History of the XLR

I've been buried in my bi-annual end-of-semester grading hell and the holidaze, so I haven't been posting much.  But I did see this from Tom Young on ProSoundWeb: Ray Rayburn's history of the humble XLR connector.  I'm asked at least a few times a year where the name "XLR" comes from, and the answer's not simple, but this is the most comprehensive history I've seen yet.  (For non-sound people, the "XLR" is the standard professional audio connector).

And now the brilliant foks over at Neutrik have gone and made an XLR that "goes both ways"!

They have a little video here that shows how it works.