Hill People Gear Mountain Serape Review

November 8, 2016GeneralEdward Kiledjian

As the weather cools down and we prepare for Winter, one of the most important pieces of survival or emergency gear is related to body temperature. Whether you are a prepper or someone that spends a lot of time in a car, you should plan to have backup mechanism to keep warm in the event the unthinkable happens.

Deployed soldiers have been modifying poncho liners for years during deployments. These modifications involve cutting holes, adding zippers and padding, etc. Lots of companies have created slightly modified poncho liners but what Hill People Gear has done with their Mountain Serape is awesome turning it into a multi-function product.

What can the Hill People Gear Mountain Serape do?

It is a:

poncho liner
great coat
blanket
sleeping bag

It is all of these things without being gimmicky. HPG didn't just add uses on the packaging as an afterthought, the design is carefully planned and masterfully executed. It is as useful in the bush as it is in the urban jungle.

Looking at the Hill People Gear website, one thing I noticed is that it regularly goes out of stock. If you are interested, get one when available.

Comparing the Mountain Serape to a Poncho Liner

The Hill People Gear Mountain Serape is much warmer than a traditional poncho liner. To achieve this level of warmth, they use 2.4 ounces of Primaloft Fusion insulation. Primaloft is a USA made modern insulator that is also used in the military's winter gear. It is fantastic for survival equipment because it is light yet very warm.

I first learned about the Hill People Gear Mountain Serape during wilderness survival training. One of our instructors slept in a hammock and used the HPG Mountain Serape as versatile multipurpose tool. It was used as a jacket at night to keep warm and was used as his 3 season sleeping bag. When wilderness camping, every piece of kit must be multipurpose, small, light and useful.

In cold weather camping, you can use this as an additive layer to another sleep system. Think of it as a sleeping bag that adds about 40 degree Fahrenheit. The HPG Mountain Serape is a light 2 pounds making it easy to carry (considering its size).

“I wish the Hill People Gear Mountain Serape shipped with a stuff sack. You will definitely want to pick one up for storage.”

Folded or rolled, it will consume a lot of space which isn't practical. Put it in a good stuff sack and it can be compressed down to the size of a large bottle of soda (2L) which is much easier to carry.

Using it

As a poncho, it is large enough to wear over a pack. As a blanket, it can easily cover 2 "normal sized" adults. As a sleeping bag it fits ones adult comfortable allowing enough room to move around and not feel constrained.

The external shell is soft enough to use as a "around the house blanket" yet robust enough to survive in the wild. If you don't pay attention and abuse your gear, you may rip it so be careful.

HPG says the Mountain Serape is water resistant but not waterproof. It is not meant to replace rain gear but will be fine during light misting. It is also perfectly good to use in winter with snow. If you do want to use it during rain, a good companion add on would be the O.P.S.E.C. Poncho from Survival Solutions.

Although Hill People Gear has kept the design of the Mountain Serape fairly consistent, I was told by a contact that they have improved minor features like stitching to make it better and more durable ( I tested the newer version which was lent to me by a friend).

When switching from Poncho to Great Coat, you will be happy about how warm it keeps you. Ponchos are easy to put on but not practical when you are working. When working around the campsite, home or survival situation, use the Great Coat mode. It allows you to move your arms freely. In Great Coat mode, you can even wear a pack over the Mountain Serape.

Alternatives

Anytime I write about a product, I receive questions from readers about a "comparable" product on AliExpress for 1/4 the price. While some AliExpress products are good deals and worth getting, but not the Serapes. The Chinese Serapes and made with cheap stitching, cheap insulation and non breathable shell fabric.

Many have said they loved the feature set but find the price expensive. And I can't disagree but the price is competitive to other high quality, low volume survival products.

Conclusion

The Hill people gear Mountain Serape is unique piece of kit that everyone should get and keep in your gobag, car or camping kit.

Stove In A Can - Be ready for the next emergency

November 7, 2016GeneralEdward Kiledjian

Anyone preparing for disaster / emergency knows that in addition to having easy to prepare food on hand, fire is an indispensable tool. Fire allows you to disinfect a tool, boil water (to sanitize it) or prepare different types of food. Fire is critical but difficult to make without preparation during an emergency. This is where Stove In A Can comes in.

What is Stove In A Can?

The Stove In a Can is a simple self contained stove with everything you need from the support frame, fuel and even matches. It is a self contained cooking solution.

In the can, you get:

The can which becomes the stove frame
4 fuel pucks (lasting 1 hour each)
The cooking ring
The fuel ring
Matches

Use

Simplicity and speed is critical during an emergency and the Stove In A Can doesn't fail to satisfy. It can be lit and used in under a minute and is relatively fool proof.

The good

It is self contained and everything you need is included
Soot is contained inside the can which makes storage and carry much better
The fuel cells are waterproof
The fuel is solid so you are not worried about spilling or overfilling
The fuel is reusable. Once your water is boiled or food is cooked, you can put out the fire with the lid and reuse it
The fuel does not expire so you don't have to worry about rotating it

The bad

The fuel doesn't burn clean and leaves soot on anything you use
The included matches are relatively cheap and I recommend you replace them with better waterproof strike anywhere survival matches

Where can I buy A Stove In A Can?

Amazon sells it for $22 + shipping. You can also get additional fuel cartridges there.

Facebook knows more about you than you realize and what to do about it

November 3, 2016GeneralEdward Kiledjian

Everyone knows what Facebook is and that it is built on the concept of connecting people together to create virtual communities. What people often don't realize is how much data these sites have about you.

