Read a story to a Lauryn, and she’ll just ask you for another. And another. And then a glass of water. And then maybe a snack. And then probably wander out to ask what show you’re watching and if she can have some popcorn and are you drinking wine. And then she'll probably want a gummi vitamin. And then a gummi calcium...

But, TEACH a Lauryn to read! Ah! Then you have given her a skill for life! And prob...

Remember how I talked about my little friends the other day? And how those four filing cabinets – standing like tall, grim-faced, grey-beige sentinels – next to my desk house YEARS worth of client files and contact info and potential future job potential?

Well, seems like other people in my tow...

There are few things that make me want to leave the hot, sweaty, chaise lounge, poolside with music-and-a-book comfort of a casual Sunday afternoon in pre-summer Myrtle Beach. I’m currently reading “The Sheriff of Ramadi: Navy SEALs and the winning of Al-Anbar” and I just know that at some point – God, let it be soon! Please! – that author and former SEAL operator, Dick Couch, is going to get past all of the logistical descriptions of troop strengt...

One of my great, lasting takeaways from living at the Parker House in Berkeley – a large home not far from the Cal campus, within short-short walking distance of Telegraph and its steady stream of panhandlers and cool clothing/book/music/food shops to the north and Shattuck to the south that had 8 rooms plus a top-floor loft that served as communal housing for multiple college kids and my friend Dan – besides being the place I lived where I met Dana and had our firs...

Was at a client’s house this morning and after walking through his home discussing the various this and that’s of what he wanted us to do, we get into a discussion about his lighting control. It turns out that he has an old lighting control system that has never really worked properly, it’s confusing and no one in the house likes it. Its sends the control protocols over powerline and will require some investigation into how it is wired and connected and then h...

First off, I believe in giving credit where credit is due, so I’m going to start by giving big props -- and two respectful golf claps -- to CE Pro/Electronic House editor/journalist/blogger/superhuman writing cyborg, Julie Jacobson, for being the one to run, break, follow, just about any story that seems to happen in the Consumer Electronics space. Julie has a preternatural ability to get stories written and...

CEDIA has an interesting social-media campaign going on right now. It is a Tweet-up old school versus new school. And people are encouraged to side-up as they see themselves and then battle it out in the Twitter-verse as to why they do the things they do when it comes to technology, business, sales and training. You can follow the New School tweets here and the

I don’t often feel like I succumb to the powers and pressures of the marketing juggernaut. I mean, sure, *sometimes* they’ll slip one by me, but usually that’s when I’m kind of already a willing participant. Like, I already kinda-sorta want it anyhow and they just give me that extra little reassuring nudge that says, “Go on! You know you’re worth it! Enjoy!”

There was that time when I was younger...

This couple just came into the store. And I could tell before they even arrived that the guy member of the spousal team was going to be a difficult character to work with. I knew this because he calls me and he is all over the map with his direction asking skills.

“Your store, is it on business or bypass?”

“We’re on the bypass.̶...

You know what really irks me? Besides all of the things that I’ve previously said that irk me, that is. It’s having to tell someone the same thing over-and-over-and-over again. (Now I’m starting to see why Dana gets so upset about the leaving the shoes randomly about the house. It’s not the shoes...no, not at all. Who could get mad at shoe...

“I've built walls,

A fortress deep and mighty,

That none may penetrate.

I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.

It's laughter and it's loving I disdain.

I have my books

And my poetry to protect me;

I am...

Without a question, my favorite tradeshow is CEDIA. Though, to be fair, I’ve only really attended a few other tradeshows with any regularity, so my sample pool is probably highly skewed. And I’m sure that if I ever get an invite to “Lamborghini Expo” or “Drink! The Napa Valley Wine-stravaganza!” or ever went to “Star Wars Celebration” or the comic book geekfest which is “ComiCon” or the Cannes film festival or even the...

At the Control4 dealer meeting a few weeks ago (you can read my humorless, totally lacking in any John flavor or soul account of the event here, -- described as “fantabulous and no snarky, over-the-top commentary” by PR and “very thorough and lacking hyperbole and controversy” by editorial -- or my

We got a call the other day from a guy that was having some computer network issues. (OK, apparently we got a couple of calls from him. Turns out that one of my guys took down his initial message from the answering machine and then either A) never called him back (the customer’s story) or B) was called back and no one answered (my employee’s story) or C) called back again and got me on the phone and left a message with me to have my employee call him back and...

A while ago an installer whom I respect called me up and asked if I would be willing to come in and help him out on a job he’d inherited. Apparently he had taken over some large project because the original install firm either couldn’t, wouldn’t or shouldn’t come back and finish, I’m not really sure. Look, I have enough drama and pool leakage issues going on in my own life to get all swept up in those of others. The Army really nailed it with that ...

My last unboxing post – the Meridian DSP3200 speakers and Sooloos Media Core 200 – was SO unexpectedly popular that I decided that the obvious thing was to do another. Now, I could lie to you and tell you that tons of people who had been Google searching the Web fruitlessly looking to fulfill an unquenchable desire to see the  Me...

Last year about this time I went to a Sony press meeting in Beverly Hills. I remember this because, well, they put me up in the SLS, one of the swankiest hotels I’ve ever been to. A hotel that used M16’s as lamps. A hotel with bizarre, shape-shifting, animal-to-man artwork displayed on flat panel TVs throughout. A hotel with full-sized bottles of shampoo and conditioner. A h...

Checks in the mail with lots of commas and zeroes,

Watching good TV, like Season 1 of Heroes.

The joy that free scotch and airline upgrades can bring,

These are a few of MY favorite things…

I was out in San Jose last week having dinner with

You know how they say that the full moon brings out the crazies? That our bodies are made up of a majority of water and that the full moon’s extra-strong tidal pull does a mindfreak on some people; causing some to turn into were-things, others to go streaking nude through the park and others to just walk around jibber-jabbering to themselves? Well, apparently the first hot-humids of the onslaught of South Carolina summer causes some people to have a damn case of the ̶...

OK, so... The last 24 hours has been some kind of Internet maelstrom here at the blog. And, well, I’m not exactly sure just *what* happened.

Take a look at this graphic to see what I’m talking about...

That Mt. Kilimanjaro meets Mont B...