Some Reviews of Bible Software

 Biblical Greek, Research Tools, Software, Webapps and Websites  No Responses »
Dec 132008
 

Fostertribe has finished compiling his list of Bible Software reviews. This is a very handy guide to (largely introductory) Bible software. Bibleworks doesn’t make the list, nor do a couple of online tools, but the guide is very helpfully organized. Anyone interested in an introductory desktop program for reading and searching the Bible should check it out.

For an in depth look at the upcoming version of Bibleworks, check out this series of posts.

For online software, go here and here.

And anyone interested in a quick and handy tool for searching and listening to the Bible online should read my Ubiquity guide.

Posted by Tommy at 10:41 am  Tagged with: , , , , ,

WebNotes Lets You Annotate the Web

 Research Tools, Webapps and Websites  2 Responses »
Dec 112008
 
Use WebNotes to annotate your favorite sites

Use WebNotes to annotate your favorite sites

The web is now a primary arena for serious research. With Google Scholar, the Internet Archive, academic blogs where writers self-publish their complete works (such as this one), it is now possible to do a whole host of respectable research on the internet.

But how do you take notes on a web page? Should you print it out? That seems to miss the point. Use Zotero? Sure, for simple things, but it would be nice to have a dedicated web-note taking system (to complement Zotero’s functionality).

Enter WebNote. From ReadWriteWeb:

There are any number of services that offer the ability to annotate Web pages or share finds with friends. So why spend time on WebNotes? Because it seems awfully serious about providing the types of features that allow professional researchers to do online research – and only those features.

Anyone who has spent a great deal of time doing research by sifting through printed materials will immediately notice that WebNotes offers the two most critical research tools for any bookworm: sticky notes and a highlighter. But it also offers a filing system that allows users to categorize notes and pages under topical areas, as well as the option to share your findings with others.

Read the whole thing for a full review and list of features. I have been initially impressed with the software, which runs as a plugin for your web browser.

The service is still in private beta, so you will have to request an invite. I have 10 invite codes available, so if you want one, request it in the comments or email me at tommy@nerdlets.org.

Posted by Tommy at 12:00 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

More Ubiquity Commands

 Bible and Hermeneutics, Culture, Software, Webapps and Websites  No Responses »
Dec 102008
 

For those who found this post interesting, there are a whole host of additional Ubiquity commands available to you. If you have already set up Ubiquity (follow this link if you haven’t), then you may be interested in Mozilla’s (incomplete) repository of commands that other people have been creating for this exciting new interface. Be warned: many of these are still a little buggy, so don’t go crazy, but some are still worth a try.

Update: There is also a Ubiquity command for Cli.gs, which is not listed in repository. Get that here.

If you’re still unsure whether to install Ubiquity, check out this video (but be careful—it may blow your mind):

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Posted by Tommy at 11:59 am  Tagged with: , ,

Best Webapps of 2008

 Webapps and Websites  1 Response »
Dec 092008
 

Webware’s Webapp year in review includes a list of 10 apps that have recently begun to move into the mainstream:

It’s a well-known fact that our readers are on the cutting – if not bleeding – edge of technology. But sometimes, it’s important to take a step back and realize that the apps to which we’ve grown so incredibly accustomed are just barely beginning to register with the general public.

With the Top 10 Consumer Web Apps of 2008, we’ve tried to select the apps that have burst onto the radar of the everyday user this year – or if not quite, then perhaps they will next year.

Many of them have been mentioned on this blog. Check them out here.

Posted by Tommy at 11:47 pm  Tagged with:

Gmail Adds To-do Lists

 Webapps and Websites  1 Response »
Dec 092008
 

Gmail finally has a built in to-do list, a much needed and requested feature. It’s pretty bare-bones, but its there, which is certainly an improvement. You have to enable it through Gmail Labs. From Webware:

Since e-mail is where and how many of us get things done, both in our personal and professional life, why not add a list of things that we may not be able to get done via e-mail, such as a reminder to make dinner reservations?

To enable Tasks, go to Settings in the upper right of the Gmail window and click the Labs tab. Click Enable next to the Tasks selection, click Save Changes. After refreshing Gmail, a Tasks link will appear under the Contacts link. Just click that Tasks link and you are ready to be productive.

Personally, I’m a big fan of Remember the Milk for to-do lists in a getting-things-done fashion. RTM has a Thunderbird plugin, interfaces for iGoogle, netvibes, and twitter, and even a Ubiquity command set. It also integrates perfectly into Gmail, which I posted about here.

Posted by Tommy at 7:38 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

Is Memorization Useful?

 Biblical Greek, Webapps and Websites  5 Responses »
Dec 022008
 

I found this post interesting. It argues that in an age of Wikipedia and Google memorization is unimportant.

