There's actual coffee with this edition's Coffee Break as Ken Newquist and Courtney Bentley talk about their caffeine fix from the newly-relocated Cosmic Cup. In ITS news, they have an announcement about the WW2 Community Web Server Rebuild Project, and in Tech News they discuss Apple's laptop battery recall and Penn State's new podcast project. Finally, in Help News, they talk about why students may still want an All-LAN cable when wireless is available and announce the Consulting Center's Fall Semester hours.

Getting the Podcast

There are several ways to get the podcast:

• Download the MP3 directly
• Subscribe to the Soapbox podcast rss feed using an aggregator (you only need to do this once; subsequent shows should download automatically)
• Subscribe to the Soapbox feed via iTunes

Show Notes

ITS News

• Cosmic Cup Moves to March Street
• Got a bit twitch when they closed to move, but they're back open again, so everything's cool.
• WW2 Rebuild Project
• http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~soapbox/node/644
• Mailbag: Bryan Alexander from NITLE wrote in to say he's listening and enjoys the show.
• http://www.nitle.org

Tech News

• Apple Laptop Battery Recall
• Apple is recalling 1.8 million laptop batteries for G4 iBooks and PowerBooks.
• https://support.apple.com/ibook_powerbook/batteryexchange/
• Podcasts at Penn State
• Started an Educational Technology Services podcast.
• Video for ITS New Student Orientation
• Enhanced podcast about Second Life and Virtual Entrepreneurialship
• http://podcasts.psu.edu/

Help News

• Cables
• Passwords
• Blackboard
• Consulting center – library

In this edition of the ITS Coffee Break, Ken Newquist and Courtney Bently take a look at the recently re-opened beta site for Google's web-based word processor Writely, talk about updates to Safari Tech Books Online, offer tips for working with Blackboard, and ask for volunteers to help test the ITS web site.

Getting the Podcast

There are several ways to get the podcast:

• Download the MP3 directly
• Subscribe to the Soapbox podcast rss feed using an aggregator (you only need to do this once; subsequent shows should download automatically)
• Subscribe to the Soapbox feed via iTunes

Show Notes

ITS News

• Start of School
• Posting on Soapbox!
• New students posting thoughts about the start of school.
• Vote on the effectiveness of the New Student CD
• Lafayette Gamers:
• http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~soapbox/lafayettegamers
• Safari Tech Books Online
• The service has a new somewhat easier to navigate look. Get to it via the ITS Web Services page:
• http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~its/webservices
• Evaluating the ITS Web Site
• We're looking for guinea pigs to help us test the ITS Web site, so if you want to be one, e-mail us at itsblog@lafayette.edu

Tech News

• Google's Writely back in open beta!
• http://www.writely.com
• Beta Meter for rating how close you think it is to being ready.
• Don't even try and use Mac's Safari web browser.

Help News

• Help with Scanning
• Blackboard
• Requesting a Course
• Self-Enrollment
• Don't use the AOL Browser with Blackboard — Internet Explorer works best; Firefox is ok but doesn't support WYSIWYG text editing
• Suggestions for Brown Bags? Email us at itsblog@lafayette.edu.
• Full calendar: http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~its/pages/calendar/

Blackboard — both the creation of courses for the fall, and a new patent lawsuit that the company field against a competitor — dominates the ITS Coffee Break's August 14 edition. The show also has ITS news about the next scheduled network outage and September's big LVIAC Copyright Workshop featuring Kenneth D. Crews. In tech news Ken and Courtney discuss the implications of the Blackboard lawsuit, the social video web site YouTube, the recall of 4.1 million laptop batteries by Dell, and the release of the Firefox 2.0 Beta.

Getting the Podcast

There are several ways to get the podcast:

• Download the MP3 directly
• Subscribe to the Soapbox podcast rss feed using an aggregator (you only need to do this once; subsequent shows should download automatically)
• Subscribe to the Soapbox feed via iTunes

Show Notes

ITS News

• Blackboard: Request Fall Course Creation Now.
• Scheduled outage
• Wednesday, August 15, from 5AM to 7AM.
• Banner, Novell, and all Network ID-related services (email, soapbox, etc.)
• Copyright Issues of Importance to Educators, Librarians and Other Members of the Academic Community at LVAIC
• Presented by Kenneth D. Crews, J.D., Ph.D., The Samuel R. Rosen II Professor Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis, IU School of Library and Information and Director, Copyright Management Center
• Date: September 1, 2006
• Time: 8:30 A.M. – 3:30 P.M. (Registration 8:30-9:00 A.M.)
• Location: Lafayette College, Skillman Library
• Deadline: Aug 28
• http://www.lvaic.org/events.html

Tech News

• Blackboard Patent Suit Against Canadian company Desire2Learn.
• Blackboard was granted 44 patents by the U.S government, and immediately launched a lawsuit against Desire2Learn for infringement.
• BBC: Patent battle over teaching tools
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4790485.stm
• Blackboard: Patents
• http://www.blackboard.com/patent/
• No Education Patents!
• http://noedupatents.org/
• English Translation of Blackboard Patent Claims
• http://noedupatents.org/wiki/index.php?title=Blackboard’s_US_patent_6%2C988%2C138
• Dell Laptop Battery Recall
• Dell is recalling 4.1 million laptop batteries after one was caught on tape catching fire.
• http://news.com.com/Dell+to+recall+4+million+batteries/2100-1044_3-6105486.html?tag=cnetfd.newssd.right
• Dell Battery Web Site: https://www.dellbatteryprogram.com/
• Firefox 2.0 Beta
• http://www.mozilla.org/projects/bonecho/all-beta.html

Help News

• Upcoming workshops include: Learning Objects, Interactive PDF Documents, Creating a course web site in Blackboard, PC Maintenance, Introduction to Microsoft Outlook
• Full calendar: http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~its/pages/calendar/
• Register: http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~its/help/workshop/registration