OpenOffice.org has released public beta 3.0, which includes native OS X support (previous betas required an X11 installation). The beta is intel only. It may be downloaded from the snapshots section.

Slashdot has picked up a story stating that all 44 Blackboard patient claims have been invalidated by the USPTO. Such patients may have hindered other Learning Management Systems (such as Moodle) and Content Management Systems (such as Drupal).

Zoho Writer now allows offline editing in additional to its usual online editing mode. Documents edited offline are synchronized with the online document through a versioning system. An embedded YouTube video on the Zoho Writer blog provides a good, short overview.

Linux Insider has a two part statement about adopting open source software. The second part focuses more specifically on open source software in educational institutions.

I saw this story here on Slashdot first, where there is also some discussion about it.

OpenOffice.org has a preliminary OS X-native port out:

http://porting.openoffice.org/mac/download/aqua.html

The current native solution, NeoOffice, is still much more robust and stable, but OpenOffice.org is making clear strides into a native OS X port.

According to a recent BBC article, recent imaging of a known palimpsest has revealed an early (2nd or 3rd century) commentary on Aristotle's Categories. That's an interesting connection between the modern and the ancient.

This recent article from Slate states:

Given the popularity of plagiarism-seeking software services for academics, it may be only a matter of time before some enterprising scholar yokes Google Book Search and plagiarism-detection software together into a massive literary dragnet, scooping out hundreds of years' worth of plagiarists—giants and forgotten hacks alike—who have all escaped detection until now.

Here's a short article from A List Apart about the importance of text as interface in design.

This report from GameDaily BIZ states that the Michigan violent games law has been stricken down as unconstitutional. There are some interesting statements in the report, including this one:

While certain politicians and anti-game activists have also suggested that games are far worse for children than other media because they offer interactive, not passive experiences, the district court once again shot down this notion. "...it could just as easily be said that the interactive element in video games acts as an outlet for minors to vent their violent or aggressive behavior, thereby diminishing the chance they would actually perform such acts in reality....Not only does the Act not materially advance the state's stated interest, but it appears to discriminate against a disfavored 'newcomer' in the world of entertainment media.

The Life Expectancies of Books is an interesting article about how virtually every book, no matter how popular or worthy, will fall out of print and become essentially lost to history. Copyright issues complicate this process, and may prevent works from being resurrected.