Ars Technica reports in their lengthy review of Windows 7 (this is a good read for those who want to see an in-depth comparison of Vista and Windows 7) that WordPad in Windows 7 supports OpenOffice .odt files. In some brief experimentation with it, I found Word Pad cable of reproducing the basic formatting that people use most of the time in word processing documents.

Read on Slashdot, ASCAP Says Apple Should Pay For 30-sec. Song Samples.

I don't believe in bashing on kids playing video games. In moderation, most of them are fine.

But Guitar Hero (sigh!). I wish kids would learn this other interface instead of the game console remote: Nine-year-old plays Ozzy

Thanks to Boing Boing for this video.

Gotta remember this great article from Smashing Magazine when doing the WPA Council website redesign this spring: How To Use Help Elements To Improve Your Designs.

Another typical April Fool's Day on the Internet yesterday. My favorite from Slashdot was the Instant Messaging Vulnerable To New Smiley Attacks.

At the 2009 meeting of the Intellectual Property Caucus of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, I mentioned that our department is designing a new 300-level course for our writing major at Grand Valley State University: Authorship, Creativity, and Copyright.