The Macintosh Biblioblog

Updated Accordance File Type Fixer for Intel

2011-08-25T00:36:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, when you move files around, backup and restore, etc., files can lose their associated file type and creator type. For your Accordance files, this is where the Accordance File Type Fixer comes to the rescue. I recently updated the package to include new versions for Intel and Lion. You can find it on the Downloads page.

Applescript to remove and add login items

2011-05-08T23:38:00.002-05:00

The login items for your user account in system preference is where you set applications to launch anytime you login to your computer, including restarts. My recent switch back to Quicksilver prompted the compilation of this script, which shows code that will remove other launchers from startup status and ensure that QS is set.

-- Script to remove other launchers from login items and add Quicksilver

tell application "Finder" to set QSpath to POSIX path of (application file id "com.blacktree.Quicksilver" as string)

tell application "System Events"

if login item "LaunchBar" exists then delete login item "LaunchBar"

if login item "Alfred" exists then delete login item "Alfred"

if (login item "Quicksilver" exists) is false then make new login item at end of login items with properties {path:QSpath, hidden:true, kind:application, name:"Quicksilver"}

end tell

I Do Love Me Some Quicksilver

2011-05-04T09:06:00.001-05:00

One of the most exciting things to happen to the Mac in quite some time is that a fresh team of developers has taken on the mantle of rejuvenating Quicksilver, the outstanding launcher and quick operation task master for Mac. You can find several references to Quicksilver on the MacBiblioblog and the Accordance actions were originally written for QS.
QS went abandoned for quite some time, and I spent some weeks trying out LaunchBar and the newer, underpowered AlfredApp. I sorta settle on LB, but the result was that I spent as much time clicking in the Spotlight window as I did invoking LB. Well this has changed with the release of the new stable version of QS. Updates are coming regular. Quicksilver has a new home at QSApp.com and they maintain a blog that keeps up a fantastic pace of tips and tutorial at LoveQuicksilver. If I sound giddy, it's because I am.

Hebrew in Lead Codices Turns Out to be Sindarin

2011-04-01T02:33:00.002-05:00

The Telegraph has some of the best covereage regarding the newly discussed Lead Codices. This latest identification of the script itself is more than surprising.

Right of Return for Possibly-Fake Lead Codices

2011-03-29T15:03:00.000-05:00

News this week is covering a set of lead codices with possibly some form of Hebrew, allegedly an early Christian text. You can follow good coverage from Jim Davila, as always. The truth of the matter is that little should be sensationalized until they have been openly studied.

But one aspect of the story intrigues me. Given that there is at least a good chance these are yet another fake (though perhaps not), we have a government throwing their full weight behind its authenticity, for the sake of the asset, but the Jordanian government doesn't even possess them. From the BBC:

A flash flood had exposed two niches inside the cave, one of them marked with a menorah or candlestick, the ancient Jewish religious symbol. A Jordanian Bedouin opened these plugs, and what he found inside might constitute extremely rare relics of early Christianity.

That is certainly the view of the Jordanian government, which claims they were smuggled into Israel by another Bedouin. The Israeli Bedouin who currently holds the books has denied smuggling them out of Jordan, and claims they have been in his family for 100 years.
Jordan says it will "exert all efforts at every level" to get the relics repatriated.

I have posted previously on the question of 'right of return' of stolen artifacts (vis a vis Parthenon friezes and the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum). When potential monetization takes a front seat, things will get muddy. This now becomes a hodge-podge of self-interest, and I doubt any scholarly conclusion can be found for many years to come.

The Promising MacBook Air

2011-02-04T13:18:00.000-06:00

After seeing the new (2010) MacBook Airs in the wild, it will be hard not to go that direction when it's time to move to a new MacBook. They are amazing, and the only thing at this point is sacrifices is hard drive space and a slot to stick in that CD/DVD in. As such, it is a game changer regarding what MacBook I'd recommend. I think I used the optical drive in my MacBook about 5 times last year. Given that I'll still have a desktop and a cloud to handle backup and the occasional disk need, the Air becomes such a viable option. For me, really, the processor speed is the main issue, since I occasionally do some intensive work on the machine. However, I have one big concern, and that is the upgradeability of the memory.

I'd buy an 11" Air immediately, except for my concerns about being able to upgrade the SSD hard drive later on. My inclination would be to pony up for just the minimum SSD memory and then upgrade later once SSD prices have gone down. But, Apple has killed the first 3rd party attempt at an upgrade kit, and the future is shaky. If this is the "future of the MacBook," is the future an inability to DIY expand your memory?

Background:

From watching the teardown pictures of folks getting inside the Air, getting to and removing the Flash Storage Unit is a piece of cake. But when PhotoFast came out with the first 3rd party upgrade kit, the 256GB MacBook Air SSD upgrade kit, Apple killed it. OWC has now announced the Mercury Aura Pro Express SSD MacBook Upgrade kit. But worries are that it will be short lived, too. Why is Apple keen on killing the 3rd party upgrades to the MacBook Air? It was a custom, SSD modules soldered onto a a memory board solution that Apple created, but it is a shame that things are shaky in this area, especially given how easy the access is to the memory board.

I am eagerly watching Apple's response, if any, to OWC. If none comes, then there is a good chance that my next MacBook will be of the Airy ilk.

Thoughts on the SBL-GNT

2010-11-30T13:27:00.005-06:00

A newly released eclectic Greek New Testament became available this month. Michael Holmes has provided expert opinion on production of the new SBL Greek New Testament. I have only spent a couple hours with the text, in addition to working through Wieland Willker's review. I do have some initial reflections on the text that I could share.

The primary niche this text is filling is very clear. It is an eclectic Greek text from the SBL that provides a much more generous free-use policy than the Nestle text. There are situations where the usage rights from the NA27 have been limiting towards a project.

At the SBL general meeting, they were passing out hard copies to registrants. This hard copy is mostly worth what attendants paid for it. The Greek text uses the SBL Greek font, which is simply bad. It makes for awful reading, looking like perpetual italics. I was disappointed when the font was released and seeing it in this text is undesirable.

Also, the initial apparatus provided with the text is essentially useless. It serves as a descriptor for the process that Michael Holmes used to compile the text: take 4 eclectic texts (Tregelles, Westcott-Hort, Robinson-Pierpont) and compare them in order to catch all major variation units. This might be acceptable if it weren't for the fact that it doesn't make the NA text a major text to compare, only mentioning it when a variation differs from the less-scholarly-backward-transation "Greek text behind the NIV". But in the end, when I'm reading my NT, I don't care if a variant came from Westcott-Hort, but rather which manuscript it can be found in. Others have indicated the apparatus must simply be a stopgap solution. I would think so.

And finally, regarding its use. There are certainly places where the NA text needs a second thought. (See, for instance, Willker's exhaustive list.) I am eager to learn more about NA28 which is in the pipeline. But while Michael Holmes is very qualified (see, for instance, his work on the text of the Apostolic Fathers), the reader of scripture will benefit all the more from evaluation by committee. Holmes does in a way dialogue with the opinions of Tregelles and Hort, etc., but in the end they are still his evaluations.

Update:
Stephen Carlson has an excellent post on the apparatus, and keenly points out one benefit of the apparatus is that "a full two-thirds of the apparatus is listing differences with the Byzantine textform, enabl[ing] the user of the SBLGNT apparatus to get a very good sense of what the Byzantine text reads."

Further Update:
Michael Holmes graciously pointed me towards a very helpful faq blog post he has on some aspects of the SBL-GNT creation choices. You can find it here.

What Books Are You Preaching From?

2010-10-14T14:41:00.004-05:00

This week during seasonal sermon planning I did some investigation into what texts we've preached in our worship services at Raytown Christian Church in the just over five years we've been there. My partner Dawn and I are co-pastors, and we plan all the worship themes and preaching texts together, though we alternate the preaching duty each week.
After reviewing the texts from the last 266 sermons, I was at first stunned that we had only preached from 34 books. For three years we used the Revised Common Lectionary (which does not cover each book), and then for two+ years we have organized individual series, planned out months in advance. Here is a cloud representation of the books we've preached from, the relative size indicating the amount of times we've preached from it. It has been a helpful exercise, informative future sermon planning.

created at TagCrowd.com

Services and scripts for Accordance 9

2010-09-21T20:14:00.001-05:00

Updated: As far as I know, most Accordance scripts and Services are now working again as of Accordance 9.02. Please let me know if this is not the case.

Previous: Changes in the new version of Accodance have broken some of my scripts. This is common for each major release. Notice their widget is also disabled. I'm getting lots of contacts… I am aware things are broken. I can not work on a new compatible version of my script library until after a new Accordance hits the public, so sometimes it has been a matter of weeks. In this instance, you can know I will begin a new version of the Accordance Script Library once Accordance has released a version that works with their widget once again.

More Details for Accordance on iPhone

2010-09-13T16:03:00.001-05:00

The folks at Accordance have announced the near release of Accordance 9, as well as a longer blurb about the iOS (iPhone, iPad) app that will be released: Accordance on iPhone :: Accordance

Here are the functionality details I glean from it:

• free app

• runs Accordance modules

• search and study functionality

• offline use

• edit notes

• view multiple translations

• Greek and Hebrew search and display

• access reference tools, including dictionaries, keyed texts, lexicons, and photo guide

• can further narrow searches

• identical functionality across iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad (Though iPad screen is optimized for that resolution)

• simple search commands

• grammatical searches

• instant parsing

• module syncing with Accordance 9

Given all that, it looks like it will already contain all the functionality I would use 99% of the time. I have carried a bible application in my pocket for over a decade (Palm OS until my iPhone), and all I have ever needed it for was looking up verses to read and the rare, rare, rare simple word search.

Accordance Users Conference

2010-09-08T23:50:00.000-05:00

I am working on some arrangements, as well as my workshop, and so am now really looking forward to the Accordance Users Conference coming up at the end of this month (Sept. 24-25) in Dallas. It will be a great time to interact with other users. It will be an opportunity it seems to get a first look at some new things they have in the pipeline (iPhone app demo I'm predicting!). It will be an opportunity to sit down with other users and the creators to talk through your own work in Accordance and brainstorm how to make it more effective.

Hope to see you there.

Cleaning up Windows in a non-Scriptable Application

2010-08-20T14:48:00.000-05:00

Here is an example of using User Interface scripting in Applescript to move windows around in an application that is not otherwise scriptable. Through UI Scripting you can do some limited interface tasks with an app that you otherwise have no access to. For even the worst applications in terms of scriptability, UI Scripting can provide access to things like windows that are open, their size and their position.
In the script, once I have collected an array of all open windows in an app, a series of "if" boolean statements are used to detect which window I'm now working with. Some of them have a title property that can be tested for, while others have a fixed window size that can be checked.

This example uses the Accordance application. Accordance has custom window classifications that do not respond to any "clean up windows" menu command. The app is not scriptable, and due to the custom nature of its user interface, the properties that UI scripting has access to are extremely limited. Windows can get moved around when connecting/disconnecting external displays. This app rearranges the windows how you would like them.

Here is the text of the script, and you can find a link to the script on the Downloads page. (On how to integrate such a script into your own workflow, look elsewhere on this blog or google Applescript to your hearts content.)

-- Clean up Accordance windows v.1

-- This script will move the first main search window to the top left, and then move all palettes to the edges of the main display

-- Will have to be adjusted to meet your tastes and your external display setup.

tell application "Finder"

set screenBounds to bounds of window of desktop

set screenWidth to item 3 of screenBounds

set screenHeight to item 4 of screenBounds

end tell

tell application "Accordance" to activate

delay 0.5

tell application "System Events"

tell process "Accord"

set winCount to count windows

repeat with n from 1 to winCount

set thisWindow to window n

set winSize to size of thisWindow

set sw to item 1 of winSize

set sh to item 2 of winSize

set winPosition to position of thisWindow

set pw to item 1 of winPosition

set ph to item 2 of winPosition

if description of thisWindow is "dialog" then

-- it is a main search window

-- move to top left

set position of thisWindow to {1, 22}

else if size of thisWindow is {96, 552} then

-- it is a Resource palette

-- move to top right

set position of thisWindow to {(screenWidth - sw), 22}

else if size of thisWindow is {324, 46} then

-- it is a Text palette

-- move to middle bottom

set position of thisWindow to {(screenWidth / 2), (screenHeight - sh)}

else if ((get title of thisWindow) as string) is "Highlight" then

-- it is a Highlight palette

-- move to bottom right

set position of thisWindow to {(screenWidth - sw), (screenHeight - sh)}

else if ((get title of thisWindow) as string) contains "Keyboard Characters" then

-- it is a Character palette

-- move to top middle

set position of thisWindow to {(screenWidth / 2), 22}

else if ((get subrole of thisWindow) as string) is "AXFloatingWindow" then

-- is a palette, so only option left is Instant Details palette

-- move to bottom left

set position of thisWindow to {1, (screenHeight - sh)}

else

-- Must be another main search window

-- Can check for title, etc. to move them.

end if

end repeat

end tell

Still No Hebrew for Word 2011

2010-08-03T12:51:00.000-05:00

The chatter has increased day by day as the MacBU got closer to releasing detail on Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac. We hear officially this morning that there is no support for right-to-left Unicode languages (Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic). This is disappointing, and was my suspicion. Here is what they say:

With each version of Office for Mac we have to prioritize updates. While we will be adding new language support there will not be full right-to-left support for languages such as Arabic and Hebrew.

