Nerdlets: Christianity/Culture/Computing

Zotero Updates Word Processor Plugins

Books, Computing, Research Tools 10 Responses »

Sep 172009

If you are using the 2.0 Beta version of Zotero then I have good news. Zotero has recently updated their plugins for word processor integration. I have had a couple of problems with the OpenOffice plugin, so I am excited to see that work continues.

It appears that the update is fairly significant. One major change is that the both the Microsoft Word and the OpenOffice plugins are installed as browser components. Previously you had to add them as Word Processor macros, which can be messy and is difficult to upgrade when there are changes. By contrast, the new plugins are always up-to-date because Firefox does the checking for you, and all the messy installation is handled by the plugin itself, rather than the old manual process. In short: if you can install a Firefox plugin, you can install Zotero’s Word Processor integration.

There are a number of back-end changes to the plugins (ie., Java), with the result that everything seems to run a lot more smoothly. Two major problems I had with the previous plugins—errors in footnotes with multiple Zotero fields, and lack of support for adding citations within a table—are now fixed, which makes me an even happier camper than I was before.

How to get it

You will need the latest Beta of Zotero for the new plugins to work. To install the plugins follow the instructions on this page (be sure to install the 2.0 plugins, about half-way down, rather than 1.0 plugins). Once you restart your browser Zotero will do the rest.

If you are not already familiar with Zotero check out my description and guide.

Note for Linux users: if you haven’t already, you will need to install Sun’s version of Java (“sudo apt-get install sun-java6-plugin” in a terminal).

A Helpful Bible Atlas

Bible and Hermeneutics, Christian Theology and History, Christianity 3 Responses »

Jul 292009

I often find it helpful to have a Bible Atlas near me when I’m reading through large chunks of the Bible. I have been unable to find a real good online version, but here is a pretty decent offering from the Access Foundation. It is listed on Scribd as licensed under the Creative Commons non-Commercial Attribution license.

Bible Atlas

New Polytonic Greek Font

Biblical Greek, Christianity, Computing, How to No Responses »

Jul 132009

: Image via Wikipedia

There is a new Unicode Polytonic Greek font available for all you font collectors out there. Rod Decker has the details and download instructions. His post is so complete, there is not much need for me to add to it.

The basic idea: this font supports a very wide range of characters—Hebrew glyphs, for example–but is not as professional looking as (my still-standing recommendation) Gentium (or GentiumAlt).

If you are clueless regarding this discussion, but want to better understand fonts and right way to type in Greek, start with this post by yours truly.

A Social Site for Academics

Computing, Research Tools, Webapps and Websites No Responses »

Jul 102009

: 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.

Google and the Web OS

Computing, Linux, Software 4 Responses »

Jul 082009

: Image via Wikipedia

We’ve commented on this before at Nerdlets, but now there is a definitive reason for doing so. It’s not really a surprise, but Google is about to tie all its seemingly disparate services together. Introducing the Google Operating System. Why a new operating system? Well, we use our computers differently now. We use them to access the web. Your browser, by and large, is your OS (at least according to Google), which is why Google has recently invested so much time into their entry into the browser wars: Google Chrome.

And the Google OS is actually the Google Chrome OS. According to Google, it is little more than a (Linux!) wrapper around Google’s browser. There is therefore no need to download, install, or develop applications. According to the official Google Blog post:

For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

There are advantages to this approach. Developers can spend their time programming applications that work on any Computer, and because users do not have to install, update, tweak, or otherwise fuss with their applications, developers can pump out updates quickly and efficiently. Furthermore, provided your browser is secure, you need not worry too much about viruses and malware, or at least not yet. And, of course, since all your data is on the web, you can access your files anywhere! Finally, since Google promises that it’s vision will remain Open Source focused, you (presumably) will not need to worry about Google hijacking your data. If Google does something you don’t like, you can just switch.

There are serious disadvantages as well. Your data is on a server somewhere, and not on your computer. There is also a certain amount of loss of control.

Windows, Linux, and OSX take a hybrid approach to the OS and browser relationship, and I prefer that personally. With the mainstream operating systems your data resides primarily on your computer, but is synced to the web at your request. This is what I practice, since I don’t always have an Internet connection.

So what do you fine folks think? Is the future of computing web-based services running in your browser, or is it something more like what we’re doing now? Your comments are welcome!

Update: Some excellent analysis by Louis Gray.

Codex Sinaiticus Online

Bible and Hermeneutics, Biblical Greek, Christianity, Computing, Research Tools No Responses »

Jul 062009

The full set of images and text from Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest complete copy of the entire NT, is now online. Check out their webpage. The interface is pretty slick, allowing you to change lighting options, zoom in and out, and bookmark and print pages. It also includes a transcription and translation. Anyone interested should definitely check this out.

Update: The always intriguing ReadWriteWeb has also posted a story on this, with a little analysis and some extra technical details. Read that here.

HT: NT Interpretation

Firefox 3.5 is Faster, Slicker, and Ready to Download

Computing, Software No Responses »

Jun 302009

The latest version of Firefox is ready for download, and it will be worth the time.

