On his parislemon.com blog MG Siegler said (in a post about commenting on blogs): “If you’re saying something that you think is great, why would you want to do it as a comment on another site anyway?” Obvious answer — because I want to have a conversation, not give a speech. While a conversation can consist of a post on one blog, a couple Tweets, a post on another blog, etc., that’s not usually very satisfying. Or efficient.

Laptops are outselling desktop machines (by a huge margin) and tablets (iPads, specifically) are being used to replace laptops by more and more people. I can see a time within a couple years (yeah, that soon) where the only computer most people will need will be an iPhone. Sidebar: Yeah, someone using Android could pull off what I’m suggesting, but Apple has a proven track record of doing more cool things. Sorry, just a fact. A “home computer” could consist of a monitor and a keyboard — and your iPhone. Sit down in front of the keyboard and connect your iPhone to the monitor...

A few years ago I met my family for lunch after they’d taken off to get me a birthday present. During lunch I was making guesses about what they might have gotten me and my son said, “Well, we didn’t get you a ukulele, that’s for sure.” My wife and I busted out laughing and he didn’t get what he’d just done. He was only about 9 years old, so you have to cut him a little slack — and that’s been the punchline for many family jokes over the years. But birthday presents aren’t the kinds of secrets I’m talking about — you can keep those...

After about 16 years as Jennings Interactive Media I decided a name change for the business was in order, so as of a few days ago it’s Jennings Nation. (Soon to become Jennings Nation, LLC., right after the end of the year.) I know, it sounds like I’m an Indian tribe. And while I do need to lose some weight, I’m just still a solitary person. But I like the sound of the name. It also is open-ended enough that if I decide to switch from programming to clog dancing or something, it’s still good. Plus, if the kids will ever stop texting (Chelsea) and playing Xbox (Tom) and join me...

Last week I finished 13 weeks of D&D Encounters, a weekly Dungeons and Dragons game that’s designed to get new players into the game (or old players back into it). Instead of marathon sessions that are hours long, the encounters take a couple hours and are designed for people who maybe can’t make it every time. Probably because of my interest in sci-fi and fantasy literature, along with my penchant for performing, I’ve been interested in D&D since it came out when I was a teenage, but we never lived anywhere with a large enough population of geeks for me to get into it. So...