If you're looking for a unique theatrical experience, one that isn't edgy, over-the-top, or trying so hard that it falls flat, then see The Magic of Love when it comes to your town. It's staged by magician Lawrence Khong, along with his daughter Priscilla, and well-supported by some of the best magicians in the world as advisors.

It's not a magic show per se, it's a tender-hearted story with singing, dancing, and illusions. Now, I know that might sound odd, but if you give it a chance I promise you'll enjoy yourself and appreciate the production. It starts out a little oddly, and there are a few things that bespeak it's Singapore origin (I think so, anyway, it's not quite American, that's for sure), but soon all of that melts away and you realize that you're having a darn fine time.

I saw it at the fabulous Palace theatre in Chicago, it's coming to Salt Lake City and Los Angeles next, before heading back to Asia.

I've written before about my indispensable robotic floor vacuum, the Roomba Discovery. Now the folks at iRobot have a new product that is sure to get top billing in my letter to Santa this Christmas. It's the Scooba -- a robotic floor washer.

The timing of this announcement couldn't have been better for me. My new place in Chicago is a loft-style condo, and it has plenty of wood floors that need cleaning. Our current Roomba does a good job of sweeping, but nothing beats a good scrubbing, and it looks like Scooba does that nicely. The demonstration movie at the Scooba website is woefully short, but the animation of how it works is convincing enough for me. I love that it cuts a clean, and dry, swath across the floor as it goes.

One-pass robotic mopping, now we're talking 21st Century Living!

A home automation starter kit for the promising Insteon technology finally arrives. Read more about it at my O'Reilly web log.

Derrick Story writes about some exciting changes at Apple's Wordwide Developers Conference, coming up in early June. I'm glad to be a part of O'Reilly's contributions and I'm looking forward to hosting Thursday's session on Smart Homes. Between the Mac Mini and some nicely maturing tools, we are really hitting a sweet spot for Mac-based home automation.

If you're new to home automation, come to the session to get fast-tracked onto the right path. If you're an old hand, there's no place like WWDC for meeting like-minded folks who can share their own successes, workarounds, and what's coming next. The BoF session last year was great, and this one promises more; stay tuned for details as we get closer to the date.

See Derrick's The Soul of WWDC 2005 for the details, and I hope to see you at the conference! (Register for WWDC here.)

Update: Keep it under your hat, but there is certain to be a prize or two at the session. :-)