-the-news–right-now” addiction and moved to something much more manageable and sane.

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Note this bag was sent to me from Flowfold for the purposes of this review.

Despite my predilection for backpacks, I’ve always been a huge duffle bag nerd, and so when Flowfold asked if I wanted to try theirs out — I jumped at the chance. I typically use duffle bags in one of two settings: I need to check luggage when I fly, or I am traveling with my kids or wife. Or, I guess, “all of the above”.

Continue reading: Flowfold Conductor Limited – 40L Duffle Bag

Over the past couple of years I’ve been spending more time thinking about the tools I use at a deeper level of detail. One item I’ve been thinking about is watches — in part because of the Apple Watch and looking at how that distorts watches in general, but also because I’ve been generally unhappy with my current slate of watches to wear.

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I’ve been looking for a solid organizer to use in place of my other options for carrying everything in my EDC kits. The idea being that if I can keep my standard gear all in one thing then I can have only one set of gear. As it is right now, I keep an entire set of gear in each bag, since I don’t have an easy way to move it from bag to bag. Thus I either spend a lot of money buying the same gear, or I have one kit of gear which is my favorite and the other kits made up of lesser goods (which is the reality).

I’ve tried GORUCK Field Pockets and a few Maxpedition pouches, but today I take a look at Triple Aught Design’s latest offering the Context Organizer. The Context Organizer is fairly unique in this admin pouch realm, as it is expandable, able to hang with built in straps, and yet has tons of organization abilities in it. And it’s huge.

Continue reading: Triple Aught Design Context Organizer