In the comments to the post where I noted how many more people had least favorite textbooks than favorite ones, dr. dave writes:
Textbooks... particularly SCIENCE textbooks, are not really written to be ENJOYED by anyone. They tend to be purely utilitarian. Asking for someone's favorite textbook is kind of like asking someone to choose their favorite screwdriver.
To which my reaction is: "What's wrong with having a favorite screwdriver?"
So here's a new dorky poll. We'll broaden the category a little, so as to be more inclusive, but inspired by dr. dave:
What's your most essential tool?
I'm looking for low-tech stuff here-- hand tools and the like, not "The CLAS photon tagging system" or something like that. For humanities types and those on the theory side, pencils and software packages are also elegible.
So, what's the one tool you really can't do without?
Like many optics types, I think I'd have to go with the 3/16" ball driver, which is what's used to tighten most of the screws on the optical table (the remainder are mostly 5/64"). Pretty much any optic that's in a mount is held in place with a screw that requires a 3/16" ball driver.
I have three of these in the lab (one on each optical table), and I still spend an inordinate amount of time looking for them when I'm working. I don't think I could function without them.
So, what's your favorite tool?
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Contact lenses and reading glasses.
Less often, but still enough that I have several stashed (in the car, house, and so forth), the ever useful swiss army knife, a fairly basic one with tweezers, a couple blades, little scissors, little screwdrivers.
See, god dammit... I KNEW some geek was gonna come back with that response the second I wrote it!!! I just didn't know it was going to be the Head Geek. :)
Anyway, the best tool I've bought in the past few years is a level (don't remember the actual brand name right now) that has three sliding guides with holes in them for marking. So if you have a picture with those sawtooth hangers on the back, you just slide the guides on the level to line up with them, then put the level on the wall, level it, and mark the holes. It's one of those "why did it take someone so long to invent this?" tools that makes you gasp out loud when you realize how useful it is.
Got it... should have done the search before I posted...
The Johnson "Mark-N-Mount"
http://www.amazon.com/Johnson-Level-Tool-MRK24-Mark-N-Mount/dp/B0000UJJ…
The reading glasses answer is a good one, because it's an essential tool that I use every day, albeit begrudgingly.
Does caffeine count?
Actually, I do have a favorite screwdriver: my Craftsman magnetic #2 phillips.
A ruler! Great for fiddling with plots and keep rows in a table straight (especially the teeny tables in old journals).
PuTTY. It makes everything easier and, indeed, makes my job simple.
You asked two questions: What's your more essential tool? and So, what's your favorite tool? For me, these definately don't overlap.
The most essential tool would unfortunately have to be Excel, even though I hate it. It seems that no matter what I do, measure, or plan, I end up making another spreadsheet to plot the results.
My favorite tool has to be Igor Pro. Best piece of software ever written, IMHO. Way more intuitive than Matlab, and 1 billion times better than Excel for a variety of reasons. I recently changed jobs, and one of the first things I did was request that the new company buy me a copy of Igor. Once they acquiesced, I told my girlfriend about it. Her response was, "Oh good! You love Igor!" Indeed.
My answer, until I read the other comments, was email. But then I realized that I can't handle email without the reading glasses :-(
Mark down the second for the 3/16" ball driver.
Outlook - can't plan my day without it any longer.
SuperMongo!
TeX
Duct Tape.
Swiss army knife, space shuttle edition.
Mac Book, any Pro edition.
Ziploc bags.
If you have kids, you will understand.
4mm Allen key. Every inline skater will agree.
(Also good for assembling Ikea furniture)
Legal pad, fountain pen.
Duct tape. Not much you can't do with that stuff, although I'm not too sure it counts as a tool.
Fork. Standard kitchen issue.
My Gerber multitool (favorite) and a tube of RTV (insta-gasket - essential).
My Cybertool, hands down. I work in a machine shop, so I have access to any number of pliers, screwdrives, knives, et al, but it's amazing how often the one in my pocket is perfectly sufficient for the task.
Also, the little eyeglass screwdriver in the corkscrew (not pictured) is genius.
As far as real tools go: Klein lineman's pliers. They're both substantial and manageable at the same time, and make any sort of electrical work much easier. The wirecutting blade doesn't get dinged and misaligned to uselessness, as seems to happen with all the small pliers and cutters I have around the lab.
For lab equipment, it's a toss-up between oscilloscopes and lock-in amplifiers. Especially the PAR-124 lock-in.
My Husky HD-74501 U interchangable screwdriver comes with 4 bits from 1/16 to 1/8 that stores in the handle, and fits in my pocket. As a CS guy absolutely must have. Couldn't do my job without it.
