Just thought I should mention that I get the below error upon starting electrum.
type error, using default value
[edit] this error only appears the very first time (when the blockchain_headers file doesn't exist yet)
Then the header validation appears to proceed normally.
The whole download + validation process only took 7 minutes in total, great!
Also, the GUI appears to be hanging during that this initial header validation
process - perhaps a little progress dialog or status message would be more user-friendly
(as most Windows users never use the console)