Flashlight Insight

Flashlights are one of the hobbies of nearly all men, just like guns, trucks, and tools. Our fascination with these items is difficult to explain, as is my desire to test my flashlights to see how each of them performs.

Note that this test does not take into account the high-end flashlights used by hunters, police officers, etc. So if you're the kind of person who wants or needs the $60-400 flashlights made by SureFire or similar brands, this post may not be for you. This is simply a brief evaluation of the kinds of everyday flashlights you can purchase at your local store.

Tip: Not all LEDs are the same. LEDs come in different color temperatures and wattages. Two basic types of LEDs were tested here.

Test details:

• All flashlights had new Rayovac batteries, except for the Bushnell 1-watt Luxeon LED, which takes a lithium ion battery. That flashlight's battery was barely used prior to this test.
• A Canon SD400 was mounted to a tripod and used to take pictures of the same location under different lighting conditions. The picture on the right was taken during the day under a mixture of natural and artificial light. Compare it with the results table below.
• The descriptions of the flashlights are as follows:

1: Traditional flashlight with traditional bulb. Takes 4 AA batteries. Bulb was old. Approximate value: $10.

2: Mini Maglight with traditional (pre-LED) bulb. Takes 2 AA batteries. Bulb was old. During test, beam was focused as narrowly as possible. Approximate value: $10.

3: LED flashlight with 1-watt Luxeon LED. Takes 3 AAA batteries. Approximate value: $25.

4: Bushnell LED flashlight with 1-watt Luxeon LED. Takes CR123A, 3-volt battery. Approximate value: $40.

5: Low-end 9-LED flashlight. Takes 3 AAA batteries. Approximate value: $7.

Images:
Click on a thumbnail to see a larger version of the image.

#	Flashlight	Straight on view	Room test
1
2
3
4
5

Observations:

1. The traditional flashlight is best for long-distance use. It has a dominant hotspot as well as a decent amount of surrounding light. The color of the light is very warm, as with most incandescents.
2. The Mini Maglight was disappointing. I don't see much use for it.
3. The Luxeon 1-watt LEDs performed well. They have a much whiter light than the incandescents, and they do not suffer from the same degree of blue tint that the low-end LED light does. This type of flashlight is an excellent compromise, and would be great for a variety of applications.
4. Overall, the Bushnell lithium-powered flashlight was my favorite in this test, producing an adequately strong hotspot with plenty of surrounding light. Its performance is impressive given its size. However, if I had to take just one flashlight with me when going on a trip, a walk in the woods, etc, it would be the other Luxeon LED flashlight. The reason? 3 AAA batteries are cheaper and easier to find than a lithium battery.
5. The small 9-LED flashlight produced no discernible hotspot, and had an unmistakable bluish tint. It would be ideal for reading (book, map, etc.), given its small size, lack of a hotspot, and low power consumption.

The Diet Ice Cream That Beats Regular

A few posts ago, I asked which generic products you've encountered that are actually better than name brand products. Not just acceptable, mind you; but good enough that you'd prefer to buy the generic.

We'll do one better on this post. Have you found any diet products that are actually better than their "regular" counterparts? I know of only one example: Edy's Slow Churned ice cream. I don't think that Edy's claim of "One Day, All Ice Cream Will Be Made This Way™" is an overstatement.

Not only does this ice cream have 1/2 the fat and 2/3 the calories of regular ice cream, its texture actually surpasses that of any other ice cream I've had. There's one caveat though; I'd only say that about the vanilla-based flavors. The chocolate-based flavors are still great, but I'm not sure I'd say they're better than their regular counterparts. The flavor that I'm frankly basing most of this claim on is Cookie Dough.

Edy's can be expensive (not insanely expensive like Ben & Jerry's or similar products), so I feel compelled to defend my reputation of frugality by saying that I try to buy when it's on sale for $2.50 - $3.00.

Saving Money on Cost-Saving Products

I offer my apologies (just 4 of them; I'm keeping my remaining 98 for the future) to my readers who live in warm climates. This is another "just for the northerners" post.

Stores that carry products for winterizing your home are currently eager to get rid of them as they begin stocking their shelves with spring items. If you have considered doing some winterizing--such as covering windows with plastic sheeting--but have been turned off by the cost, now is the time to buy. In the past, I've been able to buy window insulation kits like the one pictured for $1 per box. Just stick them in a storage closet or your basement, and you'll be prepared to lower your heating costs next winter.