According to Tapscott, the existence of Google, Wikipedia, and other online libraries means that rote memorization is no longer a necessary part of education. “Teachers are no longer the fountain of knowledge; the internet is,” Tapscott told the Times. “Kids should learn about history to understand the world and why things are the way they are. But they don’t need to know all the dates. It is enough that they know about the Battle of Hastings, without having to memorize that it was in 1066. They can look that up and position it in history with a click on Google,” he said.

Even if we make an exception for language learning (vocabulary in particular), I think this perspective needs to be nuanced.

Also from the article:

Today’s students are growing up in a world where multi-tasking has
them completely immersed in digital experiences. They text and surf the
net while listening to music and updating their Facebook page. This “continuous partial attention” and its impacts on our brains is a much-discussed topic these days in educational circles. Are we driving distracted or have our brains adapted to the incoming stimuli?

A new book on the subject, “iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind,” states that our exposure to the net is impacting the way our brains form neural pathways. Wiring up our brains like this makes us adept at filtering information, making snap decisions, and fielding the incoming digital debris, but sustained concentration, reading body language, and making offline friends are skills that are fading away.

Your thoughts?

Posted by Tommy at 3:44 pm  Tagged with: , , , , ,

New Feature at Nerdlets: Better Comments, Better Conversations

 About, Webapps and Websites  6 Responses »
Nov 262008
 

Your Nerdlets are now conversationally super-powered. Comments are now threaded (you can reply to other people’s comments), easier to manage, easier to subscribe to, and better all around.

This is a long post, so let me give you the bottom line: Nerdlets.org values your comments, and hopes that you will participate in the ongoing discussion that happens here. I want to know how you are using computing technology, particularly if you are using it for the direct benifit of Christ’s kingdom. The new commenting system is designed to facilitate community involvement. It also allows you to promote yourself and your own ideas: the more you participate in the discussion here the more you can draw positive attention to yourself, and to your blog, website, or social service. Read on to find out how!

Blogging is Supposed to be Social

Blogging is supposed to be a social medium. For a variety of reasons, the social aspect of blogging has dwindled in the last couple of years. Partly this is because of limitations in most blogging software, and these limitations are gradually being fixed (WordPress 2.7, for example, will feature basic threading of comments). Another factor is the rise of more directly social sites like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.

Personally I think we can restore community to the Blog, and to that end I have installed IntenseDebate. Recently acquired by the folks at WordPress, IntenseDebate brings a variety of social features to any Blog.

Features of IntenseDebate

You will notice that the basic commenting interface is still simple to use and intuitive, and anybody can post regardless of whether or not you have an account with Nerdlets or IntenseDebate

Yet there are some interesting new features available to those willing to create an account with IntenseDebate (which is very easy to do: just click the box says create an accound).

  1. Reply to comments. You can now reply to someone else’s comment, or start a fresh thread. This essentially turns each Blog Post into a forum. No more “@username’ syntax. Because comments are now hierarchical they are now more conversational.
  2. Subscribe to comments. You can now easily subscribe to the comments for a particular post.
  3. Email Notification. If you post a comment and someone replies to your comment you can choose to be notified by email.
  4. Rate comments. Nerdlets is now a community. Anyone can rate the helpfulness of other people’s comments. The higher your rank the more prestigious you are, and the more prestigious you are the more people will trust what you have to say. This can help drive traffic to your own blog (I always notice a spike on Nerdlets after I post a comment on someone else’s blog) and increase your reputation in the online world.
  5. Comment across blogs. You can use your IntenseDebate account with any blog that has IntenseDebate installed. Your comments are recorded by IntenseDebate, and your rank is retained throughout, again promoting new conversations and helping you to increase your online reputation.
  6. OpenID. If you are worried about having yet another user name and password, IntenseDebate supports OpenID. The best part: you probably already have an OpenID account (go here to see why).  OpenID allows you to securely sign into a multitude of different online services by means of a unique URL and is supported by a number of internet companies, including Google (if you have a blogspot blog), Yahoo, Flickr, and Technorati.
  7. Better Nerdlets Navigation. IntenseDebate provide a couple of widgets that help increase the usefulness of this site. Most recent comments are show in the sidebar, for example, as are the most popular posts. If enough people sign up with IntenseDebate I can also add a widget that ranks readers by the helpfulness of their comments (which is determined by the aforementioned rating system). This is yet another way you can draw attention to yourself (and your own blog or website) by participating in Nerdlets.
  8. You can find more information here.

Conclusions

The bottom line: your participation on Nerdlets.org not only benifits this site, it now benifits you! I hope that this will increase our ability to dialog about the intersection of Christianity, theology, and computer technology.

