Nerdlets » Webapps and Websites

Google Releases eBookstore

Tommy — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 16:09:44 +0000

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?

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Google Translate Learns Latin

Tommy — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 14:20:05 +0000

Google translate now offers Latin translations. Church historians rejoice!

Via: New York Times

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How To Search the ESV Bible from Google Chrome’s Address Bar

Tommy — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 13:50:23 +0000

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.

Logos Rolls out Biblia.com, with Desktop Integration

Tommy — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 14:21:30 +0000

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.

Using Greek and Hebrew on your Web Site

Tommy — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 15:27:03 +0000

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.

Getting Things Done (In Prayer)

Tommy — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:33:21 +0000

Now that I am (interim) pastoring at Christ the King PCA I find that I am spending a lot more time in prayer. I also find it difficult to keep track of all that I am praying for, and for how those the situations were resolved.

I started with a pen and paper prayer journal, but I have found that I never have it when I need it, and since I tend to lose things I worry that it might fall into the “wrong hands” if I try to carry it everywhere. So I am now experimenting with a new system. I am treating prayer like I treat other parts of my life—prayer is something that I need to prepare for, that I need to keep track of, and most importantly, that I need to do. It is a (blessed, glorious, holy) task. So, like other tasks, I have begun putting prayer requests into my Remember The Milk (RTM) list. (For an introduction to using RTM for Getting Things Done (GTD), see this.)

: Image via CrunchBase

I have a “Pastoring” list where all prayers get added (along with other churchy things). All prayer requests get tagged with the “@prayer” context tag (I use the @ in RTM to create contexts; if you’re familiar with Getting Things Done that probably makes sense to you, if not try here). If the prayer is about a person, I stick their phone number in a note, and if they have a tag in my system (my wife gets a tag, and so do co-workers and other people I interact with regularly) that tag gets added as well. I also add the date of the prayer request to the note. If the prayer has an expected end date (“pray that my stressful event Friday goes well”) I give it a due date, if it is more open-ended I don’t. I use the notes feature of RTM to keep track of how it all develops. When the prayer is answered, I “complete” the prayer, but I can still go back to it later because RTM will let you see completed tasks—all your answered prayers.

This system is secure (RTM’s servers are super encrypted, and my passwords are super weird and long), it is available to me anywhere (I love my new phone!), and it works almost exactly like most prayer-journaling systems I hear about. The biggest downside is… well, it feels weird. Prayer is such a sacred thing, and pen-and-paper seems more personal/appropriate/holy.But is pen and paper more sacred than bits and pixels?

I have talked to a couple of pastor friends regarding this but have yet to find a system that works for me. Does anyone have any suggestions, pen-and-paper or otherwise? Is there anyone out there who uses technology to keep track of their prayer life? Anyone think that sounds, for lack of a better word, weird? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

A Social Site for Academics

Tommy — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:42:24 +0000

: Image via CrunchBase

Everyone who’s anyone is familiar with Facebook, and most people probably know about other social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter. Well if your in the academy you can add yet another social network to your list: Academia.edu.

Similar to LinkedIn, Academia.edu allows users to establish networks of contacts specializing in their field. You can fill in your credentials, upload papers, add information about the rest of your department (which might be problematic…), and a whole host of other thinks.

The site looks pretty slick, though I noticed a good deal of sluggishness and some less-than-attractive interface problems (text going off-screen, etc). There also seemed to be some privacy bugs to work through. For example, the front page of the site shows you a structural tree of a variety of Universities. It appears that you can add your name anywhere you like, provided you have an email address from that University. That could be problematic as the information included is now not only about you, but also about the University in question. How does the site verify the information entered? Or is that the responsibility of the University? That’s not so much of a problem for LinkedIn–your lies stay on your page–but for something like this fact-checking seems to be more necessary. Since I could not find answers to those questions on the site, I thought it best to refrain from taking part. Perhaps more information will be released soon, or perhaps Nerdlets readers who have taken the plunge can provide some info in the comments.

In short, while this might be promising, but I’m holding off for now.

Dropbox: Part Sync, Part Backup, All Good

Zotero 2.0 Launches (What a Pleasant Surprise!)

Tommy — Fri, 15 May 2009 00:24:45 +0000

Get the latest from Zotero

Zotero has just released the beta of their 2.0 upgrade, and it looks awesome. Here is the announcement.

The most important upgrade is the promised addition of groups and collaboration.

Groups provide a powerful way to share collections with a class, work closely with a colleague on a project, keep track of conversations in your field more broadly, and keep tabs on what people at your institution or in your department are working on. To copy items into any of your groups just drag and drop items from your library into any of your group libraries and subcollections. Below you can see an image of your groups inside Zotero.

Your group can be published as a web page, either public or private. I am really looking forward to trying this out (and reporting back here at Nerdlets). The promise for teaching is extraordinary! It could provide a whole new level of interaction in the classroom, not to mention among colleagues and fellow researchers.

Other features are also in the works:

As we refine this beta release, the Zotero team will roll out its recommendation engine, a storage solution for sharing attached files, more ways to navigate through collections online, and the ability to view feeds from public groups and libraries.

Stay tuned for updates. I look forward to posting a full review and guide in the near future.

You can get the latest release here. I have a quick-start guide posted here.

Nerdlets Makes the Biblioblog List

Tommy — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:00:17 +0000

The good folks over at Biblioblog have added Nerdlets to their list of Biblical Studies Blogs. Sure we’re just “related blogs” (under the “techie” category) for now, but maybe someday we’ll be upgraded!

Every month Biblioblog posts the Top 50 BiblioBlogs based on their specified constraints.

A blog is included in the rankings if it contains substantial content related to biblical studies or closely related fields, evidences a scholarly approach to biblical studies (not requiring academic qualifications, but excluding blogs with mainly homiletic or devotional content, unscholarly approaches, or a primarily theological focus), and is currently active and posting.

Ranking is based on information supplied by Alexa for the current month. Blogs are ordered by the monthly traffic rankings provided by Alexa, a website which provides traffic rankings for each website or blog. In the occasional event that only the 3-monthly results are available in any particular month (not the monthly results), we will use the 3-monthly results as a proxy for the monthly results.

The Inspiration for almost everything about Nerdlets...

I have found this to be a great site to find new content—perhaps youre favorite author or professor has a site you don’t know about—so check out the complete list. For a competing list try here.

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BibleArc Gets an Upgrade

Tommy — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:08:42 +0000

I’ve mentioned BibleArc before. Apparently it has recently received a major upgrade with some new features, including automatic parsing of Greek words, the inclusion of the Hebrew OT, and enhanced sharing capabilities. Check it out.

Don’t know what arcing is? Check out this video from John Piper on how he uses this tool. If you are interested in arcing and other linguistic concepts as they apply to biblical studies, check out Cotterell’s Linguistics and Biblical Interpretation