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Hardware

What's in Your Toolbox? 153

Posted by Cliff from the the-physical-one-not-the-digital-one dept.
Embedded Geek asks: "I am a software developer with access to (conservatively) $100K worth of emulators, protocol analyzers, and debugging equipment at work. Nevertheless, as in every lab since Frankenstein's, I can never find a meter or screwdriver when I need one - and God help you if you need electrical tape! Over the years I have accumulated a personal toolkit to fill the gaps between what my employer provides and what I need to get my job done. In addition to the basics (a meter, screwdrivers, cable ties, boxcutter, extra power cables, duct tape) I have a number of oddball items that have come in handy (serial cable gender changers & converters, a dental mirror, dental picks). I'm curious what other items slashdotters doing hardware/software development have found useful that their bosses never provide. What about those in the IT/support world?"
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What's in Your Toolbox? More

What's in Your Toolbox?

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  • stethoscope! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Zack ( 44 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @04:50PM (#4419480) Journal
    It's great for listening to hard drives to determine how screwed up they are. Start hearing little ticking or grinding noises? Back that sucker up and get a new one.

    Other than that, a 9 lbs. hammer comes in handy for those machines that refuse to cooperate ;-)

  • a thousand uses! (Score:5, Informative)

    by catseye ( 96076 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @04:52PM (#4419502)
    A Swiss army knife/Leatherman tool.

    I suppose one of those fancy-pancy ones targeted at IT workers would have some useful job-specific items, but just having an easily accessible assortment of quick-use generic tools (knife, pliers, tweezers, etc.) in a compact package has gotten me out of some spectacular jams in the past. You never know when you'll need something basic like a screwdriver, but you can't (for whatever reason) reach your normal box of goodies.

    -A.

    • Re:a thousand uses! (Score:4, Informative)

      by JasonMaggini ( 190142 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @05:27PM (#4419781)
      I picked up a cheapo Leatherman knockoff for a whopping six bucks at Wally-World... it came with ten or eleven different bits, phillips, flathead, I think even a torx or two.
      Couldn't beat the price, and since I have a habit of forgetting where I left stuff...
      All will be fine until a blade snaps off and flys across the room...
      • The cheap ones are cheap, but not worth the hassle. I have both a (real) Leatherman and a knockoff. The knockoff has flimsy blased that can easily close on your fingers, the blades aren't that sharp, and the metal itself just feels....flimsy.

        The Leatherman, on the other hand, has the locking blades, has a bit of heft to it (I've used it as a hammer a few times), and 10 years later still cuts through anything.

        As with most (physical) things you purchase, you get what you pay for. Most people here would buy the $50 mouse that lasts for years instead of the $5 mouse that lasts 6 months, yes?
        • Most people here would buy the $50 mouse that lasts for years instead of the $5 mouse that lasts 6 months, yes?

          You must not have kids. I pick up a couple of cheap mice and keyboards at every computer show.

          Hell, my boys have been known to break *HAMMERS*! As my eight year old says, "It's not that hard, you just have to whack it on concrete a few times".
          • As a soon-to-be-dad, I'll keep it in mind. Then again, I remember breaking most of my dad's tools as a kid. I think he finally got us our own set to play^H^H^H^Hbreak.
            • My Dad did the same thing for me, but I fooled him. I still have the first tools he gave me when I was about 6 or 7, and now that my boy's in 1st Grade I'm going to pass them down to him. OK, so how is that "fooling" my Dad? I took care of my tools and only broke his :-)

    • I never thought I'd give up carrying a Swiss Army Knife, but I bought a Leatherman Wave a few years ago and it's just the greatest. I wear it on my belt everywhere, and use it all the time.

      (Helpful hint: if you have trouble opening the side with the three tools that include the phillips screwdriver, try keeping it in the case with the lanyard eye sticking out. There's enough friction that you can just slide the eye back and it'll pull out the inner tools.)

      I don't recommend the older leatherman tools or any of the clones. The handles on the Wave are designed to let you really grip the pliers comfortably. The new blade lock mechanisms are very positive, I've never accidentally opened one or accidentally not-locked one, but they're easy to unlock when you need to. The only tool I miss from my Swiss Army knives of the past is the pair of tweezers.