Office 2011 relies on the Apple Type Services for Unicode Imaging (ATSUI) as the set of services for rendering Unicode. Due to technology restraints on the text input tools, Office for Mac’s Unicode support doesn’t include languages such as Hebrew and Arabic.

We understand support for RTL languages is needed and it is something we have on our priority list. However, at this time, we don’t have any updates on timing.

One bit of it is hogwash. It relates to the fact that they indeed did not rebuild Office using Cocoa.
And as it stands now, there may be a silver lining. There was some previous success in pasting in, though not editing Unicode Hebrew into the last iteration of Word. From some beta testers I have spoken with, it appears that if one is working from a document created in another application that does have right-to-left Unicode that you can have more success.

One tester responds with this tweet:

Yes I did, when I edit an Arabic file it works perfect, but it doesn't if I create a new doc!

6:34 PM Jul 30th

And another stated this way:

About Arabic support in MS office 2011 Beta 5 for Mac: 1-Word:YES if you open an Arabic doc 2-Excel:NO AT ALL 3-Power Point:YES PERFECT

Aug 1

The big disappointment is that Hebrew is not supported. However, we will begin to get more information on just what is possible. Microsoft's troubles will only increase as they continue to neglect this problem.

Accordance on the iPhone

2010-07-22T00:17:00.000-05:00

Today the folks at OakTree Software, makers of Accordance Bible Software, released a screenshot of the current Accordance iOS (iPhone) app due out this Fall. The impending release will be cause for great excitement from many users, myself included. I have been using OliveTree Bible Software on my mobile device for nearly a decade, and it is rocking good on the iPhone. I have a basic set of Greek tools on it, so it will be interesting to see how Accordance's app stacks up once it hits the app store and we get a chance to see it.

I recall at last year's SBL, following the "bible software smackdown," that folks were impressed just what was possible with a mobile app when Olive Tree's Bible Reader had a go at the challenge. What it could do was impressive because the presumed limitations had expectations quite low. This will be a new context. Accordance is bible software whose sophistication and capabilities is unrivaled. This creates a difficult situation where the inevitably limited functionality of a first release will be easy to find disappointing. For this reason, it is lamentable that the Accordance hat won't land in the ring until relatively late in the game.

That said, despite whatever capabilities Olive Tree's Bible Reader has possessed over the years on my portable device, I rarely use it for anything but reading the bible, and rarely a simple search. This is precisely the basic functionality Accordance has told us to expect. I suspect many, many current Accordance users are thrilled to soon be able to simply read their Accordance modules on their iPhones. Fun times ahead.

Office for Mac 2011 Not All Cocoa

2010-06-08T15:52:00.001-05:00

On the Office for Mac Team Blog, it was confirmed today that they are behind in writing all the components of Microsoft Office for Mac in Cocoa. For the Office 2011 release, the new Ribbon and Outlook will be written in Cocoa, but the remainder of the apps will not. This does not bode well for Word, and its compatibilities for things such as OSX Services. Still no word on Unicode R-t-L Hebrew either.

SBL Annual Meeting Presentation

2010-06-02T11:31:00.001-05:00

The preliminary program book is online for the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Atlanta. I will be presenting some of my dissertation findings in a synoptics section:

Synoptic Gospels
11/21/2010
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Theme: Revisiting Classic Interpretations
Robert Derrenbacker, Thorneloe University, Presiding

Peter Wick, Ruhr-University of Bochum
The Unspeakable Mysterion in Mark and the Unveiled Mysteria in Matthew and Luke (30 min)
Jason Robert Combs, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Jewish 'Fools' and their Gentile Foil: Reading Comedy in Mark 15:34-39 (30 min)
Rebekah Eklund, Duke University
The Identity of the Crowds in the Passion Narrative (30 min)
Elizabeth E. Shively, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
A Tale of Two Households: Mark 3:22-30 and 13:32-37 (30 min)
Joseph Weaks, Brite Divinity School
Reconstructing Mark: Problems With Getting Behind the Text (30 min)

Here's the abstract:
Reconstructing Mark: Problems With Getting Behind the Text
In Synoptic Studies, often the examination of a pericope includes our attempts to get behind the text. We rely upon standard criteria for reconstructing source texts. However, we need to improve our capability to assess the reliability of a text that has been reconstructed from potentially independent witnesses that used it as a source. For example, how well could we reconstruct Mark based upon its use in Matthew and Luke? This paper will survey the findings of a dissertation which established a complete reconstruction of Mark from the evidence in Matthew and Luke. The results come from structural analysis and a comparative stylographic statistical comparison between the fully reconstructed Mark and the canonical text of Mark. Assessing what is lost in the reconstruction, what is introduced, and what is changed in relation to canonical Mark helps us understand the limitations of source analysis within the Synoptic gospels. Among the findings is the recognition that a reconstructed text will not reflect many of the dominant features of its predecessor, and likewise, a reconstructed text will bear features unique to its form that have no relevance to the original text it approximates. These findings point to strong implications for how we assess the primitivity of one tradition against another, the presumptions made regarding an underlying textual form of a given pericoope, as well as the reliability of the text of a reconstructed Q source as it is used in other historical inquiry into early Christianity.

iPad Case Quest

2010-04-23T22:48:00.002-05:00

We've had the iPad to use since the release date, and I have concluded that the iPad begs for a case. The question is whether one wants a sleeve to keep it in for transporting, or a flip case that it stays in all the time. I find holding the iPad itself a bit of a chore. I'm too 'careful' with it. And, it really works best if it's propped up. Holding it and looking down at it for too long hurts my neck. Hence, we want a flip case for it.
The iPad fits well on my elliptical for viewing during a workout. The typing in landscape is as good as could be hoped for, really. It is quite fitting for sitting on the couch and doing email and web reading. It makes a great reader. My wife loves taking it places to read with it.
I have been watching as many iPad case releases as I can. MacWorld has done three round-ups now. I have concluded that Apple's own iPad case is tops for our needs. A chief criteria is a flip case that has a sturdy low angle propping up option which is ideal for typing, and, it must be able to work well on your lap. Every other case I've seen (including inCase's Convertible Book Jacket) either is too wobbly for good typing or props the iPad up with a little stand which wouldn't work across your lap, unlike the full bottom laying flat as in Apple's case. I've been holding out a few weeks, using a simple foam slip-case, to see what options arise before purchasing, but it's looking more like Apple's will be the one.

In the interim, I gave the classic book-conversion case a try tonight. I found just the right size book in the bottom of a bookshelf in the basement. I am very impressed with the results. I was careful with the measurements and the cutting, so the fit is quite snug. I would totally use this case for transporting the iPad, even reading from it. Here are some quick pics:

This will be fun to use for a bit until we make a purchase.

Update: The case is still getting a lot of use, and had held up amazingly well and proven itself to be surprisingly functional. Someone asked for more details on the process, so here are the basic steps I used:

1. Lay the iPad face down on card stock and trace the face of it.

2. Cut it out.

3. Find the right size book, height, length, and thickness. I got lucky and had a perfect one… you'll want at least a half inch of paper to border the iPad. (A hard-cover book that opens, lays flat, where the front cover can flip open but doesn't pull the pages and bottom cover with it, so that it can still lay flat with the front cover open is ideal.) This is the book I used: http://www.amazon.com/Psalms-Timothy-R-Botts/dp/0842349553

4. Open the cover and on the very first sheet, lay the template and and trace with pencil.

5. Using an exacto knife (though I actually used a less-desirable carpenter's knife), cut the outline, cutting 2 to 6 pages deep.

6. You know longer use the template, but rather, use the cut-out pages as the guide to scribe further down into the paper. You eventually be "opening" some pages, pulling them back, always leaving a couple "cut-out" pages as the guide for further scribing.

7. Repeat ad nauseum. As you get deeper, to a check with the template and/or the actual iPad to make sure your hole is still true. Keep it snug, though. You can always trim away bulging sections and corners to enlarged the hole. Make tweaks to adjust. Took me an hour or so total.

8. As you get close to the back cover, place hard surface under the pages so you don't cut into the back cover.

9. With all the pages cut, pull away the loose bits. Try fitting the iPad. Carve out bulging places. Ideal is a fit where the iPad slides in with just a teeny bit of effort. Even better is if one side is a little narrower at the top than down into the paper, so you have to angle it in and then it hold a little in place. Mine turned out this way on its own.

10. Hold all the pages open, against the front cover using a clothes pin or something, then free the last sheet, and with a glue stick, glue it down to the back cover.

*Important is to make sure the bottom cover is lying flat and the the binding is lying flat at the 90% angle so that the paper is glued as far onto the back cover as it cant.

11. Repeat with the next sheet, next, and next, again, ad nauseum. Make sure the cut-out lines up with what's below it each time.

12. One you've finished. After confirming the fit, and letting it dry, the next day, some pages will pull apart. Reglue those with regular elmer's glue and once those seem go, go ahead and spread glue on the 3 edges of the stack of paper to give it added hardness and stability. You may have to reglue a couple pages for the next few days of use.

Brite's Jewish Studies appointment

2010-04-22T11:41:00.000-05:00

Glad that Brite Divinity School's new Jewish Studies chair appointment is getting wider press, thanks in part to Jim at PaleoJudaica.com. It is a rather unique position for a seminary of Brite's posturing. It offers great potential for seminarians, and even more so for a Qumran scholar, over against a Midrash scholars, as was the previous position-holder. There remains a NT position open at Brite. Interested to see what transpires there.

Multi-direction Language Support in Upcoming Word 2011

2010-04-01T11:45:00.000-05:00

Screenshots of the anticipated Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 began to surface on the web in the last couple days. It's hard to know whether "leaked" screenshots like this are planned out or not, but conversation on the Twitterverse confirms their authenticity. One such conversation on Twitter references this screenshot where Word's new language direction capabilities are on display.

This is a new revelation. Not only does it seem that the version due out in December will be able to support Right to Left Unicode, it looks like the new text engine handles even more advanced vertical language. And isn't that boustrophedon (like an ox plows) heiroglyphs at the end? I remember from studying at the museum in Cairo that you can tell the direction of the line by the way the bird is facing. This is surprising since I would think it only useful for artistic and minute scholarly reasons.
The official Mac Office blog has not yet touched on language capabilities in the teaser reports, but this updated text engine is a huge step forward, so it's hard to imagine why these plans haven't emerged prior to April.

Central States Regional SBL Report

2010-03-25T13:41:00.002-05:00

The Central States Regional SBL meeting was enjoyable. It was my first time at this particular regional event which has been in St. Louis each year since I've been in Missouri.

I understand it has been in Kansas City in the past (and I'd be happy to see it repeat).

This event is smaller than the other regional meetings I have experience with in the Southwest, but there were still sufficient slots for the just-over 100 attendees to present and hear papers. The book exhibit is about as small as you could imagine. About 5 presses must have sent in a box of sample books, though Abingdon was present with an actual rep and larger display.

The other five presses each had a collection of the size similar to this one from Chalice Press.
It appears that Central States basically has three sections—HB, NT, and ASOR—though they were also trying to maintain a mini-section on Pedagogy. The presentations I attended were the expected wide range of rich diversity, including moments of understandable inexperience, occasions of insightful brilliance, along with the occasional "Huh?". These regional meetings are indeed a great place for folks to cut their teeth on an academic venue, and the "old guard" who seem to run the meetings do have a good priority for encouraging student participation, even undergraduate. Some of the actual presentations were refreshing and/or notable.

