Librivox expands their audio book catalog

The acoustical liberation of books in the public domain continues with the bulk release LibriVox made at the end of March. For those of you who don't know about it, LibriVox is an initiative to coordinate volunteers to record audio versions of public domain texts. The size of the catalog is now very impressive. This is a great way to fill your mp3 player with worthwhile texts to listen to on commutes and such.

With Aesop, Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, H.G. Wells, and Sophie Jewett, there's surely something for all.

Have a look at their catalog.

Accordance Bible software sale for April

If you're actually interested in real Bible software, do note that Oak Tree has some great discounts and bundles on sale for the month of April:

• Accordance Library 7 -- the starting point for English studies:
  
  
  • Introductory Level ($79)....sale $69
    
  • Standard Level ($179)....sale $159
    
  • Premier Level ($279)....sale $249
    
  • Upgrades from Library 7 Intro to Standard, or from Standard to Premier ($100)....sale $90
    
  
  
• Three bundles with great savings:
  
  
  
  • Graphics Bundle -- combines the popular Atlas version 2, Photoguide version 2, and Timeline ($197)....sale $149
    Enter coupon code Atlas-up to get $20 OFF the bundle price if you already own the Atlas version 1.
    
  • NIDNTT/NIDOTTE Bundle supersaver just $149 includes New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis ($109 and $129)....sale $99 each
    
  • Bonus Bible Bundle 4 Bibles for our lowest ever price ($120)....sale $80
    
  
  
• Valuable add-on CD-ROMs:
  
  
  
  • Anchor Bible Dictionary ($360)....sale $199
    
  • Biblical Archaeology Review Archive ($125)....sale $99
    
  • Essential IVP Reference Collection ($180)....sale $119
    
  • New International Greek Testament Commentary 13 volumes in one ($499)....sale $399
    
  • Thompson Chain-Reference Bible ($49)....sale $44
    
  
  
• Also check out this opportunity:
  
  
  
  • Theological Journal Library volumes 1-5 $99 for a limited time only. The publisher has decided to raise the price to $199 when the CD-ROM is remastered next month with version 7. While we still have the old stock, we will keep the price at $99.

This sale ends on April 30th, so be sure to take advantage of our customer appreciation sale, and don't forget to tell your friends that now is the best time to get started with Accordance Bible Software!

Note: These prices may be combined with our educational or ministry discounts.

Me thinks I'll be buying.

Conformance: The Only Bible Software You Need

Yes, version 4.1 of the application debuted on 4/1 for a reason. As always, the April 1 post receives a large increase in stat activity. The application is good for a chuckle, so it's still available as a Universal Binary if you're inclined to take it out for a spin. Cheers.

As some of my closest friends have known for months, I have been developing my own bible software package. I feel that in the mix of all the bible software wars, the true essentials of the text and the truths that define its interpretation are getting lost. It is with this motivation that I decided to create a new bible software application for the Macintosh... "Conformance". Conformance cuts through all the bells and whistles and takes one straight to the only text(s) you need to know. It runs on OS X 10.2+ and runs as native Intel universal binary and is Applescriptable. The features are limited for now, but growing.

The beta version has reached b4.1 and it's time to open it up to public testing. It's free, so you have nothing to lose. Give it a try and tell me what you think.

The universal binary of Conformance Bible Software is now available here.

Automator Action for Accordance

If you are familiar with Automator, and if you use it at all, you may be interested in this Automator Action I wrote in XCode to work with Accordance. It receives a text string scripture citation and returns the full scripture text to the next item in the workflow. If you are interested in more information on Automator, start with Apple's site. This will appeal to a limited segment, I know, but for those numbers it will be a welcome tool.
You may get the file here.

NeoOffice a great, free Microsoft Office Replacement

I confess it; I've been using Microsoft Word since 1991. I've been cheering on it's replacements. I've bought Mellel, tried out Nisus, and I've especially kept up with Open Source projects, for there is where I've thought the biggest hope lay. But I confess I've never installed Open Office or any of its derivatives. However, we're putting in a computer lab of all iMacs at our church and so have been exploring Open Source solutions for our application needs. And with NeoOffice having a new version this week, I've downloaded it, installed it, and played with it. And I think I may never buy Microsoft Word again.

NeoOffice is a very good, and free open source collection of office applications. It includes word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database components. It is the Mac OS X native aqua port of Open Office, and the new version 2.1 is now freely available. It works entirely with Word's .doc format and the new .docx XML format of Word 2007. It includes VBA macro support, so can use those Word Excell macros that the upcoming version of Micro$oft's Mac Office 2008 will lose. Hopefully, support for Writer VBA macros will follow. NeoOffice is completely user-ready. It installs as any commercial app, has a great help system, includes document wizards and templates, runs native on Intel or PPC and has Hebrew right-to-left Unicode support. I think the word-completion system is quite clever.

I'm telling you, I had no idea how well this Office suite had progressed. Here is a Feature Comparison from their web page.

It's not perfect. It has a large RAM requirement, no applescript support and Quicksilver can't grab text selections from it's window, but the VBA support will allow for workarounds for the spreadsheet at least. It may lack some advanced features one may need for book writing... though it contains Indexing functions, Table of Contents, Cross References and more.

Did I mention that this gem is free?

I would say, install it and give it a try, even if you don't need it. It will open your eyes to the incredible possibilities in community-based Open Source model of software development.

Oh, and NeoOffice is a web page creator, including this post.