      Other miscellaneous tools I have in my desk that have proven handy:

      • Four or five little kits of jeweller's screwdrivers. They tend to get lost and/or tips get twisted, and the little kits are cheap enough to just have a few laying around to loan out to people. Sometimes they don't come back.
      • A pair of tweezers. Were you paying attention?
      • A spool of wirewrap wire, a wirewrapping tool, and a handful of miniature DPDT switches. They're great for making switch-operated "broken hardware" testing setups that you can "fix" again with the flip of a switch.
      • Screwdriver handle with a set of interchangable bits, including Torx bits.
      • 1/4" and 3/16" nut drivers
      • A hand-operated drill (kind of like a manual egg beater, and has four drill bits stored on the shaft.) Makes for nicer looking cube mods, and nobody can hear it.
      • A bunch of paper clips are nice, but invest in a quality set of lockpicks.
      • A flashlight. The backs of PCs under desks is too dark to see the difference between "line in / mic in / line out / speaker out" on the back of a sound card; or between the "phone" and "jack" on the back of a modem card.
      • A soldering iron and heat shrink tubing make for nice looking cable repairs. And a voltmeter helps pin them out.
      • Several Altoids tins of random tiny screws, recovered from disk drives and PC cases over the years.
      Hmm... a lot of the cable repair stuff is from a time long ago when I did a lot more RS-232 work with peripherals. If you don't deal with peripherals, that gear may end up going unused.
  • as a developer, the only time I needed tape is when i broke my cd tray and i tape it closed. btw, i used scotch tape.
    • Actually, I believe it was Duct tape which is different than electrical tape. Duct tape has somethign like a million uses while electrical tape is not quite a useful.
      • Duct tape has somethign like a million uses while electrical tape is not quite a useful.



        really? i fFind electrical tape to be a lot more useful. fFor computer stuff, duct is a bit messy, and tends to lack in bonding strength.

        also, 3M does make some very impressive double stick tape.

        • All of 3M's tape products are good, including their duct tape.

          I've pulled 3M duct tape off of a window air conditioner after it'd been stuck there, exposed to the elements, for two years without leaving a mess behind.

          That said, I still never use duct tape for electronics. I've found some of it to be slightly conductive, which spells bad news for most things electrical.

    • I work a lot with prototypes here and I can never get the hardware guys to even give me the time of day. (The sight of a coder with a soldering iron terrifies them, I guess). I'm always making my own cables, breakout boxes, and whatnot.

      If it clears up the matter, I originally trained as a tech before discovering the joys of coding.

  • Tie Wraps (Score:4, Informative)

    by laard ( 35526 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @04:53PM (#4419510)
    probably not out of the ordinary, but those plastic tie wraps tend to be especially handy for harnessing those particularly spiteful wires.

    • Re:Tie Wraps (Score:5, Informative)

      by catseye ( 96076 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @04:59PM (#4419568)
      Similar to this, but a little more versatile, are strips of Velcro. Great for temporarily bundling cables or holding stuff out of the way while you work.

      Better yet are the long strips you can cut with a scissors -- I buy 'em in the six foot length. Very useful!

      -A.

      • Velcro (Score:3, Interesting)

        by spudwiser ( 124577 )
        i think velcro might actually (no fooling) be the official way of bundling cable runs according to the IEEE. we learned this in my Cisco class in high school. i just use tie-wraps :)
      • Check out florists tape, the velcro-like kind. Not quite as sturdy as real Velcro, but ch33p and just as handy around the house.
    • Once upon a time I was asked to help with some of the computers at school.

      If you wanted to do ANYTHING internal with these computers, you had to get a scissors and cut about 5 twist ties (without cutting any wires!) before you were able to accomplish what you wanted, even if it was something simple like adding a memory chip - the wires were twist tied in the way.

      Tim

  • What I Carry (Score:5, Informative)

    by linuxbert ( 78156 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @04:53PM (#4419515) Homepage Journal
    Besides the standard set of screw drivers, and adaptors, and other stuff allready mentioned, I carry: * linksys usb NIC (size of a memory key)
    * network crimper, punchtool, striper, and cable tester
    * forceps (surgical locking neadle nose plyers)
    * laptop to 40pin ide adaptor
    * flashlight
    * pen +pencil + cd marker
    * dental mirror
    * Antec ATX Power supply Tester
    * Multimeter
    * spare mouse
    * digital camera (occasionally to remember really fubared stuff)
    frs 2 way radios come in handy, as does a cordless drill, bandaids, and your whits.

    • Re:What I Carry (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Telastyn ( 206146 )
      In addition:
      1 15' ethernet cable
      1 3' crossover cable
      1 ethernet linker
      1 $5 generic telephone with phone line
      a small CD binder with:
      A Dos boot disk
      A Tom's root boot disk
      An imaging floppy (ghost or whatever)
      A win2k cd
      A Linux cd of choice
      A cd full of network drivers
      A MS Office cd
      A cd of sun freeware
    • A logic probe and pulser are handy if you want to find out if a piece of hardware has a heartbeat (clock signal) or if you want to assert the enable pin on a chip, ethernet, USB, hard drive cable... These pen sized instruments are much smaller than an oscilloscope, but can solve most hardware problems.
  • The networking toolkit has the usual... for software developement, I find the friendly red egg of "Silly Putty" a must have.

