All things Macintosh for biblical scholarship and ministry. Providing news, help, and discussion for bible scholars and ministers using Macintosh technologies as a tool for doing their work.
May 29, 2008
QuarkXPress 8 Supports OpenType/Unicode
May 26, 2008
Accordance 8.0 Is Here With More Powerful Searches
- the [ANY] tag, letting you search for, say, case across adjectives, nouns, participles, etc.
- the [FUZZY] search, which will help me find those verses where I kinda know how it goes.
- the new [INFER] command which opens many doors for searching inter-textuality.
- the new text customizations, including spacing, text color and background color.
- draggable panes (though I don't care for the look of the new horizontal text panes).
- and perhaps my favorite new feature... greater Unicode compatibility! You can paste Unicode text into a search box and it automagically gets converted to the Accordance font schemes. This renders my own Unicode to Helena converters needless, unless you're still wanting to do bible/user tool creation based on Unicode texts.
Way to go, Accordance!
May 23, 2008
Accordance 8.0 Release Soon
Let's call "less than a month" less than 29 days (they're a conservative bunch). Why don't we throw up a timer then.
Update: Accordance 8.0 has been released:
May 13, 2008
VBA Coming to Microsoft Office 2012
So, you can add VBA to my predictions for Microsoft Word 2012 (or thereabouts).
Although, it's always possible that by then we'll all be using OpenOffice and not buying.
May 12, 2008
b-b-beta fever
As I looked down at my dock, I notice that half of my apps are in beta (I can't confirm some, hehe). Here's a screenshot of me running the new beta of Firefox and OpenOffice in Windows on a virtual machine in the new Fusion Beta. (None of which is necessary since both of them run native on OS X now.)
OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta Goes Aqua
This is changing with version 3 of OpenOffice... they are porting it to Aqua which means it runs like and looks like other Mac apps. Here is a first look at the OpenOffice.org 3.0 Beta just released this week and things look promising. When it goes to full release, I expect I will be deploying it and recommending it.
On a side note, Recently in the comments, a NeoOffice aficionado mentioned that the NeoOffice team may continue development past OO 3.0. This concerns me. I know alot of work has gone into the excellent NeoOffice but if it gets deprecated, it gets deprecated. I recently sent money to NeoOffice project and don't regret it for a second, even if its need is shortlived. I will be interested to see a public statement from the NeoOffice team on intentions when the time comes. It is too soon to expect that from them at this time. Much will depend on the shape and sustainability of the final OO 3.0 release.
The big news is that this is all great for the state of open source productivity apps on the Mac.
May 11, 2008
Text Critic Sound Bites
If [the number of variants] were the only piece of data we had it would discourage anyone from attempting to recover the wording of the original, but there is more to the story. The reason we have a lot of variants is that we have a lot of manuscripts. To speak about the number of variants without also speaking about the number of manuscripts is simply an appeal to sensationalism. -- Daniel WallaceAnd if the violence in Iraq is down, it is because the enemy is being defeated because the troop surge is working; and if the violence in Iraq is up, it is because the enemy in their last throes because the troop surge is working.
There are more differences in our manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament. Well, that's a lot. -- Bart EhrmanWell, it is alot.
In short, the elemental tenacity in the New Testament textual tradition not only permits but demands that we proceed on the premise that, in every instance of textual variation, it is possible to determine the form of the original text. -- Michael HolmesBut if we acknowledge we will never reach certainty, is proceeding as if it were so a flawed approach?
Scripture will not, in and of itself, lead us to destruction. -- Dale MartinTrue. You must add capitalism into the mix.
Would the author of Matthew’s Gospel, if he came along and looked over their shoulder, have... said ‘Look’s good enough to me’? -- David ParkerHe may also say, "Do you mind?"
It’s an exciting field. There’s a lot happening. Maybe it’s time for you to think about jumping on in, because the water’s pretty great these days in New Testament textual criticism. -- William WarrenYahoooooo!
May 10, 2008
Twitter Tweets Screensaver
If you're tired of pictures of your kids, you can follow your Twitter Tweet subscriptions in a screen saver that may already be loaded on your computer.
May 07, 2008
Unicode Now Most Common Text Format
- If you are a scholar whose writing includes reference to Greek or Hebrew or another language and do not know how to use unicode in your documents, it is not a fad that is going away.
- If you are a publisher and are still considering when you should shift to unicode standards for your manuscript submissions, stop considering.
- If you are a software developer and you have no unicode implementation or only partial/patchwork unicode implementation, the train is pulling away from the station.
- If you haven't a clue what unicode is, you would benefit from this quick read.