After a weekend dominated by gardening and laundry, I’m off to Vegas tomorrow–I’m speaking on a panel at the National Association of Broadcasters’ conference there. (They are covering my airfare and one night’s lodging, something my regular editors okayed and which will be noted on my disclosure page.)

4/7/2015: Robots Just Need a Hug — and Your Car Keys, Yahoo Tech

I wasn’t sure I had time in my schedule for a screening of the movie Ex Machina days after SXSW, but I went, enjoyed the flick and let it get some gears turning in my head about how we perceive and sometimes fear artificial intelligence and robots in general.

4/9/2015: will.i.am’s first smartwatch winds down, Boing Boing

I came home from my semi-chance CES meeting with will.i.am with a loaner unit of his PULS smart watch/cuff. I had meant to get that review done before MWC, then let that show and SXSW eat up my free time. On the upside, I’m pretty sure that all of those delays allowed this review to be the first to report that this problematic device won’t see retail availability–according to their PR firm, will.i.am and company will pour their lessons learned into a successor model.

4/12/2015: Tips to trim a Mac’s Time Machine backup, USA Today

Credit for getting me to write a column I’ve had on the story-ideas list for at least a year, maybe two, goes to my old Post pal John Kelly, who kvetched about a Time Machine snafu in his column a few weeks ago titled “Your computer is lying.”