Webapps and Websites | Nerdlets

Sync Thunderbird Address Books using Funambol

Software, Webapps and Websites 1 Response »

Nov 112008

There is now an easy way to sync your Thunderbird addresses and calendars with, well, anything!

Our family uses Mozilla’s Thunderbird to get things done–it syncs up perfectly with Gmail (use IMAP for best results) and Google Calendar (with this plugin). The only persistent problem I have had is getting all our address books to sync across computers (not to mention cell phones, music players, etc). Until last night.

A wonderful sync web-based service called Funambol uses data standards to keep all your address books (and calendars) in sync. It even works across different software, and will sync with your iPhone or Blackberry or other smartphone. It’s free and open source.

First download the Thunderbird plugin. It’s experimental (so you will need to sign into Mozilla and tell them you’re cool), but I have had not problems. You also need a Funambol account (get one here). You may also be interested in a number of other plugins a plugins for Outlook and other applications. Give it a whirl!

Get a to-do List in Gmail

Software, Webapps and Websites 2 Responses »

Nov 042008

Ever wish Gmail had a simple to-do list? Follow this guide, which describes how to add the services provided by Remember the Milk, a web-bsaed to-do list manager, to Gmail’s sidebar.

I have been a user of Remember the Milk since it was released over a year ago, and it’a pretty powerful stuff. You can tag related tasks, set priorities, edit dates and reminders (email, sms, rss), etc. All this is packaged in a very easy to use interface. What is more, RTM provides offline support (through Google Gears), a desktop gadget, an iGoogle gadget, and a Thunderbird add-in.

Combining Google (Gmail and Calendar), Thunderbird (w/ Lightning and the Google Calendar add-in), and Remember the Milk creates an all-in-one Outlook replacement complete with 24/7 web sync and accessibility. I hope to publish a guide to this setup soon.

Google reaches Settlement over Google Books/Scholar

Books, Webapps and Websites No Responses »

Oct 282008

Google Books currently allows you to search and browse a massive number of copyrighted material online. Google has been digitalizing books for some time, and the number of available books is growing quickly. Since Google generates ad revenue from this feature, it is no surprise that they were sued by book publishers in 2005. That lawsuit has come to a close, and the result seems to be good for users, for publishers, and for Google. As ReadWriteWeb reports:

Under the terms of the settlement, Google has agreed to pay the authors and publishers $125 million. It will also be responsible for selling access to copyrighted works in its repository. Most of the revenues from such access would go to the authors and publishers.

Currently, users of Google Book Search are able to view snippets of books online. The settlement agreement allows Google to make whole pages of copyright works available to online searchers. Users will be able to preview up to 20 percent of a book and purchase the book if they choose to, said David Drummond, senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer for Google.

All public libraries in the United States will be offered a free online portal to Google’s digitized collection, said Aiken, and patrons will be able to print an unlimited number of pages for a per page fee. Google will also be offering institutional subscriptions to colleges and universities. Google Book Search services available outside the United States will remain the same, Drummond said.

This is an interesting development in Google’s continue battle with copyright laws and privacy issues, and appears to be a good compromise. Dan Cohen has a more skeptical take. Your thoughts?

BibleArc Lets You Create Thought-Flow Diagrams

Bible and Hermeneutics, Books, Webapps and Websites 4 Responses »

Oct 162008

There are a variety of method of diagramming available to the student of the Bible, but very few tools to actually assist in creating such diagrams. Well BibleArc does just thought, providing scholars and preachers alike with an easy way to begin constructing their own diagrams. You can view my hastily created diagram to the left to get a taste.

The website includes instructions, a brief description of what all the symbols mean, and a plethora of videos and tutorials. You can diagram in a variety of English translations, or in Greek (complete with parsings). Improvements to the user interface (which is still a little cumbersome), as well as a repository of user-created diagrams, are apparently on the way. You can save diagrams to their site (with a user name and password), or export them as PDF documents.

Searching for Papias

Books, Christian Theology and History, Webapps and Websites No Responses »

Oct 152008

In the course of preparing material for New Testament Introduction I needed to track down a quote from Papias (I am making a concerted effort to check all primary sources in so far as I am able). The result: I am increasingly impressed by the Internet Archive. Not only did they actually have Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History availabled for download, they also had it in multiple formats. And the PDF scans are searchable, which means that I could search for, highlight, and copy/paste the required text straight into my slides. As a cherry on top: the search results are tagged with faux post-it-notes, just like in real life! Powerful stuff.

More on Reftagger

Webapps and Websites No Responses »

Oct 102008

Logos Bible Software has recently updated their excellent blogging tool RefTagger. It adds new versions (NASB, for all those Old-School Reformed Blogs out there). It also allows readers to select their own version, if you choose to give them such freedom. It’s also now much easier to install on a WordPress blog. Check out all the details, complete with a download link, at the Logos Blog.

