Before LEDs, a pocket Maglite. Since the decent small LED flashlights became widely available, I’ve carried those. They make the old Maglites seem laughable.
@werehatrack@ZeroCharisma Don’t know if this was officially in the books but I was told a 4-D cell Mag-Lite would be classified as a lethal weapon under California law.
@werehatrack I carried some version of the Mini Mag-Lite for almost twenty years, and then I switched to the Thorfire LED flashlight due to it using rechargeable 18650s and having the only light brightness pattern I’ve found in a small LED light that seems to have been designed for a human to actually use it. There is a strobe and all that - but you have to work to get it. There is a cycle of brightnesses, but if you just push the power button, it turns on to whatever you used last. You have to half push it while it’s on to switch through, or double push to get special effects.
I sometimes use the phone flashlight anyway if it’s in my hand - that accessibility shortcut to toggle the flashlight with a double tap on the back is really convenient - but I’ve been really happy with my hardware and I want to give others the opportunity to be happy, too.
@ZeroCharisma My biggest gripe about full-size Maglites (aside from the embarrassing level of light output) is their tendency to be almost irretrievably ruined by leaking batteries. I have a special-edition version that I returned to service after having all three RayOVac D-cells spackle themselves in place with leakage, and the amount of effort required would not have been worthwhile for a standard version. (Hint: NONE of the methods suggested online had the slightest effect. I had to use power tools, hammers, and chisels.)
… aside from the embarrassing level of light output …
@werehatrack LEDs were still in their infancy back in their heydays, so it’s hard to fault them for the lack of brightness. Or efficiency. And their sturdiness is still unchallenged.
It’s like the full size cars land yachts of yore. Huge engines, very modest performance by today’s standards, and not very space efficient – but they still have lots of presence!
@werehatrack My dogwalker light was a 4C Maglight that eventually got an LED upgrade. I called it the catwhacker because one time a particularly dense pair of cats were fighting and one of them took off, the other went straight for us and attacked one of my dogs. Both dogs and I (with the maglight) disabused it of its intentions and it took off.
Even then I carried a mini-Maglight EDC, then switched to a OLight T10 that I have carried ever since, but the mini-maglight wasn’t enough for dogwalking in areas with no street lighting, unlike the OLight. And the catwhacker was a comfort when we had coyote problems; a human walking two 60 pound dogs wasn’t what they might normally consider approaching, but some did. I found later that the strobe setting on a bright LED light was far more disconcerting to them but the maglight was bright enough to give them pause; they never tried to close with us.
@duodec@werehatrack Those coyotes can be ballsy, like the one currently on the most-wanted list for trying to drag away that toddler from her L.A. yard. I noticed it was still coming at the father after he picked up the poor girl, until he threw a grocery item at it. Yeesh.
@jsfs@werehatrack I did the same, but with mini-maglight that used a AAA battery and a conventional bulb. It has since been replaced with a Leatherman Micra. Long discontinued, but still available on Amazon and Ebay.
@hchavers Yes, but the old strike-anywhere kind is entirely out of production in the US at this point. The majority of the strike-on-box kinds are crap.
@hchavers@ircon96 We had a lot of outages in my last house, we eventually found out it was a bad wire they rerouted around, but we got an old fashioned lamp that got a lot of use during that time, the oil lasted forever.
@Fuzzalini@hchavers They do come in handy, i have an old decorative glass one that puts out a nice, soft glow. It’s a good source of ambient light during long-lasting outages. Thankfully, those have been rare around here lately. Knock wood!
@pmarin You don’t shove the stick into the boiler, that’s just full of high-pressure steam. (And you couldn’t do it, anyway.) You stick the end into the firebox, under the boiler.
@Kidsandliz Aside from the flint-and-steel method, I’ve used a bow-and-pivot setup to start a fire a couple of times. It’s a lot more work, but as long as you have a sharp rock, some dry vegetation including twigs, leaves and branches, and some fiber, sinew or a leather strip, you’ve got the materials to start a fire. Eventually.
Cooking eggs in chicken manure sounds like it wouldn’t be kosher (like meat & dairy). Now I know.
Did he really stab a thermometer into that meat and then bury it again? I’m all in favor of trying new things, but I don’t want any chance of my compost leaking its way into my food.…
As fun as compost cooking sounds, I’ll probably stick to doing my roasts in the oven or a crock pot, with chunks of garlic stabbed into it. With no risk of compost contamination.
