> the weekend surplus crawl that would turn up hardware prototypes, power supplies, vintage numerical LED displays.... I was living in London at that time (it'

> the weekend surplus crawl that would turn up hardware prototypes, power supplies, vintage numerical LED displays.... I was living in London at that time (it's not restricted to SV). There were electronic surplus stores in Edgeware Road; you could buy used ham-radio sets, PCBs that might or might not work (depending on whether you knew what they were supposed to do in the first place), nixie tubes, used oscilloscopes and whatever, and all kinds of components. Then gentrification hit the area, and the shops are all now (and have been for 30 years) big-box outlets for TVs and surround-sound rigs. I regret the passing of tinkerer shops.