David May of Central Baptist Theological Seminary surveyed "Restoration Coins" from the Roman empire that offer a good reminder to move beyond textual evidence (such as numismatics) when seeking social context for a culturally bound book like Revelation. Mark Nanos, whom I met for the first time and who lives about 15 minutes away from me as it turns out, made a strong argument that the interpretation of πώρωσις in Romans 11:25 is inappropriately influenced by the πώρωσις τῆς καρδίας found in later texts in Mark and Ephesians. The plenary address from Dr. Jodi Magness, the Early Judaism professor at University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill surveyed the issues surrounding the James Ossuary and the Talpiyot tomb. She is very articulate and presented the state of the affair well. One business session facilitated discussions about an issue facing all SBL regional clusters. Due to IRS regulations, the regions are going to have to become separate legal entities. Without a doubt, if these new structures do not find a way to have some sort of "Sponsored by the Society of Biblical Literature" branding somewhere, they will decline in interest.
The most enjoyable aspect of the time was the occasion to get [better] acquainted with scholars in Missouri and nearby. In addition to David May and Mark Nanos, I further enjoyed getting to know Daryl Jefferies of Central Methodist University and Mark Givens of Missouri State University. In some instances, it was an exercise in learning about regional institutions that I had been ignorant of their existence previously. I will look forward to next year.

Regional SBL Central States

2010-03-21T12:47:00.000-05:00

I just arrived at the Central States regional meeting in St. Louis. I have attended regional SBL's, but this is my first time at this regional meeting. (My prior experience is in the Southwest.) I don't know many of my local colleagues, so welcome this opportunity to get to know folks, especially from Kansas City. (I have seen the bible folk from William Jewell with whom I've shared a flight from national SBL, and I think I see David May of CBTS having lunch.)

I've not any specific reason for being here other than making such connections in general. I am looking forward to Jodi Magness' plenary address on the Talpiyot tomb. I think I shall be attending all the NT sections.

What MacBook Should I Buy (If I Switch From a PC?)

2010-03-09T18:00:00.007-06:00

I frequently get asked for advice on computer purchase decisions. The first and most important answer is that everyone's needs and interests are different so there's no one size fits all. However, I've not been shy about sharing what my thoughts have been, for my own decisions. I've purchased 5 MacBooks and 12 Macs over the last 15 years (including ones I've purchased for a use at the church I worked at). Right now, I feel pretty clear in my preferences and reasons regarding my MacBook needs especially. A friend recently asked me for my opinions with a series of what I deemed to be good and thoughtful questions. So, I thought I would post my answers publicly as well.

"What MacBook model do you suggest?"
I think the 13" base MacBook Pro is the best portable computer value ever, absolutely ever. I do like large screens (my iMac at home is a large screen), but I think the size disadvantage of the 15" or larger portable is simply not worth it. I wrote my dissertation mainly on my 13" MacBook, and its has multiple wide columned tables. Basically, it still accommodated my needs; with two-finger scrolling, screen accessibility is just so natural. I'm certain there are some niche uses where they need a larger screen, but for someone who takes the computer from home to the office every day, there's no question about it. The unibody design is absolutely fantastic, a huge step over the white plastic case MacBook still selling. The way I encourage anyone to figure out which MacBook meets their needs is to consider the different base configuration using this table and then ask themselves, what am I gaining for the price increase and do I need/want that? As far as configuration, the first add-on I spend for would be faster processor speed. Hard-drive can be upgraded later and unless you're doing video editing or loading tons of [legally?] downloaded movies and music, you're not going to need more. RAM can be added later, and more cheaply via third party.
Computers get a speed bump in their specs every year or two. It is always a good idea to not buy if you can wait a month if a new release is pending in the next month or so, but short of that, I'd say buy when you want/need/can afford it. You can look this site to gauge if a new update is coming soon, or ask your Mac friends about it.

"Is getting the Air with its portability worth the high cost?"
The MacBook Air is super fun to handle. Consider the gains and losses though in going with it. If you move from the base 13" MacBook Pro to the Air, what do you gain? It is a little thinner and 1 pound less. What do you lose? $300, a much slower processor, less memory upgradeability, 40 Gigs of hard drive, battery life, one of the two USB ports, the only FireWire port, and Ethernet port, an SD card slot, and a built-in CD/DVD drive. That is a LOT of computer to lose for the sake of a little thinner and a pound less. Any one of those losses could be a deal breaker for you. None of them would be for me. I don't use my FireWire often, I could get a USB hub for my desk, I could carry a little SD card reader in my bag, I could stop plugging my MacBook into the net and just use the wireless, and I never use my CD/DVD drive when I'm not at my desk. But, it's just too much computer to give up in my estimation. If you've handled the 13" alum unibody of the MacBook Pro, it still feels slim and lean and mean and quite durable and fun. But, if you don't need/use any of those things, $300 is definitely worth it for the smaller profile machine.

"How fast does the hardware go obsolete?"
Not very. Apple just completed a transition from the system software moving completely to the new Intel machines, so, that change won't come again anytime soon. The Unibodies represent the greatest physical durability to date, so the wear and tear on the case is vastly improved. I think you're foolish if you plan on using a new MacBook less than three years; I think you're naive if you think you'll want to use a new computer for 7 years.

"How is compatibility these days in general?"
It is fantastic. Essentially, for individual files and file types (word documents, graphics, web protocols, etc.), compatibility is essentially complete. For instance, your word documents between PC and Mac are just as compatible as they are between two versions of Word on the same platform. You will still find some computer software categories where options are more limited on a Mac (though 99% of those are games). And, there are some web sites that use poor standards that choke on my Mac, though that has become VERY rare, and most often moving from the default Safari web browser to Firefox fixes the problem.

"Are there compatibility issues with AV support for doing presentations?"
Nope. You will need to carry in your bag the Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter or a Mini DisplayPort to VGA or to Composite/S-Video (or all three).

"Are there software/peripherals you consider must-haves?"
I really like a MacBook sleeve that I then carry in a larger backpack of my choosing when needed. I love this Brenthaven Trek sleeve, since it is suitable as a carrying case or can be used inside a large backpack. One of the two I've bought for two different MacBooks is 4 years old, gets hauled everyday and is still in great shape.
Accordance Bible software is one of the best Mac apps I know of. It runs so natively and intuitively it is a joy to use and can offer just the resources and tools a scholar or pastor would want to have at their fingertips.
If you will be taking the computer between home and your office everyday, pony up and buy a second power cord and power brick to keep you from having to fuss with it everyday. You can then just unplug, slip it in the case and go.
Always carry an SD card and a USB flash drive in your bag.

"How is Word on the Mac?"
If you are familiar with Microsoft Word on the PC, you're still going to be familiar with it on the Mac. Most things are very similar. The approach to document creation is pretty much identical. Microsoft Word was originally written for the Mac platform. There was Mac Word before there was ever PC Word, and Microsoft Word is still the most feature complete word processor on the Mac. It has some junk I wish it didn't that I'll never use. (I'm looking at you, equations editor). The only caveat, and it could be big for you, is that the Mac version does not allow editing of right-to-left unicode languages, including Hebrew. The next version of Word set to release at the end of this year may change that. I would highly recommend that before buying Microsoft Office, you first install OpenOffice and live with it for a bit and see if this open source free software doesn't fit the bill. I would also almost recommend holding out for the next version of Word. If I was confident it would ship this year, I would for sure recommend that. There are other great and inexpensive word processor alternatives that are wonderful on the Mac, including Pages and Mellel.

"What are the concerns for viruses/malware on Macs?"
None. I've never had "virus protection" software on my Mac and I've never seen a Mac that had it. Ok, slight exaggeration there, but basically, short of you downloading illegal games and applications from torrent sites online, it's a non-issue still this year.

"Thoughts about music/video/games?"
There are plenty of games to run on the Mac, if that is an interest. There are not as many as on PC. The couple PC games I've wanted to play, I simply rebooted my Mac into Windows XP and ran it natively. Music and video editing is pure joy on the Mac. The iMovie video editing software that it comes with is phenomenal. And as for music, there's some nice integration between my Mac and my iPod and my iPhone. :)

"Any other advice you have for a longtime PC user?"
If you do buy a Mac, I'd suggest keeping active on one blog or web site or newsfeed so you can learn a little as you go. A great option would be http://macosxhints.com

Accordance Users Conference

2010-03-05T22:14:00.001-06:00

The newly announced Accordance Users Conference looks like a great idea that can offer a lot of different things for different groups of people. And, it looks like a lot of fun. If the date can work out I'm going to try and make it down. If so, I should certainly try to offer a workshop (if it would get accepted). I'm thinking of something like this. Tell me what you think or let me know if you have a better suggestion:

Automating Accordance Integration: A Glimpse at the Possibilities

Technologies already on your Mac, as well as features of your word processors and other applications can allow you to put the power of Accordance and the convenience of repetitive tasks at your finger tips. Get quick access to scripture as you write. Enable scholarly inquiry never before possible. Some examples will demonstrate amazing practicality and some will be for the sure fun of it. We'll catch a glimpse of what's possible in automating your favorite application.

The Making Of a Slogan

2010-03-04T20:41:00.002-06:00

Since the inception of The Macintosh Biblioblog, it has kept a Hellenized version of the slogan that Apple used at the time, "Think different." I have enjoyed the email discussions that others have initiated with me over the years about how best to render the phrase in Greek. Some have raised various possibilities, argued for grammatical changes, or defended what was there at the time. Setting aside lexical changes, the chief candidates have included:

φρονεῖς ἕτερος

φρονεῖς ἑτέρως

φρόνει ἕτερος

φρόνει ἑτέρως

I have used more than one at different times. Among the ponderances and outright debates were whether the command should be an imperative form or rather simply indicative of the reader, as well as whether the "different" should be adverbial or somewhat substantive. Many have taken some of the above versions to more explicitly read something like: φρόνει: "ἕτερος". Most contacts regarding the issue have enjoyed the intentionality I had put into it, as well. Frankly, there are different ways to interpret "Think different."

It really is amusing the regular emails raising questions and making suggestions. Somewhere in the comments is a discussion between a few B-Greek folks including the venerable Carl Conrad.

I digress.

In the midst of all those discussions, no one has succeeded in pointing out what has recently occurred to me, namely, that the slogan is out of date! And so it is now changed:

εἰμι μακ

(Let the new debates begin.)

Create a Custom Paste Command in Word 2008

2010-02-24T10:15:00.001-06:00

In Microsoft Word 2008, you can create custom Applescripts and the place them into a special folder giving them unique keyboard combo assignments. In this way, you can, create custom functions or combinations of functions that initiate with just one keystroke. For instance, let's say you wanted a simple paste command in Word, but one that first took care of some formatting changes for you. By way of example, let's say that you often copy scripture text from Accordance but before you paste it into your Word document, you want to remove the formatting and also remove the pilcrow symbols (¶) and the space following them from the text. A simple script can accomplish both tasks automatically for you.

1. Open Applescript Editor inside your Applications/Utilities folder (In OS X 10.5 this app is called Script Editor and found at Applications/Applescript)

2. Paste the following 7 lines into a new document window:

set theText to the clipboard

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "¶ "

set theText to text items of theText

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""

set theText to theText as string

set the clipboard to theText

tell application "Microsoft Word" to paste special (text object of selection) data type paste text

(The last line of that script is kind of long, so make sure you do have it all on one line.)

3. Save the AppleScript as a script in ~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Word Script Menu Items
(which is Word's user info inside the Documents folder of your Home folder).

4. Give the script a descriptive name such as "Paste Scripture" but also add "\cV" (without the quotation marks) to the end of the name. This sets the keyboard combination to Control-v. (for more info on adding keyboard shortcuts, have a look here.)

5. From now on, in Word, you can hit Control-v to run the script which will remove the Pilcrows ¶ and paste unformatted text into your document.

Pages Citation Paster Gets Served

2010-02-21T00:44:00.000-06:00

Folks seem to continue benefitting from the Accordance to Pages Citation Paster which provides a function whereby the Citation Footnote in Accordance tools can still be used in Pages (which has a bug that ignores rich-text footnotes). You can get a fuller description of the utility here.