@ircon96@Kyeh@macromeh@mehcuda67@xobzoo Having tried heating lunch in transit via the exhaust manifold a few times in the past decade, I can report that on a typical modern vehicle, it it’s possible at all, it only sort of works, and only in hot weather. Two precooked burger patties, wrapped in foil and placed between the exhaust pipe and the head, were still only lukewarm seventy miles down the road.
Separate flashlight, and I still do it. These days, a flashlight half the size of my pinky can throw 30 times more light than a phone, run for hours, and work in the rain.
I still use a separate flashlight, but I would like to gripe about flashlights that go into strobe mode ever other time (or every third time) you turn it on. Whomever decided this was a good idea deserves a swift kick in the crotch.
Flashlight, headlamp, Coleman lantern, strategically lined up car headlight, candles, kerosene lantern (of which the Aladdin brand is about 100 watts, the others are more like very yellow light night light brightness)… plenty of options.
Same thing I usually do now. A little small flashlight and bicycle headlights. The bicycle headlights get the most use.
@yakkoTDI I prefer a small little flashlight, myself, but to each their own.
Before LEDs, a pocket Maglite. Since the decent small LED flashlights became widely available, I’ve carried those. They make the old Maglites seem laughable.
@werehatrack Full size Maglites are still great for stealthily pummeling unwary intruders.
@werehatrack @ZeroCharisma Don’t know if this was officially in the books but I was told a 4-D cell Mag-Lite would be classified as a lethal weapon under California law.
@werehatrack I carried some version of the Mini Mag-Lite for almost twenty years, and then I switched to the Thorfire LED flashlight due to it using rechargeable 18650s and having the only light brightness pattern I’ve found in a small LED light that seems to have been designed for a human to actually use it. There is a strobe and all that - but you have to work to get it. There is a cycle of brightnesses, but if you just push the power button, it turns on to whatever you used last. You have to half push it while it’s on to switch through, or double push to get special effects.
I sometimes use the phone flashlight anyway if it’s in my hand - that accessibility shortcut to toggle the flashlight with a double tap on the back is really convenient - but I’ve been really happy with my hardware and I want to give others the opportunity to be happy, too.
@ZeroCharisma My biggest gripe about full-size Maglites (aside from the embarrassing level of light output) is their tendency to be almost irretrievably ruined by leaking batteries. I have a special-edition version that I returned to service after having all three RayOVac D-cells spackle themselves in place with leakage, and the amount of effort required would not have been worthwhile for a standard version. (Hint: NONE of the methods suggested online had the slightest effect. I had to use power tools, hammers, and chisels.)
@werehatrack LEDs were still in their infancy back in their heydays, so it’s hard to fault them for the lack of brightness. Or efficiency. And their sturdiness is still unchallenged.
It’s like the full size
carsland yachts of yore. Huge engines, very modest performance by today’s standards, and not very space efficient – but they still have lots of presence!@werehatrack My dogwalker light was a 4C Maglight that eventually got an LED upgrade. I called it the catwhacker because one time a particularly dense pair of cats were fighting and one of them took off, the other went straight for us and attacked one of my dogs. Both dogs and I (with the maglight) disabused it of its intentions and it took off.
Even then I carried a mini-Maglight EDC, then switched to a OLight T10 that I have carried ever since, but the mini-maglight wasn’t enough for dogwalking in areas with no street lighting, unlike the OLight. And the catwhacker was a comfort when we had coyote problems; a human walking two 60 pound dogs wasn’t what they might normally consider approaching, but some did. I found later that the strobe setting on a bright LED light was far more disconcerting to them but the maglight was bright enough to give them pause; they never tried to close with us.
@duodec @werehatrack Those coyotes can be ballsy, like the one currently on the most-wanted list for trying to drag away that toddler from her L.A. yard. I noticed it was still coming at the father after he picked up the poor girl, until he threw a grocery item at it.
Yeesh.
@jsfs @werehatrack I did the same, but with mini-maglight that used a AAA battery and a conventional bulb. It has since been replaced with a Leatherman Micra. Long discontinued, but still available on Amazon and Ebay.
@jsfs @werehatrack It is just over 2" long.
The same thing I still do, a combination of a good quality flashlight and a headlamp for hands-on jobs.
@PooltoyWolf I love a good hands-on job.
