Hey, you cant spell "geek" without "EE"...:)

The exploding rectifier was probably due to oversized caps, too. The caps look like a short circuit until they charge, so the inrush current through the diodes could easily be hundreds or even thousands of amps depending on how stout the transformer feeding them is.

If you really want huge filter caps (which weren't typically used in tube gear), you need to have some kind of "step-start" circuit in the transformer primary to limit the initial charging current surge.

The tube on the AOpen mobo was a 6DJ8/6922, not a 12AX7.

The 6DJ8 is also a dual triode, but it has much higher transconductance because it is a frame grid design. Those tubes were widely used as input amplifiers in vintage Tektronix scopes because of their low noise and high linearity.

The big holdout preventing TV sets from going solid state (besides the CRT) was actually a simple diode tube--the high voltage rectifier. Because of the very high voltages required (up to 25-30 kV in a 25" color set), long series strings of (first) selenium or (later) silicon diodes were needed to replace the humble 1B3, 1X2 or 3A3 tube. Early solid state HV rectifier stacks were expensive and unreliable, compared to a tube that cost a buck or so and often outlasted the rest of the set.

MANY sets (particularly early small-screen Japanese sets) were all solid state except for the HV rectifier tube. Larger sets still retained tubes for high power sweep stages for a few more years, until transistors improved enough to meet the demands of the application.

The decommissioning work done to prepare the shuttles for museum display rendered them beyond any practical ability to return to service. Large parts of the internal structure were chopped out to remove contaminated fuel tanks, etc. It would likely be faster and cheaper to build a new shuttle than to try to fly one of the museum display orbiters again.

Add in the fact that the supply chain for things like external tanks and other shuttle parts was dismantled several years ago, and many of the specialized jigs and fixtures sold off for scrap.

And of course, we can always trust the MANUFACTURERS of ATM machines to be free from any political influence, as well, right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier_Election_Solutions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden_O'Dell

Would he suggest regulating programming languages, compilers, etc. as "cyber weapons precursors"? After all, certain chemicals and nuclear materials are strictly watched because they can be used to create chemical or nuclear weapons, right?

As opposed to mutilating the end of an infant boy's penis, then giving him a "ritual blowjob"?

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2005/08/cut_it_off.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_FDIV_bug/

If you repair some electrical device for someone else, and at some point down the line it starts a fire or electrocutes someone, you could easily be held liable here in the US, whether your repair had anything to do with it or not. And half-assed repairs done by well-meaning but untrained people are just BEGGING for trouble. From the NYT article (emphasis mine):

Actual repair shops carry insurance for such eventualities, but random folks at a "repair cafe" wouldn't.