Did you post the essay anywhere? I've always had kind of a soft spot for Ted--not his actions, mind, but his manifesto raises some rather prescient ideas. I also think he was..."justified" in a sense; again, not in his actions, but his decision to check out of society, only for society to come back to get him.
I'm happy to be proven wrong about any of that though. It's been quite a few years since I read it.
I completely agree with your "Children of Ted" hypothesis, for that matter. Historically, oppression births revolutionaries, for better or worse.
"common failure mode" = 'they break in a particular way a lot'
As Randy Fromm says, "the things that work the hardest fail the most"
Examples: MLCC (multi-layer ceramic capacitors) over time will often fail short.
Older devices with electrolytic capacitors (the large can-shaped things often situated by where the power input is) have a liquid electrolyte in them that evaporates (boils off?) over time. When it does, they lose their capacitance and the power supply stops being able to supply (good) power.
The point being, when something stops working, check these things first. It's like if your lawnmower dies on you, don't go pulling off the head to look at the piston. Check if there's gas in the tank first.
Finally, a DMM is a digital multimeter. This is your basic tool to measure voltage, current resistance, capacitance, et c.) You can't do much troubleshooting without one.