  • Forceps (Score:3, Interesting)

    by secret_squirrel_99 ( 530958 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @04:55PM (#4419536) Homepage
    I keep several pair in my box.. Great for pulling screws out of tight spots, fishing wires.. etc

  • A boxcutter? (Score:3, Funny)

    by MarkGriz ( 520778 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @05:00PM (#4419577)
    What are you, some kind of terrorist?

  • What i ALWAYS have: (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Unknown Poltroon ( 31628 ) <unknown_poltroon1sp@myahoo.com> on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @05:00PM (#4419580)
    Lockblade pocket knife
    Victornox(accept no substitutes)swiss army knife.
    Leatherman
    Paper clips.

    I have rarely ever found myself needing more.
    • So I guess I'm not the only one who uses paper clips to short the power switch pins on the motherboard to see if it's the motherboard or the power button that's broken, or to jury rig battery powered devices to take AAA batteries instead of AA...

      Rock on!

      Tim
  • Fine-point tweezers and a magnifying glass. Luckily, we can find these at work, and we even have those nifty magnifying lenses with built-in lights. They really help for people with fat fingers and bad eyes (like me).
  • Gender changers are a useful tool in your shop? What kinds of problems do you run into that you gotta go whacking off body parts of sticking new ones on with super glue?

    Reminds me a little bit of a Neil Gaiman short story. Guy develops a pill to cure some disease but it has an odd side effect, it can change your sex. Society began to use the drug recreationally.

  • All I do (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Apreche ( 239272 )
    is usually build PCs. And not as often as I'd like (the poorness!) but my favorite tool is the little grabby thing that gets loose screws out from motherboards. When doing any work with a pc and screws it is guaranteed you will drop a screw onto the board at least once. Radio Shack makes great computer tool kits.

  • There's this guy who responded to this question (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ...with a URL. He wears his toolbox.

    http://primates.ximian.com/~jbz/vest.html

  • Headlight (Score:3, Interesting)

    by linuxwrangler ( 582055 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @05:07PM (#4419634)
    My favorite is the LED Petzel "Zipka" (sp??). It's quite small, the batteries last a very long time, and the unit is thin enough on your forehead that it doesn't get in the way when you have to squeeze back/under/over/beside your desk/rack/computer to see/insert/remove a serial-number/cable/screw...

  • Dental tools? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by dfreed ( 40276 )
    YES! I am not the only one who finds these usefull. I get some strange looks when I pull them out to fix a problem. Event the local geeks think it is a little odd.
    • They are invaluable. I've been using a pile of old ones I got from my dentist back when I was a kid. Unfortunately my current dentist uses ones that have replaceable tips so my free supply is limited.
      • Don't know if you're in the L.A. area, but there's a tool vendor who goes to the big computer swapmeet here (Pomona, to be exact). He's always got tons of cheap stuff from Pakistan including dental picks & mirrors. I also saw some at (believe it or not) Walmart the other day (although they were just labeled "tool picks" or something - no "dental" anywhere in sight)
    • You, know, I feel the same way seeing your post. I felt kinda weird putting it into the original submission but I knew it'd grab some attention.

      The mirror is worth its weight in gold. I have admit, the pick has only come in handy a few times but it's small and I get a big kick pulling my "Is it safe?" shtick on anyone who's seen Marathon Man.

  • Not being funny (Score:3, Informative)

    by moc.tfosorcimgllib ( 602636 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @05:09PM (#4419650) Journal
    A soft-bristle toothbrush.

    If you deal with anything that accumulates a great amount of corrosion, a toothbrush is perfect to remove it.
    • A #2 pencil with a CLEAN eraser. An old trick I learned in the army is that the pink rubber eraser has just enough abrasiveness to do a really good job of cleaning gold-plated contacts without removing too much of the plating. You'd be amazed at how many "dead" cards can be resurrected this way when merely reseating them in their slots doesn't work.

  • hasn't changed.... (Score:5, Informative)

    by slothdog ( 3329 ) <slothdog&gmail,com> on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @05:09PM (#4419655) Homepage
    probably the same kind of stuff that was in it a couple months ago [slashdot.org].
    • Sssssh, don't tell them... just post the highest modded comments again and watch your karma soar! :-p

      Like this:

      - A screwdriver with #2 Phillips, flat and assorted Torx bits
      - A small set of little-tiny screw drivers for laptops
      - A penlight
      - A telescoping mirror
      - A telescoping magnetic pickup or grabber
      - A big (40+) CD case to carry all your utility software
      - A couple of blank floppies
      - A '98 boot diskette (for machines that won't boot off CD-ROM for whatever reason)
      - Spare IDE/FDD cables
      - Spare SCSI cables and terminators
      - Spare Cat-5 cables of various lengths including one short cross-over and a couple of inline couplers so you can daisy-chain them

      And if you still have room: a mini-hub, spare NIC, spare video-card, HDD for imaging, laptop with PCMCIA nic and modem

      Enjoy!

