I had a very nice Fourth, thanks for asking; watched Le Tour stage 1, finished third in the 'Round the Island race, and then saw Toy Story 3 in 3D, which was pretty enjoyable (although I'm going to say not as amazing as some people thought).  I've had a nice couple of "days off", relaxing, but I will pay for it tomorrow as I have much to do...  in the meantime, a quick filter pass...

An interesting retrospective: Reality intrudes on SecondLife.  In the end it was a game, an interesting game to be sure, but not "real".  Count me among those who played with it briefly but were not hooked...  I think Facebook has more staying power, because it is Firstlife :) 

Still no link between cell phones and cancer.  Whew.  Still, I'm sure the researchers out there will keep trying, there *must* be a link, right?  Kind of like cold fusion, the publicity at stake is just too huge... 

This is cool: the concept behind Sony's Vaio logo.  Who knew? 

Steve Steinberg: new developments in AI.  Fascinating and illuminating article, for those of us waiting for intelligent machines...  [ via BoingBoing ] 

Good night y'all, back to reality tomorrow...  (did you notice?  *very* few firecrackers on this Fourth, I guess that tradition is now gone... kind of sad really, I know they aren't safe, but so many great things in life aren't safe!)