Over decades of geekery, I have had the
opportunity to get to know a
lot of products. In some
cases I have modified them to suit my needs; in others I have
pushed them to their limits or interfaced them in odd
ways. Many don't make the cut; others become
core components in my adventures, sometimes to the point of being
perceived as life support tools. When outfitting a
survival platform, one can get picky about quality.
For a couple of years I have been meaning to set up a whole area just
for discussion of all this, but what finally pushed me over the edge
was the realization that it is becoming harder to separate useful
content from fluff online. If you can't find
bona fide
reviews at a reputable forum, you can quickly get into
the mode of searching the Net for comments from users. Unless you can find a true user community where a
product is discussed without bias, you are left to extract information
from online storefronts.
All reviews below are
subjective,
based on my own experience with the products, and your mileage may
vary. In some cases, I'll point you to a
source of supply that is the best I can find at the time the review is
written, but such things evolve over time. (When in doubt, use
Froogle and other tools to find the best deal.) This is not
a store, though I don't mind making a few nickels now and then when
someone clicks their way to a product via an affiliate link. Fortunately for
journalistic ethics, the numbers in this are small enough that they
don't color my perception or commentary. If something is junk I will say so! I also include hacks, tricks, how-to
information, pointers to user groups, and other material that may be
hard to find... my primary intent is to provide
useful information derived from years of experience with gizmology and expedition gear.
If you spot an error or have information to add to any of the pages, please feel free to
contact me.
Manufacturers, I have no "agenda" here; if you have a rebuttal or
update you would like me to add to a review, please let me know and I will do my best to include your perspective.