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"A new engineer that comes in gets a new MacPro with dual quad-core CPUs and 12GB of ram" WTF? You have to be kidding me, is that what it takes to develop applications in Java? I'm sorry for you guys.

Seems like a reasonable setup for being able to do the kind of development and testing I would like/need to do given the vast amounts of data and analysis LinkedIn requires. Even still, it is sometimes a wise decision to provide way more than you need up front than in some places I have worked where you get a just-enough-for-now setup only to be begging at the trough for more memory/CPU/disk within a year.

Many web/db production servers out there run lower spec than those workstation. This is just a sign of failed architecture/development environment or a nature of compiled and bloated Java.

Well, if you have running Eclipse, Firefox, a chat client, 3-4 shells, an email client, a vpn client, mysql/postgres, tomcat/glasshfish whatever at the same time, which isn't unreasonable, you can definitely chew through some memory pretty quick.

good for them, I'm a big believer in getting more than what you need for developement. I went from a P4 machine that took around 15 mins to do a full build, to a decent core2 duo that cut it down to 3 mins. In the end the extra money is well spent imo.
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Now there's a company that understands their people. I wish they were hiring in SoCal!