I see threads around the place to discuss what you have, a thread to discuss what you do not have seemed to not exist though so here I am filling the gap.
General idea is in general and so it does not end so quickly for your trade/hobby the tools that are usually considered essential or highly recommended that you do now have.
General
Mobile phone -- had a cheap one for a few years when I was out and about. At the first opportunity it befell an "accident" and I have not owned a working one since.
As part of this I am kind of curious to see how many people still have a landline and how many of those are "well I needed it for internet", "it came as part of the cable package" and "well it only costs a tiny amount per month and I still have elderly relatives". Most people I meet tend not to have a landline that is worth trying to contact them on.
Vehicle -- not really worth it where I am at right now and as I do not mind peddling, skating or walking for an hour.
TV -- gave it up years ago.
A reliable printer. My main scanner is a scanner printer but nothing I would consider useful as a printer.
A screen with HDMI input. Only my projector has this and it is not really for general use.
Services
Beyond a throwaway webmail and a skype account (which I am prepared to drop as soon as I find something more serviceable for the others I get to speak to on it) I have no services of any form that are no related to my work (which is mainly a registrar or three and some hosting in various places). No steam or anything like that, no youtube, no social network of any form unless this place counts as one and no IM beyond skype and I think I probably still have an account for QQ.
Financial services wise nothing beyond a bank account that comes with a debit card times a few. No insurance (free healthcare and all that), no pension and nothing along those lines.
Tools
Nobody, including myself, has ever quite figured out what I do for a job so this gets tricky. It usually sits somewhere between IT, electrical engineering and bang it with a hammer engineering (reverse engineering, adaptation, one off fabrication and failure analysis to get more specific).
I am slowly building things up here (it was the other week that I finally got network crimp and punchdown tools for instance) but many things are missing.
For some reason I have no portable storage beyond a few old hard drives and my drive readers. Most of the time people just want to reclaim their emails and their photos which is USB flash drive territory.
Oscilloscope of any real merit. Would love one, have not got one beyond the TV I turned into one for a giggle.
Until about a week ago I did not have a working laptop beyond the crusty "security laptop" and certainly not one I could drag to a client site (I now only have one because someone gave me a couple of old ones and I got bored). LiveCDs tended to make this far easier though.
A lathe. Wanted one for ages but never got around to buying one.
ESR meter (for checking for dead capacitors). Usually amounts to if it is visibly blown or if the repair guide says check it.
A band saw. I go manual and have the rest where it is necessary but could really do with one.
Soldering wise I do OK actually but will really want a IR station of BGA is the way of the future.
I would like a fancy microscope but I have a nice enough one for most things.
A surprisingly weak chemistry/plastics fabrication kit.
No CNC type tools of any form. Eye them up all the time but that kind of money probably has better things to go on.
General idea is in general and so it does not end so quickly for your trade/hobby the tools that are usually considered essential or highly recommended that you do now have.
General
Mobile phone -- had a cheap one for a few years when I was out and about. At the first opportunity it befell an "accident" and I have not owned a working one since.
As part of this I am kind of curious to see how many people still have a landline and how many of those are "well I needed it for internet", "it came as part of the cable package" and "well it only costs a tiny amount per month and I still have elderly relatives". Most people I meet tend not to have a landline that is worth trying to contact them on.
Vehicle -- not really worth it where I am at right now and as I do not mind peddling, skating or walking for an hour.
TV -- gave it up years ago.
A reliable printer. My main scanner is a scanner printer but nothing I would consider useful as a printer.
A screen with HDMI input. Only my projector has this and it is not really for general use.
Services
Beyond a throwaway webmail and a skype account (which I am prepared to drop as soon as I find something more serviceable for the others I get to speak to on it) I have no services of any form that are no related to my work (which is mainly a registrar or three and some hosting in various places). No steam or anything like that, no youtube, no social network of any form unless this place counts as one and no IM beyond skype and I think I probably still have an account for QQ.
Financial services wise nothing beyond a bank account that comes with a debit card times a few. No insurance (free healthcare and all that), no pension and nothing along those lines.
Tools
Nobody, including myself, has ever quite figured out what I do for a job so this gets tricky. It usually sits somewhere between IT, electrical engineering and bang it with a hammer engineering (reverse engineering, adaptation, one off fabrication and failure analysis to get more specific).
I am slowly building things up here (it was the other week that I finally got network crimp and punchdown tools for instance) but many things are missing.
For some reason I have no portable storage beyond a few old hard drives and my drive readers. Most of the time people just want to reclaim their emails and their photos which is USB flash drive territory.
Oscilloscope of any real merit. Would love one, have not got one beyond the TV I turned into one for a giggle.
Until about a week ago I did not have a working laptop beyond the crusty "security laptop" and certainly not one I could drag to a client site (I now only have one because someone gave me a couple of old ones and I got bored). LiveCDs tended to make this far easier though.
A lathe. Wanted one for ages but never got around to buying one.
ESR meter (for checking for dead capacitors). Usually amounts to if it is visibly blown or if the repair guide says check it.
A band saw. I go manual and have the rest where it is necessary but could really do with one.
Soldering wise I do OK actually but will really want a IR station of BGA is the way of the future.
I would like a fancy microscope but I have a nice enough one for most things.
A surprisingly weak chemistry/plastics fabrication kit.
No CNC type tools of any form. Eye them up all the time but that kind of money probably has better things to go on.
