This week: why Apple lock in is a real issue, and how I’ve moved out of it in many areas.
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Leica Sofort 2June 13, 2024
Casio Duro MDV-106 Re-ReviewDecember 15, 2022
The Hype: Yoshida & Co’s Porter BagsAugust 26, 2025
Recent Articles
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Member Journal — 3/2/26
There’s a very large world of software, which likely fits your needs more specifically.
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Yoshida & Co Porter Tanker Sling Bag (previous generation)
This is my go to purse, and it’s fantastic.
A while back, I made a decision: I am going to carry a purse. I want to carry far more stuff than I can reliably (and easily) carry in my pockets. Even if I wore a jacket everyday, the annoyance of moving things from pocket to pocket wears on me. So I set about finding the purse I wanted to carry, and I picked up a previous generation of Porter’s Tanker Sling Bag — a small and compact pouch in the iconic fabric and design.
It’s supremely good, and the current generation only looks better.
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Cotopaxi Elqui 24 — Quick Thoughts
One of the best wallet saving daypacks you can get.
I’m a big fan of Cotopaxi’s coloring on their gear, and during an in-store event I snagged one if the most basic bags they sell, the Elqui 24. This is a daypack which has been designed to be minimal and lightweight. It’s quite a nice bag, offered at a staggeringly low price point.
I could see a lot of people liking this bag.
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‘Claude Code is the New Excel’
And it’s easier to use.
John Hwang:
But it will be harder to differentiate from Claude Code than it ever was to differentiate from Excel, because Claude Code is more general-purpose, more composable, more scalable, and improving every day, not at some release cycle cadence. UX is less meaningful when agent delivers outcomes. Thus, recent UX innovations are happening mostly for alleviating the pain of managing agent swarms, etc.
Great take, read it all
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Matador SEG28 — Quick Thoughts
Possibly the best onebag travel backpack on the market.
I’ve had been intrigued by this bag — a lot of people sing it’s praises, and it looks cool. It went on sale and I watched a couple of videos to discover that there’s more than meets the eye, so I picked it up.
It’s a very odd bag, which I would describe as “bizarrely good” within the niche of onebag travel. In fact, I would guess this is among the best onebag travel backpacks out there — certainly the best I’ve ever used.
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Oveja Negra Rincon Backpack – Quick Thoughts
A simple and fantastic backpack.
I snagged this backpack in person in Salida, CO where Oveja Negra is headquartered. There were quite a few in the store, though the website does not list this model (the staff also mentioned that they do not make many of these). This is a simple and minimal roll top backpack, and it’s killer looking.
My quick thoughts on this one…
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GORUCK Shadow Ruck 25
A couple of questionable decisions lead to a slightly confusing bag.
GORUCK has not produced Shadow Rucks for a while, and it’s the one classic bag from the brand I’ve never tried. So when they recently re-released them, I grabbed a 25L Shadow Ruck to try out. I’ve been using it off and on since then, and it is a really quirky bag.
It has its place, but that place is different than how GORUCk positions the bag.
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Now Available: Kosen Titanium VME Flashlight Mk.II
Could this be better than the best?
The best EDC light of 2025 gets a new variant, out today. It looks amazing, I am going to stand by my mailbox until mine shows up.
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Remote Equipment Charlie 25
A really good bag, with excellent materials and execution.
I picked this up during the deep sale that Remote Equipment ran over the holidays. I’ve been curious about the brand and have always been torn between the offerings. I went with the Charlie as it fit the capacity I am most likely to use, and I I love the way the Multicam looks on this bag.
Since picking it up, it’s been used heavily for all sorts of adventures. This is a really good bag that doesn’t have anything particularly unique about it, except that everything it does have is executed really well. That culminates in a bag I kept using, didn’t really see a need to stop using, but one which doesn’t have a huge wow factor.
