Tags: Macintosh, Apple

Tags: Accordance, Logos

Tags: Accordance, Logos

Tags: Accordance, Logos

Tags: Accordance, Logos

Tags: iPhone, Apple

Tags: Biblical Illustrator, Accordance

Tags: BHS, Olive Tree, iPhone

Tags: iPhone, Olive Tree, Greek NT

Tags: Olive Tree, Greek NT, Hebrew Bible, iPhone, BHS, UBS, Apple

Tags: Macintosh, Windows

Tags: TLG

Tags: Olive Tree, iPhone

Before you read any further, think to yourself...What’s wrong with this picture (besides the smiley face and my other edits)?

If I were in charge of advertising Bible software, the above photograph is the exact opposite of what I’d want to represent in a brochure. Notice that the professor is concentrating not on [unnamed Windows Bible software], but instead he’s using a physical Bible and he’s taking notes on a legal pad--very old school, very non-Tech. Meanwhile, [unnamed Windows Bible software] is relegated--unfocused and at the moment, unused--to the background.

Now, I’m sure lots of people actually work this way. Sometimes I have a notepad handy when I work for quick notes or outlines, but I generally compose directly on the computer. And it’s not unusual for me to have a physical biblical text in front of me while I’m using Accordance. But that’s different. Why? Because this is an advertisement for software, for the love of Margaret! But the ad doesn’t focus on the software; it focuses on the way we studied before we had software!

Surely whatever Bible the professor in the picture is using would also be found in [unnamed Windows Bible software]. The brochure boasts 115 translations in 35 languages! And ten years ago when I used [unnamed Windows Bible software] before switching to the Mac and Accordance, I distinctly remember that the program had a very handy text editor included, so I’d toss the notepad for sure

I will say, however, that he’s sitting at a very attractive desk; and I certainly like the banker’s lamp...

When I was in high school, none of my teachers would have allowed me to use the sentence above from Apple’s newest iPod touch campaign.

Technically, there are at least two problems with the ad. First, the period implies that the text is more than a label or description, but rather an actual sentence. Yet, if I were grading a paper and saw this exact text, I would label it an “incomplete sentence.” Of course advertisers regularly add periods to text such as this to give a description a sense of finality. Essentially this is shorthand for saying “[This iPod is] the funnest iPod ever.”

Second, there’s a problem with the word funnest, which technically isn’t a word at all. According to traditional English language rules, funner and funnest are not words. If a writer wants to use a comparative or superlative form of fun, correct usage dictates the selection of more fun and most fun, respectively.

Of course, using either of the correct forms makes for awkward advertising copy:

The most fun iPod ever.

or more correct:

This iPod is the most fun iPod ever.

or perhaps Apple could have just said

My new iPod is a lot more fun than your old iPod.

Okay, I can see where correct grammar doesn’t always make for good advertising. And I also have to assume that Apple’s advertisers aren’t uneducated, and they fully realize they are breaking the rules of good usage. Since Apple Macintosh computers come with a software dictionary based upon The New Oxford American Dictionary, I had to wonder what Apple’s own software would say about using the word funnest.

Well, according to Apple’s own internal dictionary, the usage for the word fun may indeed be changing. Note the last sentence: “The adjectival forms funner and funnest have not ‘arrived’ in all the dictionaries, however, and if employed at all, they should be used sparingly and not in formal written English.” Okay, fair enough. Advertising copy is not necessarily a formal context--at least not in regard to this advertisement.

When I teach writing classes, I strongly enforce the rules of grammar and usage because I feel that the parameters given in students’ textbooks offer a foundation for writing that can be modified later in appropriate contexts. I tell my students that great writers know when to bend the rules of grammar accordingly. For instance, Shakespeare regularly invented words when the glossary of his day didn’t express his intention (such as the adjective form of “alone,” lonely). Tolkien will occasionally use a double negative in The Lord of the Rings, but he does so with purpose in order to create a positive meaning from the combined words. A sentence like “It was a dark and stormy night” is not only cliched, but also begins with a pronoun lacking an antecedent. Nevertheless, Madeleine L'Engle could begin A Wrinkle in Time with those very words because she knew what she was doing and was an established writer by the time she wrote that book.

Even Apple’s detractors usually admit that the company makes great products--often products that set the parameters of the playing field for their competitors. So, perhaps they can get away with phrasings that would quickly be marked off on one of my students’ papers. And this is not the first time Apple has been known to break grammatical rules. English teachers gritted their teeth over the “Think Different” campaign in the late nineties (think is a verb and would require the adverb differently, not the adjective different).

Nevertheless, if you are one of my students reading this, stay away from funnest or I’ll mark it accordingly!

Tags: Apple

[click image for larger view]

Now, look at that screen and tell me from the perspective of a Starbucks customer, what I’m supposed to do next. There wasn’t even mention of Starbucks on the screen. So I dialed the 800 number on the back of my card. The automated service went through about half a dozen options, none of which were related to in-store wi-fi, so I pressed nothing and was put into the queue. A message informed me that hold times were unusually long.

After an incredibly long wait, a very nice person named Brianna answered the phone. I told her my situation, and she instructed me to type http://www.starbucks.com into the URL line of my browser so that I could register my card.

What?!