A good example was exposed by Huffington Post in an article entitled "Facebook Can Predict With Scary Accuracy If Your Relationship Will Last".

If you doubt the power of data mining, read this Forbes article entitled "How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did"

The security aspects of Facebook

Social Networking sites (like Facebook) thrive when user bases grow and user bases grow when there are strong repeated interactions among its members. These sites are sneaky and try to collect a treasure trove of data from you (directly or indirectly) without the user realizing it. As a user, you need to make a conscious decision about what you tell them and what you share on the site.

“Although interactions on Facebook may feel more secure because they are in Cyberspace, I encourage everyone to use the same rules of engagement as they would in the real world”

Understand that you are not anonymous
Understand that anything you post cannot be truly deleted and may be shared and reshared without your knowledge or consent
Some organizations have privileged access to Facebook information which may come back to haunt you in the future (employment, travel, etc)

Regardless of how rosy you believe the world is, there are unfortunately a handful of bad people that use these sites to collect information about you with the intent to trick, deceive or do other bad things.

Predators could pretend to be someone else and use these sites to build cyber relationships to encourage you to meet them in person (could be dangerous). A bad actor could use information found on these sites to perform social engineering on you or to someone you know. Someone could user information about your location, hobbies, likes and dislikes to befriend people in your network and then use these relationships to coerce you.

What does Facebook know

Facebook knows more about you than you realize and remember that it doesn't expose everything. A small glimpse of what it knows can be seen in your personal ad preferences (click here).

Expand the sections and see some of the information Facebook has about you and actively uses to target ads.

Facebook self defense

Regardless of how many dangers these sites present, they are a fantastic way to stay in touch with friends and loved ones. It is this characteristic that keeps people coming back. So what can you do to protect yourself? It's time to develop Facebook-Foo:

It's public - Regardless of the restrictions you place on your post, assume it is public. A friend can take a snapshot and repost it on Reddit. Even on snapchat, I could use a second device to take a picture of the screen and post the content without you knowing. Remember that anything you post can be public and you'll be much better off.
Don't make it personal - Limit personal information as much as possible. Think before you post. Looking at your feed, people shouldn't be able to determine patterns (which coffee shop you visit every morning) or personal information (picture of your kids daycare). Remember that you want to protect your information from "friends" and also the social network itself. Every smartphone picture you post contains GPS location data. This data may not be shared by the site but is definitely used by the site to build a more complete profile about you.
Stranger Danger - We tell kids to be weary of strangers but we neglect this good information when working online. Remember that anything can be fake online. In social engineering, we commonly copy the profile information of people and use it to make connections to targets. We steal information from LinkedIn, Facebook and any other sources to improve the chance you will connect with us.
Check your settings - I recommend you periodically check your Facebook profile settings and the permissions you have granted apps to connect to your facebook profile. Most connected apps are fine but a nefarious one may use this authorization to steal your info and use it against you. I wrote an article in 2012 about a service that helps check your site permissions. The service may have changed but it is a good idea to perform this check every quarter.
Be a skeptic - I see dozens of spammy fake posts every day on Facebook shared by friends. People share content without looking into the validity of the articles so be weary. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Use fact checking sites like Snopes to validate claims before posting or sharing content.
Use strong passwords - I recommend you use strong unique passwords for every site you register on. I wrote this 2013 article about how to use WolframAlpha to generate strong passwords and I still use this technique today. Generate strong unique passwords and keep it in a password manager like OnePassword or LastPass (which is almost free now).
Keep your computer safe - For most users, I have started recommending the use of a Google Chromebook as their internet browsing device (or a smartphone or tablet). These devices are much more resilient to attacks and provide protection even if the user is less than diligent. IF you use a traditional computer (PC or Mac), make sure you keep your software updated, use a good antivirus and never run unknown third party software.If you receive a file and want to double check it before running it, use a site like VirusTotal to give yourself some peace of mind.
Keep children safe - Talk to children about the dangers of social sites early and help them navigate this maze. They need to understand that anything they post will be with them for the rest of their lives. The internet does not have a delete key.

What is Facebook doing with my data? (BBC)
98 personal data points that Facebook uses to target ads to you (Washington Post)
Facebook Is Expanding the Way It Tracks You and Your Data (The Atlantic)

Cover your laptop's webcam now

October 30, 2016GeneralEdward Kiledjian

We learned a couple of month's ago that Mark Zuckerberg covers his webcam with black tape (via a NY Times article) .

Then FBI director James Comey made the same recommendation:

"There's some sensible things you should be doing, and that's one of them," Director James Comey said during a conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies."

The truth is bad actors can easily hack into a laptop equipped with a camera without the user knowing it. Travellers are at an even higher risk because airports and hotels are used by intelligence agencies around the world to collect information (especially when you use a WIFI hotspot without first setting up a VPN - read this article).

Instead of using black tape which could leave residue, I bought a re-usable webcam cover from amazon for $3.

Free WIFI next time you're in an Airport

October 30, 2016GeneralEdward Kiledjian

If you are lucky enough to travel business class then you know how how wonderful free airport WIFI is. It is a chance to download content and update social media before your flight. What if you are not travelling business? You can spend between $9.99 - $59.99 for a daypass.

Anil Polat, traveller and Computer engineer, created a simple website and smartphone app that shows an interactive map with passwords for hundreds of different airport lounges around the world.

You click on an airport and are presented with the important information (WIFI password, location to use it, etc)