More Gmail IMAP Options

Webapps and Websites No Responses »

Oct 092008

For those of you who use gmail, and have IMAP enabled (IMAP allows you to keep your email client–such as Thunderbird, Outlook, iPhone, or Blackberry–perfectly in-sync with all your other email clients, including Google’s web client, so you only have to check your email once), now there are even more options available to you. Read about them here.

For those of you who don’t use gmail, you should. Seriously, even if you want to keep your main email, a Gmail account can be useful as a backup or spam filter.

Twitter and drop.io Pair Up

Webapps and Websites 1 Response »

Oct 072008

Drop.io now integrates quite nicely with Twitter. Read about it, and watch a video, here.

Beyond PowerPoint

Software, Webapps and Websites 1 Response »

Oct 072008

There are several web-based applications that allow you to create and distribute presentation documents, without the need of expensive software such as MS Office. Here is a helpful list to get you started.

Personally I use OpenOffice’s Impress. Prior to the upcoming 3.0 series, Impress was (in my opinion) OpenOffice’s weakest link. But OpenOffice.org 3.0 shows considerable progress in this area. You can now download Release Candidate 4 of this amazing and free suite of software, which is very stable in my experience. As far as impress is concerned,

I have been particularly impressed by the new dual screen mode for Impress, made available by the Sun Presenter Console extension. This allows your presentation screen (what other people see) to be different than the screen on your computer monitor (what you see). The computer monitor console lets you see your current slide, the next slide in the queue, notes, and other handy information (like how long you’ve been yammering). You can find more details about that here.

Don’t Pay for Software

Software, Webapps and Websites 3 Responses »

Oct 062008

I am still a little surprised that people are willing to shell out hundreds of dollars on computer software when there are often dozens of free alternatives available. Most of us use computers for pretty basic tasks: emailing friends, browsing the internet, editing photos, listening to music, writing letters, and maintaining blogs. All of these tasks—and many others—can be performed using excellent free software that is easily installable and maintainable.

Why you should not be afraid of “Free”

Consumer Reports recently ran an article instructing its readers to be suspicious of free software. There reasons were sound, but only apply to a certain kind of “free.” There is certainly a lot of “free” stuff on the internet that can cost you in the end, but there are also a lot of excellent resources as well; the trick is being able to tell the difference.

I think the other reason people are afraid of free software is that they assume it’s “second class.” Since it’s free, it can’t be very good. Again, this applies to some software, but not the kind I’m talking about. Think about it this way: who would you rather buy a car from? Do you pick the used car dealer, primarily interested in his bottom line? Or do you pick the enthusiastic hobbyist, the guy (or girl) who refurbishes old cars because he loves it? All things being equal, the second individual is probably the more trustworthy.

So what do you mean be “free”?

There are three kinds of free. The first type of free software is “free” software—notice the quotation marks. This includes malware (software that pretends to be useful, but actually damages your computer), shareware (software that pretends to be free at first, but then cuts you off after a certain amount of time, or holds back on you until you pay its premium), and crapware (software that really is free, but sucks). Of these, shareware is the only one worth talking about, and even here you should be careful. While I don’t particularly care for the shareware model, there are some useful programs in this group.

The second kind of free software is free in the sense of “free beer.” Many programmers and organizations develop software for their own personal use, and while they want to maintain absolute control over their creation, they nevertheless offer it to others out of kindness (or self-promotion, or for some other non-monetary motivation). So this includes all software that is “closed” (the programmer does not release the source code) but does not require payment.

The third kind of free software is free in the sense of “free speech.” Free-speech software is (almost) always also free-beer software. The difference here is that in addition to being free to use, those who produce the software also publish the “source,” the internal nuts-and-bolts that determines how the software functions. This is useful for other programmers—anyone can improve or add functionality to the software, without having to ask permission or pay a fee. Firefox is a good example here; it is free to use and also free to modify, which means there are plugins that can do almost anything right in the comfort of your browser. This is the best kind of free because, in addition to keeping money in your wallet, you are not ultimately dependent on any one individual or organization, and so your software is less likely to go out of date or be unusable.

The Recommendations: Free Software you Should Download or Bookmark

Over the course of the next few weeks I will be posting about free software to get you started, organized by function. All the software will be at the very least “free beer” software (unless otherwise noted). Most of it will also be “free speech” (open-source) software. I will also include a number of web-apps, which are generally “free beer” services.

The following is a list of the types of software I will discuss in the forthcoming posts. You can check back here, as I will edit this page when new posts are available, or you can always subscribe to the blog and get updated automatically!