Look carefully at the screenshot above. Was there any indication that I could go to starbucks.com? Was there a link anywhere that even mentioned Starbucks? No, there wasn’t. And attempts to go to any other website were blocked.

After getting to the Starbucks site, the steps for registering my card and signing up for “wi-fi rewards” were pretty straight forward. In fact, I told Brianna that I could probably handle it from thereon. However, I suggested to her that all of this would have been much simpler if there had been some kind of link or information on the AT&T screen indicating that I should go to starbucks.com to register my card. She simply said, “Yes, that is a problem we’re aware of.”

So I hung up with Brianna, completed the registration of my card, which took me back to the AT&T login screen. I entered my user name and password but I still couldn’t connect to the internet. I regretted letting Brianna go so quickly.

At this point, I simply felt I needed to grade my papers. “Forget it,” I told myself, picking up my iPhone to check my email. The iPhone had automatically connected to the store’s wi-fi which I knew would be a bust for the same reason I couldn’t log on with my MacBook. So I disconnected my iPhone from wi-fi and hit the internet through the Edge network. In my inbox came this email:

Here was the reason I had been unable to connect to the internet: I had to click on an emailed link to complete my registration. Had my iPhone, which is email capable, not been with me, I could not have completed this step until I returned home. So I clicked the link which led to this screen on the iPhone’s Safari browser:

I tried logging into AT&T on my MacBook again, and finally I achieved success:

But can you see how inane this entire process is? The process to connect to the internet cannot be finalized in-store unless the user can receive an email to validate registration. However, the user cannot receive the email because the registration has not been validated. This is one of the stupidest processes I’ve ever seen! Who designed this system? Had I not been able to access my email by another device, I would have never been able to connect until my next visit to Starbucks.

How long did this process take from the moment I came in to the point I connected? Forty minutes.

After connecting finally, I looked up and saw Kathy saying goodbye to her friends. She was ready to leave.

So maybe next time, but maybe not. I realize that I won’t have trouble connecting the next time I’m in a Starbucks, but I’m highly offended at how unfriendly the entire system is. And the company wonders why it is suffering financially lately?

One more thing: for the record, Starbucks wi-fi is not really free (or “on the house” as they like to call it). It’s impossible to access the internet unless the user purchases a Starbucks gift card and keeps a $5 minimum and uses the card within a set period. So not only do I have to pay up front, I have to continue paying at certain intervals if I am going to use their “on the house” internet.

But really... if I have to purchase something to get something, then, I’m sorry, but it’s not “on the house.”

Tags: Starbucks, AT&T

Click on image above for larger view.

Recipe database programs have been around in one form or another as long as personal computers have been in homes. Some of these are standalone programs dedicated to recipes, but even standard database programs such as FileMaker Pro come with recipe templates. I’ve been using personal computers since 1982, and I’ve kept recipes saved electronically (in word processing documents or PDF files) since the first computer we had with a hard drive, way back in 1988. But I’ve never been impressed with recipe database software...until now.

Now, let me say up front: yes, you can see a MacGourmet Deluxe (MGD from this point forward) advertisement in the sidebar [only at cookingincastiron.com, not at This Lamp]. But what you must realize is that I first contacted Mariner Software in regard to their advertising with us because I was incredibly impressed with this software. In fact, as I already mentioned, recipe database software is nothing new, but in reality, MGD seems to me to be the mature end result of nearly three decades of this kind of software that has gone before it. I strongly encourage you to download the MGD user manual as I will not be able to nearly touch upon all of MGD’s features in this review. I’ve jokingly said to a friend that MGD seems to do everything except cook the meal for you, but maybe that’s projected for version 2.0.

Of course, MGD does what you would expect--it allows you to keep a database of your recipes. The interface is iTunes-esque, allowing you to create your own categories in the left sidebar. And like an iTunes smart playlist that automatically expands as new songs meet pre-set criteria, MGD allows the user to create “smart recipe lists” that look for certain criteria as the user adds new recipes.

One of the most impressive features of MGD is the multiple ways that recipes can be added to the database. Certainly, the user can enter ingredients and directions manually, but there are also a number of ways to add them automatically from other sources. There are “supported” websites such as allrecipes.com, epicurious.com, foodnetwork.com, williams-sonoma.com, cookinglight.com and food.yahoo.com in which all a user has to do is select the URL on a recipe’s webpage, go to the services menu: MaGourmet, and choose “Import Recipe from Web Page.”



MGD automatically parses the information, separating the ingredients from the directions, the description of the recipe and even includes the picture:



But what if a website is not supported? Well, to test this out, I went to one of my favorite cast iron related websites, “Black Iron Dude.” About a month ago, there was a recipe at this website for Arbol Chile Salsa. To import the recipe from Greg’s website, I first highlighted all the text in his post and then I dragged it to the “Clippings” window in MGD. This is a great little window in MGD that allows the user to drag over recipe after recipe and then go back and format them later. After I had dragged over the text for the salsa, I double-clicked on it to import it in my recipe database.


All of my captured text is gathered at the top of the import window. From the drop down menu, I can select “Ingredients” and MGD knows that this information is separate from the preparation directions. And of course, I can do the same with the directions, information about the recipe, etc.

