[davidwritesbugs]

Oh god I feel old. I remember being an excited schoolboy thinking how magic this was when it debuted.

[davidwritesbugs]

I also remember being amazed, and did a forehead slap, when an old army bomb disposal man explained how, what I thought was an innocent device, was used by the IRA in bombs.

[nickcw]

Ha. When I was a teenager I used to build 555s into timers for the same purpose using a no PCB rats nest construction.

Though surprising the family at dinner with a small explosion was a much more innocent purpose.

[Brian_K_White]

For me that is blue leds.

[davidwritesbugs]

Yes! I remember thinking "damn you band gap physics, if we only had blue leds we could do colour displays with LEDs, but that can never happen."

[mhh__]

"rareleds" on Instagram is fantastic. Vintage LEDs set to apex twin and so on

[dboreham]

Haha, for me it was "LEDs".

[Brian_K_White]

Up until I was about 10 or 12 we only needed to dial 4 digits.