@awk Oh my.
@PooltoyWolf I believe the Fleshlight is the appropriate tool for the “hands on jobs”…
That way your hands stay cleaner
@sicc574 Good catch!
Same as I do now, activate the biofluorescent compounds in my abdomen. Good for finding your keys, as well as attracting mates.
@awk Are you a firefly?
@awk
@awk @duodec Yep, there’s a gif for just about everything!
@awk @duodec What ridiculous Anime is this?
@awk @Fuzzalini
My Hero Academia
I always used wax candles…or a campfire torch because I went primitive camping starting out in Girl Scouts!
Matches (Do they still exist?)
@hchavers Yes, but the old strike-anywhere kind is entirely out of production in the US at this point. The majority of the strike-on-box kinds are crap.
@hchavers @werehatrack This was a very sad thing to find out.
@hchavers Wow, you’re older than i thought, i pegged you for the kerosene lantern era, at least!
@hchavers @ircon96 still gotta light the kerosene lantern…
EDIT I guess other than a match, there was always stick a twig into your campfire / woodstove / locomotive boiler.
@hchavers @pmarin
@hchavers @ircon96 We had a lot of outages in my last house, we eventually found out it was a bad wire they rerouted around, but we got an old fashioned lamp that got a lot of use during that time, the oil lasted forever.
@Fuzzalini @hchavers They do come in handy, i have an old decorative glass one that puts out a nice, soft glow. It’s a good source of ambient light during long-lasting outages. Thankfully, those have been rare around here lately. Knock wood!
@hchavers @ircon96 @pmarin but to light a lantern with a twig in the fire you, umm, still needed matches to start the fire. Just sayin.
@pmarin You don’t shove the stick into the boiler, that’s just full of high-pressure steam. (And you couldn’t do it, anyway.) You stick the end into the firebox, under the boiler.
@Kidsandliz Aside from the flint-and-steel method, I’ve used a bow-and-pivot setup to start a fire a couple of times. It’s a lot more work, but as long as you have a sharp rock, some dry vegetation including twigs, leaves and branches, and some fiber, sinew or a leather strip, you’ve got the materials to start a fire. Eventually.
A piece of flint, a piece of pyrite and some nice dry tinder.
You didn’t say how much before phone flashlights.
@mehcuda67 This is how poor @macromeh is heating his leftovers right now.
@Kyeh @mehcuda67 Luxury - I can only dream of having flint and steel. I may have to resort to the compost pile oven:
Like a caveman.
@Kyeh @macromeh @mehcuda67 Cooking in chicken manure, yet more evidence that the Middle East can be a whole different planet sometimes.
@Kyeh @macromeh @mehcuda67 @ircon96
I watched that video (neat idea!) and had two thoughts, in order:
As fun as compost cooking sounds, I’ll probably stick to doing my roasts in the oven or a crock pot, with chunks of garlic stabbed into it. With no risk of compost contamination.
@ircon96 @macromeh @mehcuda67 @xobzoo You could take your leftovers out for a drive:
@Kyeh @macromeh @mehcuda67 @xobzoo I’m with you on that! (Mommy, why does dinner smell like cow patties?)
@macromeh @mehcuda67 @xobzoo
@Kyeh Admittedly, that engine IS cleaner than my oven!
@ircon96 @Kyeh @macromeh @mehcuda67 @xobzoo Having tried heating lunch in transit via the exhaust manifold a few times in the past decade, I can report that on a typical modern vehicle, it it’s possible at all, it only sort of works, and only in hot weather. Two precooked burger patties, wrapped in foil and placed between the exhaust pipe and the head, were still only lukewarm seventy miles down the road.
Separate flashlight, and I still do it. These days, a flashlight half the size of my pinky can throw 30 times more light than a phone, run for hours, and work in the rain.
I still use a separate flashlight, but I would like to gripe about flashlights that go into strobe mode ever other time (or every third time) you turn it on. Whomever decided this was a good idea deserves a swift kick in the crotch.
@DrWorm ^This!^
@DrWorm YES.
during the flip phone era, we would just fling it open and use the light from the little screen and number pad.
Black & Decker Spotliter. The 80’s were lit!
Flashlight, headlamp, Coleman lantern, strategically lined up car headlight, candles, kerosene lantern (of which the Aladdin brand is about 100 watts, the others are more like very yellow light night light brightness)… plenty of options.