I have updated the download package to include a version that works as a Service in Snow Leopard. It allows you to assign a global keyboard shortcut. You can go to the Downloads section to grab it.

Microsoft Office for Mac 2011

2010-02-11T13:56:00.000-06:00

The Macworld event going on right now always brings with it announcements on upcoming software. Microsoft today gave a review of the upcoming Office for Mac 2011, due to be release in time for the 2010 holiday season (yeah right). Questions of interest are always the status of right-to-left unicode Hebrew. I do not think it's hopeful on that front, but I'll keep looking. They are reintegrating VBA support. The removal of VBA support is the reason I wrote my dissertation in Word for Mac 2004 instead of 2008. Here are more details on what was revealed.

Creating a Service to Select a Menu Item in your Application

2010-02-10T16:07:00.000-06:00

In Snow Leopard, using Snow Leopard and Applescript/Automator, you can create a global keyboard shortcut to do just about anything you can imagine. As an example, this is how you would create a Service to select a specific menu item inside of an application such as Accordance. This will allow you to assign a global keyboard command to it via the Keyboard panel of the System Preferences:

1. Open up Automator

2. Choose a template: Service

3. At the top of the right panel, change the popup menu from "Service receives selected text" to "Service receives no input"

4. Leave "Replaces selected text" unchecked.

5. In the "Actions" panes to the left, find "Run Applescript" and drag it over to your workflow.

6. Replace the line that says (* Your script goes here *) with the following 6 lines:

tell application "Accordance" to activate

tell application "System Events"

tell process "Accord"

click menu item 1 of menu 1 of menu item "Favorites" of menu 1 of menu bar item "Amplify" of menu bar 1

end tell

end tell

7. Save it via menu File/Save and name it something like "Accordance Amplify Favorite"

8. Quit Automator

9. Go to Keyboard pane of the System Preferences and assign it a global keyboard combo.

10. Test

This Service will bring Accordance to the front, and then select the first item under the Favorites submenu under the Amplify menu.

Note: The part in the Applescript line that reads click menu item 1 is telling it to select the first Favorited item in the list. You can reorder the Favorites in the Library Window in Accordance. (Look for the submenu at the bottom of the module list.) You can also specify a Favorite by name... just change click menu item 1 to something like: click menu item "MyFavoriteWorkspace" replacing the 1 with the name of the workspace inside of quotes.

Accordance Services Collection Released

2010-02-06T13:00:00.002-06:00

Do you find Accordance Bible Software useful? Would you like to have quicker access to your Accordance material from within other applications? The Accordance Services Collection gives you that capability. Using the new Services functions in Snow Leopard Mac OS X 10.6, you can look up scripture or text in Accordance or even quickly add scripture texts into a document you're working on. For an overview of what the Accordance Services Collection can do for you, have a look at the video tutorial below.

The Accordance Services Collections can be found on the Downloads page. The install includes a ReadMe file that explains the simple drag & drop installation process.

No USB syncing for iPhones... but my PDFs!

2010-02-04T02:30:00.000-06:00

The state of personal devices is in flux once more with Apple's announcement of the coming iPad. As a appliance device, it does not interest me specifically, but its presence has affected the treatment of the iPhone OS already. Apple is now enforcing that apps not use the private API's which allowed them USB syncing. I have used Stanza as my PDF reader of choice brilliantly for quite some time. The new crackdown is discussed well in this blog post:

Bye Bye USB Syncing: Is the iPad Bad for iPhone OS?

Apple's upcoming iBooks will mean less leniency for competitive products. I do hope that the rumored swap folder API for the iPad will also make its way onto the iPhone. It will be interesting to see the software differentiation in the future between the two devices. The iPad is the topic of the day, but even well after launch, there will always be scads more iPhones out in the wild than iPads.

I hope the state of pushing your own PDFs to the iPhone (and iPad) aren't unsettled long.

It's Dr. MacBiblioblogger Now

2010-01-27T01:52:00.000-06:00

Last week I successfully defended my dissertation. Postings on the Macintosh Biblioblog will become more regular once more.

Typing Hebrew on MacOSX

2009-11-27T15:53:00.001-06:00

Thanks to Chris Heard on Higgaion who has posted two videos on typing Hebrew on Mac OS X which are designed to:

introduce students to typing in Hebrew on a Macintosh.

Accordance to Pages Citation Paster Updated

2009-11-17T01:20:00.003-06:00

I've added some options to the Accordance to Pages Citation Paster. All of these new options can be changed by opening the script and altering a property value. Version 0.9 includes:

Removal of trailing whitespace (carriage returns, spaces) from copied text
Return insertion point to the body text after inserting footnote
Can set script to manually fix the font name/size of the text pasted into the body
Can optionally choose to Paste and Match Style in Pages

It's available in the downloads section.

Accordance Bibliographic Citations in Pages

2009-11-13T17:43:00.004-06:00

I am making publicly available my "Accordance to Pages Citation Paster" script.

You can download the latest version from The Macintosh Biblioblog's Downloads section.

Here is more information from the ReadMe file.

Accordance to Pages Citation Paster

version 0.7

The Accordance to Pages Citation Paster is created to work with the bibliographical citation function within Accordance Bible Software in Accordance 8.4 and up. Using that function, you can paste in copied text as well as a footnote in word processors such as Microsoft Word. However, a shortcoming of iWorks Pages does not permit footnotes to be pasted into a document. This script is a workaround for that shortcoming. In addition, the script can by default also include the task of Copy as Citation in Accordance before bringing Pages to the front and pasting in the citation, so you can do it all in one command.

The Accordance to Pages Citation Paster script:

-- Can optionally Copy as Citation from Accordance first if it is the frontmost app.

-- Can optionally insert an empty footnote if none detected in the citation.

To install: Leave 'Put bibliography details as footnote' UNchecked in Accordance preferences in order to copy a citation format this script can use.

It can be launched from the typical script locations. For information about launching the script in the system wide Script Menu run the Applescript Editor and check the help files.

If you want to assign a keyboard shortcut to run the script, you'll have to use a tool like

Quicksilver ( http://www.blacktree.com/ )

or FastScripts ( http://www.red-sweater.com/fastscripts/ ). For a simple, system-wide key combo trigger I'd recommend FastScripts. The script can also be launched from utilities like Butler, LaunchBar, Automator, or even Services. (Do your own research on how to do so, please.)

If you open the script in the Finder, it will not run, it will open it up in Applescript Editor. There are a couple options you can tweak inside the editor. The beginning of the script includes this:

You can change copyCitationFromAccordance from true to false to prevent the script from doing the Copy as Citation within Accordance.

You can change insertEmptyFootnote from false to true to have the script insert an empty Footnote when pasting a citation that does not include one.

You can also change the script's speed to ensure stability or try and speed it up (by setting the n property to 0

Note: You didn't pay for this, so you get no implied warranties or guarantees for it. (If you do send me a donation, then you can demand any guarantee you like.)

Note: The author is not associated with OakTree software and the Accordance folks are not responsible for the support, use or content of this script.

Written by Joe Weaks, November 13, 2009

Available at The Macintosh Biblioblog

Imperialism and the Museums It Created

2009-10-19T13:19:00.000-05:00

I'll never forget my first summer of travel, back-packing through Europe and the middle East. Everywhere I went and visited museums and ancient sites, many times over I stared at a plaque on a wall or a gap in an edifice in Egypt and Greece especially and thought to myself, "Hey, I saw this thing back in June at the British museum." What is the current status of right of return?

All Things Considered has a great story today on a new museum that has opened in Athens. One primary argument from the British Museum defending the failure to return the Parthenon friezes is that they haven't the fitting place to house them. Well, check out the images of this new museum.

"'Everyone Understands What Is Missing'

The display space is the same dimension and orientation as the Parthenon looming on the Acropolis hill, just 900 feet away. Thanks to wraparound glass windows, the exhibits bask in the same natural light surrounding the original temple, which was built for the goddess Athena, the protector of the city of Athens below.

Britain's Lord Elgin chiseled off roughly half the sculptures that adorned the Parthenon in the early 1800s, when Greece was an unwilling member of the Ottoman Empire. Later, he sold them to the British Museum."

It reminds me of the first thing you see when you walk into the Antiquities Museum in Cairo... a replica of the Rosetta Stone.

I understand that it is not a clear-cut issue. But isn't the main issue that an older colonial empire stole these items from their homeland, and in 2009, it's time to return them? Western imperialism and continued profit-making at the expense of middle-eastern nations won't subside without acting on that reality.

If the news of this new museum in Athens is not met with enthusiasm in England, then shame on you.

Back to Quicksilver on Snow Leopard

2009-10-08T00:02:00.001-05:00

Quicksilver, the amazing tool that it is, continues to live on life support. A small open source community seem to be giving it attention. I spent an intentional month with LaunchBar and then with Google Quick Search Box each to try and migrate to either of those. It just didn't work out. LB was certainly stable, but still underpowered. Some things in QS that I just depend on can't be done in LB (global triggers one of them). So, then on to Google's attempt, which is developed by QS' creator. It is definitely the underdog in this category... searches didn't even find the files I wanted. You have to use xcode to write plugins for now. I really look forward to trying out gQSB2.0 when it arrives. I expect huge improvements.

So, for now, I'm back with Quicksilver, though I've begun to play with creating Services for some of my own plugins that can now receive global key combinations in Snow Leopard. I have all my Accordance actions running native on Snow Leopard now as Services that don't require Quicksilver, Launchbar or anything. I hope to find the time to make them available soon.

And speaking of Snow Leopard...

On The Apple Blog a month ago, there was a helpful article pointing out that some QS plugins are causing crashes in Snow Leopard.

From what I’ve been reading on support forums, some users of Quicksilver saw no affect from upgrading their machines to Snow Leopard. I however, was not one of those people. And although I am warming more and more to Google Quick Search Box, I still supplement my usage of QSB with Quicksilver where the former is lacking in features. So I tinkered around until I was able to resuscitate and use Quicksilver again under Snow Leopard.

Really, the thing to do is install the latest Open Source build

and then navigate to:
~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver/PlugIns
and remove all teh plugins and restart QS. If things run well, then you can selectively try plugins to add back in. Definitely stay away from UI plugins and AirPort Module.qsplugin and Services Menu Module.qsplugin.

Using a Mac on a Windows Network

2009-08-24T13:08:00.000-05:00

Here is yet another very good survey of setting up your Mac to work on your Windows network at work.

Quicker Save PDF's to Desired Location

2009-08-18T11:02:00.004-05:00

I've used this for a long time, but this article reminds me it's one of those OSX gems that few know about. Many of us do a lot of saving things to PDF's. The little PDF button at the bottom of print dialogs lets you do so, but if you want to quick-save it to a folder without having to navigate dialog boxes, you can add that as an option to the list using "PDF Services".

1. Put an alias of your desired save folder into the PDF Services folder inside your Library folder that's inside your home folder. 2. In a print dialog, select PDF popup at the bottom and you'll see the option to quick save the PDF to that folder. If it comes from a web page or a word document or the like, the title will be taken from the document, so often will be quite appropriate.

Next Mac Microsoft Office due late 2010

2009-08-13T11:16:00.004-05:00

Microsoft made an announcement this week about next year's (yeah, right) release.

Microsoft announced Thursday that the next edition of Microsoft Office for Mac will be released in late 2010. The new edition of the venerable office suite will include Outlook for Mac, a new application that will replace the Entourage.

They also announced a reduced pricing scheme, the Home/Student edition and the Business edition. I'm skeptical that they will make the 2010 release date? And if they do, I'm very skeptical they will improve right to left Unicode support.
Followup:
Etherington at TAB has a source that VBA is being reintroduced into Office 2010. I would certainly welcome that, but I think this discussion has made me realize I won't be buying Office '10, just like I haven't purchased Office '08.
You've gotta love Miller at MacWorld who writes:

My first reaction to Microsoft’s Thursday announcement that it will release a new version of its Office suite for the Mac in 2010 can be summed up in one word: Why?

Update: Someone reminded me that my prediction was 2012: Unicode Hebrew Coming to Word 2012!

Update: Microsoft still anticipates the next Office Mac release at the end of 2010. No definitive word yet on right-to-left Unicode languages, but it IS confirmed to include VBA.

Bible Software Review of Accordance

2009-08-10T02:09:00.003-05:00

Accordance is such a mature and finely developed program that a full review is impossible. I certainly don't have the patience to make an attempt. Rubén Gómez of the Bible Software Review has done a great job with a review. I highly recommend it.

