Archive for the 'Software' Category
May 23, 2008 by Phil Gons
Dan Phillips, who blogs at Biblical Christianity and Pyromaniacs, emailed me about a month ago and asked me about making Henry Alford’s The Greek Testament: With a Critically Revised Text; a Digest of Various Readings; Marginal References to Verbal and Idiomatic Usage; Prolegomena; and a Critical and Exegetical Commentary available for Libronix. In that email he told me that “John Piper names it as the one he always consults.” Recently I asked him if he knew the source for Piper’s statement. He didn’t, but said he’d do some hunting. He asked his blog readers for help, and it was Pilgrim Mommy to the rescue.
I think it might be . . . during the Q&A at the end of Piper’s talk on John Owen.
I just listened to the end of Piper’s biographical lecture on Owen, and here’s what he says in the Q&A in response to a question about commentaries that he finds helpful:
Continue reading ‘“When I’m stumped . . . I go to Henry Alford.”’
May 7, 2008 by Phil Gons
I recently downloaded and installed a cool new plug-in for Microsoft Outlook called Xobni (inbox spelled backwards). It’s a collapsible sidebar that instantly provides lots of helpful data.
There are two main features:
Search: Find contacts, emails (organized by conversations!), related people, and shared files in an instant—all organized nicely in a sleek sidebar. Since Outlook 2007 has a built-in search for email messages, I wasn’t sure how helpful this aspect of Xobni would be. However, the ability to see not only emails but also contact info (which is even extracted from email messages!), file attachments, and related contacts makes it very handy.
Continue reading ‘Xobni for Outlook’
February 21, 2008 by Phil Gons
If you use multiple computers (e.g., a desktop and a laptop or a home computer and a work computer), from time to time you probably find yourself in need of something from your other computer when it’s not easily accessible. The solution for most people is to use a USB flash drive or perhaps email the files to yourself using Gmail or another online email service. But neither of these are ideal solutions.
Moving to entirely web-based applications is one solution for always having all of your data available from any computer connected to the internet, but in my opinion the cons outweigh the pros—at least for now. A hybrid model is the best solution, taking advantage of the power of the desktop and the accessibility of the web. In this post, I’d like to recommend a few free tools that I rely on to help keep my computers in sync.
Continue reading ‘Essential Tools for Syncing Multiple Computers’
January 30, 2008 by Phil Gons
Logos just released a new round of base packages labeled ND. No, that’s not an abbreviation for anything. They serve merely to distinguish the various versions of the base packages. The previous base packages were OC, the ones before that were QB, and the ones before that were RA. You can upgrade from your current OC package to the corresponding ND package for free (you pay only for the media and shipping). They’ve added the TNIV and NIrV to all of the base packages that include the NIV (i.e., all but Christian Home and Original Languages).
January 28, 2008 by Phil Gons
A friend notified me today about a “Christian” website where “Christians” illegally share a variety of forms of digital Christian content—from Christian music to Christian movies to Christian software. Scores of people, many of whom are in seminary training for pastoral ministry, post pirated Bible software on the web and invite others to download it, giving detailed instructions on how to unlock the software and bypass the security features. I’m blown away by how easily “Christians” can steal in order to enable them to have access to biblical resources. Something about that just doesn’t make sense. But that’s what sin does to us. It causes us to act in utterly irrational ways.
Continue reading ‘“Christian” Piracy and the Blinding Effects of Sin’
Notes
January 10, 2008 by Phil Gons
If you’re a WordPress.org user and you’re responsible for upgrading your WordPress install when a new version comes out, you’ll definitely want to check out the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin. If your web host includes cPanel with Fantastico De Luxe, which allows for simple upgrades, you should still consider using the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin. Fantastico is great, but one of my biggest frustrations is that it usually takes a couple of weeks or more to release the newest version of WordPress—not good when the new version fixes serious security problems. I’m not sure if this is an issue with cPanel, Fantastico, or my web host, Host Monster.
Continue reading ‘WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin’
October 27, 2007 by Phil Gons
Shanna and I are in the midst of a major transition. We are wrapping up things here in Greenville, SC (like packing and trying to sell or rent our condo) and preparing to move about 2,900 miles across the country to Bellingham, WA. I will be taking a job (in the marketing deparment) with Logos Research Systems, Inc., the makers of Logos Bible Software, and Shanna will be looking for work once we get settled in. I didn’t realize how big of a task preparing for a move like this would be! It’s good for us, though, because it’s making us rely upon God more than when we feel like we have things under control.
