I'm an incorrigible tinkerer, and I'm always repairing and modifying things, and along the way I generally pick up some useful information. These days, when I'm diving into a new project, I tend to do a quick web search to see if someone else has preceded me and offered their experiences and knowledge. This habit has saved me a lot of time and trouble. However, many times there isn't any extant information on the problem at hand, and I have to attack it myself. When this happens, I figure the reasonable thing to do is share what I've learned. If we all do this, there will be a great pool of random knowledge available, and all of us curious lazy bums can have an easier (and safer) time.
I've decided to collect my contributions on this page, so people looking for them can find them all in one place. I've tried to sprinkle useful terms (manufacturers, function, part numbers, and so forth) into the writeups, so search engines can find the germane ones when people go looking.