Just about any piece of home theater equipment you buy these days comes with what the manufacturer says is a “universal remote.” What that really means is that you can take what they give you, spend an hour trying to figure out how to program it to control other devices, and then realize that the most you can hope for is a “universal on/off switch.”

The Logitech remotes are different. Instead of punching in arcane codes, you program them through a USB cable attached to your computer. You tell your computer what equipment you own, and it configures the remote control for you. Because it’s designed as a universal remote from the ground up, it has ALL the buttons that ALL of your devices have, and what buttons it’s missing appear on its LCD screen. (For example, it has no specific hardware button to list the contents of my DirecTV DVR, but it knows that I need one.)

What I like best is the back-lighting, which makes it easy to find buttons in the dark. And I love that it’s somehow motion-sensitive. The lights come on automatically when I pick it up.

Yes, it’s a bit crazy to spend more on a remote control than we used to spend on a television, but it sure is fun.

For more details, see the Logitech web site. The best price we found was at Amazon.

My brother got me an iPod nano for my birthday. (I think it’s the first Apple-manufactured device I’ve owned in 10 years.) Now I have to decide what to put on it besides music.

So far I’ve subscribed to four NPR podcasts:

1. Car Talk
2. Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me
3. Fresh Air
4. Krulwich on Science

I need to broaden my horizons. I’m looking for podcasts that are educational but not soporific, humorous but not banal, meaningful but not pedantic, intelligent but not impenetrable. Any suggestions? Please comment and include URL if possible. Thanks.