We’d appreciate your prayers. Here are some specific things you can pray for us:
Continue reading ‘Moving to Bellingham & Joining Logos’
September 24, 2007 by Phil Gons
[rate 5]
Someone pointed me to a helpful little piece of software that I now use daily, so I thought I’d mention it here. The tool is called PureText. It allows you to paste text into any program or file without all the formatting. I use it frequently when working on a document in Word, composing an email in Outlook, or writing a blog post in WordPress. Instead of using the normal control+v to paste text, you use windows+v (or another combination of your choosing) to paste text without its formatting. It’s that simple.
Continue reading ‘PureText’
September 14, 2007 by Phil Gons
If you don’t have the Theological Journal Library published by Hampton Keathley of Galaxie Software, you need to get it—period. These journals are without a doubt some of the best theological resources that you can get for the money. Volumes 1–9 are currently available, and Volume 10 should be coming out sometime in October (assuming Hampton is on the same schedule as last year). Each volume includes 50 journals (Volumes 1–5 are sold together and contain 250 journals), and the average cost per journal is just under $1 ($.67 if you buy the bundle).
Here’s what you get if you buy all 9 available volumes:
Continue reading ‘Theological Journal Library to Add BibSac 1–90′
August 31, 2007 by Phil Gons
David Instone-Brewer (also here and here), the Technical Officer and Senior Research Fellow in Rabbinics and the New Testament at Tyndale House, has posted his review of version 2 of the Stuttgart Electronic Study Bible (SESB).
Here are some selections from his section “Overall Usefulness: much better than paper”:
Continue reading ‘David Instone-Brewer Reviews SESB 2′
May 21, 2007 by Phil Gons
A friend recently asked me how to get the most out of some of the great resources in SESB (now in version 2). My response was that he should create two workspaces—one for OT studies and one for NT studies—and integrate the texts and apparatuses with his other language tools. That led me to revisit my NT workspace and tweak it to take advantage of some newly acquired resources. Here’s a screenshot of my NT workspace, which was inspired by Rick Brannan’s workspace. I’m able to fit three columns comfortably on my 22″ Acer. I haven’t tried this on my 15″ laptop screen, but I imagine it would be a little cramped.
Continue reading ‘My NT Logos Workspace’
March 23, 2007 by Phil Gons
Someone recently asked me for my opinion about Logos vs. BibleWorks. I posted this at the Bible.org Forum in response to a discussion there. I’m reproducing it here (with some very minor changes) in case there are others who are trying to decide what Bible software to buy and use. This is by no means exhaustive, probably oversimplifies some of the issues, and certainly expresses my opinions and preferences, but it may be of help to some. I offer this not as a polished review, but as some off-the-cuff thoughts from one who uses and recommends both.
Continue reading ‘Logos vs. BibleWorks: A Brief Comparison’
March 22, 2007 by Phil Gons
The folks at OpenBible.info have done a real service to the Christian community by tagging every identifiable location in the Bible for Google Earth. You can download the KMZ file and explore any place in the Bible. They even give you all of the passages where each location occurs—hyperlinked to the ESV. I love being able to see the places about which I’m reading, and being able to zoom in and interact with them in a 3D environment beats a 2D map or image as far as I’m concerned, though being able to preview and link to these locations in Google Maps is still pretty cool. Here’s an example of all the locations in Galatians. And here’s a neat post that traces the locations in the Bible through six historical periods. I’m hoping Logos will implement my suggestion and use this data to link to these locations from within their software.
Continue reading ‘Bible Geography Meets Google Earth’
March 20, 2007 by Phil Gons
Mark Dever’s Polity: Biblical Arguments on How to Conduct Church Life (also online) is available as a free download from Doxa Digital Press for the WORDSearch/Bible Explorer/Bible Navigator engine. Also newly available is the 2005 Founders Journal (4 issues), which is edited by Thomas Ascol. If you don’t already have WORDSearch, Bible Explorer, or Bible Navigator, you’ll need to download Bible Explorer 4 (free) in order to use these resources.
See my related post: FREE eBooks!
January 23, 2007 by Phil Gons
I just downloaded and installed 87 free ebooks. Bible Explorer is on track to pass e-Sword in the amount of free content available. They are releasing 20 new titles every month.
Here are some of the books they are currently offering:
Continue reading ‘FREE eBooks!’