What impressed me further is that in parsing the list of ingredients, MGD could distinguish between number, actual item and special instructions. Notice for example in the list below, taken from this recipe, that “25” is separated from “dried Arbol chiles” which is separated from “remove stems and shake out some seeds”:



For those watching what they eat (and who isn’t these days?) MGD comes with the abbreviated USDA National Nutrient Database. Ingredients are automatically evaluated by this database and if MGD is unsure about a particular ingredient, the user can open up the USDA database and manually map ingredients. Once all ingredients are mapped and servings are figured, MGD calculates an extremely accurate breakdown of nutritional data.


This information is calculated for 45 separate items:



And when printing out recipes for personal use or to share an abbreviated box with nutritional information is included such as this breakdown for JT’s Family Pancake Recipe:


This kind of information would be extremely helpful not only for the person watching what he or she eats, but also for the personal chef or any person in charge of providing meals for groups of people. MGD includes a weekly meal planner that can be exported to iCal, and shopping lists can be created from planned recipes.

Kathy and I have an older iMac we keep in the kitchen for easy access to recipes we’ve collected electronically over the years. Whether you have a dedicated kitchen computer or simply a laptop on the counter, MGD offers a “Chef’s View” that enlarges ingredients and directions for easy access:



Almost every church group or civic organization has produced a cookbook at one time or another. There are publishers who specialize in this. These publishers should be a bit concerned for their future because MGD includes tools for creating one’s own cookbook with pictures, section dividers, chapters, and more. Once a cookbook has been created it can be exported to PDF ready for publication from a company such as Lulu.com.

And of course, when someone asks you for your Garlic Beef Enchiladas recipe after the church potluck, you can print out your recipe according to a variety of attractive built in templates.

As the name implies, MacGourmet Deluxe only runs on Macintosh computers, but the program is so sophisticated, it might be reason enough to switch from Windows if you aren’t already a Mac user. Regardless, MGD can import files in a number of formats: MasterCook, MasterCook Mac, Meal-Master, CookWare Deluxe, Cook’n text, RecipeML, and Yum XML. It can export to iPod notes, MasterCook, MealMaster, RTF and text files.

Our Cooking in Cast Iron website is still fairly new, but as we add recipes in the future, we will also make them available in MGD format which means that if you want to add one of them to your own collection, it will be as easy as dragging an icon from our website directly into your MGD database.

MacGourmet Deluxe is available from Mariner Software for $44.95.

• American Standard Version
• Darby’s New Translation
• French Darby 1991
• German Luther Bible 1912
• Modern King James Version
• New English Translation (without notes)
• Spanish Reina Valera
• Weymouth New Testament
• Young’s Literal Translation

I’m not sure yet if the red lettering can be turned off. The ability to turn off red lettering will come in a later update.

The search dialogue at the top of the screen can be used for either direct reference input or word searches. It also automatically updates as the user scrolls through the biblical text. A search for “righteousness” yields 134 hits in the NET Bible as seen below:

Touching any of the underlined references takes the user to the verse in context of the entire passage. Pressing the icon at the bottom of the screen (is that a window or a plus sign?) brings up a listing of all books available in that particular Bible module:

Clicking on any of the biblical books leads to another screen (not pictured) that lists all chapters in the biblical book and then to another screen with all verses. Selecting a particular verse will not display the verse by itself but the entire passage in context which is very helpful.

The most beneficial aspect of Olive Tree’s BibleReader is easily that it does not rely on an internet connection to use any of the biblical modules. All texts are fully loaded onto the iPhone. I especially appreciate that because I still find myself without any signal from AT&T at times when I am deep into the heart of a building--especially older buildings. At this point, I’m not worried about space limitations. iPhones now come in either 8 or 16 GB models, so for most users there should be room to spare. This is in contrast to my old Treo 600, of course, with which I had to use an extra SIM card in order to store all 60,000 notes of the NET Bible.

The interface for Olive Tree’s BibleReader is completely customizable as seen in this settings screenshot:

In fact, until I installed BibleReader, I had no idea what fonts were available on my iPhone:

[In addition to the fonts listed in the graphic above, BibleReader also tells me I have the following typefaces installed on my iPhone: Helvetica, Helvetica Neue, Hiragino Kaku Gothic ProN W3, Hiragino Kaku Gothic ProN W6, Marker Felt,
STHeiti J, STHeiti K, STHeiti SC, STHeiti TC, Times New Roman, Trebuchet MS, and Verdana.]

I noted in the title of this blog entry that Olive Tree’s BibleReader was the first third-party iPhone Bible app with real promise. I say that because not all of their extensive language offerings are available yet, including their Greek and Hebrew texts. But I corresponded with Stephen Johnson of Olive Tree yesterday, and he assures me they are in the works along with many of the other modules in Olive Tree’s library.

Certain features that we’ve come to expect from Olive Tree, such as split screens, aren’t available yet, but features will be added to BibleReader over the next few months.

Users such as myself who had already purchased Olive Tree texts may face a bit of a conundrum. In the past if a customer had bought a module for the Palm platform and then switched to the WindowsMobile platform (or vice-versa), it wasn’t necessary to re-purchase the texts. For instance, a few years back I briefly owned a Compaq iPaq and was able to load modules such as the Greek New Testament with Gramcord morphology onto the Compaq device even though I had previously purchased it for the Palm platform. After a few weeks, I decided connecting to a WindowsMobile (I believe it was called WindowsCE back then) device from a Mac was too much hassle and switched back to a Palm PDA. In all of this switching back and forth, I never had to pay anything extra to OliveTree. I’ve always found their cross-platofrm policy to be very generous.

