jeans

Is that a drum kit in his pants, or is he just a really smart teen engineer?

Both, it turns out.

Aseem Mishra, a high school student from Hull, England, designed a pair of jeans that let wearers tap out a tune on their thighs by drumming on sensors sewn into the fabric. For his invention, he nabbed first prize in the senior division at the national Young Engineer of Great Britain competition and also got to stuff 1,000 pounds (about $1,600 dollars) into the pockets of his prize-winning pants.

"I have a band and we gig. Every time we go to a place we have to take the drum kit in the car first and then come back with everybody else, so it's a bit of a hassle," Mishra told the BBC. "I think at the time I might have been tapping on my legs, and I thought, I know, why don't I see if I can put a drum kit in my trousers?"

The eight paper-thin sensors make for a fully functional mobile drum kit with snares, cymbals, and the rest--as well as a surprisingly realistic sound. (Watch a video of Mishra and his legs making music here.) Currently, the prototype jeans have to be plugged into speakers carried in a backpack, but Mishra says he's working on a wireless version for ultimate portability.

The pants themselves look as ordinary as any jeans in an Old Navy catalog. Mishra, who has been playing drums for eight years, owns the sole pair of drum kit jeans, but says he would like to find a manufacturer and distribute them more widely. And all those drum solos haven't hurt his legs in any way, he insists.

The enterprising teen now goes on to represent the U.K. at a science and engineering fair in Los Angeles in May. To really impress the judges, might we suggest he pair his pants with a sound-activated equalizer shirt or air guitar Tee?… Read more

You don't have to be an audiophile to appreciate good sound and music, so I've put together a healthy selection of great gift ideas, all priced under $100. I'll soon post another blog with under-$300 gift ideas.

The AIX Records "Audio Calibration Disc & HD Music Sampler" Blu-ray ($25) is loaded with exceptional-sounding Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio music tracks. AIX refrains from using dynamic range compression, equalization, or signal processing, so the sound is as close to the original session as can be. And with the release of "Goldberg Variations Acoustica" AIX has ventured into producing original 3D video programming. The Blu-ray was shot with four prototype Panasonic 3D A1 cameras, and the sound was recorded in 96 kHz/24-bit high-resolution audio.

My pick for the best full-size headphone for less than $100 is the Grado Prestige Series SR-60i ($79). It's an improved and updated version of the original SR-60, which was a budget audiophile favorite for more than 10 years. The SR-60i sounds great at home or plugged into an iPod. The sound is nice and full, and since the SR-60i is an open-back design, you can hear the world around you. Highly recommended.

If you'd prefer an in-ear headphone, you should get the NOX Audio Scout ($79). The design features "balanced armature technology," which is rarely seen in headphones in the Scout's price class (I actually don't know of any others). It's very comfortable, the flat ribbon cable is as tangle-free as they come, and the sound quality is extraordinarily good.

Paul McCartney & Wings' "Band On The Run" Special Edition is a two-CD, one-DVD set ($30). Recently remastered by the team responsible for the Beatles 2009 remasters, "Band on the run" has never sounded better. The second CD has nine bonus tracks of rare demos and alternative takes. The original remastered album and bonus audio content are also available on a two LP, 180 gram audiophile vinyl edition that comes with an MP3 download of all 18 tracks. … Read more

Ford's spin on "reduce, reuse, and recycle" includes your old blue jeans.

The auto maker today announced that the 2012 Focus, on sale early next year in North America and Europe, will use cotton from recycled clothing for carpet backing and sound-absorption materials inside the car. These materials will supposedly provide a much quieter cabin.

"Ford is continually looking for greener alternatives," said Carrie Majeske, product sustainability manager. "Recycled content is a way to divert waste from landfills and reduce the impact of mining virgin material."… Read more

High-end cables are a controversial subject, even among audiophiles. I know an extremely wealthy audiophile who uses cheap hardware store wire in his $200,000 hi-fi system. He thinks audiophile cables don't make a difference, so he doesn't use them. That's fine with me.

When I was a high-end audio salesman I sold a lot of very expensive wires to my customers, including customers that didn't initially believe cables would make any real difference in the sound of their hi-fis. "It's just wire" was the classic rebuke, I've heard it thousands of … Read more

NAPA VALLEY, Calif.--It's 6:45 in the morning, and the crew that's just about to begin working is only picking up from where the overnight team left off.

We're here, deep in some of the most valuable terroir, or vineyard land, on the planet, and for about two days only, it's a race against the clock--actually, the thermometer--to get more than 30 tons of premium grapes off the vines in top condition.

Where I'm standing is in the middle of the Horton block, a 15-acre piece of prime winemaking real estate owned by the … Read more

I get this question all the time, "Do I need to spend a lot of money on wire?" The short answer is no. It's like asking if you need to drop $50 or $100 to buy a good bottle of wine. No, unless you're a wine connoisseur; most folks are perfectly happy with a nice $10 variety. True, you'll use a cable a lot longer than it takes to drink a bottle, but I wouldn't recommend spending more on a single set of wires than you'd spend on wine--unless you're an audiophile.

Audiophiles obsess about the tiniest details of sound quality. That, and we frequently listen attentively, an activity few non-audiophiles ever do. Everybody else puts music on and then reads, talks, works, exercises, or cooks. So if you're not really listening, I wholeheartedly agree, spending money on expensive cables isn't a smart move. Another thing, you'd have to own a pretty decent set of speakers to hear the benefit of better cables, and if you already have a set of great speakers you're probably an audiophile.

So all of you non-audiophiles can rejoice. Don't let anyone talk you into spending a lot of money on a speaker or interconnect cable! Head on over to your local hardware store, Blue Jean Cable, or MonoPrice and buy dirt-cheap, decent quality cables. … Read more

Would you ask your entire Facebook friend base this question:

"Do these jeans make me look fat?"

I wouldn't. At seven months pregnant, everything makes me look fat. But I digress.

Diesel stores in Spain are using something called the Diesel Cam to let people take photos of themselves in potential purchases and upload them over Facebook Connect to crowdsource whether they are worthy of Diesel's hefty price tag.

I can see this going all kinds of wrong.

First off, if you ask me what I think of those jeans, I'll tell you. Publicly. On … Read more

As its name would suggest, Konverter does indeed give users the ability to convert their files to a wide variety of different file formats, and it does so with ease. But its other included features didn't quite measure up.

The program's simple, self-explanatory main interface features drop-down menus lining the top of the window, as well as frequently used commands. We started by testing the Convert option. The program offers an impressive list of file format options, including PNG, PTIFF, SGI, and more. We selected a JPEG file and, using the Convert menu, opted to convert it to … Read more

It may look like something your kids brought home from shop class, but this rugged, French-designed micro air vehicle (MAV) could be a missing link between smooth, steady hover and fast, forward flight.

The inventor, Dr. Jean-Marc Moschetta, professor of aerodynamics at the Institut Superieur de l'Aeronautique et de l'espace in Toulouse, France, created what he calls the MAVion with both commercial and military markets in mind.

A mere 30 centimeters long, the MAVion combines fixed wings with two counter rotating propellers, allowing it to operate with high aerodynamic efficiency--even in adverse conditions, according to the professor.

"… Read more