Tommy

 

As a registered nerd I am frequently asked about laptop brands. You can find an excellent overview of the strengths and weakness of the various major manufacturers here.

I would change two ratings. (1) They gave Lenovo a B, but I would give them an A-. They make a good and sturdy laptop and have excellent customer support. The IdeaPads (particularly the Y line) are particularly nice. (2) They gave Sony an A, which I would lower to a B-. If you want an expensive laptop get one of the other A rated brands–Sony does not offer anything these other brands don’t and they have terrible customer support (in my experience).

Bottom line for me: if you want a premium but reasonably priced PC, go Lenovo or Asus. If you’re going cheap try an Acer or an on-sale HP. And shop at newegg.com

 

Google translate now offers Latin translations. Church historians rejoice!

Via: New York Times

 

Here’s a handy trick when you want to look up some bible verses in a snap.

For those who don’t know, Google’s Chrome Browser allows you to search popular sites straight from the address bar. Many sites provide search functionality by default, and Chrome automatically adds those sites to its database. But any site that is searchable can be added to Google Chrome. Here’s how to do it for the ESV Bible online.

  • First, go to the ESV website here.
  • Right click on Chrome’s address bar and then click on “Edit Search Engines…”
  • This will bring to a new dialog box. Click “Add…”

  • This will bring up yet another box, with three text boxes. For “Name” type something like “ESV Bible.” For “Shortcut” type in something short and memorable, like “b” or “esv” or “bible.” Then the real magic, for the “URL” box copy and paste the following text:

http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=%s

  • Click “OK” and you’re ready to go.
  • Now try it out. Open up a new tab and click on the URL bar. Type the keyword you entered in the previous step and then press “TAB.” Now type in what you want to search. The result should be like the picture below. Pressing return will load up the ESV Bible webpage with the results of your search.

  • For Firefox: You can do the same in Firefox, but the process is slightly simpler. Just go to the ESV website here. Then in your search box click on the left hand side drop-down arrow. You will see a list of search options, at the bottom of which will be “Add ESV Bible.” Click on that and it will be added. You can now search the esv by selecting it in the search bar. To search from the URL bar you need to set a shortcut. Click on the search engine dropdown, then “Manage Search Engines,”  then select “ESV Bible,” then “Edit Keyword,” and set that to your keyword of choice. Now type the keyword in the address bar, then your search, then return. Easy!
  • If you’re interested in this sort of thing, check out my posts on adding the Westminster Bookstore and Westminster Library to your search bar.
 

Zotero’s previously announced plans to move Zotero out of Firefox and into, well, everything is getting closer to realization. It’s a major push to make Zotero available everywhere, and to allow you to integrate your libraries and research with all sorts of different platforms and interfaces (IE, Firefox, Chrome, mobile, etc.) through a set of APIs.

I could go on an on about how great this is, but there’s no need, as David Stark has already done all the heavy lifting. He beats me to the punch every time! You can find the official announcement here, and a full and very helpful run down at ReadWriteWeb here.

 

David Stark at New Testament Interpretation reports on the (still beta) roll-out of Biblia.com, an excellent web resource for Biblical Studies. Check out the full report here, or if you’d just like to see the goods, check that out here.

 

WTS Books currently has a super sale on all NICOT commentaries. The sale is running until August 19th, so be sure to check it out!

 

The folks at Crossway have produced a really phenomenal application for iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches. The iPad version is especially handy, with an interface perfectly fit for its widescreen. The app is currently on a promotional sale ($9.99), so check it out on iTunes.

Via: What’s Best Next

 

In Need of a Refresh

No, Nerdlets is not dead. It’s just been on sabbatical. But now that I have graduated (so now it’s Dr. Nerdlet), I should have more time to regularly update this blog. Here’s what to expect in the future.

  1. Faster and better. Some plugins were slowing things down, and those have been removed or replaced. I have also upgraded to WordPress 3.0.
  2. Cleaner. Nerdlets is in desperate need of a visual refresh. The green theme is gone for now. I have not yet settled on final theme, but I am prioritizing speed and usability.
  3. More frequent updates. Updates will be shorter but more frequent. There is a lot of good work being done by others on using technology for the Church and the Seminary, and so I will try to be a more faithful linker. I hope to also continue posting guides and original content.
  4. Leaner. This blog is designed to help church leaders and academics harness the power of technology as they shepherd their flocks and teach their students. I will do my absolute best not to get sidetracked from those goals.
  5. Easier. In order the further discussion I have removed everything that might require a separate login. Comments are handled by IntenseDebate, which means if you are on twitter, facebook, or gmail, you should be ready to role. And if you’re not, you can still comment. No subscribing necessary. Hopefully this will also cut down on spam.

Suggestions, as always, are welcome! Post ideas? Send them this way. Tech questions? I’ll do my best!

 

The always interesting Phil Gons has a wonderful guide to blogging in Greek and Hebrew. You can find that here.

Looks like he is prioritizing Gentium as a Greek font, which is also my font of choice. And if you don’t know how to type in (Unicode) Greek and Hebrew, make sure you check out this post.

 

Do you use Zotero? Do you wish that your folder collections showed all the items in their various subfolders? I do. And there is a hidden setting in Zotero to allow you to change the behavior.

Here’s the official explanation:

By default, each of your collections displays only the items you have placed there. When you place a collection inside another collection, the contents of the second collection are not added to the first. If you enable recursive collections, items from subcollections will appear in all higher-level collections.

To change this behavior, type the following into your Firefox URL bar:

about:config

Be careful when you are on this special page. Firefox stores all of its settings here, and you can really mess things up if you go poking around without knowing what you are doing.

In the “filter” bar at the top of the page type:

zotero.recursive

You should see a line pop up that says:

extensions.zotero.recursiveCollections

Set the “value” of this setting to “true,” which you can do by double-clicking the line.

Now your folders are recursive! You can find other “hidden” settings, and what they do, here.

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