However, with the iPhone, the issue is a bit more complex and the problem doesn’t lie with Olive Tree, but with the iTunes Store. Apple doesn’t allow third-party iPhone developers to sell their applications from their own websites. It has to be done from the iTunes Store. So, for instance, if a user has already purchased the ESV text for a Palm or WindowsMobile device from Olive Tree, there’s no way at present to keep from paying for it again if purchased for the iPhone. Olive Tree is in talks with Apple to determine if there’s a way around this, but for right now if an ESV aficionado already bought it for another platform and now wants to install it on the iPhone, he or she will have to pony up another $24.99.

And there is another problem for Olive Tree and their customers. Olive Tree’s modular model of distributing texts doesn’t work as well with the iTunes Store. In the past on the Palm or WindowsMobile platforms, once the BibleReader software was installed as many text modules could be added as their was room available in the device’s memory. Currently, the iTunes Store doesn’t allow this adding of one text at a time as the previous model allowed--at least not without having many separate apps installed on the iPhone. So, if for instance, Olive Tree releases the TNIV text next week, a user couldn’t simply add it to an already-purchased ESV Study Bundle. Rather, two separate installations of BibleReader would have to be installed with the TNIV in one and the ESV and accompanying resources in the other. And theoretically, even once split screen features are implemented, modules in two separate installations couldn’t be viewed side by side.

This complication is not something that just affects Olive Tree, but rather all developers who offer modular add ons to its software. Again, Olive Tree is in talks with Apple, and hopefully the way iTunes is currently set up can be adjusted for the benefit of the customer in the future.

Regardless of these early snags, Olive Tree’s venture into the iPhone platform looks very promising. I am hopeful I can eventually reproduce the same functionality with Bible texts on my iPhone that I had previously experienced on my Treo. Since useful iPhone Bible functionality is something I am genuinely seeking, expect to see more on This Lamp about the subject as new developments arise.

Tags: iPhone, Olive Tree, Apple

Tags: iPhone

Tags: Starbucks

Tags: Macintosh, OS X

Tags: Accordance

. Personally, I find it simply to be an amusing and friendly jab at Microsoft from Apple. But then again, my installation went smoothly

Oh, and contrary to what the screen above shows, I did NOT connect to someone else's computer. I wouldn't do that without permission!

Tags: OS X, Windows

Tags: OS X, Macintosh, Biblical Illustrator

Tags: Apple, OS X, Macintosh

Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.

It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc.

Tags: iPhone, Apple

• Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor
• 512MB of memory
• DVD drive for installation
• 9GB of available disk space
• Some features require a compatible Internet service provider; fees may apply.
• Some features require Apple's .Mac service; fees apply.

Tags: OS X, Macintosh, Apple

How did you come up with the idea for your site?

As a member of the Xbox Community Developer Program, Steve had access to the live gamer feeds and was playing around with the data. I attended the O'Reily Emerging Technologies conference where I heard Bruce Sterling give a keynote about blogjects (a term coined by Julian Bleecker)... futuristic objects that write "blogs" about their interactions with the world and other devices just like humans write about their interactions with the world and other people. In discussing this keynote with Steve, it didn't take long for us to see how this academic concept could relate to the Xbox 360, albeit in a much more scaled back fashion. We got quick prototype of the idea up and running in a few days. The response from the prototype was so huge that we immediately developed it into a full blown product which became 360voice.com.

Tags: Xbox

Q. What does the funny symbol on the Command key mean? And why is there an Apple symbol next to it on the new keyboards [Rick's note: keep in mind the reader is asking about the keyboards that were new in 1989!].

A. On the Apple III way back in 1980, we put two Apple keys on the keyboard for programs to use as they wished. We put an Apple key on the Apple IIe's keyboard when we introduced it in 1983. In 1983 the Command key on the Lisa keyboard also had the Apple symbol on it.

The Macintosh was going to use the same symbol and have the Apple symbol in the menu for the Command-key equivalent, just like the Lisa. But late in 1983, somebody (I bet you can guess who) decided that using the Apple symbol on the keys and in menus was "corrupting the logo"--sort of like those rare Britons who don't lick postage stamps because they don't approve of spitting on the back of the Queen's head. So we had to change the keyboard and the software and the documentation all in a very short period.

But first we had to come up with a good Command key symbol. The requirements were pretty heavy: It had to be small, recognizable, unique, and easily rendered in a simple font character (for the menu), an it had to mean "command." The International Standards Organization (ISO) book of symbols offered little help (its recommendations for the Shift and Option keys can be see on Apple's non-American keyboards).

Finally Susan Kare and Barbara Koalkin found the symbol that's now affectionately known by many names: flower, propeller, freeway, splat, command, feature, and cloverleaf [Don't forget butterfly.--Ed]. It came from a book of Swedish campground trail markers and means "remarkable feature!"

The Apple symbol came back with the introduction of the ADB (Apple Desktop Bus). Now that Apple keyboards are interchangeable among many Apple computers, that key has to do double duty: It's the Command key on the Macintosh family and the Apple key on the Apple IIGS.

