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Oh, you'd be surprised at how well a scalpel can cut. But even better, one of those Japanese style chef knives. I've taken off a turkey leg with one swipe with one of those.

Yeah, but knives aren't specifically meant for murder.

Some aren't. Some are. Some places sell the former, some sell the latter.

http://www.knifecenter.com/knifecenter/index/specops.html

http://www.specialforces.com/store/catalog/category_493_Knives__Machetes_Combat_Knives_page_1.html

http://www.knife-depot.com/knives-245.html

The above linked websites (plus many thousands of brick-and-mortar shops) sell knives that are specifically designed to kill. Should they be convicted of something akin to accessory to murder if someone buys a knife from them and uses it for its' intended purpose and the purpose for which it is marketed and sold, to kill a human?

It's not the knife/gun that kills, it's the person wielding it with that intent and outcome. It's not the provider of a tracker that infringes copyright, or even has any contact at all with the copyrighted work in question (unlike the knife/gun dealer that actually supplies the murder weapon for a profit), it's the person that then takes that tracker and uses it to download a copy of a copyrighted work which was not authorized to him by the copyright holder.

Not arguing either way on either subject, but pointing out how these things are treated very differently considering the outcomes.

In one, a copyright holder has a civil tort and in the other, a human being loses their life. In the case of the civil tort, criminal sanctions including jail may result from even a contributory role judged under rules of evidence and procedures much less strict than a normal criminal judicial proceeding. In the case of the killing tool, no negative legal outcomes at all except for the actual perpetrator of a killing judged to be illegal in a criminal court with very high standards of evidence and very strict procedures.

Interesting times, indeed.

Strat

I used to carry around a bag with a USB hard drive, a USB thumb drive, a Cybertool, a cell phone (provided and required by work), a note pad, pens, pencils, and a Zaurus. Of course, I also needed the wifi card for the Zaurus, and the ethernet card with a cable, and a modem with a phone cord, just in case I needed to get in to work and there wasn't an access point handy.

Plus an umbrella. And a pack of Imitrex.

Then I realized I was basically carrying a purse.

I swapped the Cybertool for a nifty little knife that lives on my keychain with the pill case for my migraine meds and my Ritalin, ditched the hard drive, and bought a pocket-sized weekly calendar for ten bucks to replace the Zaurus. A selection of my mp3 collection lives is on my hard drive at work. I just listen to NPR when I'm in the car, which is where I keep the umbrella.

If/when I leave my current job, and my new employer doesn't require that I have a cell, I won't be replacing it.

In case you haven't figured it out, I've got some pretty harsh ADD. I've found that minimizing the ton of crap that I used to cart around with me has made life a helluva lot easier to handle.

Oh, and when I'm bored and I need something to do while waiting for a bus or eating at a restaurant, I buy a newspaper. It's amazing, really.

http://store.knifecenter.com/pgi-ProductSpec?SPT01 P check it out!

i cannot stress exactly how useful the spyderco is, and how compact it makes itself. i swear by spyderco. it's perfect for digging around inside a computer, too.

also on my list is one made by victorinox that i got my dad last christmas. it's nice, and the store i got it from was going out of business, so i got it at like a 35% discount (65 bucks instead of 100) it's got alot on it, but it doesn't have the same cool look as the spyderco, and it's not as compact, either. however, it does rock hard as well for functionality. i shy away from leatherman because there really are alot out there that are better, although alot of people think leatherman is the best (mostly because they haven't seen anything else). tey out spyderco and victorinox. it's the shit.

Second, I wouldn't mind one of these mp3 cd players. They also plays VCD, and are fairly inexpensive.

Finally, for sheer coolness factor and utility, I would take a Ricoh RDC-7 "Image Capture Device". This thing is amazing! It can fit in a shirt pocket, has a very high-res 2" LCD, zoom to 3x optically, and can record movies with sound or just sound alone (with a built-in speaker for playback). It also has a 3 megapixel CCD chip with two focusing modes which makes it a very capable digital camera. Need to become an international spy? This thing quickly sucks up highly compressed blank and white .tif files for OCR. As if that's not enough, it also places the CCD on a special piezo-electric mount so that it can shift it by a half a pixel and combine two exposures into a 7 megapixel image for when you need that extra, extra, extra fine detail. Phew! I've got to stop talking about it. Just go to either here or here for a review. And it only ranges from around $600 to $900, too! Just don't expect to have too much manual photographic control over aperture or shutter speed. But screw a Handspring, I'd take one of those and keep all my documents on it! Just think of it as a pocket size tape recorder, digital camera, camcorder, scanner, and taker of big-ass 7 megapixel files. (And the unreleased successer in Japan has wireless Internet access, a touchscreen, and PDA functionality! Imagine that...)

I'd actually go for the Syperdo Rench featured on /. back at the end of April.

Unfortunately, they are now just starting to come off. I checked yesterday night and it seems that they had some minor concerns about the design and they are fixing each one before shipping them. Word has it that there are limited quantities out there now, but the majority won't ship till next year.

Spyderco Rench @KnifeCenter
-Michael J. Lu

If they ever come out with one of these I would love to get it for christmas. Unfortunately it looks like it won't be available this christmas...

Blade steel for knife - 440C - 2 1/2" long Handles made of investment cast 17-4PH steel, heat treated and corrosion resistant
Opening cap. for crescent wrench is 9/16"

Tools included -
slip joint pliers
crescent wrench
diamond coated file
screwdriver bits
(#2 and #3 Phillips, #2 and #1 flathead)
double ended extension drive bit included.
Pocket clip and lanyard hole

Tool can be taken apart to use crescent wrench and screwdrivers as separate tools.

If you mean that wrench, you can find it at http://www.knifecenter.com
They also have the cybertool available. Quite a cool site.

I've carried a Victorinox "Huntsman" for many years and found it very useful for computer and non-computer tasks. The one thing I really want, that both the Huntsman and Cybertool lack, is a 3/16" hex driver for opening old PC cases and removing bus slot covers. The Phillips slots on those bolts tend to round very easily so I end up hunting for a hex driver.

Neutron

I've carried a Victorinox "Huntsman" for many years and found it very useful for computer and non-computer tasks. The one thing I really want, that both the Huntsman and Cybertool lack, is a 3/16" hex driver for opening old PC cases and removing bus slot covers. The Phillips slots on those bolts tend to round very easily so I end up hunting for a hex driver.

Neutron

http://www.uws.com/UWS_SOG_ToolClip.html
or the link at the bottom of this posting (better). Bad pictures, though... It's a really sturdy pair of pliars, although cutting thick wire hurts your hands.


By coincidence, I have just discovered that I lost it. My SOG Toolclip, that is! I might buy this new weird Spyderco thing, I will look at both Gerber and Leatherman. I do find the Leatherman pliars a bit wimpy, but the rest of the tool is nice. The Swisstool is not very impressive, IMHO.


And also, for those who feel anguish when they miss the toothpick from their Victorinox (Swiss army) knife; you'll go crazy when you drop torx bits all over the place as this weird Spyderco tool falls apart.


Check out this link for more details about SOG tools. They're my personal favorites.