I'd have to vote for my Makita cordless. It's 14.4V with variable speed and a variable clutch, so I can safely do delicate work and then adjust a few settings and twist the head off of a 1/4" bolt. I've also got an attachment that allows me to use 1/2" sockets.
It would have to be my small benchtop drill press.
Hmm, favorite ... Since all my work involves computers, I think Jeremy's nomination of Igor is not a bad one.
If you want to consider useful as well as favorite, I have to say hammer and saw. You can build a house with those two tools.
My pocketknife. No fancy blade attachments or screwdrivers, just a couple of blades. Yay for the wedge and lever. ^_^
Most useful, every day, are my contact lenses.
Alternatively, neurological tools such as language and self-awareness.
As for tools in the traditional sense, I'd have to go with my Ring Lord chainmailler's pliers. Useful for any number of random around-the-house small things. But in particular they are optimized for making chainmaille (one of my hobbies), and even more specifically for working with rings of diameter >1/8" in metals softer than hardened stainless steel but harder than soft copper, or the plastic coating on enameled copper.
Favorite tool: Swiss Army "Classic". I've had one in my pocket for about 30 years now, and I use it for something just about every day.
Runner-up: whatever multi-tool is closest to hand. (I have a small Buck on my keychain, a Leatherman in each car toolbox, a couple more in drawers around the house.)
Honorable mention: gaffer's tape. Much more useful than duct tape.
Favorite tool Emeritus: 7" curved-jaw Vise-grips.
These are the best wire strippers and my favorite tool. I keep a pair in each of my tool boxes and one in the emergency kit, that lives in my truck
Though my mini pencil torch runs a close second. It also lives in my emergency kit. You just never know when you might need to "sweat" a joint in a copper line. I am unable to find the one that I have, online. I've had it since I was twelve, used it to help blow up the laundry room. Produced too high a concentration of hydrogen gas, my friend was playing with the trigger of the torch. Whole room flash singed, nobody hurt until my parents got home.
My Makita 12v cordless impact driver. So powerful, so small, and so noisy. (Like me)
Pelikan fountain pen. OB nib. Writing equations.
While the 3/16" ball driver certainly has a prominent place in my heart (and on my optical tables), I do so much work with gas handling equipment that my 8" adjustable wrench has to be the winner. I have (and use) fixed-size wrenches, but the adjustable wrench is one tool that works on nearly every fitting I encounter, even plastic ones that have been distorted by use enough that the appropriate fixed-size wrench no longer fits.
My most essential tool is basic calculus, and if that doesn't count, C (and my computer in general; since I'm a theorist, I wouldn't get far without it).
My favorite tool, though, is my Dewalt 18V cordless drill. It's the version just before they put all the metal in the front, which made the newer ones feel completely unbalanced (at least in my hand--I think their target audience has larger hands than I do, so perhaps they don't feel the imbalance).
Namiki Vanishing Point fountain pen, medium point. Beautifully smooth writing, nice weight, no cap to deal with. Has a pointy bit for poking holes in things. Best tool I've ever had.
perl
My "I wish" favorite would have to be this.
Back in the real world, my most used tools would be Access and Excel. Being a data analyst does that. For play, my favorite is without a doubt my Wii-mote.
Definitely a good sharp knife - either a chef's knife in the kitchen or a good pocket knife.
LabVIEW. Igor almost as favorite.
In the real world, the milling machine in our shop.
Remote Desktop, or any VNC. Like any essential tool, I even feel perfectly ambivalent about it. Its hugely helpful to be able to work from anywhere, and hugely unhelpful, because you are never away from work. Like a cell phone (aka "electronic leash")
The most essential tool is, of course, Tool. Prison Sex, Forty-Six and Two, Aenima, Lateralus, etc.
*sighs contentedly*
Yes, I know I'm completely out of order, but hey, you can always delete the comment :-P
Hard to pick a favorite. My leatherman Wave is my favorite right now, I guess.
But when I was building the canoe, my favorite tool was a 1/2 inch straight chisel, kept very sharp.
Bucky Katt, from Get Fuzzy: http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComic.mpl?date=2007/2/2&name=Fuzzy
A keychain light. I get more use from it than I got from a swiss army knife keychain.
A Kinesis keyboard, the dual-bowl kind. Otherwise my hands are toast.
(Catching up on posts.)
I don't consider my glasses a tool, I consider them part of my face.
My favorite tool is my heavy duty KitchenAid stand mixer. I'm also very fond of my high quality stainless steel measuring spoons and cups.
MKK