---

Tags: Apple, Macintosh

Tags: Apple, Macintosh

Tags: iWeb, RapidWeaver

Tags: iPhone, NAB, NET, GWT, ESV

Tags: Apple, Macintosh

Tags: Apple, iWeb

Tags: iPhone, BHS, Greek NT

Tags: TNIV, iPhone

" at the end of v. 3. That note designation is actually hyperlinked and will take the user to the bottom of the screen where the footnotes all appear at the end of any chapter. You might also notice the right-pointing arrow that will take the user to--you guessed it--chapter 2 where there are both previous chapter and next chapter buttons.

A number of other options are offered at the top of the screen as well. The large single-colored left pointing arrow will take the user back to a listing of all chapters in the biblical book. The "Notes" button allows the reader to access a personalized account where one can store customized notes. The plus (+) button on the far right allows the user to add a new note and even highlight a verse in one of six different colors [gee, maybe I could transfer all the notes from my wide margin NASB to my iPhone!...or maybe not]. The "Reference" button takes the user to notes from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary (not of great interest to me, but it's a nifty feature, nonetheless).

The only real downside I saw of the biblical text in iBibleSpace was the dreaded words of Christ in red. If this "feature" could be turned off, I believe that would be helpful to many.

Going back to the IBibleSpace main screen is simple because it always remains as a separate page/tab in the iPhone browser (in case you didn't know, the iPhone will allow the user to have multiple pages open at once, much like tabs in regular browsers). "Today's Verse" is just what you would expect it to be: a daily Bible verse. There is a link to read the entire chapter from which the verse comes in context if one is so inclined.

Another distinguishing feature of iBibleSpace is its search feature:



One can search either or both testaments and exact phrases. Results are displayed in groups of five at a time with an option to select "More."



However, I found it odd that NT hits are listed before OT results. I would prefer them my results to be listed in canonical order. Further, in most Bible programs the search word is usually highlighted in some way, but not so in iBibleSpace.

The other two buttons on the home screen will lead the user to daily devotions from Spurgeon or podcasts from a variety of conservative Christian radio shows. The selections are a bit odd in my opinion. I cringed when I saw Joyce Meyer, but I occasionally enjoy listening to Ravi Zacharias' show. The great majority of the offerings, however, I would not have any regular interest in. I also doubt I'd run to my iPhone for a daily devotional from Charles Spurgeon either. In fact, it seems odd to me that it's a primary button on the home screen.

Regarding the podcasts, though, I followed one all the way to the show to see if the iPhone would actually play it. The link was to an MP3 file that launched QuickTime on the iPhone. I think that was the first time that I realized that I even had QuickTime on my iPhone!

iBibleSpace is impressive on many levels: features, design, and consistency of its interface (one never follows a link that leads to a page not formatted to the iPhone unlike the 3onesix app). Even though the ESV is not one of my preferred translations, I put iBibleSpace at the top of my iPhone app bookmarks. At the present time, iBibleSpace is far and away the best Bible app available for the iPhone.

---

I'd still like to see original language texts on the iPhone, although I have no idea if the iPhone would even support Greek and Hebrew fonts. Of course one would presume that it is using Unicode fonts already. Something like the NET Bible would be interesting to have on the iPhone as well, and perhaps because the folks behind the NET have been so Internet savvy, we will see something in the near future. One also wonders if an iPhone interface to something like Bible Gateway couldn't be created to take advantage of multiple translations.

Further, I still am hopeful for third party apps. The major drawback of any of these apps relates to their dependence on the Internet. Even with a WiFi connection, they are not as fast as a native application would be.

In the meantime, three weeks have yielded three distinct Bible apps of varying creativity and features. As others will undoubtedly come available in the weeks ahead, I'll be sure to cover as many as possible here on This Lamp.

Tags: iPhone, Apple, KJV, NIV, ESV

Tags: Apple, iPhone, AT&T

Tags: Apple, iPhone, AT&T

Tags: Apple, iPhone, AT&T

• an Intel processor or a PowerPC G4 or G5 processor
• a DVD drive
• built-in FireWire
• at least 256 MB of RAM for a PowerPC based Mac, and 512 MB for an Intel-based Mac
• a built-in display or a display connected to an Apple-supplied video card supported by your computer [The Installer may not support your video card.]
• at least 6 GB of disk space available, or 8 GB if you install the developer tools

Tags: Macintosh, Apple

Tags: TNIV, Zondervan

• Import of User Bible texts.
• Printing of highlighted text, both of regular highlighting in text and tool panes, and when using Compare Texts.
• Horizontal option for display of the Resource palette.
• Prior and Next buttons appear after using internal hypertext links in a tool pane in a Search window, with control-command left and right arrow key combinations which also work for the Tools window.

• Larger and more colorful text access buttons at the bottom left of many windows.
• Contextual menus: additional menu for More Options in Tools, and Favorites submenu added to contextual menus.
• Up to 512 characters are allowed in Range definitions.
• The CHAR item in the Construct allows multiple entries.
• Pressing shift with command right and left arrow keys selects the intervening text.
• Diagram window exports as an editable PICT image.
• An option in User Notes preferences allows multiple edit windows.
• SBL standard references for abbreviations is an option for display and export of text.
• Command-click on a verse reference in a tool amplifies to all the references in the paragraph.

