For a long time, one of the USB ports on my laptop has refused obstinately to work. When I peeked inside, I found that the pins had been forced back inside the computer and were beyond being forced back in the right direction. So I made this little modification:
It’s a four pin female header, the kind you might find sticking up out of a circuit board somewhere. I also put together an adapter, four male header pins soldered to a female USB port. I guess my warranty is void now!

















DIY vacuum tubes
This crazy person, French radio enthusiast Claude Paillard, makes his own vacuum tubes. Ooh. This video’s been kicking around the internet for a while, but if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth at least the time it takes to watch it.
The process is quite beautiful. So much precision, patience, and attention to detail.
Paillard’s website is full of writing on tubes and radio, their history and their function. There’s even a detailed guide to making a vacuum triode by hand, just like he demonstrates in the video below.