Basically, if it has any integrated circuits, they won't work. I'm not 100% on the CR123s and LEDs that Paul mentioned in the WoW thread, but I wouldn't bet on them working. As they say, the factory smoke would be let out.

The "personal electronic age" will come to a screaching halt in areas effected by a pulse. As I said in the WoW post, anything with a fuel injector, gone. Digital anything, kaput. That includes most modern furnaces, water and fuel pumps, elevator controllers, emergency lights... Oh, and a lot of pacemakers will be pretty messed up.

What will work: old cars, small motors (like some ATVs, but most of your new ones are injected not carbed), older generators. Becuase even the older infrastructure has been fitted with computer controls, most areas will be reduced to a 3rd standard of living in a heartbeat.

Forturnatly, EMP is not that easy to make, contrary to what various plans on the web claim. Actually, it is really easy, but big enough to be usable is a trick. Easiest way is to detonate a nuke in the ionosphere. We supposedly have various non-nuke EMP devices in our military inventory, but supposedly we have direct energy weapons and antigravity craft to. *rolls eyes*

Oh, and I should mention this: part of why diesel is used for military purposes is becuase it isn't as likely to explode. That's been US policy since WWII. I doubt anything in out vehicle inventory would survive a pulse if it wasn't buried.

Oh, and I should edit this with protection information, as Todd requested. Dig. Dig deep. Dig deeper. Armour is part of why NORAD is in a mountain, the other part is EMP. You will want a lot of dirt and/or water around you if you want something to survive an EMP strike.

There are other ways to do it. The faraday cage was big for a while during the cold war, but protection costing X dollars could be defeated by a larger pulse, costing Y dollars. And X woudl be much greater than Y. But if you can buy an old missile silo, or a silver mine, or a salt mine, you might be able to do just use earth sheilding. Just remember, everything has to be sheilded. Any antennas are going to have to have big honkin' (yes, that is a technical term) diodes on them to prevent a backwash of the pulse.

Bascially, EMP is a really big radio friequency spike. when RF hits metal, it creates electricity. That is why you can turn a florescent light on just by getting close to a radio tower. The resulting electrical spike is just like any other in an electical system.