Detective Work Through the Power of Community

I received a call on my cell phone today from a number I didn't recognize. I didn't answer. Several hours later, I received another call from the same number. Again, I didn't answer, even though my curiosity fought me. The caller did not leave a message. For me, such a mystery is difficult to let go, so I tried a reverse phone number lookup on the web.

None of the free options yielded any results, and I'm too cheap and skeptical to pay for any reverse phone number lookup service. Between my wallet and my curiosity, my wallet always wins.

Thankfully I stumbled upon http://whocalled.us/. In an interesting application of collective intelligence, anybody can report the results of phone calls that they received from any source. For example, I could hop on http://whocalled.us/ an report that number 555-439-8821 called me twice in a day without leaving any messages. It would be even more useful if I had answered the call, found out who was calling and why, and then reported it on this site. I was appreciative that 35 people had taken the time to report the number that called me today, and some of those people had actually answered the calls--or returned the calls--and found that it was a spam type call from a college.

The next time I have a call from a number I don't recognize, I'm going straight to http://whocalled.us/ to see if it's been reported there. http://800notes.com/ seems to be the same type of service, though they listed 0 results for my search today when http://whocalled.us/ reported 35.

Save Time and Money on Your Garden This Year

My yard is slowly turning from white to green this week, as warmer weather chases the snow away. And not a moment too soon. I look forward to getting outside again, even if it does mean I have to start mowing my lawn. If only I had a robotic mower.

Whether you have a backyard paradise or just a small garden, watering you plants can be time-consuming and expensive. Even if you manage to remember to water, you have to make it a point to actually do it. And then, you have to watch your water bill go up, in part because traditional watering techniques can be very inefficient. Next time you run a sprinkler, watch how much water doesn't reach your plants.

Two tools can help alleviate these problems.

1. A watering timer. A watering timer connects to your outdoor faucet or a hose, and allows you to schedule your watering times via a digital or analog clock. I paid full price (about $29) for mine because I bought it in the spring. Our local WalMart sold them for $10 each at the end of the season. It sure is nice to set the timer and forget about it. Even if I'm on vacation, my plants are getting watered. And more importantly, my plants are getting watered even on days when I'm being lazy.
2. Soaker hoses. A soaker hose is a porous hose made of rubber. When the hose is filled with water (it's capped on the end opposite the faucet), water seeps out of the hose and into the ground. The soaker hose can--and should--be buried under mulch; you never see it. This watering method allows you to water only the regions you want watered, keeping your watering costs as low as possible.

Tip 1: My research indicated that you should connect no more than 100 feet of soaker hose together. If you find anything different, feel free to comment.

Tip 2: Get more bang for your buck out of the watering timer. Connect a splitter to your timer, allowing you to control up to 4 or 5 hoses. I used this method to split my soaker hoses into two 100-foot sections on the same watering schedule.

Impressive Generic

Occasionally, a store brand item surpasses "good enough" and actually performs remarkably well. Sam's Choice plastic wrap (not Great Value plastic wrap) is one of those products for me. I realize a wiki would be a more appropriate venue for this question (as would a web site with more than a dozen readers), but I'm in search of other items that happen to be both inexpensive and of excellent quality. So what have you found?

Teeny Tiny Profit Margin

I have no intention of turning this blog into a "deals and steals" site, but this particular deal pops up occasionally, and it's pretty impressive. The Black & Decker DCM18S Brew 'n Go Personal Coffeemaker is just $9.99 again at Amazon.com. The included mug is worth $4-5 alone, and a permanent filter is included (also worth a couple of bucks). I can't imagine that Amazon or Black & Decker are making much money on this one.

I mentioned this product in an earlier post. In fact, the service featured in that post (apricealert.com) is the reason I know about this deal.

The last time the price dropped this low, it was only for about 24 hours. And yes, you have to spend $25 to get free shipping.

Saving on Contact Lenses

With a little bit of effort, you can save a bundle on your contact lenses.

I found VisionDirect.com (part of DrugStore.com) to be a great place to buy contacts. Below is a comparison of VisionDirect.com to WalMart, where I got my eye exam.