  • Guess I'm lucky (Score:3, Informative)

    by whoda ( 569082 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @05:12PM (#4419674) Homepage
    At my worksite, we have an area called Labstock.

    Basically it's all the tools and accessories that are used at our site.

    Tools(Everything we need), clips, zip-ties, batteries(About 15 different types), IC chips, blank eeproms, blank CD's, labels, surface mount components (Resistors, Caps,etc), and on and on and on....

    Works great, we have a person whose job it is to re-order stuff thats used, if you take the last item, you put the tag on his desk, he re-stocks the bin.

    The only problem is people pilfering for personal use (The AA batteries fly out of there like nobodies business).

    Adding a security camera and posting a notice that it was there drastically reduced the pilfering.

  • Tools (Score:3, Interesting)

    by HotNeedleOfInquiry ( 598897 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @05:16PM (#4419695)
    A couple of old laptops, set to boot dos and run a terminal emulator. Use them all the time. Dos boot disks with Aefdsk, fdisk, format and debug. Jumpers and paper clips to jumper pins 2-3 of RS-232 connectors to loopback signals. A lineman's handset, preferably obtained in the traditional way. RJ-45 and RJ-11 crimper, connectors and cable. Extra ethernet hub, patch cables and crossover cables. Spare SDRAM modules Everyone else's username and password.

  • At a previous job (Score:2, Funny)

    by PD ( 9577 )
    My employment contract. It's the most useful thing in a politically charged environment.

  • bits (Score:3, Funny)

    by fava ( 513118 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @05:20PM (#4419735)
    Lots and lots of bits, half 0's and half 1's.

    I have no use for bytes or words, they just take up too much room in my special carryng case (my bit bucket). Besides I can assemble any byte or word that I desire with just a little work and it really cuts down on inventory.

  • My tools (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    A spatula, a stack of hamburger wrappers, and a grill scraper. You want fries with that?
  • Percussive maintenance - 'nough said.
  • I'm curious what other items slashdotters doing hardware/software development have found useful that their bosses never provide.
    A working computer. Our MIS department are quite incompetent. ;-)

  • Electrical Tape has no place in a professional electronics environment. It's gummy and unprofessional. Any assembly worth putting together should be properly insulated with Heat Shrink tubing.

    Just say no when someone asks for electrical tape. Unless they're wearing coveralls and look like they're wiring outlets.

  • My toolbox (Score:5, Funny)

    by flikx ( 191915 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @05:43PM (#4419897) Homepage Journal
    • Large box of condoms
    • 2 enema kits
    • 3 porno magazines
    • Box of cheap cigars
    • Bottle of vodka


      • Two bags of grass
      • Seventy-five pellets of mescaline
      • Five sheets of high powered blotter acid
      • A salt shaker half full of cocaine
      • a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers...
      • a quart of tequila
      • a quart of rum
      • a case of beer
      • a pint of raw ether
      • two dozen amyls

  • Tools (Score:4, Informative)

    by ka9dgx ( 72702 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @05:46PM (#4419932) Homepage Journal
    These days, I'm mostly doing systems management, software, etc... but when a repair issue arises, for most jobs, my leatherman tool suffices. When the hardware needs repair beyond board swapping, then I haul my toolbox out, which serves quite well for you average electronics repair. It's biased more towards analog electronics, but it includes:
    • Regular and Philips screwdrivers, etc.
    • Dikes, Needle Nose, and Bent Needle Nose pliers
    • A big pair linemans pliers /w cutter
    • A big pair of slip joint pliers
    • An old (but effective) stripper/bolt cutter/crimper
    • Assorted files, including diamond
    • Micrometer and Caliper set (mostly for show)
    • Metal ruler, both English and Metric
    • Wrench set, combination, Craftsman, english sizes
    • Plastic "twiddle stick" for tuning coils
    • Craftsman 42 Watt soldering iron, with copper coated iron tips, solder wick, and real lead/tin Kester solder
    • Water, and stand for soldering iron
    • Flux (for non-copper work), Silver Solder, and Solder-Wick
    • Spring loaded solder sucker
    • Multimeter with probes
    • Jumper cables
    • Bits of phone wire (very handy)
    • Automatic centerpunch
    • Various parts and screws
    • Fiberglass scraping tool (for cleaning contact points)
    • Xacto knives
    • Hobby metal saw
    • Pin vise with bits down to #40
    • Razor blades and scraper
    • F-Connector wrench (great for tightening the cables behind a VCR, etc)
    • Power cord with leads on other end (ever need to put 110 somewhere as a test?
    • Mechanical pencil & Paper
    • Electrical tape
    • Super glue
    • Safety goggles
    And this tool kit does NOT include:
    • Duct tape - Either its fixed right, or I'm not touching it
    • Anti-static equipment - Lets face it, if it's that delicate, it needs a board swap to be reliable
    • Logic Probe - Alas, that would be a good thing to add
    • Heatsink compound - I ran out a few years ago, haven't needed any lately

    All of this is housed in an old NCR Cash register repair suitcase a friend gave me. The mere sight of a 42 Watt non-temperature controlled iron is enough to convince most people I'm crazy, but it's darn good for doing SMC repairs, gets everything up to temperature in no time, saving the parts.

