Computing | Nerdlets

Google Releases eBookstore

Books, Computing, Research Tools, Webapps and Websites No Responses »

Dec 062010

Google just officially announced and released their competitor to iBooks and the Kindle platform. You can check out the announcement and details here and the actual store here.

There are four things I like about this, even though I have a growing collection of Kindle books. First, it encourages competition and development. Second, Google includes a web-based reader, which means I don’t need any kind of device other than a computer to read my books. Third, finding free (open-domain) books is much easier with Google than with the Kindle. Finally, I love that all the open-domain books that Google has been scanning over the years (such as random volumes of the Patrolagiae Graeca Hodge’s Systematic Theology) are all freely readable on any device that Google Books runs on (which is, like, all of them).

And Apple’s iBooks might as well be dead to me, since it only runs on one device. It’s the prettiest and easiest, but also the least accessible.

Your opinions?

Google Releases eBookstore

Books, Computing, Research Tools, Webapps and Websites No Responses »

Dec 062010

Google just officially announced and released their competitor to iBooks and the Kindle platform. You can check out the announcement and details here and the actual store here.

And Apple’s iBooks might as well be dead to me, since it only runs on one device. It’s the prettiest and easiest, but also the least accessible.

Your opinions?

Google Releases eBookstore

Books, Computing, Research Tools, Webapps and Websites No Responses »

Dec 062010

Google just officially announced and released their competitor to iBooks and the Kindle platform. You can check out the announcement and details here and the actual store here.

And Apple’s iBooks might as well be dead to me, since it only runs on one device. It’s the prettiest and easiest, but also the least accessible.

Your opinions?

The SBL Greek New Testament is Ready to Download

Biblical Greek, Christianity, Computing, Research Tools 3 Responses »

Oct 282010

That didn’t take long. The aforementioned new critical Greek New Testament has now been published in a variety of formats. You can start downloading here.

Here’s the really cool bit. Because they are providing the text in plain text, as well as other formats like PDF and XML, people have the freedom to play around with this stuff. What does that mean? It means you are not limited to Logos software (though that is available, and they have promised a free download for Logos on the iPhone). You can, for example, load a PDF onto Apple’s iBooks, and I’m sure a Kindle version is just around the corner.

And, within a couple of hours, Michael Hanel has already got a working copy running in Bibleworks, so grab that here.

For those who want to play around with the text for further distribution, you can find the license terms here. They are pretty lenient.

This is awesome stuff!

The SBL Greek New Testament is Ready to Download

Biblical Greek, Christianity, Computing, Research Tools 3 Responses »

Oct 282010

That didn’t take long. The aforementioned new critical Greek New Testament has now been published in a variety of formats. You can start downloading here.

And, within a couple of hours, Michael Hanel has already got a working copy running in Bibleworks, so grab that here.

For those who want to play around with the text for further distribution, you can find the license terms here. They are pretty lenient.

This is awesome stuff!

New Digital Freely Available Greek NT in the Works

Biblical Greek, Christianity, Computing, Research Tools 1 Response »

Oct 282010

Yes you read that right. And if you are a regular follower of Nerdlets you can appreciate why this is significant. Up to this point there are no up-to-date critical editions of the Greek NT that are digital, freely available, and web/font friendly.

The announcement comes from Mike Holmes, the editor of this GNT, at Evangelical Textual Criticism. The text is being produced in partnership with Logos Bible Software and the Society of Biblical Literature. The details are available here.

Some highlights:

Free
Digital and Print Editions will be available
Unicode (this is important. For an introduction to Unicode, and why it is important in biblical studies, see here.)
Semi-open, liberal licensing? You be the judge. I am basing that on this paragraph: “In addition to granting professors and students permission to use the SBLGNT freely in their writings, the End-User License Agreement encourages the development of new electronic and print products based on the SBLGNT through a liberal permission and licensing policy.” That seems to follow the same pattern as other SBL rescources, like there fonts, which are freely distributed, and which users are allowed to modify and distribute as they desire. It would be helpful to get clarity on this, though. Perhaps one of the Creative Commons licenses should be selected for it? This one seems appropriate.

In short, this is all kinds of awesome. Thanks to Mike, SBL, and Logos!

New Digital Freely Available Greek NT in the Works

Biblical Greek, Christianity, Computing, Research Tools 1 Response »

Oct 282010

Some highlights:

Free
Digital and Print Editions will be available
Unicode (this is important. For an introduction to Unicode, and why it is important in biblical studies, see here.)
Semi-open, liberal licensing? You be the judge. I am basing that on this paragraph: “In addition to granting professors and students permission to use the SBLGNT freely in their writings, the End-User License Agreement encourages the development of new electronic and print products based on the SBLGNT through a liberal permission and licensing policy.” That seems to follow the same pattern as other SBL rescources, like there fonts, which are freely distributed, and which users are allowed to modify and distribute as they desire. It would be helpful to get clarity on this, though. Perhaps one of the Creative Commons licenses should be selected for it? This one seems appropriate.

In short, this is all kinds of awesome. Thanks to Mike, SBL, and Logos!

Google Helps Digitize the Dead Sea Scrolls

Bible and Hermeneutics, Christianity, Computing, Research Tools 3 Responses »

Oct 202010

Google has teamed up with The Israel Antiquities Authority in a project to bring the Dead Sea Scrolls into the digital age. From the Washington Post:

The Israel Antiquities Authority and Google announced Tuesday that they are collaborating to produce digitized images of the entire collection of the Dead Sea Scrolls and put them on the Internet, making the archaeological treasure available to anyone with the click of a mouse.

Anyone familiar with the Dead Sea Scrolls knows that getting access to the information they contain is cumbersome at best, and this promises to finally end that difficulty. Read the whole article for more information and really cool pictures.

HT: Evangelical Textual Criticism

Google Helps Digitize the Dead Sea Scrolls

Bible and Hermeneutics, Christianity, Computing, Research Tools 3 Responses »

Oct 202010

Google has teamed up with The Israel Antiquities Authority in a project to bring the Dead Sea Scrolls into the digital age. From the Washington Post:

The Israel Antiquities Authority and Google announced Tuesday that they are collaborating to produce digitized images of the entire collection of the Dead Sea Scrolls and put them on the Internet, making the archaeological treasure available to anyone with the click of a mouse.

HT: Evangelical Textual Criticism

Zotero and your Personal Library

Computing, How to, Research Tools No Responses »

Oct 192010

Andy Naselli has an excellent and thorough post on using Zotero to organize your personal library. As a follow up for those interested in using Zotero in biblical studies, check out my guide here.