Posted by Tommy at 2:31 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , ,

Setting Up Zotero: Link by Link

 Software, Webapps and Websites  49 Responses »
Nov 202008
 

The following is a set of links that will be useful for those trying to set up Zotero on their computers. (Not sure what Zotero is or why you would want it? Check out their site, and don’t miss the demo video).

Initial Setup

  1. Firefox Web Browser. Zotero runs as a plugin within this excellent browser.
  2. The Zotero Plugin. There are two options here. Pick one of the following:
    • Zotero 2.0 Beta (recommended). This is the latest release. It is Beta software, which means you may experience bugs. But I have been using this release for sometime and have not experienced any problems. There are several advantages of this release: online syncing (though see below), rich-text editor, more functionality. Create an account online to store your Zotero database here.
    • Zotero Version 1.0. This is the “safe” option, but you loose some functionality, and I have not had any problems with the “cutting-edge” version above. This version will be upgraded soon, so whichever option you pick will be fine in the long term.

Learning Zotero

  1. Demo Video
  2. Tour of Features
  3. Quick Start Guide
  4. Dan Cohen’s Blog often has good Zotero-related news
  5. As does my blog.

Extending Zotero

  1. Plugins for Microsoft Word or OpenOffice
    • If you chose the Beta version, go here and follow the instructions.

      • This now runs as a browser plugin, which installs the Word Processor integration utility automatically. Smooth and easy.

    • If you downloaded the regular 1.0 version, go here and follow the instructions.
  2. Customized Bibliography Styles. Zotero comes with a wide variety of default styles, including Chicago. But if there is a specific style that you need, check out this link to see if it is available. Researchers in Biblical Studies might be particularly interested in the SBL Style. Just click and Zotero will install everything for you.

Securing Zotero

  1. Use the Sync Preview release (above). It will securely back up and sync all your information and notes online, which can be accessed here. It does not backup stored files or PDFs, however; only text.
  2. If you are computer savvy, you can set up a WebDAV server to store and sync your entire Zotero database. This is like option (1) but also stores PDFs and other files. Check out this forum for suggestions.
  3. Use Dropbox. This is the best possible solution. Install Dropbox and then open your Zotero preferences dialog. Go to the Advanced tab, then place your Zotero database in a custom location: your “My Dropbox” folder. Now anytime a change is made the Dropbox software will upload it in real-time. You can also use this to sync your Zotero database accross multiple computers, and it includes all your files (movies, PDFs, images, etc). Your data is encrypted on Dropbox’s servers, so you don’t have to worry about security concerns.
  • Update: I should mention one issue I have had with the Dropbox solution. Dropbox cannot save open files, which means it will not upload or download your Zotero database until you close Firefox. If you are syncing your Zotero database across two computers, be aware of this limitation. Make sure you close Firefox on both computers, and that Dropbox has finished syncing all the data, before you switch workstations. Dropbox does save conflicting copies of files, so your data should ultimately be safe, but it may be a lot of work to recover it.

Update: This post was modified from the original on Sept. 17 2009 to bring it in line with the current status of the Zotero project.

Posted by Tommy at 5:00 pm  Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Zondervan Acquires “The City”

 Christian Living, Webapps and Websites  1 Response »
Nov 182008
 

Mars Hill Church developed “The City,” a Facebook-like Web site, in order to create a “Real, not virtual, community, for Jesus’ fame.” Zondervan has recently acquired this software system.

MarketWatch reports:

Developed over the past two years by Mars Hill pastor of technology, Zack Hubert, who spent eight years in management at Amazon.com, The City was created in response to the church’s need to improve communication, better engage with members, support small groups, build a stronger church community and free up administrative resources. Mars Hill launched The City earlier this year to create a dynamic, engaging interactive online community for its more than 7,000 members. Within two months of launch more than 85% of the church’s members had signed up and more than 75% visit the site every single day.

“The City is an essential part of the way our members and our staff communicate every day,” said Mark Driscoll, Mars Hill’s founding and preaching pastor. “Thanks to Zondervan churches and organizations around the world will have access to this resource to help people meet Jesus and build community.”

Zondervan plans to build out the current features of The City and offer scalable and customizable modules to churches nationwide who want to create their own vibrant, interactive community for members.

See The City in action, here. (This is how webcasts should be made, by the way—an excellently done example of Christians using technology to great effect!)

Posted by Tommy at 8:37 pm  Tagged with:

Visit Rome, 320 c.e.

 Christian Theology and History, Webapps and Websites  2 Responses »
Nov 132008
 

Take a tour of ancient Rome, courtesy of Google. Read a description of the project here.

Posted by Tommy at 10:08 pm  Tagged with: , ,
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