    --Mike--

  • As a UNIX admin, over the past decade, I have collected a plethora of proggies, scripts, etc that I just can't live without. Since I am inherently lazy, I write a shell script for everything. I have kept all my scripts and have put them all on CDs. Plus, every software dev tool I have collected over the years from previous jobs. The go in my sack of goodies. I wouldnt know what I'd do if I lost these things(Yes, they're a crutch, but at leats I get the job done!)

  • As a software engineer, ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by joto ( 134244 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @05:50PM (#4419970)
    I usually carry a pen, and some scrap piece of paper. It can come in very handy when you need to discuss, plan, or understand something that is too difficult to get off the computer screen.

    Since I work with some embedded stuff as well, it has happened that my pocket knife have come in handy (some people actually fasten those screws at the end of the com-ports I need access to in order to speak to the equipment).. But it depends on what you do (well, I have also used a multimeter once, but only because I had no lightbulb and two pieces of wire handy).

    If you need more tools than that, you can't possibly call yourself a software developer.

    Besides, the ultimate toolchest has been discussed at slashdot before. But anyway, here is my suggestion (but for software developers):

    • A hammer (good for solving problems with faulty compilers)
    • A bat (see above, but when something else fails as well)
    • A punchbag (for those situations when you finally found out, the problem was your own code)
    • A pillow (when you need to take a nap to "think of your problem")
    • A teddy (which you can try to explain your problem too before you pester your coworkers, most often it's the explaining that is important, not your coworkers suggestion. Besides, it's cuddly and sweet and can give you emotional support when you need it...)
    • A dirty coffe-mug (that you never wash or use (there are paper cups, right?), but at least keeps your desk less tidy)
    • A couple of boxes of old outdated and useless manuals for things you don't even remember what was (but sure, the next day after you throw something away, you certainly remember)
    • A flier for the local pizza-delivery service...
    • A flier for the local pizza-delivery service...


      Obviously, you're not truly dedicated, otherwise you would have memorized that flier.

    • If you need more tools than that, you can't possibly call yourself a software developer.

      You must be one of those rare lucky bastards who works for a company that has people a) to take care of the hardware, and b) are actually competent to do so, and c) are around when you need them.

      Back here in the real world, my primary job function is most certainly "software developer", and that's what I call myself, but somebody has to re-arrange the test lab, replace harddrives and memory, etc. etc. etc. And no, it wouldn't be cheaper/more efficient to hire an additional person to take care of that kind of stuff -- it's not a full time job, but it still has to be done.

    • As a software engineer you should not have overlooked the importance of "cluestik" tools to deal with lusers of your software.

      In particular, the baseball bat and the pen knife can be used to eliminate a lot of reported trouble tickets right at the source of the complaint.

      In case those portable and multipurpose tools don't work, I recommend drinking a couple of pots of coffee and walking into the office that was the source of the complaint with nunchuks and whacking the desk real hard with some irritated expression like

      Dammit! That was supposed to be fixed last month. Now I'm REALLY mad!
      You'll substantially reduce the number of complaints and trouble tickets with not only the right tools, but also the right attitude.

  • chemicals in my toolbox (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dunkelfalke ( 91624 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @05:51PM (#4419979)
    one important section of my toolbox are various chemicals:

    isopropanol for cleaning various surfaces
    good thermal grease (for changing coolers)
    instant and epoxy glue
    ballistol (for saving fans, great lubricant, not only for weapons)
    sea water spray (for my poor nose if i must work in dusty environment)

  • We support about 12 sites around the US. Between distributing large software packages like Oracle, and copying 500+ meg .pst files for users moving to new locations (yes, I really need EVERY email I've sent AND received during the last 3 years, even the Powerpoint-attachment birthday announcements), we go through quite a lot of them.
    I've learned to keep my own private stash locked in my desk. They become quite a commodity.
    • >copying 500+ meg .pst files for users moving to new
      >locations (yes, I really need EVERY email I've sent
      >AND received during the last 3 years, even the
      >Powerpoint-attachment birthday announcements)

      LOL.

      We had a guy who had several 1GB+ PST files, including messages that were migrated from the old mainframe email system All Those Years Ago.

  • Just one single tool. (Score:4, Funny)

    by stefanlasiewski ( 63134 ) <slashdotNO@SPAMstefanco.com> on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @06:00PM (#4420043) Homepage Journal
    A hammer.

