Following in the footsteps of a failing company...

I am not a movie pirate and I have never seen this movie, but this bullshit makes me not want to see it. Fuck the Hurt Locker.

In addition to the OPs, my recommendations (please excuse overlap) speaking from experience:
- A fast computer with a good widescreen monitor. Why? Much electronics work is done the computer, from circuit design, PCB design and microcontroller emulation
- If expense is no object, get a high-end electronics design package like Altium (only one that comes to mind, sorry). I use Proteus from Labcenter as it does the most excellent circuit and microcontoller emulation and is much better value for money
- Software for developing micrcontoller code
- CAD software like Solidworks or Autodesk Inventor for enclosure design
- 3D printer for printing enclosures
- microcontroller programming/debugging devices (e.g. MPLAB Real ICE) and headers
- a high-end mixed-signal oscilloscope (e.g. Tektronix MSO5000)
- a shitstorm of various voltage and current probes
- a good benchtop multimeter, e.g. Agillent 34411A
- a good digital soldering station (e.g. Weller) with multiple soldering irons of various power/sizes
- a good hot air rework station (e.g. Weller WPA3000)
- a hotplate
- *** IMPORTANT *** Fume extraction Don't solder without it
- a good desoldering station
- *** IMPORTANT *** a good stereomicroscope for surface-mount assembly (e.g. Nikon SMZ series)
- good digial benchtop power supplies (analog units can be bumped sending voltages flying; been there, done that)
- a good LCR meter (e.g. Fluke, Hameg)
- If you a doing power supply design, an "electronic load" (TTi)
- Again, if doing power supply design or mains voltage stuff, an AC power source/analyzer (e.g. Agilent); supplies worldwide voltages at various frequencies
- a good signal generator (any)
- an "electronics safe" vacuum for cleaning your bench, £M make one for printer repair which works well
- As I "hate" working from a bench, I recommend a strong and long desk (e.g. 1.8 -2m in length); Check out Herman Miller Abak
- A good chair, e.g. Herman Miller Aeron
- breadboards
- component "engineering kits" (e.g. assortments of resistors, caps, etc... both surface mount and radial/axial in a nice binder) so you always hav ethe exact component on hand
- tools: good screwdrivers, wire cutters, wire strippers, etc... heck, could go on regarding tools, but will stop...
*****
Good luck...

Do you keep in touch with Chuck Peddle?

The icon that fucks me off the most is the one for the iOS Maps application. The US interstate route sign in the icon (ie route 280) makes absolutely no sense to anyone young or old outside of the United States. A globe or something similar would make more sense....

What's next? Open-source chocolate chip cookies?

This.

SSO requires a) an authority for maintaining credentials (ie username/password); b) APIs to allow 3rd-party sites to easily integrate with the authority, such as verifying credentials or validating authentication cookies; c) momentum: lots of sites need to wire up to the SSO authority in order for it to be perceived as offering a single sign-on experience.

With so many major sites from Yahoo to Google to Microsoft (Passport) to Facebook, no one is perceived as a leader of SSO. Besides, Google now wants to know your real name, and Facebook Well, it’s Facebook for fuck sakes

but, but Single point of Sign On!

Scott/tiger

Anyone remember BT suing Prodigy some 10 years ago regarding their claim to the Hyperlink???

I recently purchased a Sony DVD/Bluray with internet TV. The interface for the internet TV sucks balls: the BBC iPlayer interface gets all buggered up, cursor navigates to empty space when selecting shows, etc... Over to you Apple.

Hello! University drop out here. Specifically Maths/Science/Engineering dropout from Canada circa '89... Posting in agreement.

I'm not convinced. Clearly the only way for me to appreciate how good I have it with the Blackberry Torch is to upgrade to an iPhone. Surely I will then come crawling back to RIM begging for forgiveness.
Look, I have been using Blackberries for years; I upgraded to a Torch after putting my Bold through the washing machine. That was a £400 expense. That's $640 Canadian dollars for all you hoser RIM fanboys out there; and I know who you are: Comsci and PEng grads in EE or CE from Waterloo, UofT, UBC, etc... who although well educated technically do not have a creative or artistic bone in your body (hence the uncompetitive nature of the tech industry in Canada). What am I supposed to do to stay believing in RIM? Drop another £400 6-months later on the second gen Torch? Forget it. RIM released the Torch too early: it was underpowered. I got screwed and have a right to hate the product.
@DaedalusIcarusHelios Yes, it was the first gen Torch. Thx for the BES Express tip; I will look into it.

Loyal but pi**ed off Blackberry user here... I was impacted by the outage last week. Run a small consulting firm, no BES so I am reliant on Blackberry's infrastructure via my mobile telco. Listen here RIM, if I wanted apps I'd buy an iPhone. Any compensation for us business users? Blackberry's roots are with business users and the enterprise environment, which is why I have continued to suffer with the device as more flash products have been released by RIM's competitors. Last week's outage was such a serious blow to RIM as the back-end Blackberry infrastructure remains their only remaining advantage. The Blackberry Torch -- which I loath for many reasons -- is so gutless that it is barely usable for surfing the web let alone for running Apps. RIM has taken last week's disaster as an opportunity to market their no-doubt underutilized App store. Very disappointing RIM...