This is probably of no interest to anyone but Ryan and I, and it is possible Ryan has already discovered this childhood mystery, but the free-associative properties of the intertubes has led me to the discovery of Magic Eye Vacuum Tubes!
Sherman, set the Wayback Machine for the early/mid eighties. The music was great, women's fashion was at an all-time high, and Ryan had an old console radio that he had brush-painted red and for which the cabinet was mostly missing. The Danger Radio was unimpressive in every way. Almost, every way. The thing that made this non-stereo radio memorable was the signal-strength indicator. It was a green glowing bar that looked liquid, but wasn't. I remember being transfixed by this silly green light and being very frustrated that I had no idea how I could integrate this awesome thing into my daily life.
Kim sent me a link to an elaborate steampunk computer case, that sent me to www.steampunkworkshop.com. Scrolling through that guy's blog thingy, he mentioned finding some gizmo that was identified as a magic eye tube. The color reminded me of that damned radio (which I still think about occasionally), and I have finally figured out what that thing was!!!! I even found links to schematics to make them do my bidding! Now I just need some time and my computer will have a magic eye CPU usage gauge. I really missing having student workers who were EE majors...
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