All the time, I just wish everyone else did the same. Usually to just look up commandline stuff. I really like that shake quickref book they give out every year at the Users Group Meetings. I wish that was included with the PDF manuals.
PDF search primarily, which is a pain in the ass becuase it has way too many results. I should use the index more, but I don't. Maybe PDF just can't do this but the new tagging method for searching that sites like delicious+flickr used are the new way that organizing+searching should be done(which is essentially like combining search function with the index without having to actually goto the index). It's just a pain in the ass when I am looking for information and I have to keep going to the index to find it where the search has the results in the right side bar and I don't have to keep swapping back and fourth with the index(bookmarks for everything in the index maybe?).
It is Pretty extensive
Peter's humor isn't there anymore 
, I had never smirked while reading a manual untill I came across the Shake manuals. Humor makes you remember shit!
There is plenty of this but even more theory information like Art and Science book (more "why" instead of more "how").
Visual representations of how tools work. Like an animated curves and simple gradients to visually explain how for example a expand/compress node works. Another good example take a log curve, animate it stretching out into a lin curve when you use the loglin node and show how the info gets choped off when only working in 8/16 bit space. Even better put that curve on top of a b&w gradient.
Also I know this is probably a pain in the ass to add, but it would be awesome if there is a bug in a certain feature, have a little ***bug icon in that section of the manual that links to the section of the release notes talking about the known limitation.
Transition resources manuals like Alias has. Just a basic guide for switchers moving from AE/Combustion/Digital Fusion/FFI (Nuke people dont need one 
).
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?...3112&id=6904938
I used the old Shake 2.3/2.4 ones but have glanced through the new ones. DV/HDV/HDCAM is here to stay, so tuts on dealing with keying crappy 3:1:1/4:1:1 shit with primatte/keylight(I know there is a little section on dv in the manual but tut about it would be nice).
Paint/Cleanup tutorials, wire, rig removal.
We take this for granted, but basic roto tutorial for example a person.
as mentioned earlier, simple animations to illustrate examples
Personally I learn all from the manual, but the newest lazy bitches can't be bothered with even searching it and always want some 3rd party tutorials even though the answer is right there in front of them. Maybe put up tuts on the apple site and hint to stuff in the manual(as explained in the manual page 55). Maybe it will make people less f'ing lazy.
Originally when I first started the whole film loglin/color calibration/monitor/1d lut/3d lut/ should I use 16, should I use float thing was a big issue.
The differences in how math works in float vs 8/16 bit. Many of us took trig/geometry, etc.. in highschool/college, but linking those concepts of math in our heads to how Shake is working with color isn't immediatly apparent for some reason (with me at-least).
Have to think on that
electronic all the way
The new Sony Reader, woohoo!
http://products.sel.sony.com/pa/prs/index....showcase\_reader
A wiki version of the current manual.
Float differences that don't exist in the 8/16 bit world. It is basic math to me now but when I first started it didn't make sense, but basic things like doing and iadd between 2 mattes and why when I switchmatte them it is multiplying the matte by 2 because 1+1=2 in float instead of 1+1=1 in 8/16. Also while we are talking about mattes, when to use iadd vs max to combine mattes.
More scripting information. Many people start with other applications that have zero scripting so even simple stuff like expressions is foreign to people. More cookbook examples. Also include the SDK docs with the normal docs. There is useful information in the SDK for building macros not in the manual. Luckily I have worked for places that download the SDK, but not everyone does.
Usually 21"-24" monitor. Also dual 21" is common.
1600x1200 or 1920x1200, whatever the highest resolution the monitor is. I won't buy or use a monitor under 1600x1200.
Yes, when available, but only half the jobs have them, widescreen lcd's are becoming more prevalent these days.