tawayway

> I suppose it's possible the important bits of a high end cassete player aren't any better. Audiophile equipment is sometimes funny that way.

It's a different problem domain too. A non-linear tape head/amplifier may help with recovering pulses but have unpleasant distortion for audio.

The IRS?

Presumably they had a brain scan machine (scanner?) nearby, ready to go. Everyone likes a joke with a prop.

Another old chestnut - learning some assembly allows you to read it, even if you don't ever need to write any. There is real value in understanding which instructions your compiler is emitting.

Beating the compiler is made easier if you can look at the compiler's answers.

Semiconductor manufacturing is very planar - it's made up of many layers on top of each other, with some interconnecting features or vias between layers. It's a best-case scenario for reverse engineering with photography.

The very popular 858D temperature controlled hot air stations only run about 50usd. Performance is much better than a hardware store heat gun.

> a 200-pound gorrilla mucking around

There's the AvE influence.

Not sure about you but I keep breathing 24 hours a day.

Personally, I would be surprised to read about well-documented theft committed by ancient Pharaohs in tomorrow's newspapers.

I find the 20 minute on/5 minutes off Pomodoro cycle is great for getting me started into a problem. After 1 or 2 of these cycles I find I'm skipping the breaks and sustaining focused work for longer.

They are not trying to record high speed video. A camera may take a picture every millisecond, but it doesn't have to be one camera. They could be using multiple cameras interleaved in time...

I loved this series when I was around that age. I'm surprised to read it was written when you were 17!

memtest86 can do functional tests.