There is a lot to love about the new release, but perhaps the most important improvement is speed. Speed matters now more than ever. We’re not talking about download speeds here, but more important things like application speed—how fast your browser can process Flash videos, or javascript applications. Why does this matter to you? Because most of the websites you browse every day, like Facebook or Hulu, use a lot of programming technologies that your browser has to process. Since we are all doing more and more computing tasks online, like reading email, updating our facebook accounts, or watching movies, browser speed takes on a whole new meaning, and Firefox 3.5 is noticeably faster.

There are a whole host of other important updates, which you can read about here.

You can download the latest version here.

The Phone Gets an Upgrade: Google Voice

Computing No Responses »

Jun 252009

: Image via CrunchBase

If you haven’t already heard about Google Voice, now is the time to play catch-up, and this is an excellent article for doing so (complete with video). Long story short, it’s gonna be awesome, and you should make every effort to get a Google number as soon as it’s available to you.

Too lazy to read the article? Here are some features:

* transcribed voicemails: whenever somebody leaves a voicemail, GV will transcribe the message as best it can (this only works for English right now). These transcripts are then forwarded to your email account and you can also opt to receive an SMS notification.
* listening in to voicemails: whenever you receive a call and decide to let it go to voicemail, you can also choose to listen in and even pick up the call if it turns out to be an important message. This feels just like the old days when answering machines with tapes were still a novelty.
* call screening: one neat option in GV is the ability to screen calls. If you activate this feature, callers will be prompted to leave their name once they call, and once you pick up the phone, GV will play the name back and you can choose if you want the call to go to voicemail or if you want to actually speak to this person. You can opt to let all unknown callers who are not in your Google address book go through this procedure or just those calls from callers who have blocked their caller ID.
* recording calls: at any time during a call, you can press 4 and the call will be recorded. This only works for calls you receive on your phone for now, and doesn’t work for outgoing calls.
* conference calls: just ask participants to call your GV number and once more callers call in, you can just conference them in – this works for up to 4 callers.
* switching phones: if you want to switch phones during a call (say you took a call on your home phone and decide you want to take a walk and continue the call on your cell), just press * and all the other phones will ring.
* SMS: you can send and receive text messages from your GV account
* integration with Google Contacts
* it just works: the call quality is good, we didn’t experience any outages during the last few months, and calls aren’t dropped. GV does what it says it does, and it does it well.

Lawsuit against Zotero Dismissed

Computing, Research Tools No Responses »

Jun 232009

Good news! The lawsuit filed against the developers of Zotero (which I wrote about here) by the makers of EndNote has been dismissed. There are few details as yet–like whether or not the suit will be refiled–but hopefully this is a sign of things to come. From ArsTechnica:

Thomson Reuters, which makes EndNote, an academic reference management product, had filed suit against George Mason University, claiming that its support of the open source Zotero project, which imports EndNote files, was in contravention of the university’s license to EndNote. The suit, which requested an injunction against the distribution of Zotero, has now been dismissed. Depending on whether Thomson Reuters appeals or refiles the suit, this may leave Zotero in the clear.

Need a little more background?

Academic reference managers, which allow their users to keep track of the publications that they cite when writing up their own research, are a fairly specialized market. EndNote has a number of features that make it a compelling option, including a series of filters for online search queries and tight integration with document preparation software, notably Microsoft Word. It also offers one of the few cross-platform options on the market, and has a large library of reference styles to match the formats used by different journals. But there is also a degree of product lock-in, as many researchers have built up libraries of thousands of references over the years.

Zotero undoubtedly looks a bit threatening to Thomson Reuters, as it has a number of these features. It operates as a browser plug-in, which allows it to cross platforms easily and integrate well with online searches; it is also able to import EndNote reference databases. But the key feature that got it into legal trouble was the fact that it was able to import and use EndNote reference style files.

The full article is worth reading, especially since some reflection is offered by the authors regarding the merits of the lawsuit.

Exegetical Insight: Luke 8:10

Bible and Hermeneutics, Biblical Greek, Christianity No Responses »

Jun 182009

Every once-and-a-while I have an edifying experience in the course of grading. It’s rare, but it happens. In the course of reading over Luke 8:10, which my Greek students had to translate for their exam, I was forced to ask (and answer) a basic question. The question is begged by the Greek, but not by the English. Here is the verse:

Ὑμῖν δέδοται γνῶναι τὰ μυστήρια τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ θεοῦ, τοῖς δὲ λοιποῖς ἐν παραβολαῖς,

The question is: What has been left out of the second phrase, which is an incomplete idea? What has been elided from τοῖς δὲ λοιποῖς ἐν παραβολαῖς? Or, to put the same question another way: what are Jesus’s parable about? Are they morality tales? Proverbial remarks? Timeless truths?

The answer lies in the parallel between the two clauses, and, in particular, between their prominent datives (notice that the datives come first in each clause).

So the first phrase is “to you”, that is, to the disciples (and those who trust in the traditions they teach: Jude 20-23). The second phrase is about “the others.” The first phrase lacks a propositional phrase, the second a direct object. So the disciples are given something, but the others, though given the same thing, receive it through an indirect medium, the parable.

So what are Jesus’s parable about? If you had to put the central message of Jesus’s parable into a few words, what would those words be?

The answer lies in the question posed by the second clause of our Greek sentence. What is given to the others ἐν παραβολαῖς? The answer: τὰ μυστήρια τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ θεοῦ.

Mysteries about God’s Kingdom.

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