Alas, the hem is coming undone, so I called them for an exchange.  They would happily refund my money and send me a pre-paid return label, but they don't carry the Optimus in the summer so they could not exchange mine for another now.

Then, they moved into the category of excellent customer service by suggesting that if I wanted, I could keep the one I have until their new stock arrives this coming August.  They would then happily exchange it then.

Well done, Ibex!  That's worth a couple of years of customer loyalty to me.

They are always on hand, because they are indispensable. Sure, you don't want to eat the emergency food, but having the bug repellant and other common items in the first aid kit and using the emergency stove for tea means they are always in mind; always in use. Packing can be improved with experience.

Here's where I'm coming from; I haven't thought about this in years.

As a boy, I was in Cub Scouts and went to the Boys and Girls Club in Bellevue, WA., a lot. So, my parents sent me on club trips regularly. One summer, 1978 if I recall, I had finished reading my brothers old Boy Scout manual (the thick, cool one from the late 60's or early 70's) and had made my own nifty emergency kit. I took it with me on the weekend trip.

But, when we actually got into the canoes, well, I didn't want to loose my precious emergency kit I had spent so much time creating, so 12 year old me left it in the tent. Guess what? Actual emergency: a tree had fallen across the river and every single one of our 8 canoes capsized. We all got stuck on an island in the middle of the river. Oddly, while underwater, my fear wasn't drowning, but that a barracuda would eat me.

We were cold and wet. I had lost a shoe. In my memory, it seems like every time the leaders asked if someone had something (waterproof matches, fire starter, whistle) I did. Safe against the wet in a tin wrapped in paraffin cloth back in my tent. Where it could not help. So we stayed cold and wet until the Sheriffs came and evacuated us hours later (fishermen on the river went to a nearby farm to call).

I carried that kit with me everywhere I went the rest of the summer. And the next, when my parents sent me on another canoeing trip (I did not want to go, let me tell you! That one was awesome).

So, that's what I'm going to try this summer on day hikes and weekend trips.

It is a lot heavier than I anticipated, but beautiful.

Assigned to N6NUL

There are only 50 or 100 thousand "fanboi's".  Not 10's of millions.  They are not driving Apples sales.

I've only ever been kicked from the TWiT IRC chat twice.  Once for language, which I completely understood.  Today, I was kicked for commenting that perhaps Leo could eliminate a producer or two to pay Sarah Lane a bit more; in context during iPad Today this made sense.  It's also true.

The new TWiT show, Game On, is fantastic!  The TWiT Network is spending a ton of money to produce it, yet in just 7 episodes they have been plagued by technical difficulties.  Really hard to detect ones, like the mics not working, or the show isn't being recorded.

The hosts are killing it, but the producers seem more intent on getting on the stream and are not paying attention to business. I've worked at startups like that before: it's supposed to be fun, right? Let's party! Free Beer Fridays!  Well, the bug list is filling up.

Anyway.

After thinking about it for a while, I'm taking a break from TWiT.  Much of the content is still great, but not great enough.

But, now, it's all spam bots and advertising.  At least, that's 95% of my stream.  Most of my accounts are now deleted, and my personal account goes tomorrow, because I'd really like that time back, please.

and, yes, it is 20% cooler with rainbows.  Cooler than what, I don't know, but the beat is fun.

Source: Dubtrot: My Little Pony dubstep (http://kottke.org/12/01/dubtrot-my-little-pony-dubstep)

Well, this dedicated TWiT listener has a shorter way:

1. Go to Hover.com and dial their customer service number
2. Sign up for their service
3. Ask for their Conceierge to transfer your domains
4. Hang up

They will ask for some basic information (like your GoDaddy password) and email you with progress reports.  In not to long, with no effort on your part, your domains will be transferred.  Yes, there will be a small fee (use offer code TWiT. they should hook you up), but it's the Holidays and don't you have better things to do than bother with 19 steps to transfer your domains?

Source: The internet's Go Daddy issues (http://kottke.org/11/12/the-internets-go-daddy-issues)

I'm very nit-picky with the following lists. Nothing but an Apple-inspired product gets this kind of attention from me because, frankly, they are all so bad there is no point in even trying!

• The recycled brown box is wrapped in celphane.  This kind of ruined the whole eco-friendly theme right off the top for me. And it seems the only reason it is necessary was to keep the outer sleeve with all of the printed information on it attached to the box.
• The initial impression upon opening the box is perfect.  There sits the nest, which was smaller than I anticipated, with a protective cover.
• After I took out the Nest unit and removed the top shell to get to the rest of the product, there was a strong industrial-solvent smell.  This dissipated quickly (or my nose became de-sensetized quickly), but smell is a power sense so I thought I would mention it.

So far, so good! The first thing you see after taking out the Nest itself is the "nest, Welcome home" pamphlet. This is a long, multi-fold square document and provokes more questions than answers:

• The left-most page shows how to control the Nest.  Excellent. I love diagrams like this.
• The facing page describes a feature, "Set up your Nest Account".  The brief explanation is entirely "what" and not a word about "how".  This provokes some anxiety immediately: how do I do this? I hate things like this.
• Opening the next fold and there is more information about what I will see when my Nest is installed: excellent.
• This time, the facing page mentions the smarthphone application AND tells me how to get it. Better.

Overall, that's pretty good, too!  Just 1 complaint on the welcome document is a huge improvement over most products I get.  Next up: installation instructions.

• The first thing I see after taking off the welcome pamplet is "8. Attach display".  Here's hoping steps 1 through 7 are in there somewhere.  See?  Nit-picky.
• The stickers for the existing thermostat wires feel great, but are hard to peel
• The cap for the screwdriver can be tricky to re-attach
• There should be a place to record which breaker controls the power in the instruction booklet
• No jumper is required between Rh and Rc, which is good, but it takes careful reading of the instructions to find this information
• Why are there steps 5a and 5b?  Why not just 5 and 6?  Similarly for 6a and 6b.

The Nest was easy to install, despite the hole behind my original thermostat looking like it had been made with a hammer.