• Optional modern Greek Polytonic keyboard for text entry.
• Character palette supports modern Greek and Hebrew keyboards.
• Export to Graeca II font is supported instead of SuperGreek.
• Preferences page to reorder the grammatical tags.
• Option to view tags as full words in Instant Details.
• Format of tag display is clearer.
• Export of Helena text converts the "apple" character into a correct rough breathing.

Tags: Accordance

Tags: TNIV, Logos

iPhone has already passed several of its required certification tests and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned. We can’t wait until customers get their hands (and fingers) on it and experience what a revolutionary and magical product it is. However, iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price — we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned. While Leopard's features will be complete by then, we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us. We now plan to show our developers a near final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October. We think it will be well worth the wait. Life often presents tradeoffs, and in this case we're sure we've made the right ones.

Tags: Apple, Macintosh, iPhone, Windows, Vista

Tags: Mellel

SPECIAL NOTE: We understand, as does the publisher, that the TNIV is a particularly controversial Bible translation. Logos Bible Software does not endorse the TNIV, or any particular modern translation. We believe, though, that it is important to offer this translation in Libronix DLS compatible form for both its critics and supporters, and we would encourage you to look at it, as you would at any translation from the original, with a critical eye. Compare it to other modern translations, and, as you are able, to the original text. You may also wish to visit these two sites for more information supporting and criticizing this translation: http://www.tniv.info and http://www.no-tniv.com.

Why is there a disclaimer on the TNIV?

What exactly is controversial about this translation--inclusive language? If this is the case, then why don't you also put the same disclaimer on the NRSV, NLT, the Message, the NCV and any other translation that employed gender inclusive language years before the TNIV.

I would ask you to remove the disclaimer. There's no reason to have it if you aren't going to include it on other translations that follow the same guidelines. It's a double standard and simply says to the customer, "Don't buy this Bible."

Thanks,
Rick Mansfield

I agree that there are other translations that are similar in many ways to the TNIV; however they simply haven't generated the recent controversy that the TNIV has. (Probably because they either aren't as new, or aren't based on the best-selling modern translation, the NIV, about which people feel very strongly.)

The disclaimer is a response to the amount of controversy, argument, and advocacy (on both sides) we've heard from our users; that's why it links to both a supporting and critical site. If we had this much correspondence on another translation, we'd probably put a note on it, too.

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts,

-- Bob

Tags: Logos, TNIV

Tags: Macintosh

Tags: Windows

Ahhhh...the Cable Company

Now, the first set of bullets are what supposedly comes with the $13/month set-top box (which I've already determined that I don't necessarily need to get the HD basic lineup). The second set of bullets, called the HD Pak, comes with yet another $8/month fee. A lot of people opt for this HD Pak I've been told because it has ESPN HD with it. I'm not a big enough sports fan for this to matter to me; I'd probably be more interested in the movie and Discover HD channels.

However, I quickly noticed that I was not receiving the bottom three bullets in the first list: ESPN 2 HD, TNT in HD and MHD. Now, it's not that I necessarily wanted these channels, but it was the principle of thing thing since it was advertised and I was not getting them. But I had failed to note the little asterisk after the word "lineup" in the screen capture above. So I scrolled down and read this disclaimer:

* HDTV set, Basic Service, HD receiver (or Insight CableCard) required to receive all HD channels. Subscription to Classic service and at least 1 Digital Programming Pak (or Digital Standard/Choice) is also required to receive MHD, TNT in HD and ESPN2 HD. Not all programming available in all areas. © 2006 Insight Communications Company, Inc.

Are HD Channels Really That Great?

What's the Deal with HD DVD Movies?

Why Is There Really No Such Thing as a Universal Remote?

Tags: HD DVD

Tags: HD DVD

"How I Got a Mac for Next to Nothing"
"The Free Mac, Part II"
"Counting the Macs"

So, anyway, I decided back in the middle of November to try this myself. I didn't want a new laptop though--I'm still delighted with my black MacBook. However, if there's any luxury item out there that I'd never pay for on my own, it would have to be a high-def television. So I ran a google search for "high-def television" and found an ad from the same company Josh with which Josh participated for a "Gift Card for a $2,000 Plasma TV" (I'd give you the link, but it's now expired). I had to complete 18 offers, which although seemed like a lot, turned out in the end to be pretty manageable. Although I didn't keep a spreadsheet like Josh's, I did record all the same kind of details in a MS Word file that he had done. Plus I made PDF files of all agreements and emails confirming cancellations as I returned items. It took me about three weeks to complete all 18 offers. Then I was given a link to download a PDF file which I had to fill out with where to send my gift card and also tax forms since the card is worth $2,000.

The whole time I was working on this, I referred to it as "my scheme to get a free plasma TV." Kathy simply referred to it as my "scam" because she was skeptical till the end that it would actually work, especially with so little investment. Nevertheless, last Saturday I opened the mail to find a $2,000 Visa Gift Card in my name. Yeah, I know...I couldn't believe it either!

I talked it over with Kathy. Although the offer was for a gift card for a plasma television, technically we could do anything we wanted with the money because it was a generic Visa gift card. Heck, we could even withdraw the money from an ATM. Obviously, I knew there were lots of things we could do with $2,000 but Kathy (wonderful wife she is) said that I had wanted a television to begin with, I had worked hard to stay on top of the offers, and that I should stick to my original plan. So I set off Monday to get the television.

