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I wrote a longer post but I lost it, so here's the links:

LMMS ("Compatible with many standards such as SoundFont2, VST(i), LADSPA, GUS Patches, and MIDI")
http://lmms.sourceforge.net/

Ardour (A DAW, but maybe useful)
http://ardour.org/

Rosegarden (Best sequencer, with Lilypad notation support, has actual printed literature you can buy)
http://www.rosegardenmusic.com...

Audacity (PCM swiss army knife ;)
http://audacity.sourceforge.ne...

The Cloudsto MK802IV LE, £80 ARM PC-onna-stick for doing music production on (Toys!!! *8D)
http://www.sonicstate.com/news...

Who needs a Mac or a PC when you can run it all on the CPU your phone uses?
Not tried it myself but for £80, I need to get one and have a go.

The man himself pronounces it "moague" - we interviewed him at NAMM a while ago:

Dr. Bob chats to our Nick

there are specialist soundcards which are essentially massive DSPs on a PCI card already, such as the TC Powercore which are used to power virtual instruments - it's of course conceivable that games could make use of these cards if they were installed, but they are of course very uncommon for games.

i think the crux is that while "flat" (ie not dynamically generated) sound is "good enough" for gaming, while non-dynamic graphics are not - this would limit us to something like myst. and don't forget that there was a proliferation of FMV games when CD-ROMs first appeared (you could even count Dragon's Lair and Space Ace as examples of these!) - people just aren't as reliant and receptive to sound as they are to graphics. eg you could conceivably play most games with the sound turned off, but not with the graphics turned off.

(yes, yes, I know someone is going to post saying they can play DDR with the graphics turned off, i think that proves your worthlessness as a human being though!)

there are advances being made in audio programming for games, and certainly surround sound support is a good and recent example of this, but it probably won't ever need powerful dedicated hardware beyond what is currently available.

In no particular order..

Perhaps it doesn't appeal to the stereotypical geek, but the vibrator. The pocket calculator as well as; The calculator/remote control/radio controlled/FM radio *wristwratch* (surely the pinnacle of minitiaturization!).

Of course, the bonefone: link. The transistor radio. The world receiver radio. The wind-up/clockwork radio/charger. The intimidating maglite flashlight. Glowsticks! Neither electonic, nor moving parts, but who can resist luminecence!

7" 33 1/3rpm vinyl gramophone records; or I can do you even better than that - 7" 33 1/3 rpm plastic gramophone records that were given away as inlays with MSX Magazine, that you'd dub on tape, and you'd "load" programs off of the tape using the regular "data cassette recorder".

CB (Citizen's Band, 27 "megacycle") radio. ZX80. C64. Nuff said. The lava lamp! Duh! The strap-on (wait for it) keyboard (keyboard guitar).

The hearing aid. The answering machine remote control/handheld DTMF tone dialer. Also; the blue box! The minox sub-miniature "spy" camera (as seen in james bond). The SLR Single Lens Reflex camera. Automatic tweezers (They don't work particularly well, but they have a gadget-esque movement)

The portable DVD player. Toys robots (remote controlled, especially; the robosapiens is a good stab at the concept). Magnesium firestarters. (I'm the firestarter!)

Personal Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (P-EPIRBs) RC cars, helicopters. E.g. The translator pen (scans text when you move across it, translates) The penman robotic plotter and of course the closely related concept of the Logo turtle..

The random movement printer (If and when it becomes widely available..) Lego mindstorms (programmable bricks..)

The most important hand-helds historically; the Smith&Wesson and the AK47.

Also, though not an autonomous device, nor mechanical, nominated for achievements in disrupting the global economy, I'd like to recognize bubblejet printer ink, for costing more than its weight in gold or oil.

Aerosol spray canisters; specifically,
every graffitti artist's friend: spraypaint and every gadget-minded geek's friend: deodorant (especially the miniature cans) and of course; aerosol cheese! Also, perhaps slightly more
palatable, mace pepper spray.

The electric toothbrush (with induction-loop-charging-circuit magic!)
Not the greatest gadget in history until you consider it's "dual use" nature, and the fact it's marketed so widely.

Sattellite TV. Not the most portable of gadgets, but come on! Windscreenwiper glasses. (Though more of a chindogu) The mac. The iMac for doing it twice. The aibo.

The "orgasmotron" (actually just a head massager, not at all naughty) Stylish pin clock. The keyghost hardware keystroke logger.

The digital camera. The digital photo frame.
The credit-card sized Anything, but in particular, the cre

My first - and only - 'high-end' keyboard was a Roland.

I was living in England at the time, and me and my band-mates took to hanging out in Cambridge and prowling the music stores looking for deals. I wanted, but could not afford a top of the line Yamaha DX-1 - so instead settled for a Roland JX-3P. This was 1983/84 timeframe. Rumor had it that Thomas Dolby acquired his keyboards from the same shop (but that is highly speculative - although interestingly the linked article does mention him - so my machine could have been from the same lot :p ). I never did buy the DCO controller unit - and spent many hours programming the thing through the push button interface (perhaps why I ended up becoming a computer programmer?). It also included a pitch bender (to get the effect equivalent to slurring notes) and a rudimentary midi interface - which I never used.

I remember seeing a Moog synth - a Prodigy in the same store - slightly used - and I kick myself for not getting that one instead - again lacked the cash flow. I did purchase a BOSS DR 110 drum machine which I used for composing, and when our drummer would crap out on us; I ended up loaning that to a friend in later years - and never saw it again (friend having moved with no return address). Also acquired a BOSS DM-3 Analog Delay floor switch unit - used that as a general purpose delay for all kinds of ambient effects - and still own it today (great little unit) and use it with my guitar.

When I came back to the states I got an electrician to modify the power supply on the keyboard to handle US power. After a few years I gave it to my sister who was studying music in college at the time. No idea where it is or what it is doing now...(sigh)

This new Korg sounds interesting (combining both my love of computers and music in one device). I wonder if I will have to sell my firstborn to afford it? Has anyone priced these? Would it be better for me just to get a good midi capable soundcard and some computer software combined with a cheaper keyboard?

No gigabit ethernet, so according to this, the mini won't be able to function as a Logic processing node.

Apologies for linking to my own stuff, but check this out:

http://www.sonicstate.com/news/shownews.cfm?newsid =1284

Just editing the video for this too, so watch this space.

The original model, dating from 1983 or so, with no raised buttons, just the flat control surface see here for details and pix). I saw one last week that had been gigged heavily for years, was missing chunks of its keys. There were screws rattling around inside from previous "repairs", yet it was still working and sounding as good as a DX7 Mk.1 can. (Not a patch on my Kawai K5000S, though...)

Absence makes the heart grow fonder:
Isle of Beauty, fare thee well!
Isle of Beauty. , Thomas Haynes Bayly. (1797-1839)

Also the first line in an anonymous poem in Davidson' Poetical Rhapsody (1602) but probably popularized by Bayly.

See also:

Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder.

Abstinence makes the heart grow fonder

Maintenance makes the heart grow fonder

Obsolesence makes the heart grow fonder

Absynth Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

etc.

If you want to try your hand at building your own analogue synthesizer, Synthfool has links to several DIY sites.