Technology

GAudi: Google’s Audio Indexing

September 23, 2008 by Phil Gons

Google’s new audio indexing, GAudi, looks very promising. Finally the ability to find what you’re looking for in audio or video without listening to the whole thing! This has huge potential for sermons and lectures and could really make audio and video more accessible sources for academic research.

I wish I had access to this technology when I was running down this quote.

Check it out: http://labs.google.com/gaudi.

TechCrunch: “Google Launches Audio Indexing”
ReadWriteWeb: “Google Audio Indexing: Keyword Searches for Political Videos”
Google Blog: “Google Audio Indexing now on Google Labs”

Do You Back Up Your Blog?

August 18, 2008 by Phil Gons

In a recent “Reclaiming the Mind Ministries Special News Update,” Michael noted that his blog was hacked and most of his data was lost.

You may have noticed that the Parchment and Pen blog got hacked. Ouch! Our entire backup was corrupted and we are seeking other means of restoring the database. All those posts . . . gone! Well, not all. We have thus far restored it up to September of last year. That means a full years worth of writing is lost as of today. Hopefully we will get a few more months worth recovered soon. Be advised, we are working on the blog.

Do you back up your blog? If you don’t, you might want to consider starting.

Firefox 3 Coming Soon

June 7, 2008 by Phil Gons

I’ve been using Firefox 3 since Beta 1. After 5 betas, it is now at RC 2 3, which is going to be the version that “ships” sometime this month on Tuesday, June 17th. (Mozilla hopes to set a world record for the most downloads ever in a 24 hour period.)

There’s no point in waiting to update to version 3, except perhaps for add-on support. About half of my add-ons aren’t working yet. But the improved functionality of Firefox 3 makes the temporary loss of a few add-ons worth it.

Xobni for Outlook

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.

[Read more…] about Xobni for Outlook

Interview with N. T. Wright

April 4, 2008 by Phil Gons

Said at Southern points to a video interview with N. T. Wright that took place at Asbury Seminary in November of 2007. (Here’s the announcement about Wright’s visit.) Several minutes in Wright shares some brief thoughts on Piper’s book The Future of Justification: A Response to N. T. Wright.

The audio from Wright’s chapel talks is also available:

Nov. 13 | “Use of Scripture in Contemporary Political Discourse” [ Hi :: Low ]
Nov. 14 | “God in Public? Biblical Faith in Tomorrow’s World” [ Hi :: Low ]
Nov. 14 | “Acts and the Contemporary Challenge of the Gospel” [ Hi :: Low ]

RefTagger from Logos

February 29, 2008 by Phil Gons

This week Logos launched a very nice tool for making the Bible references on your website much more useful to your readers by converting them to hyperlinks to the version of your choice at BibleGateway and giving you the option of adding a small Libronix icon linked to the version of your choice in the Libronix Digital Library System (or the user’s default version). [Read more…] about RefTagger from Logos

Essential Tools for Syncing Multiple Computers

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.

ATP 2GB ToughDrive 200X USB Flash Drive

November 17, 2006 by Phil Gons

The ATP 2GB ToughDrive 200X USB Flash Drive is one of the best USB flash drives available. (1) Along with the Patriot Xporter XT, it’s one of the fastest (30MBps read/20MBps write), making it a great choice for use with Windows Vista’s ReadyBoost technology. (See the results of a comparison of various USB drives here.) (2) It’s incredibly durable and built for rough handling (including a 5-year warranty). (3) It’s a great price—on sale for $59.16 at Buy.com, with free shipping. There’s a $25 mail-in rebate, and if you open up a Buy.com credit card (takes about 3 minutes), the price ends up being $16.41 (after mail-in rebate). Not bad for a high-speed 2GB USB drive! I was hoping to be able to save an additional $10 by using Google Checkout, but they don’t allow that in conjunction with the 30% off credit card deal. If you want to go the Google-Checkout route, you’re final cost ends up being $24.16—still a great price. So if you’re in the market for a good USB drive for yourself or as a Christmas present, you might want to check this one out.