Tags: television, HD DVD

Tags: Apple, iPhone

Tags: Accordance

Why do we have to watch this in 304 x 168 pixels? Enlarging it only reduces the quality of the image. Can't they offer this in a much higher resolution on iTunes and let us download it? That would seem like a no-brainer.

For the love of Margaret...

Tags: Apple

Tags: Apple, Macintosh, iPhone

The new library at Chicago State University has one ironclad rule: No students allowed in these stacks – only robots. Every book, CD, and DVD in the school’s $38 million facility is tagged with a radio-frequency ID chip. When a borrowed item slides through the return slot, the system identifies and sorts it. Human librarians shelve post-1990 materials in the traditional stacks and drop older stuff into file-drawer-sized bins. From there, it’s all robots – tall, forklift-style machines that run on tracks and stow the materials in a three-story-high storage facility. No Dewey decimals? No problem. The computer knows where everything is and can hustle the correct bin to the circulation desk for checkout.

And if the software crashes? “Libraries are highly networked,” says dean Lawrence McCrank. CSU’s database is backed up at the Online Computer Library Center in Dublin, Ohio, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “We were building databases with integrated retrieval before there were computers,” McCrank says. “They were called card catalogs.”

Robotic Librarians by the Numbers

- Top speed of CSU’s robotic librarians: 7 mph
- Average time for a robot to retrieve five books: 2.5 minutes
- Average time for a student to retrieve five books: 2 hours
- Capacity of CSU’s high-density storage: 800,000 volumes
- Robots making out in the stacks: 0

– Erin Biba

Tags: Matrix

Tags: iWeb, Apple

Tags: Windows, Macintosh

“When you get past the schoolyard mentality and the stupid, ignorant prejudices,” you have heard people say, “what we have are two different operating systems that each work very, very well. Really, it’s not a matter of good or bad. It’s just a matter of personal preference.”

Those are very wise words. I have said much the same thing. But what I’ve endured over the past few months is the equivalent of a weeklong road trip with someone whose company you’ve always enjoyed, but never really known as a true friend. Windows has propped its bare smelly feet up on my dashboard and told me the story about how he was so hung over during his aunt’s funeral that he threw up into the coffin a little. His greasy hair has left smears on the inside of the window that no solvent can shift. He just sort of assumed that he could use my iPod, and during the one time he took a turn at the wheel, the battery was completely flat and I had to listen the story about the funeral a second time.

Tags: Macintosh, Apple

Tags: Britannica, Wikipedia

Tags: Macintosh

The short story is: I really, really want a Mac.
The problem is this: I’m a poor college student. Ramen noodles, the whole bit. No way I can afford a new computer anytime soon.
The solution: I want as many people as possible to stop by this site and send me a dollar. If I get 1,868 people to do that, I’ll buy a Mac. I know, I’m crazy.
I believe there are a lot of generous people in the world. But also, it’s just a dollar. That’s the tax on a DVD movie. Your wallet won’t feel any lighter without it, but it would make a big difference for me.
How this all works: If you donate a dollar (or more) to the I Really Want a Mac fund, your name, city & state, and a link to your website will be posted on The List (unless you really don’t want it there).

Tags: Macintosh

Tags: Apple, OS X

• XML: Mellel 2.1 uses an XML-based file format, shrinking file size by up to 400 percent. The format is clear and cleanly separates content from formatting, making it easy to write convertors and otherwise manipulate files.
• New Find and Replace: Mellel's new Find and Replace option fully supports Regular Expressions, but with a much friendlier interface.
• Find by formatting and style: Mellel now supports find and replace by formatting and style.
• Full Screen mode: allowing you to move into full screen mode (no menus, palettes, window frames, etc.) which is WYSIWYG and zoomable.
• Find Expressions and Find Actions: You can now save expressions you've created and complete find action, and "play" them later on.
• FindSets: Allowing you to create sets of Find Action you can run all at once, completely formatting or reformatting a document in a matter of seconds.
• Paragraph Style palette: Offering you control over applying, creating, editing, saving, and deleting paragraph style.
• Character Style palette: Offering you control over applying, creating, editing, saving, and deleting character style.
• Equation editing round-trip: Mellel now support round-trip editing of equations created in MathMagic. The equation is kept "alive" and editable in MathMagic.
• Auto-title in-place editing: You can now edit auto-titles in-place.

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Tags: Mellel, Macintosh

Like any design project, this one had a brief with some technical criteria, to help define and solve the design problem.

• Achieve a better character count (to maximize space and ultimately save paper)
• Eliminate artificial condensing of standard fonts (such as ITC Giovanni).
• Have visual similarities to ITC Giovanni, by Robert Slimbach.
• Make the font "stronger"
• Achieve as good as or better character count than ITC Weidemann or Century Old Style.
• Achieve better character count while maintaining readability.

Tim Botts said afterwards: "I was especially jazzed with the way the new One Year Bible turned out -- a 10% longer text in a stronger typeface -- yielding the same page count! To think we competed with Century OS and Weidemann -- and I think -- won."

We chose some key characters to design with similarities to ITC Giovanni - which Tyndale has been using for many Bibles, condensed 10% for space savings. This was also to show design management that the font would have that warm and friendly look that they had come to appreciate with Giovanni, and that they didn't want to lose. Overall Lucerna has its own character and visual appeal, with limited influence by ITC Giovanni.

