NAMM Oddities 2006
Barry writes “After attending the Winter NAMM show for a number of years I’ve noticed that the exhibitors seem to fall into two categories: the established company showing their new (and sometimes vaporous) products; and the independent start-up company looking to be noticed by distributors, music stores, potential investors and the music press. It seems that every year I spent more of my NAMM cruising time checking out the various small companies that all get stashed off in some side room. Many of the products from these companies are never seen the by the mainstream either because their potential market is too small, or most people simply can’t figure out what the hell to do with it.” Link. Yay, MIDI trumpet!
Yallla writes “For the 22C3 some people from Vienna conducted some CCTV wiretapping experiments; in a sidenote they said that infrared light is disturbing CCTV cameras. I’m now conducting experiments about how you could exploit that feature of CCD-sensors to create some kind of infrared-veil – like a basball cap full of IR transmitting LEDs, spoilng the CCTV footage experience of your airport security staff. Goals of my experiments are if it’s really working, what type of LEDs are suitable and what happens to me in real life when i just say “Shields up!!” 
Simple and handy phone tether – Killbox writes “I was talking to a friend who has a Sidekick about an old pager bungie I had on my TREO (I wont forget it if its clipped to me lanyard!). I mentioned that I wanted to make one out of ao old phone handset cord – So I went home and built it! one 25′ coiley cord made about 5 of these, some terminal connectors i crimped on, keyrings and clips. Total cost under $4.” 
MAKE flickr photo pool member Zapwizard writes “I don’t have enough money or time to replace my headunit, or buy the Radioshark. So instead I am integrating a iTrip FM transmitter directly into the Mini. The iTrip was wired up, I choose to wire it to +5volts from the USB, as I couldn’t find a reliable source of 3.3volts. A dummy headphone jack allows the iTrip to turn on. Later when I replace my headunit I can just jack into the headphone jack and get straight audio.” 
Great project from Jed and Nikhil (
Sid on the Hacks site writes up a good simple how to/tip – “My LCD display wouldn’t come on, it would just flicker. The LED on its external power supply was steady on when it wasn’t plugged into the monitor. When I did plug it in, the LED blinked at the rate of 2x per second. Measuring the power coming out of this supply using my multimeter, I saw that the power level wasn’t steady — it was pulsing slightly (about 2x per second). This was while unplugged from the monitor. Found a new power supply on eBay, and now everything’s fine.” 
Brian McConnell on the 
