I am genuinely confused.  Many engineers in embedded programming are
    earning $25 per hour, and billing clients at $50-$75 per hour.  Why in
    God's name are you playing with X-rays to save $5?  Maybe I'm missing
    the point.  Enlighten me (with the visual spectrum).

Well, for the hobbyist, it could mean BUYING $2 OTPs instead of $15
windowed versions.  We like that sort of thing.  It would also mean
that you could reuse "found" parts...

>From a commercial perspective, consider the thought process that occurs
when the batch of 1000 long-lead-time programmed OTPs is ready just at
the time the SW department discovers the critical bug.  Cisco briefly
looked for a way to erase OTP eproms (of the 20ns cycle microcode
containing variety) when we had a couple hundred sets (11 chips wide, I
think - several thousand parts) that were found to contain a serious
bug...  I don't think we found it.

If it were possible to erase OTP parts, it might still be impossible at
the "amateur" level, but you can bet your dollars there would be a
company providing the service for a fee.  (Maybe.  It's also possible
that "radiation" regulations would prevent this from ever being
ecconomically feasible.)

BillW