    Rather then carry around one tool to solve each problem, it's much simpler to carry around a hammer and treat all problems as nails.
  • I never ever go anywhere to fix a computer without my little black notebook. It containes the following:

    Serial Numbers and CD Keys (What!, you lost your Win2K Serial, Bad Monkey!)

    Usernames and Passwords (like lusers ever remember their "saved" passwords)

    Various ISP information

    Miscellanious esoteric commands

    Other random tibbits I might need (like how to make a modem dial fast, etc.)

  • A Laptop (Score:4, Insightful)

    by HRbnjR ( 12398 ) <chris@hubick.com> on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @06:20PM (#4420164) Homepage
    As a software development consultant, I have been sent off to quite a few different companies. Being paid by the hour, and as a matter of personal pride, I try to be efficient in solving a customers needs. But if I were to rely on the software tools provided to me by my clients, I would never get anything done. This is why my laptop, which is filled with useful software, never leaves my side. It is almost inevitable that during the initial stages of a project, everything from the workstations to the servers for a system will be in a complete state of dissaray. I have been in /very/ large companies where the systems are all locked down, and you need to file paper requests for software to be installed on your workstation (god forbit it's not in their catalog), or to have a database created - these requests could take from days to months.

    A laptop running:
    - Windows XP Pro or 2000 Server. Gives me drivers for everything. I can plug in floppies, my Jazz drive or portable burners or whatever I need to get Data and backups around. Good luck using the NT4 the client gives me.
    - MS Office Suite w Access - this gets used for everything, from tracking meetings in Outlook to calculations in Excel.
    - IDE: JBuilder, Netbeans, Eclipse, Visual Studio, Emacs, EditPad, JEdit, etc, etc.
    - Database: As if I want to twiddle my thumbs for a week while Systems dept creats a table and gives me access. I can have half the prototype done by then. Access ships with a stripped down version of SQL Server - great for getting started on the basic SQL no matter what DB it's eventually targetted for.
    - Photophop/Corel Graphics Suite: Handy for creating icons for your UI - or at least sensible place holders till graphic artist can get around to it - and gives them an idea what you need too.
    - Steinberg Wavelab: same as previous, sounds for your app, etc.
    - Cygwin! Bash. Never leave home without it. Perl, Python, XFree86, GCC, Make, and and endless list of every reason I love Linux all available for your convenience. Great for connectivity with Unix systems too.
    - Mozilla, IE6, etc: Current browsers for testing web sites. God knows what the client has installed. I always code for the latest and most bug free platform I can find, and then backport and fix later - that way I know it's the software that's broken rather than some error in my coding which could kill time looking for. Can throw on SP - JC's SGML/XML parser for validation. Mozilla includes javascript debugger and DOM viewer tools as well!
    - Latest JDK from Sun, WSFTP, JBoss, PHP, Apache - HTTP server, Ant, Xalan, Xerces, Tomcat, etc, etc, Boost, ACE, Loki, etc C++ libraries.
    - A Documentation folder with EVERYTHING - from RFC's and JavaDoc to most all the latest W3C Rec's, to MSDN stuff, to whatever.

    Loads of other stuff I forget, but you get the idea, the Swiss Army Knife laptop. I would die without it. Or at least be 1/5 as productive.

  • Hearing protection (Score:3, Informative)

    by toybuilder ( 161045 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @06:20PM (#4420170)
    This was more of a big deal when I spent a lot of time in the machine room, but it was also useful when I was tired and easily distracted -- a 100 count box of Moldex Pura-Fit 6800 ear plugs. A single box would last me about a year.

    When purchased in bulk, foam ear plugs are reasonably affordable. NoiseBuster headphones are helpful, too, for cutting down machine noise -- but the earplugs are best.

    I find myself tiring easily when constantly exposed to machine noise from loud PC's, routers, etc.

  • I am a software developer ...

    What on earth do you need electrical tape, screwdriver, etc. for? It sounds like a HARDWARE problem.

  • Leatherman (Score:3, Informative)

    by wdr1 ( 31310 ) <wdr1&pobox,com> on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @06:38PM (#4420266) Homepage Journal
    Get a Leatherman. I love mine --all 4 (a micra (on the keychain, only one I actually purchased myself), the regular (wedding gift), super tool (xmas gift), and the juice (bday gift)).

    For IT, I'd recommend the Super Tool [amazon.com]. With one little device you get:

    -- needlenose pliers
    -- regular pliers
    -- wire cutters
    -- hard-wirte cutters
    -- clip-point knife
    -- serrated knife
    -- wood/bone saw
    -- metal/wood file
    -- ruler
    -- can/boottle opener
    -- screwdriver
    -- philps screwdriver
    -- electric crimper
    -- write stripper
    -- awl punch

    Okay, so I never really found a use for the awl. But having the pliers, both kinds of screwdrivers, the stripper and crimper all together was really handy. And having the bottle opener for when the day is over is not bad either. ;)

    -Bill
    • Okay, so I never really found a use for the awl.

