Some time this year, mobile devices will outsell desktop computers for the first time.

So some of you are going to get a tablet. The question is, what kind?

First you have to pick an operating system – Apple or Android.

Sometimes – and this is particularly pleasing to an old guy like me – the newest thing is not the best.

I found this out recently when my phone, an original Motorola Droid, somehow became “unrooted.”

I love the Florida Keys. One of my favorite drives is from the mainland through the Keys via U.S. 1. At Christmas, my family and I got to make that drive, after flying into West Palm Beach. When we cross over at Key Largo, I instantly feel more relaxed, and the natural beauty of the drive – the Atlantic on one side and the Gulf on the other – always astonishes me.

This arrived in the mail recently. That's right, in the mail. So it cost, what, at least 40 cents to mail this? And if it's a class action settlement involving eBay, how many of these do you suppose were sent?

Dang, it expires on Thursday. I better get to the bank.

Patrick Wade suggested the iPad in a recent blog post. I suggested an Android tablet.

If you’ve just gotten a new Android phone, you might be dazzled by all the apps there are for it.

The temptation will be to download lots of apps, especially because there are so many available for free.

Go for it.

Ho ho ho. There you are, at an electronics store or looking online because you want to get someone near and dear to you the perfect gift.

A tablet.

An Android tablet.

You’ve made the right choice.

Choice, when you get down to it, is what an Android device gives you.

I’ve just been trying out Google Currents, which may be an answer to the coolest iPad app I’ve seen, Flipboard.

I started taking the bus in August from downtown Champaign, where my full-time job is, to the University of Illinois campus, where I get to teach a group of very bright students two days a week.

I’d always driven in previous semesters, and the thought of giving up the control of being in my own car, on my own schedule, bothered me. But this semester I figured I’d give the bus a shot.

I asked a couple days ago for the answers to some questions based on data from traffic accidents in Champaign County involving snow and/or ice, from 2007 through 2010.

Here are the questions again, along with the answers:

A. How many accidents in snow or sleet have there been in Champaign County? 1,405.