There are, of course, even more features to highlight. At the top of the list in my opinion are:

Well-thought-out keyboard shortcuts
Tremendous stability
Text display customizability
Advanced Grammatical Tagging of core texts
Ridiculous "older system" compatibility
Amazing user and support system

OS X’s Summarize Service

2009-06-09T17:12:00.001-05:00

This is a very helpful, well, summary of OS X's built in summarize service. It uses rules to reduce text into a shorter form, in hopes that you can skim and still get the gist. I've used this some early on and it really is helpful in some contexts.

It would be hard to rely on such automated truncation in many regards, however the idea can easily find import in some uses. Services in OS X Snow Leopard are about to be much more functional and user friendly, with customized and context-sensitive menus and contextual menus. I'm excited about this.

iPhone e-reader: Eucalyptus

2009-05-26T21:26:00.000-05:00

There's a new player in town as far as e-book readers for the iPhone. It's called Eucalyptus and after finally getting approved by Apple, it is receiving lots of love on the internets.

It uses the Project Gutenberg etexts, which it reformats beautifully on the fly. Definitely mentioning. However, it's not for me. I'm most interested in readers that can make use of etexts that I create myself. I can dump articles or commentary chunks I have for instance in my bible software, and take them to read on the go.

Side note: Should we settle on etexts, eTexts, or e-texts? ... ebooks, eBooks, or e-books?

FlashCord File Converter Video Tutorial

2009-05-25T22:33:00.001-05:00

In response to others' requests, here is a video demo of FlashCord File Converter:

gFlashPro Flashcards for iPhone

2009-05-23T21:39:00.000-05:00

This is a really good idea... gFlashPro Flashcards for iPhone are powered by a Google spreadsheet you create. This makes for a powerfully capable offering.

FlashCord File Converter

2009-05-18T01:55:00.003-05:00

FlashCord Converter

(Accordance Analysis to Tab Delimited File Converter)

Available for download on the downloads page.

This droplet allows you to convert text from an Accordance analysis result into a tab delimited file for use in a flashcard program or spreadsheet. The tool is designed to be used by users of Accordance Bible Software. For more information about Accordance itself, please reference Accordance Bible Software (Oak Tree Software, Inc. www.AccordanceBible.com).

Basic Use

You may launch the application directly and then either choose a data file to convert or use the contents of the clipboard. Also, you may drag and drop a saved Analysis window from Accordance onto the application in order to create the tab delimited file.

Creating a Data File

Creating text files to be converted is completed within Accordance in three steps-- create your search within a tagged text, set up a compatible display in an Analysis window, and save that window as a text file.

I. Create your search within a tagged text

Using the Word search within a tagged text module, run your search.

II. Set up a compatible display in an Analysis window

Use the Details button to open an Analysis window. Choose "Set Analysis Display..." in the Display menu (Command ⌘ + t) in order to customize your Analysis window.

In the section of the "Set Analysis Display..." window titled "Select items for sort and display...", you may request specific information about the words that meet the search criteria. Adding multiple items to a column provides a hierarchical breakdown for each word. Remember, if the search contains only a single term, then only the first column is relevant.

The converter can read three different formats/sets of information.

The Analysis results may be set to three different display options:

1. LEX

This setting will result in a data file that can be used to quiz you on lexical forms and their English gloss.

2. LEX | INFLECT

This setting will result in a data file that can be used to quiz you on inflected forms and their lexical form and English gloss.

3. LEX | INFLECT | TAG

This setting will result in a data file that can be used to quiz you on inflected forms and their lexical form, English gloss, and parsing information.

Note: In place of "TAG", any of the sort order options may be used, such as Gender, PrtSpeech or Class.

In addition combination of information for different columns in a multi-word search may be used:

The results of each of these three Analysis results window text display options in Accordance would look like this:

_______________________________________

Total number of verses = 6

(total number of verses displayed = 6)

[noun] [verb] *fos (6 total words)

Number of different forms = 6:

dida¿skaloß teacher = 1

e˙leuqeri÷a freedom = 1

mimhth/ß imitator = 1

shmei√on sign, miracle = 1

uJpo/deigma example, pattern = 1

cara¿ joy = 1

---------------

gi÷nomai to become, be, be born, be created = 2

gi÷nesqe = 1

e˙genh/qhte = 1

euJri÷skw to find = 1

euJrh/sete = 1

hJge÷omai to lead, consider, count, regard = 1

hJgh/sasqe = 1

kale÷w to call, summon, invite = 1

e˙klh/qhte = 1

lamba¿nw to take, receive, choose = 1

la¿bete = 1

---------------

aÓdelfo/ß brother = 5

aÓdelfoi÷ = 5

NOUN masculine plural nominative

NOUN masculine plural vocative

bre÷foß infant = 1

bre÷foß = 1

NOUN neuter singular accusative = 1

_______________________________________

Note: The sort order must be one of the three shown above. For instance, choosing INFLECT | LEX instead of LEX | INFLECT will result in strange, if not silly, results.

For more information on how to customize the Analysis display, see the Accordance help file titled "Set Analysis Display Dialog Box for Tagged Texts".

III.a Save the Analysis window as a text file

Under the "File" menu, choose item "Save as Text File". Make certain your settings in the preferences do not convert the Greek font from Helena, or the Hebrew font from Yedudit, but that they do reverse the direction of Hebrew characters. And, make certain you save the file as plain text (not rtf). You will drop this resulting file onto the converter to use it as a data file.

Note: If you're clever enough, you can create your own custom data files by manually combining two or more text files. You can add new words to an existing tab file.

III.b Copy the contents of the Analysis window

Simply select all and then copy the contents of the window for use in the converter.

IV. Run the converter

If you saved a file, you can simply drag that file onto the droplet app. It will save the new file with a new name by default in the same location. If you have saved the data on the clipboard, simply launch the app and use the data from there, choosing where to save the file.

Purpose and Usage

The purpose of the tool is to be able to use the spreadsheet format data in a spreadsheet for your own research, or also to import them into a flashcard program.

Versions

Known issues:

Need to fix capabilities for unicode fonts

Review the addition of a blank line between appended data

Current version:

Current version is 0.2, Released 5/19/09

Brite Bibliobloggers

2009-05-04T21:24:00.005-05:00

I just today learned that there is more than one other biblioblogger who hails from the doctoral program at Brite Divinity School of TCU, where I'm completing my dissertation. I was delighted to peruse these new discoveries and see some quality offering. Here are the Brite Bibliobloggers I am now aware of, and would love to hear of any more to add to the list, current students or graduates:

J. C. Baker - j.c.baker.info
Mike Fox - Fox's Wanderings: Some Thoughts and Conversations
Nathan J. Barnes - Interpreting the New Testament for Life
Rob G. Reid - Jesus and Empire: An Imperial-Critical Perspective
Joe Weaks - The Macintosh Biblioblog
?

Amazon acquires Stanza ebook reader for iPhone

2009-04-28T00:12:00.001-05:00

For those of you following the progress of ebook readers on the iPhone, Amazon just bought out the major competitor. I have mixed feelings about this.

Microsoft will end support for Office 2004 in October

2009-04-20T16:41:00.001-05:00

Microsoft announced this week that it is ending support for Office for Mac 2004 in October. What that means for those of us hanging on to 2004 is that security updates will stop after that points.

Some of us have stuck with 2004 because of VBA functions we rely on. However, I would suggest anyone switch by October, and for enterprise contexts, you need to get your VBA applications recoded in Applescript by then.

Setting Up Your Own Mac Web Server

2009-04-08T11:26:00.001-05:00

If you have reason to be setting up your own web server on a Mac, office-based or home-based, these are very clear instructions from a get-you-started perspective. There are a number of reasons you might want to do this, including ease of mass distributing documents and data to a group.

Please note that many basic consumer internet contracts disallow you running your own web server. And furthermore, for even the most basic web page, I would recommend hosting remotely... I do so with all the web sites I am involved with.

Spotlight in Snow Leopard to include Bible Lookup

2009-04-01T01:32:00.004-05:00

I've earlier touted the data recognition concept behind Apple Data Detectors. It was recently announced that the new version of Mac OS X "Snow Leopard" would include more system wide data detectors, and hopefully expandability beyond recognizing just phone numbers and addresses.

I was surprised to learn a random tidbit from the developer's blog at TextMate regarding the merger of data detectors with the implementation of Spotlight. In Leopard, they added things like recognition of calculator computations, such that you can put 4*5 into Spotlight and get the quick resulting calculation. But the latest seed of Snow Leopard has included the new data detector features. No word yet on whether the capability exists for user defined data detector actions, but it does include a large number of pre-installed data sets (more than two dozen), including reverse zip code, advanced URL recognition and scripture lookup!

Several of the screen shots are quite cool but this scripture lookup data detector is rather surprising: Some of the other plugins are equally questionable in their potential use (such as the Messier Object database), but I still think the scripture lookup directly within Spotlight to be a very odd addition by Apple. I'm wondering if some of these won't be making it into the final release of Snow Leopard.

Update: Apparently the feature only works on April 1st.

Mind-mapping at Tech Landscape

2009-03-30T13:51:00.001-05:00

I have for years been intrigued with Mind-mapping and Concept-mapping software offerings and the practicality of their use. I have yet to encorporate them in my work. There are great Mac apps out there, Nova Mind, Curio, etc.

I have been interested in a new blogger, Seth, who has been blogging some thinking about the subject, including reviews of solutions on the Mac. I'd recommend you have a look at Tech Landscape, if you are interested in this topic.

The Utility of Ebook Readers

2009-03-16T02:09:00.001-05:00

It seems to me that availability and interest in ebook readers has catapulted recently. Much of this surely is related to the success of the iPhone (and presumably other full-screen mobile phones) and Amazon's Kindle. I have off and on for years used a Palm device as a reader, converting my own text files, html's, and pdf's into suitable e-texts. I would do things like export articles from the Anchor Bible Dictionary out of Accordance and put it into the device for portable and especially late nite reading. But now with an iPhone, the screen has improved, and with Stanza for the iPhone and Amazon's Kindle iPhone app, things have gotten even better.

However, one of the great advantages to the days when I used a Palm device is that I could roll my own e-texts. The ability to pull content from where I could get it offered the greatest advantage. If you have an iPhone or a Kindle and need an e-text management tool, there is an app called Calibre that may be for you. Calibre allows you to roll your own texts for use on an iPhone or a Kindle (and it does much more as well).

Amazon's entry into the field means that some ebooks of interest will be available to ministers and bible scholars, but still, relatively little for now. I suspect it will long be the case that the most useful e-texts we will load on our own devices will be pdf's we've pulled off our library full-text databases, and other custom sources, and that most often the capability to put our own content onto these devices will provide the greatest utility.

Snow Leopard OS Update preview

2009-02-06T19:47:00.001-06:00

I found this to be a good summary of the coming features of OS X Snow Leopard that will appear in the next few months. It is all about stability and speed and integration updates. And Finder will finally go Cocoa!

New Blog "My Mac Hero"

2009-01-28T10:37:00.001-06:00

I don't do many blog announcements, but I did want to welcome my friend J.P. Kang and his newly active My Mac Hero blog. In addition to his state of the Mac (and iPhone) blog posts, he offers consultant services. What you may not know about J.P. is that he is a pastor and a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and a very smart guy.

Mellel's New Features Get Coverage

2009-01-20T12:00:00.001-06:00

I was pleased to see that Mellel got good coverage of it's new features in anarticle by MacTech Magazine.

I own Mellel. I think they're doing great stuff with it. But I confess I never use it. But I'm glad it's there.

New iWork '09

2009-01-07T21:15:00.002-06:00

Apple this week announced the new version of IWork, their word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software bundle. We have previously discussed the medial place Pages has played as a word processor for doing biblical writing. It does have some unicode Hebrew support even. However, I think I've finally found a version of iWork that I'll be purchasing. The new addition of Applescript support is the deal breaker for me.

