This sounds like it could be revolutionary - lack of fresh or clean water is one of the world's biggest problems. I'm assuming pathogens are larger than a molecule of water? Wonder what the cost would be, if it would be cheap enough to just churn out sheets of the stuff, or custom-made filters. The biggest problems aside from production would be clogging/cleaning and accidental contamination of the output stream.

Hire actual QA to report and process bugs. Put at least one of the QA people on the project of processing user emails into bug/enhancement/etc.

User testing is great - it's a wonderful way to observe how end-users might interact with the product. But it isn't the same as QA - professional, systematic defect testing, reporting, analysis.

I'm a developer. Most of the time QA annoys me with issues like "if you enter more than 256 characters into the name field, what should happen?" and "If I'm in IE6 and I use the back button then repeatedly click submit, I get an error." These are usually things no user will ever encounter, but they're also things that should be tracked and checked, at least to be sure they don't corrupt the database or hang the system if the one user in 10,000 (usually a hacker "having fun") does try them.

I live in Carlsbad, CA, where one of their facilities is, I've seen them (or maybe just one) driving down El Camino now and then. Looks like a disembodied small aircraft fuselage. Seems utterly un-crash-worthy. Very pretty, not very practical.

I remember when (last year) they were turned down for government assistance, because they had three wheels not four; wondered why they didn't just drag a bicycle wheel so they'd qualify.

Hoping to go by their offices next week and see if there's any evidence of getting rid of stuff.

This doesn't fit most of your critieria ("handwriting" being the most obvious, but also textbook storage), but it's what I've used and it works great for me.

iPhone (or any smartphone)
Bluetooth keyboard (I use Apple's)
Evernote

Evernote automatically uploads content to its cloud so you can edit and use from your computer without having to sync.

All you have to buy/carry in your purse is the keyboard - I'd chose a usable one that's a bit larger, like the Apple, rather than a small one that's harder to type on, since the main point will be to type notes quickly. Apple's keyboard is $70 or so, but compared to buying a barely usable netbook, I think it's worth it. Batteries in the kb last forever.

You could use a tablet instead but I find the iPhone screen big enough to read what I'm typing, which is enough.

Another benefit of the phone, is less temptation to multi-task.

Personally, I put the keyboard about a foot in front of me, with the phone in between me and the keyboard - easier to see, works better for touch-typing, less distracting to others I'm listening to.

I dislike handwritten notes, because they're barely legible and non-searchable.

As a PHP developer, I'm used to writing code manually rather than trying to use a GUI code creator.

Having been through several editors on several platforms, lately I like Aptana Studio 3 (version of Eclipse), mainly because of its FTP deployment, and the fact that it works identically on OSX and Windows.

(Biting tongue to avoid the troll response, Microsoft Word.)

I think Sony's failure is due to insistence on proprietary formats, many of which had their strengths but being Sony-only made them useless.

Betamax (as mentioned before)
DAT
Minidisc
ATRAC
Memory Stick
UMD

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kit-eaton/technomix/memorystick-micro-die-sonys-older-proprietary-standards

And, probably related to this, letting the iPod take over from the Walkman as portable media player of choice.

I remember when Sony portable electronics were the Apple of their day - beautiful, well-designed, must-own.

Yep, and it detected my copy of iPhoto - but I think Apple apps are as far as it gets.

I'm sold on the concept, but the store sells (and will undoubtedly sell more) apps that I've already paid for and have license/serial/whatever. I'm wondering what the process will be for letting Apple know I've purchased these? I would guess that (with Apple's help) the manufacturer would offer a "coupon" to existing users that lets them download the app for free or upgrade fee if it's already been registered? BBEdit, for example?

I'm also wondering why they didn't roll the iOS apps into this process - iTunes is really poorly suited to apps.

Burning Man has become my Christmas, New Years, 4th of July, Halloween and most other relevant holidays, rolled into one. I do my Burning Man shopping after traditional holidays, especially Christmas and Halloween. I remember years gone by, by the theme of that year. And even the two years (out of fourteen) that I haven't made it, the end of August was my memorable holiday. And the people I've gotten to know in my local community certainly rank as "family".

So, yeah, Christmas, bah. It's still amusing to see the combination of pagan celebration and Christian fairy-tales. Christians, of course, were particularly successful at appropriating other people's holidays. "You have a celebration at the winter solstice? Wow, so do we - so you can still celebrate yours, but ours is even more special!" Combine this with the out-of-control consumerism that runs from late September, the incessant muzak, the "need" to buy gifts for everyone you know, and double-tip everyone you run into? It's nice to have dinner with family, though.

New Years is just a regular challenge to find a decent party - which will never match the desert party. Combined with the worry of drunken drivers? Besides which, it's just another arbitrary date as well - the Y2k/2001 fiasco seals the deal.

Give me ten days in the desert with 50,000 of my closest friends.

...or parts of it, at least, like the shared data/soup model. In fact, it's surprising no one has built a good NewtOS emulator for the iPad.

Because you're racing a cargo truck in the Dakar? In which case you need more like 1000bhp.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_T815

And vice-versa. If they do give you access to their server - FAIL.

I code to spec. The product and marketing departments write the spec (what little there is); the QA department amends the spec with overly specific test cases. I suggest that the spec is incomplete and won't handle...but I'm told, just code it to spec. I recommend changed, but we don't have time for edge cases. I point out potential problems, but we're unlikely to get any of those. I warn of potential compatibility problems but we don't care. Are you just trying to be difficult? If there's a problem QA will catch it. The project is overdue already, and by the way here are some new requirements that need to make it in, and we can't change the release date because we already promised the stockholders. Why is your code so complicated, my twelve-year-old kid could write this.

It's not my fault. I code to spec.

When you enter the working world, you have to use whatever operating system (or other equipment) your employer has arbitrarily chosen, and frequently you'll have to pay for your own equipment.

Of course, I'm a fanboy/apologist, so I think the Macbook is a great choice since it can run OSX, Windows, or several flavors of *ux, either with BootCamp or Parallels. Then again, so can a hackintosh - and that's an even more valuable lesson (don't let arbitrary rules by distant companies get in the way of your education aka if you don't get caught it must not be illegal).