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If productive falls, they can just turn on the Jacobs Ladders...

http://www.electricstuff.co.uk...

you can get 1.54' 240x240 mipi screen for $5
http://www.electricstuff.co.uk...

3.5' with touchscreen are ~$20
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Replac...

7' with touchscreen are ~$40
http://www.aliexpress.com/item...

so only ~2x overpriced, just like the camera module

I would probably shoot my fucking eye out, kid.

Do not look into laser with remaining eye.

The germans already did this in the 20s. Although it is a simple circuit... it is an integrated circuit.

Loewe 3NF

According to Kevin Kelly, editor of Wired:

"I say there is no species of technology that have ever gone globally extinct on this planet."

Then perhaps he will be so kind to tell me where can I find some OC-71 germanium transistors to repair my 1950s vintage radio. Or a 25Z5 rectifier vacuum tube for my 1940s radio.

His assertion is valid only for a sufficiently broad definition of "species of technology". There are still some types of vacuum tubes being made, but AFAIK, no mercury arc rectifiers, or even the common vacuum diode rectifier like the 25Z5 I mentioned above. There are still some germanium transistors, but not the alloy junction transistors like the OC-71.

Or try the high voltage Destruct-a-tron.

This image shows what it does to a HDD platter. There is also a page with HDD platter warping movies. Enjoy.

Or try the high voltage Destruct-a-tron.

This image shows what it does to a HDD platter. There is also a page with HDD platter warping movies. Enjoy.

Or try the high voltage Destruct-a-tron.

This image shows what it does to a HDD platter. There is also a page with HDD platter warping movies. Enjoy.

Depending on the characteristics of the supercapacitor, they can be even more dangerous. Capacitors generally can discharge at incredibly high rates. With the high energy density of an ultracapacitor, the effects will be spectacular.

If you want to see what just a few nanofarads of charge can do, take a look at a Tesla coil, or perhaps this - the Destruct-o-Tron: http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/destructotron.html

record player with USB? doesn't that defeat the purpose of analog sound quality?

Relax - it's using a valve/tube-based ADC.
(Not really - but it's a pretty cool gadget.)

JohnFluxx, glad they were able to rescue your vision! So it's true what they say, Do Not Look Into Beam With Remaining Eye?

Note: this is assuming that you want to have some fun in your lab also...
Jacobs ladders are fun (make sure you demonstrate the danger by putting something non-conductive in the path of the rising spark ... and have water standing by to put out the fire), but Marx generators are the better way to learn about high voltages. You can make a "small one" with parts from your local electronics hobbiest store
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx_generator and http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/marxgen.htm
You can also learn about the problems with scaling... once you get the small one working with 100,000 volts, you WILL get the urge to scale up and try for half a million but you will also learn how off-the-shelf parts can fail when pushed to the limit.
Also, I echo the first poster's comment: get some good safety glasses
when fooling around with high voltages, things explode.

Does anyone know where to get good quality ANALOG meters anymore? Everyone seems to have gone digital and I don't like 'em.

Something like one of... these?

Thanks for that link. There are so many examples there that now I'm officially bored with the idea.

Does anyone bother to make anything other than clocks out of these things?

http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/nixiegallery.html

http://www.stefankneller.de/elektronik/nixiegaleri e.html

And the very best, a digital clock where the whole logic, not only the display, is built with tubes:

http://www.jogis-roehrenbude.de/Leserbriefe/Bruegm ann-Digital-Roehren-Clock/Digital-Roehrenuhr.htm

It seems like a watch is the wrong form factor for this thing. The idea is really cool, and I think I might actually buy one if it was made as a desk clock, but I wouldn't want that enormous hockey-puck-sized-thing strapped to my wrist all day.

Something like one of these or these?

You haven't seen mercury rectifier in action. It's not a case mod - it's part of an elevator power system. They don't make 'em like they used to.

A "quality full wave rectifier" can be made with four power diodes at less than a dollar each; the PX6007 springs to mind, or the BR106 bridge package if you need really heavy currents.

To be honest, I'd much rather be using a mercury arc rectifier - semiconductors are for wimps! ;-)

Because of various regulations (HIPAA for starters), we need to at least attempt to do a good job clearing the disk. I've heard from a number of places, including this Slashdot story, that degaussing isn't great.

I recommend you the Destruct-O-Tron

Also works for motherboards, etc...

Oh yes, I should point out that Mike's Electric Stuff is an awesome place to check out old valves and other interesting, well, stuff.

The page on Nixie tubes is still my visual favorite. That glow has never been equalled.

Should not be a problem. Hook up your notebook to your car's battery and just make sure you have the 25 gig space available needed for the video (as stated on the website). You may use a USB webcam or real camera hooked to a PCMCIA video capture card. Or just place a Sony Vaio with integrated camera (e.g. C1XN ) on your dashboard ;-)

Just wait for Mike's Electric Stuff to write a retaliatory article

Learn some stuff, kid. I think you can build anything out of vacuum tubes, it seems you have insufficient imagination.
But you go ahead and keep living in the silicon present.
I like original, whack-o thinking like that. You seem to be of the school of adding more and more ICs and transistors until a system becomes an unmanageable, unreliable mess.
Go ahead.

How about connecting it up to a rather large 5KV capacitor bank (near bottom of page)

If you've not seen it already,
Mike's Electric Stuff
More dangerous stuff :)

I visited Boston for the first time at the end of last year. I had a few days spare, so the Boston Computer Museum was an obvious visit. Finding that it had been absorbed into the Museum of Science wasn't too bad, but what happened to all the exhibits ? Shipped out to storage in California and "... The Best Software for Kids Gallery(TM), now part of an expanded Cahners ComputerPlace". - Just as you describe, it had been reduced to a trivialised version of MSN.

I've a better computer museum in my own shed 8-(

OK, so the Virtual FishTank is excellent, but that's an exhibit on behaviours, not on computer history.

obkarmawhore: Not quite computers, but immensely cool electrical oddities.