I'll be interested to see more reports and reviews on Pages '09 and Numbers '09.

iPhone Usefulness

2009-01-05T00:44:00.005-06:00

For months, people have in conversation with me assumed that I have and use an iPhone. I am not typically an early adopter when it comes to computers and gadgets--it is among other advantages a way to keep my tech-lust in check. One question is whether the tool's usefulness justifies the cost it represents. We have just transitioned into iPhones for some of our staff, and after just one month, I can say that this smartphone has been an incredibly useful tool. I will offer more posts on my iPhone use in the future, but to demonstrate the iPhone's usefulness, let me summarize key advantages it leant today alone:

In addition to the standard Apps, I make use of other third party apps as well, including the note-taking service Jott, the excellent BibleReader, and the Melodis VoiceDialer. All of my Apps to date are free, though I'll soon experiment with some with the typical $1 to $5 cost. This morning in between services, a member asked about my availability for a meeting later in the week. This is always a problem for me, since it's easy to not have my calendar with me. I was in this instance able to quickly check my calendar and add the meeting. After the third service, our Hospitality Elder came to me asking if I knew where the camera was for taking the picture of the new family that had just joined. I did not, but I said, line them up and let's give this a try. I used the built-in camera which took a perfectly acceptable shot. And then, I quickly emailed the photo to the office so the secretary could process it appropriately for posting in the new member book. After services, I was in a conversation where we were discussing scheduling this Spring. The question came up about the school district's schedule. A quick jump onto Safari on my iPhone gave easy access to the district's school calendar and instant verification. At one point in at home after lunch, I determined to go make a hospital visit in 45 minutes or so, so set a quick timer to remind myself, lest I lose track of time playing with the kids or dozing off on the couch. I find the built-in Clock app to be superb for alarms and timers both. On the way to the hospital, it was incredibly easy to look up the hospital phone number using the Maps app. This gave me quick access to one touch dialing to call and get room numbers for those I was visiting. It also gave me access to turn by turn directions had I needed it (which I didn't). I thought it a good idea to write down the room numbers so I'd remember them while roaming the halls of the hospital once there. While visiting the two folks I went to see, I thought it appropriate to read them the Epiphany story, our text for the day. It was a joy to do it with the BibleReader app which I'm certain to post more about in the future. (Note that my copy of BibleReader is a beta version, containing Greek and Hebrew testaments, something I'll be showing soon.) After the visits, since I have imported the entire active church member directory into my contacts with a simple tab delimited file, it occurred to me to call one of the patient's families to give them a report on their beloved in the hospital. A simple voice dialer app works brilliantly, no voice training or presetting involved. I can speak any name and category (such as "home" or "mobile") found in my Contacts and it can autodial for me. Also on the trip back, my mind raced with a couple ToDo items to add to my list for the office tomorrow. The Jott app is a superb application that transcribes your voice into text notes and todos. I love how this thing works. I arrived at the office with a few idle minutes, so went straight to my todo list to get my head around what I might accomplish. I am keeping things in Jott, which also synchs with the web interface when at your desktop. But, there are many great (and some VERY fancy) ToDo List and productivity apps on the iPhone. One item on the list was something I could attend to with a phone call, so I made this call, and it's worth saying that I really like the Phone functionality on the iPhone. Lookup is easy. Recents perusal is well done, and Visual Voicemail is a godsend. During the call, we decided to move a later meeting in order to have the right people involved. So, I quickly sent an email out on the fly to the pertinent person involved in the meeting change. So, in summary, if the topic of the iPhone's usefulness carries an implied question, then for me, today, the obvious answer is a profound yes. Most of the tasks I mentioned I would have or at least could have accomplished with other means, but means that would not have been as seamless, as centered on one point of focus, an possibly not at all given barriers of not having tools ready to hand.

In one short month, I am very impressed.

Downloads

2009-01-01T00:00:00.010-06:00

Downloads available on The Macintosh Biblioblog

Clean Up Windows in a Non-Scriptable App

This Applescript serves as an example of changing window positions in a non-Scriptable application using User Interface Scripting.

Accordance Services Collection

Drop these Services into place and you have global access to selecting text and quickly looking it up in Accordance via contextual menu or customizable global keyboard shortcuts. Also, the old "F-key" functionality of inserting full text into your document is a snap. (Works only in Snow Leopard.)

Accordance to Pages Citation Paster
This script overcomes a shortcoming in iWorks Pages which breaks Accordance's bibliographic footnote function.

FlashCord File Converter
This droplet allows you to convert text from an Accordance analysis result into a tab delimited file for use in a flashcard program or spreadsheet.

Accordance File Type Fixer
Accordance Tool and User modules can sometimes lose their resource fork identifying the file type, disabling them from being added to Accordance. This can happen when copying a backed up file, for one. This droplet allows you to recover those modules by reassigning what module type it is.
Includes versions for PPC and Intel, including OSX Lion.

Bible Software New Releases

2008-12-02T23:39:00.008-06:00

Accordance often makes big releases around the time of the SBL meeting and this year was no exception. I was waiting for them to post it on their web page so I could link to it. Greek NT Papyri, and Coptic texts are great additions. Some folks will like the complete BDB Hebrew Lexicon.

Another exciting moment was demo-ing the Greek and Hebrew bibles on Olive Tree's new iPhone bible reader application. I've carried a translation and a tagged GNT on my Palm device for years now. It's so handy to have them everywhere I go. The iPhone version looks absolutely awesome. It flows so incredibly (with a flick!). They don't have the tagged Greek/Hebrew texts yet, but those are coming in '09. Chris Heard tipped me off that if you already own Olive Tree texts in Palm, they'll transfer you to iPhone for free. It's looking like my iPhone transition is now immenent.

I also was looking forward to trying out Logos' new Mac software. I've not yet had a chance since they have absolutely no demo options. I can't remember the last time I encountered a piece of software that didn't have a demo version. Utterly insane. Anyhow, at first it looked like they had it for sale at their booth, but alas it was just still pre-orders for a later ship date (ie. no shrink-wrapped on hand). Their Promo Banner says it all, kinda. So, unfortunately, when I made it to their booth on the last morning to try it out, they had broken down their booth already. Everything was gone, and it was only 10 a.m. So, no luck there.

It was funny that 30 minutes later, someone came over the P.A. chastising any vendor who had already boxed up with something like, "Vendors, the exhibit hall is open until 12 p.m. Please do not break down your booths until after the hall closes." I saw at least a couple other offenders. *Shrug*

SBL Presentation: Mark without Mark

2008-11-19T23:41:00.003-06:00

This weekend at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Boston, I am making the first public airing of my research work for the last several years. If you are at the conference, you are most invited to attend. The section begins at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday. The presenter before me is a friend, and should be a suitable booking for warming up the crowd for me.

SBL23-87 Q 11/23/2008, 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM Room: Meeting Room 307 - CC Joseph Verheyden, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Presiding (5 min) Ken Olson, Duke University Mistranslated Aramaic or Septuagintal Greek?: A Source-Critical Examination of Luke 11:41, 48 (25 min) Joseph A. Weaks, Brite Divinity School Mark without Mark: Problematizing Some Uses of Q as a Primary Source in Studies of Early Christianity (25 min) Discussion (20 min) Break (5 min) Jeffrey Peterson, Austin Graduate School of Theology Q 1:31 and 22:64: Jesus' Birth and Passion in the Synoptic Sayings Source (25 min) Jason BeDuhn, Northern Arizona University Marcion's Gospel and the Reconstruction of Q (25 min) Discussion (20 min)

In lieu of posting the abstract from the program booklet, I'll provide here the introductory segment of the paper. (I'm unfamiliar with protocol regarding posting the entirety of an SBL paper.)

MARK WITHOUT MARK: ASSESSING THE RELIABILITY OF A RECONSTRUCTED TEXT OF Q

Joseph A. Weaks

Over a century ago the Q-proposal began its journey into acceptance among NT scholarship. While the textual evidence regarding the full extent of this early Christian document has remained unchanged, our reliance upon and use of Q as a source of early Christian studies has grown to become hard and fast. Today, when used as source material in gospel studies, we assume that "the extent of the Q material is reasonably clear." And, with the arrival of the International Q Project's (IQP) "Critical Edition of Q," the working text of Q has lost its tenuous nature, becoming all but canonized. But how reliable is the text of Q that we can reconstruct? As we continue to make use of a reconstructed text of Q in fields such as historical Jesus studies or early Christian formations or redaction analysis, it becomes increasingly important that we find ways to assess just how reliable is a reconstructed text.

Typically, when utilizing a reconstructed text of Q for historical, literary or redactional inquiries, we handle the text in the same manner that we treat our critically constructed gospel texts. The designation of IQP’s tome as the “critical” edition asserts that Q has been constructed in the same manner, or at least with the same reliability, as a critical text of Mark. In Excavating Q, professor Kloppenborg compares the process that arrives at a text of Q and that of one that establishes a text of the NT. He rightfully characterizes both as a “matter of probabilities.” He goes on to claim that “this fact does not make the resultant text any less usable than the text of the NT.” The former is a process of backwards reconstructing the text of Q from two and only two sources that have made use of the text. The latter is a process of critically constructing an attested NT document from multiple actual copies of it. The source material and how it is obtained and how it relates to the goal text is very different between the two processes, to the extent that a logical argument equating the two is not easily sustained. While both processes do consist of negotiating probabilities, the nature of those probabilities may be so layered in one case that it renders the results substantially more tenuous.

Analysis of Q plays an increasing role in defining the landscape of early Christian studies. The theology of Q is constructed as a determinable feature of what is commonly recognized as one of the earliest Christian documents. The document Q is redacted between different strata, tracing the history and development of the earliest Christian communities from this hypothetical source. In conducting research on the historical Jesus, Q is said to provide source material earlier and far more reliable than the canonical gospels. The generic features of the "sayings gospel" are providing a paradigm for understanding how the earliest Christians embraced the kerygma of Jesus and the disciples. The importance of these evaluations, and the significant role that Q plays in them, suggests the importance of improving our evaluations for how Q is relied upon as a source.

The difficulty with the current state of Q as a source in gospel studies is that we have little in the way of an established method for evaluation. When a reconstructed text of Q is used as source material in gospel studies in the same way that the gospel of Matthew or even the gospel of Thomas is used, how do we know that the process of reconstruction does not render such use of the resulting text questionable? When scholars refer to the frequency or absence of identifying phrases, or when we point to a structural feature of Q, are these summary evaluations possible given the nature of a reconstructed text? To answer the question, this project reconstructs Mark and uses it as a parallel paradigm for understanding just what we have (and don't have) when we work from a reconstructed text.

The proposal is to reconstruct the gospel of Mark based upon the evidence in Matthew and Luke in triple tradition pericopes. This represents a hypothetical, historical construct, that it was Q that survived instead of Mark. So then, the task at hand is to identify all the places where Matthew and Luke share material that they did not get from Q. This resulting reconstruction of Mark can then be compared with the canonical form of Mark. Assessing what is lost in the reconstruction, what is introduced, and what is changed in relation to canonical Mark, we can see what limits may also apply to the study and use of a reconstructed Q.

Book Meme

2008-11-12T21:07:00.002-06:00

Only God had the authority to forgive sins--not even the Messiah was ever credited with such authority in Jewish thought.

from Spirit & Gospel in Mark by M. Robert Mansfield.

Book Meme from James Tauber

Grab the nearest book.
Open it to page 56.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST."

New Jerusalem Mayor Reflects City's Schism : NPR

2008-11-12T16:51:00.000-06:00

Apparently, the New Jerusalem has arrived, and it's already chosen a mayor.
New Jerusalem Mayor Reflects City's Schism : NPR

IBM Lotus Symphony - Now with Mac OS X Support Available

2008-11-11T23:35:00.002-06:00

Enter another big player into the Macintosh Word Processor arena. Right now, it's just in beta, and has limited language support, but let's wait and see.

IBM Lotus Symphony - Buzz: Lotus Symphony Release 1.2 with Mac OS X Support Available: "Lotus Symphony Release 1.2 with Mac OS X Support Available

Lotus Symphony release 1.2 is now available and includes Beta support for the Mac OS X platform in English. I know many of you have been waiting for this new platform and hope you will take the time to try it out and give us your feedback. We expect to have a Generally Available version for Mac in all the languages we support in 1Q09.

In addition to the Mac OS support, we have added some new enhancements to our Data Pilot support in our spreadsheet tool and have made the Ubuntu platform Generally Available. We've also made some performance improvements. For all the details on what's included in this release take a look at the release notes."

Native OpenOffice Is Finally Here

2008-10-14T23:34:00.001-05:00

The continued progression of OpenOffice on the Mac platform is very exciting news for those who write and work on their Macs.

