You don't say what your budget is, but good, sturdy workbenches (like these) with plenty of outlets for power supplies, scopes, meters, etc. as well as built in drawers and cabinet space.
If you are looking for suggestions on equipment, power supplies like the Topward 6000D series or similar (multiple output, adjustable, current limiting supplies) are invaluable. Good o-scope, handheld multimeter, etc. if you don't already have that stuff.
No, there is a big difference between Near-infrared (0.75 - 1.4 um) -- which is what CCD is sensitive to without a filter -- and Far-infrared (8 - 15 um) -- which is the thermal imaging range.
Actually, I think the Eclipse CDT plugin provides some amount of C++ refactoring. I know it can at least do some simple variable renaming, since I did that the other day. Not sure how much it can do beyond that, though.
Other than that, yeah, automated refactoring is just going to be much harder for C++ than for most other languages.
Next up on ESPN: Davion vs Steiner, live from Solaris VII!
(maybe we should get these guys involved to speed up the process).
Remember Darwin; building a better mousetrap merely results in smarter mice.