I carried the original Gerber EAB for a long time, then carried an even Smaller Package opener tool for a little while.
I just got a Milwaukee Fastback 6-in-1 and it is pretty awesome.
I lost my EAB a few times because I could open it with one hand but was not comfortable closing it one handed so I would set it down and forget about by the time I was done with my task.
The Fastback is a lot bulkier but being able to easily close it one handed, and it basically being a nice full size screwdriver makes the extra bulk worth it in my opinion.
Which model SAK is that?
That Pinecil looks pretty cool.
I tend to do most of the repairs in my home myself. In the last year I have repaired my stove twice, electrical outlets twice, broken belt on my clothes dryer, replaced a toilet, a faucet, a garbage disposal. A lot of times I start with this kit but I may go get other full size tools if they are convenient.
I have ADHD, so having tools on hand is very helpful for fixing things before I get distracted. Also putting together the perfect mini-toolkit has been one of my most recent ADHD obsessions for the last few months.
I don’t generally need most of the bits, the tape, glue stick, lighter or cordage.
My most frequent needs are: Cutting tool for opening packages, and breaking down boxes. All different sizes of screwdrivers, for opening things or on the fly or tightening of screws that have come loose. Pliers can double as tweezers, nut crackers, tighten down loose bolts, pulling fuses in my car.
Also in the last few months I switched from carrying everything in my pockets to using a sling bag, so having a few extra tools that don’t get used all the time is not a big deal.
I also happily perform maintenance in public places if I see the need and have the necessary tools. I recently fixed a sign in my neighborhood that came loose on one side and was making a lot of noise when the wind would blow.
The clipper lighters look really good but I’ve never seen one in person. I was considering buying one online recently but it’s a bit hard to tell how you will like it until you can hold it in your hand.
I have a refillable peanut lighter which was in this kit. I was doing monthly checks that the fluid was still good. But after 4 months and 4 test lights, it was dry. I switched it for the Bic at that point. If I could get a solid year with 12 test lights out of the peanut lighter I would have kept it in the kit.
I bought a 21 inch 1080p Viewsonic monitor from a thrift store just the other day for $6. I got it just for this use case.
I had a spare for this purpose up until about a month ago when the backlight went out on one of my daily drivers.
Also, a couple of days ago I got a pretty nice steelcase apex 3 keyboard with RGB lights for $5.
I have a script that does an unencrypted backup to my true truenas machine.
Truenas has built in functionality to upload encrypted or unencrypted backups to various cloud providers. It is using rclone on the back end but it also handles the connection to your cloud storage really nicely too.
Yeah, a lot of people leave their phone out of the EDC because they use it to take the picture.
The case is a good stand-in.
The drive is LUKS encrypted. It is an option when formatting the drive using Gnome Disks in Linux.
Whenever you plug it in, it asks for the password.
On the drive I have a bash script that syncs my home directory to a folder on the drive using rsync.
I don’t create new files personal files very often and they are backed up in other ways too (to a NAS and also encrypted and uploaded to cloud storage) so I tend to only run the sync script about every other week or so.
I have a separate script and folder to backup my work laptop as well. for the work laptop I back my home directory and the /etc directory, because I have some customized configurations in etc. I run this every week.
Because the drives are USB C I can plug them into my phone for transferring files. The encrypted drive can be mounted using an app called ZUGate.
How did that exchange go?
They try to tell you that you can’t use your last name?
Just for shiggles, I setup and ran a minecraft Java server on an old phone for a little while. I did this through Termux.
It was surprisingly good.
Most people get a new phone every 2-3 years. If people use their 2 most recent phones as simple servers, then these are not 10 year old devices.
Moved from a junky setup where I was forwarding my domain mail to gmail. And sending mail through gmail using the smtp server provided by my web host.
I was having too many issues.
I switched to fastmail. It is quite good. And you can get some free basic web hosting included with your paid service.
I wasn’t aware of the c/pocketknife community. Thanks!