If you've not read previous comments on OpenOffice, it is the open source community initiative towards developing and improving an open platform software sweet that can replace the functionality of Micro$oft Office. I had been running NeoOffice, which provides a java wrapper to OpenOffice, allowing it to run well on newer Macs, but this new release of OpenOffice is in a fully Mac native version. I was excited about this when I first got the beta some time ago. Read here for some notes about the OpenOffice 3.0 Release and for download options.

OpenOffice is an excellent choice for some solutions. For instance, we have a Mac lab in our church... no need to buy Micro$oft Office for them all... we can now deploy OpenOffice at no cost. It opens many, many file formats, including the newest Office formats, so works great in an inter-office setting. You have nothing to lose in giving it a try... it's free!

Accordance Blog Search Engine

2008-10-11T19:48:00.010-05:00

The Accordance Blog has continued with steadfastness the posting of helpful subject matter on using this powerful bible software. It represents a wealth of information. With their website redesign, one side effect of other improvements made it more difficult to peruse blog posts. Here is a custom search engine to solve that problem:

The Accordance Blog Search Engine

(If there was demand, we could also release a search widget.)

Minor Agreement of the Day: οἱ

2008-09-16T00:15:00.002-05:00

Sometimes the smallest words catch your eye. As in the pericope of Jesus instructing the disciples to make ready for his entry into Jerusalem. Here's a verse with minor agreements in bold:

Matthew 21:6	Mark 11:4	Luke 19:32
πορευθέντες δὲ οἱ μαθηταὶ καὶ ποιήσαντες καθὼς συνέταξεν αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἰησοῦς ...	καὶ ἀπῆλθον καὶ εὗρον πῶλον δεδεμένον πρὸς θύραν ἔξω ἐπὶ τοῦ ἀμφόδου καὶ λύουσιν αὐτόν.	ἀπελθόντες δὲ οἱ ἀπεσταλμένοι εὗρον καθὼς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς.
And the disciples, going and doing just as Jesus had directed them, ...	And they went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street.	And going away the ones who were sent found it just as he had told them.

Oddly, it's οἱ that caught my eye. Luke on the whole is following Mark in this story, but the occassional dash of Lukan/Matthean agreement is interesting, particularly that both provide the substantive plural nominative article to match up with the participles in the opening structure. Am I really to believe that Luke and Matthew provided the article independently? Both have taken Mark's finite verbals and transformed them into participles. I mean Luke's first verb looks like: Mark's ἀπῆλθον + Matthew's πορευθέντες = Luke's ἀπελθόντες.

P.S. "of the day" does not necessarily mean every day.

Get Bookends and Mellel for $49

2008-08-27T22:08:00.001-05:00

If you do not have the word processor Mellel and the bib software Bookends, then this deal is sweet for you. MacUpdate has included these two must-have apps for bible scholars in the latest software bundle from MacUpdate.

Get them for $49 (along with some other apps for which I have no opinion, though if MacJournal gets included, that's good news).

Introducing Ubiquity: Quicksilver for Firefox?

2008-08-27T10:06:00.001-05:00

This inter(web)application utility now in beta called Ubiquity is a fascinating project. It's very similary to Quicksilver, in some respects, but it is a plug-in designed to work on Firefox (Mozilla browsers).

As it develops, it may present real possibilities for online research.

Audio Greek/Hebrew Flashcards for your iPod

2008-07-30T10:54:00.002-05:00

I came across this posting, "Create smart playlists in iTunes for audio flashcards", on MacOSXHints today. It has tremendous potential for users or instructors creating a audio exercises. With some careful preparation, you can have phonetic exercises, vocabulary, etc. and they can be listened to at the computer or on the go on your iPod. When I was involved in teaching the Greek program at Brite, each semester we'd make countless cassette tapes of the audio exercises we had recorded for students. This would be a very worthwhile project for a Greek or Hebrew (or theological German/French/Spanish, any language) instructor.

Have a look at the write-up to learn more.

Question: Can't you associate an image with a song? This would allow for visual feedback as well. Just a thought.

Entering Unicode Text and Symbols

2008-07-25T13:58:00.005-05:00

If you want to make entering Unicode text a natural part of your workflow on your Mac, whether it be Greek, Hebrew, or special symbols, it is best if you spend a couple minutes preparing your setup. You need to make the "International" preference pane and the Input Menu your friend. In OS X 10.5, you will find the "Input Menu" tab in the "International" system preference pane. Make sure you do six things in this pane:

Check "Show input menu in menu bar"
Check "Character Palette"
Check "Keyboard Viewer"
Scroll down and also enable only the few languages that you'll be using, such as "Hebrew - QWERTY" or "Greek Polytonic" or another Unicode keyboard you have installed.
Also check the "Unicode Hex Input" keyboard.
Finally, either simply note or even customize the two keyboard shortcuts listed that enable you to both toggle between the two most recent input keyboards and to cycle through all unicode keyboards listed in your input menu. For more information on customizing your shortcuts, have a look at this post on Juggling Keyboard Shortcuts.

All this preparation will put the Input Menu in your menu bar that will look something like this:

So, if I'm writing text where I occasionally need to switch to the Greek keyboard, all I do is select Greek from the menu the first time, and from then on out, I use my quick keyboard shortcut to toggle between the two. However, you have other options.

At any point, you can open the "Keyboard Viewer" to have a look at the keyboard layout you currently have selected. But what about the entering of some random letter or symbol in Unicode?

You can open the "Character Palette" from the input menu and search for the glyph. However, if you do a lot of this, then I'd highly recommend getting the great app Unicode Checker.

Also, if you know the Unicode hex number for the letter or symbol, you can switch to the "Unicode Hex Input" keyboard and then hold down the option (⌥) key while you press the numbers/letters for the character. If you're just typing in your default language otherwise, you can keep this specialized keyboard selected. This functionality will be familiar to Windoze users.
For instance, let's say you want to enter that symbol for option. Perhaps you're familiar with my listing of all keyboard symbols here. Then, since you know that the option symbol is hex #2325, with the "Unicode Hex Input" keyboard selected, you hold down the Option key and press "2325" and out pops the "⌥" symbol.

The final thing I'd add is if there are some special symbols you think you'll be wanting to enter with some frequency, you may want to create a text file or snippet so that you can quickly copy and paste them in. I have a text file called Unicode Dingbats Symbols where I collect all Unicode symbols of interest for quick reference. Or, you might use TextExpander or other text replacement utility to change "+command" into "⌘" and "+option" into "⌥" as you type. Or, like me, you may put some frequently used text like this string "⌘⌥⌃⇥␣⎋⇧⇪⏎⌤⌫⌦⌧⇭⏏⌽⇱⇲⇞⇟↑⇡↓⇣←⇠→⇢" on a shelf in Quicksilver that pastes into your document with a keystroke.

Just a few minutes of prep work will have you typing in Unicode with ease. Find the methods that work for you. (You know what they say about obtaining cat skins.)

Quicksilver's Back

2008-07-08T09:42:00.001-05:00

News from 43 Folders on Quicksilver development:

"Since going open source late last year, things have seemed pretty quiet in the world of our favorite app launcher, Quicksilver. Today, our pal, Tim Gaden of Hawk Wings, posts on the availability of a bug fix release of Quicksilver that’s come out in the last few weeks. He also points to a thread on the QS Google Group that suggests Quicksilver’s auteur and flippered mystery bot, A1c0r, is currently hard at work on a substantial rewrite: "Please note that this is only a bug fix version, the creator of Quicksilver (Alcor) is working on a complete re-write of the frameworks of Quicksilver and should hopefully release it soon ;)"

And there was much rejoicing.

deinde.org

2008-07-05T17:05:00.000-05:00

Danny Zacharias does IT support for his school. He posts what they've set up as the ideal classroom setup on deinde.org. When I did this thinking at the seminary, and as I do it now in the Mac lab at my church, the desktop setup was equally important as well. I'd encourage more of these posts from other IT folks, and screen shots as well as discussion about log-in setups, etc.

Introducing ISO 32000-1, er PDF's

2008-07-02T16:28:00.001-05:00

This is a welcome development on the standardization of the .pdf document format. PDFs have been the proprietary format of Adobe but a year ago Adobe finally released PDF's for international open access and standardization. The format has just been formalized as such. Let Adobe's process be a shining example over against the Mob-like manner in which Microsoft got its new OOXML format accepted into ISO.

I have previously touted the great capabilities Preview.app has for working with PDF's, and these tools will only improve with the PDF format becoming open.

One other PDF note is that Adobe has just released version 9 which I still can't imagine using in place of Preview.app. It does have the added feature of displaying embedded Flash which would be as useful to me as shoving bamboo shoots under my fingernails.

QuarkXPress 8 Supports OpenType/Unicode

2008-05-29T14:50:00.000-05:00

The support for Unicode and OpenType in QuarkXPress 8 represents a vast improvement in typography, and I'm hoping represents one more step towards publishers embracing Unicode standards for language font/glyph requirements.

Accordance 8.0 Is Here With More Powerful Searches

2008-05-26T13:38:00.007-05:00

Accordance 8.0 is here. It looks like our old Accordance in most ways, but there have been many changes under the hood. I'm most thrilled to now have a Universal Binary that runs with less system resource on Intel Macs. Other fantastic features are:

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.

All in all, there's much here to make many happy. Do yourself a favor and check out the video demoing the new search capabilities.

Way to go, Accordance!

Accordance 8.0 Release Soon

2008-05-23T10:46:00.006-05:00

The Accordance Blog today revealed (see "Soon, Very Soon") that they plan to release the newly rebuilt version of Accordance Bible Software in less than a month. The major feature made public is that the underpinnings of Accordance have been rewritten to run as a Universal Binary. Hallelujah! With this kind of rewrite, and with a new "point oh" release from Oak Tree, we have historical reasons to expect some serious new features.

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:

VBA Coming to Microsoft Office 2012

2008-05-13T02:28:00.001-05:00

According the the Mac Business Unit at Micro$oft, they have seen the error of their ways and determined to reintegrate Visual Basic for Applications scripting back into the next major release of Office. If only they would've consulted me to start with... VBA was a cross platform feature that allowed for advanced forms, and also tremendous customization. It was sacrificed in Office 2008 to speed up the release date.

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.

b-b-beta fever

2008-05-12T17:42:00.003-05:00

I bought VMWare Fusion last December to load on my office computer (since our church management software is Windoze only). I've only just gotten around to installing, prompted by WMWare's release of the new beta 2.0. I installed via Bootcamp first, and the first time I saw that "Windows XP" load screen on my beautiful MacBook, I confess I had a little gag reflex. Still, everything worked perfectly... I booted into Windows, played one round of solitaire (which is all I ever see people using Windows for), and then installed Fusion. This application allows me to run Windows apps I must have right alongside my Mac apps.

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

2008-05-12T10:55:00.000-05:00

I have been recommending to others for some time that they consider NeoOffice as a free/open-source replacement for Micro$oft Office. NeoOffice is a port of OpenOffice, which needed the Unix X11 interface wrapper to run on OS X. (Translation: it ran slow and didn't look Mac-like and was complicated to run since it relied on the Unix under-pinnings of your Mac.)

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.

Text Critic Sound Bites

2008-05-11T16:36:00.002-05:00

The Greer-Heard Point-Counterpoint Forum was host to to text critics addressing questions around whether or not the text of the New Testament was reliable. The brief coverage articles are a great example of sound-bite-quotey, so I thought I might take some of the quotes even further out of context:

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 Wallace

And 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 Ehrman

Well, 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 Holmes

But 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 Martin

True. 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 Parker

He 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 Warren

Yahoooooo!

Twitter Tweets Screensaver

2008-05-10T12:28:00.002-05:00

I have used Twitter only briefly. It logged progress on one aspect of my dissertation... the progress through a text reconstruction. I am not a regular Twitter user, though I like the idea of scholars doing brief work updates on Twitter.

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.

Unicode Now Most Common Text Format

2008-05-07T22:54:00.000-05:00

Unicode is now the most common text encoding for pages found on the web. (Google made the report recently on their blog.) Let many note that this evidences that the writing is now on the wall, perhaps in a room that's already been remodeled without you're realizing it:

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.

