Sorridsky,

PC2K covered most of your questions just fine, so I'll only hit the ones he passed on.

I wouldn't consider the pacsafe steel-net-things for every-day carry (EDC). I know it says they only weigh a pound and a bit, but when you see them in person, they are amazingly heavy in the hand.. they feel like they weigh a ton. For a daypack or similar, it's like committing to carry a brick around everywhere with you.

Even if you do take the time and trouble to "net" up the pack, you still have to secure it to something else, or someone can just pick the whole thing up and carry it off and break into it at their leasure. For most people, it's easier just to never let the pack out of your sight. My opinion only, YMMV.

Everyone has different opinions on coats, and a lot depends on what you're up to. In my opinion, most outdoorsy coats don't work that well for urban/suburban every-day casual wear simply because they're too short... mountaineers often have insulated or rainproof pants on, so they don't need them to be long, but almost nobody does in the city, so it works much better to have a coat that reaches mid-thigh or so. You stay warmer and dryer with less effort.

My current favorite deal is the Columbia Sportswear Double Whammy. It's pretty long, and comes with a removable nylon-shelled fleece inner jacket that works fine on it's own if it's not too wet, and a removable hood. You can wear either jacket alone or both together if it's really cold or cold and wet, so you're getting the versatility of three coats in one. It's nice to be able to stash the hood out of the way when it's not needed, which is most of the time- even in the rain you might have a hat or umbrella. It's got an expanded PTFE (like Gore-Tex) layer, so the fabric is waterproof... I don't think the seams are taped, which lowers the cost, but that means if you stand in a downpour for an hour you might get a little moisture seeping through the seams. Big deal. It's got pit-zips, which are worth their weight in gold when you start to get too hot (happens a lot with the liner in) but can't take the coat off. It's got decently placed, useable lined hand-warmer pockets, which is worth 20 degrees easily if you don't have gloves with you, and it's got a lot of very well-designed pockets and features.

I don't know anything that works better for casual wear in the city/suburbs, and it will do just fine for most wilderness trips, but for some reason it's on sale at a lot of places now for $100 - $120, which is half of list price and what you'd expect to pay. It comes in LOTS of sizes and color combinations, but most retailers only have two or three colors, so if you don't see one you like, look elsewhere. Right now, I think it's a bargain.