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Head-Fi is a national headphone club, and I went to the local meeting in Babylon, N.Y., last Saturday.

The vibe was friendly, and it was great to hear Head-Fi members' home-built gear, but there were a few surprises popping up from the headphone and electronics manufacturers in attendance.

Logitech Ultimate Ears' Personal Reference Monitor in-ear headphones feature a new twist on custom-molded-to-your-ears headphone design. Lots of brands now make custom in-ear headphones, and Logitech's have been among my favorites for years, but the upcoming Personal Reference Monitor takes the personalization to the next level. Once your ear canals' &… Read more

Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling's 38 Studios gaming company is crumbling around him.

As news spread over the past week that the company was hurting for cash, spending $49 million of a $75 million state loan, the Boston Globe reports that the young video game publishing house laid off all of its nearly 400 employees as of today.

"I'm stunned, and I'm heartbroken," Leominster fantasy author and consultant to 38 Studios R.A. Salvatore, told the Boston Globe. "This is one of the best teams I've ever seen assembled. They were doing … Read more

Editors' note: A day after this commentary was published, Curt Schillings' 38 Studios laid off its entire staff of nearly 400 employees.

For retired Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, the Legend of the Bloody Sock is taking a back seat to the tale of bloody dumb loan his videogaming company received from the Rhode Island state government two years ago.

I say this as a diehard Red Sox fan (as you can see from my bio below this post). I say this as someone who popped champagne when the Red Sox won a World Series in 2004. I say this … Read more

We've all had moments when we heard a mysterious shuffling in the dark. Or we got news that the in-laws were showing up unannounced. Or the Roomba finally became sentient and set out for revenge. Those moments call for a panic button.

The Panic Button Light Switch Replacement Kit from ThinkGeek will at least make you feel a little better in those moments before your Roomba sucks you into its robotic rotors of oblivion. … Read more

2K Sports held its annual "Perfect Game Challenge" last night with a million dollar prize, and today we'll chat with the winner of the MLB2K12 tournament, Mr. Chris Gilmore.

Twenty-year-old Gilmore bested Charles Bates 10-1 in the tournament final that pitted him against eight other highly ranked players. We'll obviously ask him what he plans to do with the bounty, but we also want to know about his history with competitive video games, his preparation process in the weeks leading up to the event, and how it felt to breathe the same air as Kate Upton.… Read more

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first game at Fenway Park, printing company Objet created an extremely accurate 1/200 scale model of the ballpark with a 3D printer.

With stout measurements of 3 feet by 5 feet, Objet referenced blueprints and current images of the home of the Red Sox to recreate the stadium in 3D software. The company then printed out 40 separate sections -- weighing 105 pounds total -- on an Objet Connex500 multi-material 3D printer. … Read more

Have you ever used a calculator to solve an algebraic expression or a complex math formula? It is possible but it would require translating the expression into a series of commands that the calculator can interpret. RedCrab from RedChilliCrab is free software that hopes to eliminate that laborious step entirely by allowing you to input the mathematical expression directly.

RedCrab is a portable tool that can be used immediately after extraction. The plain interface isn't much to look at, but it did prove fairly easy to use. For the most part, it operates like a typical calculator. It accepts … Read more

Cameras at intersections may curb red light runners, but detractors like to argue that any offset in traffic violations is met with an increase in rear-end accidents. Not so, says a television station that debunked a couple of red light camera myths.

Drivers running red lights caused 762 deaths in 2008, and an estimated 165,000 people are injured annually by red light crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). To combat these sometimes deadly accidents, many cities install traffic light cameras in key intersections that capture the offenders' license plates, and … Read more

Red Wine Audio makes some of my all-time favorite headphone amplifiers, but they're pretty expensive. The Isabellina HPA LFP-V Edition, for example, runs $2,500; it was designed and built in Vinnie Rossi's small factory in Durham, Conn. The Isabellina is more than just a headphone amp, it features a spectacularly good digital-to-analog converter and a hybrid transistor/vacuum tube audio amplifier. While the amp can be run off an AC power outlet, it sounds best powered by its built-in 25.6 volt Lithium Iron Phosphate battery pack. The battery can play for up to 10 hours, and … Read more