	VisionDirect.com	WalMart
Cost per box (Focus Night and Day)	$48.95	$62.84
Volume discount per box (4 or more boxes)	$1	NA
Coupon (see dealcoupon.com for current coupons)	10% off	NA
Processing Fee	$0.95	NA
Shipping	Free	Free
Delayed cash back from FatWallet.com	7%	NA
Total for 4 boxes:	$161.49	$251.36

I've actually done better than the above example (my actual cost after FatWallet.com cash back was $152.57 this year), but the example uses currently available deals. Also, depending on how Internet tax works in your state, you could very well save another $14 in taxes over WalMart. That means if you hit all the deals at the right time, and if you save the taxes, you could save around $113--or 45%--over WalMart for a 1-year supply of these contacts. Also, buying at VisionDirect.com might get you some drugstore.com "dollars," but I'm not sure.

Manufacturer's rebates are common as well, and are typically reseller-independent. But as always, don't completely depend on rebates. Ciba denied one of my recent claims even though I followed their instructions.

Freeware Feature: MWSnap

Purpose: Taking screenshots / screen captures
Web site: http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/mwsnap.html
Skill level required: Beginner to Intermediate

Taking "pictures" of my desktop (screenshots or screen captures) is something my job often requires. It even comes in handy sometimes at home. You may already be familiar with two common methods of capturing a picture of your screen:

• The PrtScn (or Print Screen) button. This button captures an image of your screen to your clipboard. After hitting this button, open up a photo editing program--or any program where you need to paste a picture--and hit the Paste button. Keyboard users prefer the keyboard shortcut CTRL + V for pasting.
• ALT + PrtScn. This captures an image of only the active window on your screen. This is very helpful if you want to take a picture of a dialog box, for instance.

Sometimes you may require greater flexibility. Microsoft OneNote, which I won't take time to describe here, has a very cool screen capture feature. Right-click on its system tray icon, select "Create Screen Clipping," and you get to select exactly the portion of your screen that you copy to the clipboard. Very cool, very useful, and very simple. The problem is, I have OneNote only on my work PC, and buying a copy of that program simply for that feature would be overkill.

In my search for free software that simulated the screen clipping feature of OneNote, I found MWSnap. I tried some other software, and MWSnap was the one I liked the best. It has plenty of features to meet my needs, including a handy AutoSave option. If you're looking for a screen capture utility, give MWSnap a try.

No Wonder My Parents Complained When I Drank So Much Milk

Drink prices are good to keep an eye on when you're looking to trim your grocery bill. It's good to know, for example, that a glass of milk costs 8 times as much as a glass of water, or that orange juice costs 10 times as much as coffee.

The following chart shows my own calculations, and they're not perfect. For example, I'm assuming that tap water is free, whether heated or not. I'm also assuming that there's no waste, which there often is—especially for something like a 2-liter bottle of soda. Note that I'm using 12 ounces for each beverage, but that's primarily for comparison purposes.

Beverage	Cost per 12 oz.	Based on	Notes
Filtered water from pitcher	$.028	Pur pitcher and filters ($30 for the 2-stage, 1-gallon pitcher; $39 for 4-pack of 2-stage filters)	Assumes owner goes through 360 gallons with pitcher. Assumes claim of 40 gallons per filter is accurate.
Coffee	$.042	$6 for 39-oz. can.	Black only. Does not account for cost of coffee maker or filters. Based on 288 6-oz cups per canister. Tap water used.
Hot tea	$.077	$2.08/20-bag box	Based on 5 bags per brewed gallon; similar to (3) 8-oz. cups per bag. Assumes it's made from filtered water from pitcher.
Instant iced tea, pre-sweetened	$.102	$3.28 for Nestea mix in a 20-quart size.	Assumes 20% stronger tea than recommended. Assumes it's made from filtered water from pitcher.
Filtered water from half-liter bottles	$.104	$3.50 for 24-pack of half-liter bottles
Soda, 2-liter	$.178	$1 for 2-liter
Soda, 12-pack cans	$.229	$2.75 for 12-pack
Milk, 1%	$.230	$2.45/Gallon
Apple juice	$.246	$1.97 for 96-oz. generic, in plastic bottle
Fruit juice (5-10% juice)	$.257	$1.37/Half gallon	Price is similar for Minute Maid half gallons or Sunny Delight full gallons
Chocolate milk	$.288	$3.07/Gallon
Orange juice	$.422	$4.50/Gallon	Prices vary widely