As a recent veteran, here is what I brought which proved essential.
Black Leatherman Charge XTi, and Spec-OPS case, spare/additional bits, leatherman tool adapter, and one set of velleman security bits (30-some pieces, $15)
Spare CR2016 and CR2032 coin cells, and type 377 button batteries (should have brought more 377 and 357s)
Wavetek-Meterman VT-201 non-contact voltage detector (now only the fluke is available) (I put mine in a Spec-OPS brand case)
one of those test plugs to check 110v american style outlets
Weller Portasol refillable soldering iron, with an additional smaller tip or 2. Stay away from ones powered by lighters, as it will be hard to find any given brand, but butane is easy to source anywhere.
4-oz fine roll of solder.
small semi-flush cutters
flux pen
paste flux (must bring, digikey, mouser, etc will not send, they only deleted it from my order)
super glue. super glue. super glue. fixes anything. if you can only have one kind o' glue for a year, super glue
also, i brought a small tube of some 3m general purpose glue, not sure what kind.
3M Super 88+ better get 2 rolls, and hide 'em
Tiny, cheap multimeter and spare battery.
ordinary screwdriver, phillips and flat. bit kits are great, but they do not get into certain recesses.
3M high performance cloth, 2x. Lots of dust over there.
there is a particular plug adapter available at certain PX's that works very well and reliably. It is small, fits into a british outlet, and has an LED in the upper right corner. The rest weld themselves to the plug or jack and/or burn plastic at some point
Everything i brought was dual-voltage, so all I did was buy a 220v "universal" power strip in country where I could plug different types of plugs in to it's outlets, and it's plug was the correct style.
Also, I would recomend a sandisk sansa, *not* IPOD. Less likely to get stolen, and somewhat more reliable. Also does not need crazy software, so can be updated from most computers. Remember, I had to sustain myself for a year. Most 'pods do not last that long. I was seeing 6-8 months out of most soldier's in Iraq. Get 2-3 pairs of earphones, like those JVC gummy ones, which handle lots of sweat and different sized ears better, at a reasonable price. Available in colors, avoid pink. Will not be stolen, but not worth the hazing.
Also, have him go to PX/BX and get some slip 'n' snips, and SLIVER GRIPPER tweezers. Also available at Brigade Quartermasters, and Ranger Joes. These tweezers are the ones our medics borrowed from me about once a week before they had their supply guy get them some. Tiny, they come in a little keeper. goes in first aid kit, on keyring, whatever.
Other items i was glad to have was a good set of clothespins and string (got in country), but I brought, and had my wife replenish, some laundry detergent. Now, the military has powdered detergent, but I was able to use less perhaps 3-4 lbs in 15 months, and get actually clean clothes with 5 parts Arm & Hammer perfume and dye free detergent, 2 parts perfume and dye free oxyclean, and 2 parts 20 mule team borax. I know A&H is now available w/ Oxyclean. I did all of my own laundry (no, i was not a fobbit, yes, I worked 16-18 hours a day) but it was worth it, and good relaxation time for me. Plus, I did not care when the laundry came back, and never lost any after that. YMMV per situation, but it worked for me.
Spec-OPS Recon Wrap, 2x. Best headgear ever. serious. available to match uniform, at PX/BX
A few long-life AAA batteries, as good ones are hard to find over there.
Also, I brought an MSR (and MSR only) multi-fuel stove, 33 oz fuel bottle, Titan Kettle and mug, mugmate, and a skillet and spatula. It runs on gas, white gas, (use g-jet) diesel, kerosene and JP-8 (use k-jet, clean often, prime well with denatured alcohol if you can as JP-8 burns filthy and clogs jet). I enjoy cooking, and having a choice besides 8 entree rotation. You can do cool stuff with ramen or
I remember reading an article about this technology in Laser Focus world. In 1997. It said that the first generation discs, with 1 terabyte capacity, were just around the corner. 13 terabyte discs were about 3-4 years away, but already in the works. This is cool, but I am not holding my breath.
I had an '87 Acura Integra RS. Got 40 mpg in stop-and go traffic, and lots of time (about 45 minutes a day) idling. I miss that pile. Ran great when I had it. (a little thread tape fixed the oil leak...) Sold it to a guy who defaulted (he paid $840 of the agreed $1000). Somehow he broke it, and I did not feel like fixing it, so I sold it to the scrap yard for $75, at 192k on the odometer.
And hey, on a good day, the Bianchi gets about 55 calories/mile!
Trimet (the transit authority in Portland) already offers this service. I first used it 5 years ago, but I do not know how long it has been around. It worked quite well, I may add. The busses also have GPS tracking, which, if I'm not mistaken, updates the displays at the major bus stops, including various park-and-ride, and MAX (light rail) terminals. Is this just rebranding? Is Google paying them for help getting this started?
true... I have 2 3.5" floppy drives in my main desktop machine... I am not sure if they are actually plugged in. They do a great job of filling the empty slots in the front of my box. Seriously, though, I have used them in lieu of bootroms on a diskless firewall/natbox device (i.e. old computer), or to boot off of a cdrom if the old pentium bios does not allow that. Mind you, these are old good-for-almost-nothing machines that are about 1 kernel panic away from the scrap bin.
Actually some links: http://www.linuxdevices.com/, especially http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS7713667 720.html! http://www.pengutronix.de/software/ptxd ist_en.html http://leaf.sourceforge.net/ and http://nocat.net Oh, yeah, that is what I am doing this week, too, If you want to exchange ideas, etc.
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As a recent veteran, here is what I brought which proved essential.