The Search for the Right Mac Setup in the Office

2008-04-26T09:44:00.002-05:00

I'll be moving into a new office this summer, and it already has me thinking about the new desk and how I want to setup my MacBook on the desk. Using a laptop as your main desktop as well complicates matters.
Things I know:

The MacBook will be the computer
I'll place an external display as well (19" probably)
I want an external keyboard and mouse involved in ergonomic locations
My phone cradle is a must
I want to minimize plugins, so I'll have a USB hub cable, an ethernet cable, a power cable all in place.

A first question is whether I want the MacBook display below and in front of the external, or do I want it lifted up on an elevator.

I find it helpful to look at Mac desk setups for ideas. A printer-cartridge company pointed me to their recent photo gallery of Mac setups: 25 of the Best Home & Office Mac Setups.

A great way to get ideas is to scan some of the many Flickr photo pools.

The Impact of the Printing Press on Biblical Theology

2008-04-23T14:15:00.002-05:00

I do hope in time to publish some of my formulated work on the issue of how human technological advance has (arbitrarily) altered the church's biblical theology. The invention of the codex (bound book) allowed for an eventual new approach to how one understands the canon as a single book.

I cherish the time I've spent researching in Wolfenbüttel where I spent significant time with the 1516 Erasmus text--the first ever printed Greek New Testament. Until the invention of the printing press, there had never been in existence two copies of a biblical book that were identical. The invention was a catalyst for a theological approach to the nature of biblical inspiration that could not exist previously.

The occasion of these reflections is the enjoying of Stephen Fry's documentary on the Gutenberg Press, now fully available online. You may enjoy it.

On the Subjunctive…

2008-04-16T15:51:00.000-05:00

It is definitely the case that the world needs more blog posts that focus on one mood. Greek/Hebrew instructor ought to enjoy this posting... and it makes for good information for any of you with Greek students needing clarity about their English subjunctive use.

Were I to seek examples of the subjunctive…

HT: Daring Fireball

Convert Unicode Greek to Helena Font

2008-04-11T21:01:00.003-05:00

I am making available a Unicode to Legacy Font conversion routine I wrote last year.

This utility culls through characters of text on the clipboard and then converts any Unicode characters that fall within the Helena font characters into their Helena font equivalencies.

This has at least two uses.

1. If you use Helena in your text document, you can easily include Greek that you are pulling from another source, even if it is in Unicode characters.

2. If you encounter some Unicode Greek text, such as on a web page, you can copy it to the clipboard and then convert it to Helena encoding, suitable for pasting into the search box of Accordance Bible software.

You can download the font conversion utility here.

I want to captures my notes/todos everywhere: Evernote Possibly?

2008-04-11T16:27:00.001-05:00

There have been several note taking/capture applications in the last couple years that work towards complete sync between portable device, desktop application, web interface. This is what I want. And, I applaud the continued trend towards thinking this way. I want to be able to increasingly thing in terms of my capture and sorting of info/todos/etc in my notes, and then I can access those notes in whatever context I'm in. Evernote is another addition and advancement in this direction.

Instant warm, fuzziness from NeoOffice

2008-04-09T01:14:00.003-05:00

If you have not purchased Word 08 for Mac, do yourself a huge favor and have a look at NeoOffice, now in version 2.2.3. We are now buying Macs at our church with no worries about extra expenses for Office products. I'm simply deploying NeoOffice. It moved me to make a donation today, and not only did I feel good about supporting the project, but received such a sweet autoreply:

Thank you for your donation to NeoOffice. As a result of generous contributions from people like yourself, we are able to fund many of the operating expenses that are required to keep the NeoOffice project running. Your contributions will be used to help us to continue providing valuable services to the NeoOffice community such as free downloads, frequent releases, bug fixing, and support and testing forums.

Have I mentioned that I think NeoOffice is a very good solution? The toolbar icons are a little clunky for me, but the functionality here is just great, will get greater.

Annotate PDF's and More with Preview

2008-04-02T09:31:00.000-05:00

So, your student or colleague has sent you a paper in PDF form and wants your comments. This used to be a pain, for you couldn't write/scribble/cross out on the file, but passed notes back in another form (unless you had invested in 3rd party options, some very expensive). Well, with Leopard, the Preview.app has become supercharged, allowing you to work wonders with pdfs, including adding pages, highlights, notes, and markings, that you can then send back to someone else who can view the comments, even if they're using Acrobat Reader on Windows. Have a look at this recent survey of fantastic new features of Preview in Mac OSX 10.5. Complete list of new and helpful features:

Annotage PDFs
Delete & Rearrange Pages
Merge PDFs
Crop & Resize Images
Mask (delete background) Images
Adjust Image Color
Print Multiple Images per Page
Add Keywords to Images & PDFs

Apple Releases King David Garage Band Loops from the Psalms

2008-04-01T00:08:00.004-05:00

Selah

Free download only available today: Here's the link

Best Web Browser for your Online Work

2008-03-31T10:53:00.002-05:00

I have been using Safari for quite awhile. I have Firefox installed for those web pages that seem to require it. I am interested in the little cottage industry of web browsers still out there, some of them very powerful. I'm not sure any are a clear choice for pastors/scholars... Firefox has so many plug-in options, there is great potential there. Macworld just released a very good survey of the Mac browser landscape called "The Browser Bunch". It includes sections on: Comparison charts

Interface summaries

Rendering Engines

Web standards compliance

Plug-ins

Forms/passwords

Privacy/security

and suggestions on finding the right browser for you (pay or free)

It's a very well done article. It does conclude that for most folks, Safari is the best choice, with Firefox also with merits. (It seems I had gotten it right even before reading the article.)

Update: Or you can go old school.

B-Greek Search Bookmarklet

2008-03-23T23:48:00.009-05:00

I previously made available a Dashboard Widget to facilitate searching the rich archives of the Biblical Greek Email Listserv. For the sake of my PC-using fellow Hellenes, here is what I think could be an even better way of searching the archives--a bookmarklet.

By dragging the bookmarklet into the bookmark bar of your browser, you can click on it to quickly jump to a custom B-Greek search page. However, it includes the additional features:

If you first highlight a search string in the current browser window, it will search for that string in the B-Greek archives.
It returns results from the newer and older archives (pre- and post-1998)

To use the bookmarklet, just drag this link into the bookmark bar on your browser:

B-Greek Search

Have a look at a results page: You can see the "B-Greek Search" item on the bookmark bar. See how, for instance, I could be viewing the results of my previous search shown in the image above, and becoming interested in TON KOSMON--well, I can then highlight the term and click the bookmarklet to search once more.

As for Bookmarklets: This little project has got me thinking what other web resources we use in scholarly/biblical work would be handy to be able to search by highlighting text in a web browser window followed by a single click. Perhaps someone may have suggestions.

Οὐκ ἔστιν ὧδε

2008-03-23T16:41:00.001-05:00

ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ ὁ ἄγγελος εἶπεν ταῖς γυναιξίν· μὴ φοβεῖσθε ὑμεῖς, οἶδα γὰρ ὅτι Ἰησοῦν τὸν ἐσταυρωμένον ζητεῖτε· 6 οὐκ ἔστιν ὧδε, ἠγέρθη γὰρ καθὼς εἶπεν.

Happy Easter!

German Dictionary Plugins

2008-03-17T01:23:00.001-05:00

Here are some German Dictionary Plugins to add German words to Dictionary.app in OS X 10.5 or later.

See this blog post for more.

Welcome to the Church of Mac!

2008-03-07T18:15:00.002-06:00

Mac genius Tony Edwards has taken his speaking enterprise and general Mac evangelism to a Stephen Colbertish place by creating the persona of a charismatic leader of the Church of Mac. I'm left trying to decide whether this is cute, funny, clever and/or sacrilegious.

I think I'm leaning towards sacrilegious. :)

Mac Apps for Getting Your Work Done

2008-03-06T11:58:00.000-06:00

I am still an agnostic with reference to my office productivity methods. I switch back and forth, at times meandering lost in the wilderness. I move from post-its to notebooks to on screen solutions including iGTD, iCal and/or plain text files (though a constant there is that Quicksilver always plays some role). One could waste alot of time figuring out how they'd like to manage their time.

I did find helpful this article on 5 Amazing Mac Apps for Getting Things Done (from Zen Habits).

"The ideal for anyone interested in Getting Things Done (more on GTD, and more)– or just being productive and organized, for that matter — is to be able to quickly add things to your to-do lists without interrupting your work; to be able to see what you need to do right now, without worrying about everything else; to be able to organize stuff without too much work."

Do share in the comments any tips, methods, utilities you use. The choices really are legion.

B-Greek Search Widget

2008-03-05T02:03:00.005-06:00

Carl Conrad mentioned to me the ongoing woes of searching the B-Greek archives. For those who don't know, the Biblical Greek email listserv has been active for years. It has been a place to discuss matters regarding learning, teaching and exploring Biblical Greek. The archives contain a treasure in and of themselves, but the listserv doesn't provide easy searching capability. So, I wrote this little Dashboard Widget for Mac users (10.4 and up) to have easy access to searching the web archives. You may download the B-Greek Search Widget here.

Additional info: Carl Conrad has offered this helpful tip on searching the archives:

I simply put the BG transliteration ARKETON into the search box and immediately my browser went to the relevant posts in the current archives...
I would note that, although you can search for scripture citations (e.g. Matthew 6:34), there's such variety of citation modes (Mt 6:34, Mt. 6:34, Mt 6.34, Mt. 6.34, Matt. 6:34, ..., Matthew 6:34 ...) that no particular mode chosen is likely to hit on every item in the archives that deals with the text in question. I have found that a search that uses the standard B-Greek transliteration of a key word or phrase in the passage you're looking for makes a more serviceable search term for getting most of what's useful in the archives.

See another search option in this later post.

File sharing in Leopard

2008-02-25T21:10:00.000-06:00

This Macworld article on File sharing in Leopard is very helpful in explaining the new possibilities with OS X 10.5 Leopard regarding having a folder on your mac that you'd like colleagues to have access to. Apple has dramatically improved the tools you use to share all kinds of resources from your Mac across local networks and the Internet. And some of the biggest—and handiest—of these improvements are in the ways Leopard lets you share files, folders, and volumes.

Apple Data Detectors Are So Useful

2008-02-12T15:07:00.001-06:00

When hearing about the new features that Leopard OS X 10.5 were bringing, I was thrilled to see Apple Data Detectors on the list. Back in the OS 8.5 days, these were system-wide and you could customize your own data detection schemes. I wrote a set of ADD's that recognized scripture citations that would then look them up in Accordance. I can only hope that the possibility to add custom data detectors will be forthcoming. To date, you can only use Apple Data Detectors for calendar and contact information and they only work in Mail.app and iChat. Hopefully, that, too, will change soon.

Let me demonstrate to you how smart and how useful this technology is. I get lots of emails from my university and from church manifestations announcing info for meetings and events. Consider this email from my church regional office regarding a Men's retreat: If I hover of the date information with the pointer, it is highlighted with an outline to show that the technology is detecting an event description. If I click on the little drop down menu, I see an option for adding this event to iCal: After selecting it, the event is added to iCal, and look how smartly it deciphered the data. It even picked up on the fact that the following church name and address was the location for the event and added it as well: How quick was that? Notice the event event includes a link back to the original email for later reference. Wow. Thank you. Amen.

Update: If you won't ever be using ADD as they are and find the auto text highlighting annoying, you can disable the Data Detectors. In Terminal, us the command:
defaults write com.apple.mail DisableDataDetectors YES

Tauber's Graded Greek Reader Ideas

2008-02-10T22:37:00.000-06:00

This just shows one example of why I've appreciated James' mind for some time now. He has put together a presentation on his thoughts regarding a new kind of Graded Reader that have interested me for some time--one created programmatically based upon the students current vocabulary/grammar progress.

I am no longer teaching Greek, but have long thought that whenever I'm at it again, I will start with inductive reading from the start, but still move through paradigms from the beginning as well. The major shift though, will be that the inductive work through a graded reader is primary, and the paradigm work is secondary. I might vary from James' proposition in that I would not encourage waiting until very long before a critical mass of forms are encountered before abstracting that paradigm, though they can be introduced strategically.

It is very hard for me to still not desire to combine this clause approach with a simplified pseudo-scripture corpus at the beginning--allowing for greater control of when students encounter certain forms/vocabulary.

Don't miss James Tauber's further explanation in the comments section. And if you are ever interested in teaching Greek and still haven't watched the video presentation, remedy that now.