"I guess a guy that reviews music tech for a living has a different definition of "cheap" than I do"

It's hardly 'for a living', but yes, I do get sucked into the general expensiveness of music gear.

Compared to anything else on the market, these are crazy cheap, even if they have all the build quality of a $2 pocket calculator.

I can't believe I'm still getting props for finding this (at Music Thing) - I got it from Jason Kottke...

This is a bit sinister: http://www.instantenemy.com/

#3: The 7506 seems to be the default studio heaphone in the US (in the UK, it's traditionally Beyer DT-100s). I don't have magic ears by any stretch, but I suspect that's mainly because they're comfortable, well made and have a reasonably flat response - but they do have a healthy bass boost, why I like for day-to-day listening. My pair sound more like my EX-71 earbuds than they sound like these PFRs.
These are slightly uncomfortable audio-wise as well as physically. They're not great for sitting back and chilling out, but they're probably good for disecting a mix.

It's good to see that Google have got Nigel Tufnell's back...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8JiQCIzCZA

(No, it's not a rickroll)

Great looking mag. It's a shame people can't focus on the words and pictures and ideas and joy in the thing.
Next time, more robots and dinosaurs, please.

Next up: The 'Automobile'. They're not so popular in Brooklyn, but are apparently set to revolutionise personal transport the same way the Segway did all those years ago.

My parents also bought one 20 years ago, probably from that ad in the Guardian.
I have a vague memory of us down the garden on a cold afternoon, arm deep in a dustbin full of icy cold newspaper slush, making a pile of extremely wet bricks (I can't even remember where/how we dried them out)
We didn't do that again.

I'm British, and I worked in (US) Congress on work experience about 10-12 years ago. One day we had a Library of Congress seminar which included someone billed as a CIA terrorism expert.

He was explaining how technically sophisticated and advanced the IRA were - the phrase I remember was "They tap the police's phone lines". Although I lived in London and had no desire to be blown up or sympathy for their cause, I was surprisingly proud that 'our' terrorists were the best in the world.

Now, of course, we have these hopeless jokers who drive into an airport with a car full of petrol and fail to even blow themselves up. How far we've fallen. I blame Blair for that, too.

I bought an M120 a few months ago - got it half price. I was far to lazy to learn how to sharpen knives properly. It definitely makes knackered knives a lot sharper, but the Amazon reviews - which suggest it makes everything dangerously razor sharp in seconds - are a bit overblown. If I'd got it quarter price, I'd probably be happy.