Bible & Tech
Rhapsody just launched an MP3 store. They are giving out a free album to the first 100,000 people to sign up for a free account. You can choose from anything that they sell. I just grabbed an album—and one for my wife.
You’ll have to act fast. The promotional lasts only a few more days.
Your account will be credited with $10 to be used on your first album by midnight Pacific time, July 4, 2008, if eligible.
Before you make your next online purchase, you may want to use Live Search Cashback. Microsoft will pay you anywhere from 2–10% cash back—those are the numbers I’ve seen—on any qualifying purchases from participating stores. No strings attached. Before cashing in on your rewards you have to wait 60 days and accrue at least $5 of cash back rewards. Once you meet both of those stipulations, you can get your funds sent to you via (1) PayPal, (2) a bank account, or (3) a paper check in the mail.
This is Microsoft’s attempt to get Googlers to start using their Live search. I’m not about to switch permanently from Google, but why not save a little more on my online purchases?
Update: Just got an email, 60 days after my purchase, notifying me that my $13.74 in cashback rewards are ready to be claimed. I visited my page, clicked Pay Me, entered my bank information, and got this message:
Your cashback is on its way! Microsoft will initiate a payment of $13.74 to your Bank account XXXX in approximately 14 days. We will send an e-mail message to you at philgons@gmail.com with these details.
A friend pointed me to a new journal: American Theological Inquiry, which is a biannual journal of theology, culture, and history. The first issue was released on January 15, and the next issue is due on July 15. ATI is available as a free PDF via email or from their website, http://www.atijournal.org/. You can subscribe to the list by sending an email to subscriptions@atijournal.org. ATI currently has more than 4200 subscribers. The journal can also be obtained in print through Wipf & Stock.
The general and associate editors are Gannon Murphy and Stephen Patrick, both of whom reside in St. Paul, MN.
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
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.
[Read more…] about Essential Tools for Syncing Multiple Computers
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.1 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.
Take, for example, how one seminary student responds to another who shared stolen software with him: “God Bless You!” Another individual has this in his signature: “Live Hard, Play hard and let your life show WHO u live for.” Hmm. Another has a link to his website, “What Would Jesus Download,” in his signature. Good question indeed. Perhaps those downloading pirated software should ponder it a bit.
[Read more…] about “Christian” Piracy and the Blinding Effects of Sin
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.
A couple of weeks ago, I noticed in the Grammatical Relationships section of the Bible Word Study report for εὐχαριστέω an interesting pattern regarding the objects of εὐχαριστέω. I wrote this in a blog post at the Logos Bible Software blog:
Of the 23 complements or objects of the verb (i.e., who is being thanked), they are nearly all God. The only human objects are Prisca and Aquila (Rom 16:3). The rest of the references are God—and arguably, God the Father. (Jesus is the object one time [Lk 17:16].) I realize that God can refer to the Triune God, but the contexts and general pattern suggest that the Father is in view.
Thanks is given to
This pattern reminded me of a similar pattern that I gave some thought to a couple of months ago.
[Read more…] about “To Him Be Glory Forever”