Black Leatherman Charge XTi, and Spec-OPS case, spare/additional bits, leatherman tool adapter, and one set of velleman security bits (30-some pieces, $15)
Spare CR2016 and CR2032 coin cells, and type 377 button batteries (should have brought more 377 and 357s)
Wavetek-Meterman VT-201 non-contact voltage detector (now only the fluke is available) (I put mine in a Spec-OPS brand case)
one of those test plugs to check 110v american style outlets
Weller Portasol refillable soldering iron, with an additional smaller tip or 2. Stay away from ones powered by lighters, as it will be hard to find any given brand, but butane is easy to source anywhere.
4-oz fine roll of solder.
small semi-flush cutters
flux pen
paste flux (must bring, digikey, mouser, etc will not send, they only deleted it from my order)
super glue. super glue. super glue. fixes anything. if you can only have one kind o' glue for a year, super glue
also, i brought a small tube of some 3m general purpose glue, not sure what kind.
3M Super 88+ better get 2 rolls, and hide 'em
Tiny, cheap multimeter and spare battery.
ordinary screwdriver, phillips and flat. bit kits are great, but they do not get into certain recesses.
3M high performance cloth, 2x. Lots of dust over there.
there is a particular plug adapter available at certain PX's that works very well and reliably. It is small, fits into a british outlet, and has an LED in the upper right corner. The rest weld themselves to the plug or jack and/or burn plastic at some point
Everything i brought was dual-voltage, so all I did was buy a 220v "universal" power strip in country where I could plug different types of plugs in to it's outlets, and it's plug was the correct style.
Also, I would recomend a sandisk sansa, *not* IPOD. Less likely to get stolen, and somewhat more reliable. Also does not need crazy software, so can be updated from most computers. Remember, I had to sustain myself for a year. Most 'pods do not last that long. I was seeing 6-8 months out of most soldier's in Iraq. Get 2-3 pairs of earphones, like those JVC gummy ones, which handle lots of sweat and different sized ears better, at a reasonable price. Available in colors, avoid pink. Will not be stolen, but not worth the hazing.
Also, have him go to PX/BX and get some slip 'n' snips, and SLIVER GRIPPER tweezers. Also available at Brigade Quartermasters, and Ranger Joes. These tweezers are the ones our medics borrowed from me about once a week before they had their supply guy get them some. Tiny, they come in a little keeper. goes in first aid kit, on keyring, whatever.
Other items i was glad to have was a good set of clothespins and string (got in country), but I brought, and had my wife replenish, some laundry detergent. Now, the military has powdered detergent, but I was able to use less perhaps 3-4 lbs in 15 months, and get actually clean clothes with 5 parts Arm & Hammer perfume and dye free detergent, 2 parts perfume and dye free oxyclean, and 2 parts 20 mule team borax. I know A&H is now available w/ Oxyclean. I did all of my own laundry (no, i was not a fobbit, yes, I worked 16-18 hours a day) but it was worth it, and good relaxation time for me. Plus, I did not care when the laundry came back, and never lost any after that. YMMV per situation, but it worked for me.
Spec-OPS Recon Wrap, 2x. Best headgear ever. serious. available to match uniform, at PX/BX
A few long-life AAA batteries, as good ones are hard to find over there.
Also, I brought an MSR (and MSR only) multi-fuel stove, 33 oz fuel bottle, Titan Kettle and mug, mugmate, and a skillet and spatula. It runs on gas, white gas, (use g-jet) diesel, kerosene and JP-8 (use k-jet, clean often, prime well with denatured alcohol if you can as JP-8 burns filthy and clogs jet). I enjoy cooking, and having a choice besides 8 entree rotation. You can do cool stuff with ramen or
I remember reading an article about this technology in Laser Focus world. In 1997. It said that the first generation discs, with 1 terabyte capacity, were just around the corner. 13 terabyte discs were about 3-4 years away, but already in the works. This is cool, but I am not holding my breath.
I had an '87 Acura Integra RS. Got 40 mpg in stop-and go traffic, and lots of time (about 45 minutes a day) idling. I miss that pile. Ran great when I had it. (a little thread tape fixed the oil leak...) Sold it to a guy who defaulted (he paid $840 of the agreed $1000). Somehow he broke it, and I did not feel like fixing it, so I sold it to the scrap yard for $75, at 192k on the odometer.
And hey, on a good day, the Bianchi gets about 55 calories/mile!
"I can't help it - I'm a 19D."
Now there's a fine excuse... maybe when you grow up, you can be a 13F.
I promise, it is not really that high-speed. AIT is kinda fun, though.
Trimet (the transit authority in Portland) already offers this service. I first used it 5 years ago, but I do not know how long it has been around. It worked quite well, I may add. The busses also have GPS tracking, which, if I'm not mistaken, updates the displays at the major bus stops, including various park-and-ride, and MAX (light rail) terminals. Is this just rebranding? Is Google paying them for help getting this started?
true... I have 2 3.5" floppy drives in my main desktop machine... I am not sure if they are actually plugged in. They do a great job of filling the empty slots in the front of my box. Seriously, though, I have used them in lieu of bootroms on a diskless firewall/natbox device (i.e. old computer), or to boot off of a cdrom if the old pentium bios does not allow that. Mind you, these are old good-for-almost-nothing machines that are about 1 kernel panic away from the scrap bin.
Actually some links :7 720.html!d ist_en.html
http://www.linuxdevices.com/, especially
http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS771366
http://www.pengutronix.de/software/ptx
http://leaf.sourceforge.net/ and
http://nocat.net
Oh, yeah, that is what I am doing this week, too, If you want to exchange ideas, etc.