      ...but you make everyday use of the bone saw?

    • Having previously owned a Super Tool, I purchaced a Wave recently and would never go back. Just like the advertising says:

      The knives are openable with one hand.
      The locking mechanism is sane.
      The pliers are comfortable so I can grip as hard as I want, rather than being limited by my threshold of pain.
      It has scisors.

      Unfortunately the Wave doesn't have a ruler, which did come in handy. Although it would be interupted by the plires, it could be put on the (streight) side of the base.

      I havn't seen any multi-tool I would rather have. (Though if you see one, let me know.)

      --Ben
  • precision screwdrivers -- for some reason the smaller sizes tend to get a lot of use by me. I use a kit whose upper end is about right for HD mounting screws and whose lower end is good for palm pilots, glasses, and various small devices not meant to be user maintainable.

    cryptographic keys and commonly used crypto software on a business card CDR-- being able to work securely from almost anywhere on the net comes in handy.

    small, powerful flashlight-- the one I'm using uses a set of three of the newish super-bright LEDs. It puts out a lot of light, and lasts hundreds of hours on some AAs, so I never have to worry about it being sapped of power when I need it.

    my Palm-- it has about a billion field uses. In particular, with the right set of adapters, it can be a good emergency console terminal for headless servers.

    cell phone

    Linuxcar boot toolkit on a business card CDR-- I really should roll my own, but this thing has most of the good stuff on it. There are times when "dd" is the perfect tool. If I rolled my own, I would probably add the Coroner's toolkit.
  • Forgot to mention in the original submission - I picked up a pair of soft sided tool bags at Home Depot this weekend for $10 (can't link into their site but the SKU is 775434). Great for storing all the stuff if you don't have too much.

  • Metal nibbler (Score:2, Interesting)

    by JumpSuit Boy ( 29166 )
    AKA sheet metal nibbler. The case has an extra flange just where the full length isa card is suppost to go. No problem. Plus no more ragged edges from when you hacked it out with your leatherman.

    http://www.jdr.com/interact/item.asp?itemno=NIBB LE R

  • You need a cell phone.

    "Hey Mike! I can't fix this piece of !@)$#*@#$, come down here and help me!"
  • http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/02q3/020820/inde x.html [tomshardware.com]

    How To Assemble The Ultimate Toolbox

    Summary:
    Finding the correct tool for the job can sometimes be a chore. We look at some of the tools that should be in the Ultimate Toolbox and take a look at some ideas on what goes into having the right tool for the right job.

  • I use (Score:2, Informative)

    by RedWolves2 ( 84305 )
    I use this tool kit [amazon.com].

  • The most essential thing... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Millennium ( 2451 ) on Wednesday October 09, 2002 @10:25PM (#4421362)
    The most important thing to have in your toolbox is a large, stuffed, pink bunny.

    Carry it around everywhere at work. Converse with it regularly. Get its opinion on other peoples' technical problems. Make your co-workers greet the rabbit whenever they greet you.

    This should keep people from calling you unless it's REALLY an emergency.
  • * one forty-five caliber automatic
    * two boxes of ammunition
    * four days' concentrated emergency rations
    * one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills
    * one miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible
    * one hundred dollars in rubles
    * one hundred dollars in gold
    * nine packs of chewing gum
    * one issue of prophylactics
    * three lipsticks
    * three pair of nylon stockings

    • shoot, a fellah could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff....

      lol I was about to post that myself. If anyone has not yet seen it, check out "Dr. Strangelove or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb." It is one of the funniest movies I have seen, with such great quotes as "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here. This is the War Room!"

  • Tools CD (Score:2, Informative)

    by Packet ( 8034 )
    I finally got frustrated carrying a wallet of every CD I could possibly need, and even then not having the program I really wanted, so I made a custom 'tools' CD that I carry everywhere

    I burn about 125MB of network tools (packet sniffers, traceroute and ping tools, hex editor, etc), system diag tools, boot disk images for every windows version from 95 to 2k, various 'toys' like tweakui, winzip, pkzip, and things I install a lot like Pegasus mail onto a 3.5" bootable CD (it boots to a dos prompt where I have over 3MB of dos diag tools available). It also detects/loads CD drives on booting. The final product is small enough to drop into my shirt pocket.

    Then, in whatever leftover space I have, I put a few Mp3 files and winamp so I have some music to work by no matter WHOSE office I'm in.

    This CD has been a lifesaver on dozens of jobs. Whenever I find better tools, I create a new version and burn about 10 copies (some for friends, 1 for the toolbox, 1 for the office, 1 for home, and 1 each for the glove compartments of my wife's care and mine so I NEVER am without it).

    So far, I am up to verison 1.4 and finding new things to put on in every day.
  • Or other sticky blobby stuff. Very useful when you dont have a magnetized screwdriver and need to stick a tiny screw in a near-inaccessible hole. Small blob on the screwdriver, stick the screw on, place in hole, turn.

    Does everyone do this? Will I get down-moderated 'obvious'? :)

    Baz
  • I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned carrying an ethernet port tester. I work in an area where there are may more wall outlets than ports in the PDS closet, so a lot of the wall outlets are not active. As I move equipment around, the port tester makes it easy to see if a port is active (saving a trip to the PDS closet).

    /Don

  • I work in an RF engineering environment, so the requirements are a little different.

    We're pretty well stocked (Gender changers? There are at least two labs with ample stock of any kind of coaxial RF adapter you can think of...), but occasionally something is hard to find. (It's usually somewhere, but when the lab manager or whoever normally has the equipment is out of office - uhoh...)

    For those emergencies, I have in my car (Note: I try to keep it away from work, so I don't actually bring anything in unless needed.)
    Full repair toolkit (Wrenches, socket set, etc.) - It's always in my car anyway since it's primarily for automotive repair. I've occasionally needed to grab the odd wrench size when someone has borrowed the driver we need.
    Precision screwdriver set w/small pliers, wirecutters, etc. - Haven't needed it at work, nice to know it's a short trip out to the car
    Dremel tool - I expected to need this, but never did need it.
    Heat gun - Actually, now back at home permanently. Needed to briefly work with LARGE chunks of heatshrink and Murphy hit - The guy who keeps track of our heat gun was out for the week.

    I know the feeling though... One piece of test equipment I work with (Rohde & Schwarz FSIQ spectrum analyzer) is *alone* worth $115k new.
  • ...there should be a snack or two. A bag of cookies or something, a can of soda or bottle of water (handy for putting out the fires you start).

    Cookies are also useful as bribes. Just toss one a good distance away and over-curious dogs and small children will leave you alone for a while (until they come back for more...can't win). Never keep dog biscuits for the dogs, you'll throw one to a kid sooner or later. And that will be the time someone sees you doing it.

  • I always (Score:2, Informative)

    by redog ( 574983 )
    have my portable butane torch/soldering iron in my tool box. See [opelousas.org]
    and solder
    spare butane,
    heat shrink,
    tie-wraps,
    toothbrush,
    needles
    lighter, matches,
    mirror,
    vice-grips(snubnose and needle nose),
    hemo-stats(multi-purpose(work/break)),
    A cable tester,
    a few paperclips ,
    2 ethernet cables and a crossover box,
    wire strippers & crimpers
    multimeter
    a cigarette lighter to 110 inverter
    Mini Mag light
    Straight edge(steel 18" ruler, it just fits)
    set of wrenches,(English & metric & Alen)
    Channel Locks small and tiny
    a whistle
    CD Book with justabout all you need
    fishing string & weight
    pully
    a folded up coathanger
    Gender benders null modems
    teflon tape
    jb-weld(this stuff is awesome)
    magnifing glass .07 lead pencil for straightening pins
    tweesers
    and a Rifle bullet(no Idea)

  • And
    • emacs
    • perl
    • some cash and a credit card
    • USB memory key
    • swiss army knife


    With those, I can do (or get) anything else I need.

  • There's a store whose name I forget next to dot com depot (where the heck is that? it's in the same city as the fry's with the piano in the SV... right down the street even. I wanna call it Action Computer) which sells screwdrivers with a light built in and a telescoping magnetic probe. They sometimes sell screwdrivers without the light (which runs on 2xAAA) and with more bits. Anyway they're like eight bucks so not only are they the handiest thing ever for getting screws from behind desks and from between the legs of hottie_female_coworker who would not appreciate it if you got down on your hands and knees under her to find a screw (I realize the dripping irony in this statement (and this one)) and so on. Plus when you're laying in the mechanic position (IE, under someone's desk with your head in their PC) the light is invaluable because - get this - you don't have to hold it in a separate hand, and it shines on the place where you're screwing.

    Those who have a miner's light (or similar) in their toolbox are just nerds. Get a flashlight that doesn't attach to your forehead and you can step up to geek.

    The #2 most useful thing has typically been tweezers.

    On the software side, if you're talking about PC support, the three floppies everyone should have are the Windows 98 boot floppy, and disks 1 and 2 (both of them) of a partition magic rescue set. Dos partition magic does everything windows partition magic does (when you think about it, partition magic doesn't do anything THAT complicated, but no one else has bothered to write the same thing yet that I'm aware of). I actually keep a CD with rawrite, rawritewin, dos 6.22 floppy images, and a win98 boot floppy image, so I can make new ones wherever I go. The dos floppies aren't worth much, admittedly.

    Now the ObDisclaimer: If you have a magnetized screwdriver, keep it away from magnetic media as much as possible. I've yet to screw up a hard disk by installing or removing its screws with mine, your mileage may vary.

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