So the font is a design solution to these technical and aesthetic considerations. Lucerna has indeed yielded printing/paper savings for Tyndale due to its space-saving design and should prove highly legible for the targeted demographic readers.

What struck me the most as I stood looking at the Bibles, reading the stories of the translators, and considering their impact on history – is that nobody was trying to kill me (that I know of) or persecute me (other than the left-wing side of the political spectrum) for contributing to publishing a Bible.

It seemed to me to be a strange culmination of events: I had purchased my first Macintosh (The SE30) in 1990, and released my first typeface intended for Bibles in 1995 (Veritas). Seven years later, I began Lucerna, and the first Bibles typeset in it were released in 2004.

It's difficult to describe the sensation I had while standing in the middle of all this history. The Lucerna Project was significant both personally and professionally, and I am aware that I have been given the opportunity to contribute to the history of the Bible. But why me? I'll always be grateful for the opportunity.

Tags: NLT, ESV

Tags: Windows

Tags: Logos, Macintosh

Wikipedias are so much the rage that students are citing them in a philosophy papers. This occasioned a mini-sermon from me in one of my classes. The key excerpt was, “Never, ever, ever cite a Wikipedia in a philosophy paper.” Wikis (as they are abbreviated; our culture abbreviates everything) are unedited and unauthorized internet articles in which anyone can contribute, delete, or alter previous material. They are unregulated and ever-changing amalgamations, contingent configurations. Some of them—as least some of the time—may be well written and knowledgeable; but they lack any editorial protocol to insure decent material that conforms to standards. Thus, they are worthless as sources that one would cite in a paper or article of a scholarly nature.

Tags: Wikipedia, Britannica

Tags: Macintosh

Tags: Macintosh, Windows

Tags: Macintosh, Windows

Tags: iWeb

Tags: Apple, Macintosh

Tags: Macintosh, Apple

In January 1521 the pope issued the bull of formal excommunication (Decet Romanum Pontificem), though it was some months before the condemnation was received throughout Germany. Meanwhile, the imperial Diet was meeting at Worms, and there was a good deal of lobbying for and against Luther. In the end, Frederick the Wise obtained a promise from the emperor that Luther should not be condemned unheard and should be summoned to appear before the Diet. This enraged Aleandro, who asserted that the papal condemnation was sufficient and that the secular arm had only to carry out its orders. It also alarmed Luther's friends, who did what they could to dissuade him. Luther was firm in his determination to go, and began the journey in April 1521, undeterred by the news, on the way, that the emperor had ordered his books to be burned. What was meant to be the safe custody of a heretic turned out to be something like a triumphal procession, and when Luther entered Worms on April 16 he was attended by a cavalcade of German knights and the streets were so thronged as to enrage his enemies.

Tags: Britannica

Just to clarify things a bit: Yes, we do intend to make Mellel a viable alternative to FrameMaker; No, we have absolutely no intention to make it a DTP machine.

I think that with Mellel 2.0 we've reached our initial target -- making Mellel a good, solid word processor.

From here on, we plan to move along the three fronts we've defined:
A. "For scholars" -- adding tools that will make Mellel an even better tool for scholars, especially better bibliography integration, index, cross-references, more notes options, etc.
B. "For long document" -- ...in addition to the options mentioned above, a better solution for "book" management, image<>text relations and perhaps a bolder move into the track-changes and re-purposing of text.
C. "For writers" -- this is the area where I think we have the most to contribute in terms of bringing something completely new into the fray. All the tools available now simply don't do the job -- either dedicated "project" tools and/or book writing and "brain storming" or "outlining" tools are all thinking about it the wrong way, I feel. We'll have something interesting to say here too in 2006.

Posted to RedleX (Yahoo Groups) 12/5/2005

At present, it doesn't look as though right-to-left text rendering will be in the next release of Mac Office. The reasons are somewhat complicated to explain, but they stem from differences between Windows and the Macintosh with respect to low-level APIs that provide context-based glyph substitution and the ability to get glyph-based (as opposed to character-based) measurements. At present, the only way we can do RTL in Mac Word would break the line-layout compatibility between Mac Word and Win Word.

Where do your viruses want to go today? 

Report are in that exploits have already been discovered and viruses have already been created for Microsoft Windows Vista. In case you don't know, Windows Vista is the next version of the Windows operating system currently projected to be available for purchase in the fourth quarter of 2006. You may have heard it referred to earlier under its codename, Longhorn. A couple of weeks ago, beta versions (preliminary releases for testing purposes) were released to software developers. Hackers got their hands on these early releases, too, and new viruses have already been written that specifically target this new version of Windows a year and a half before it is even set to be released!

Windows Vista, when launched at the end of 2006, will be the first version of Windows to be released since 2001 when Windows XP debuted. There are currently over 130,000 computer viruses aimed at Windows users.

Now contrast that with using a Mac. The beta version of Mac OS X was released to the public in the Fall of 2000 and the first commercial version appeared in 2001. There have been four successive major upgrades to the Mac operating system since. And how many viruses to date? NONE.

While the average Windows user wages a constant battle against viruses and spyware, and while the average Windows computer IS infected by one or the other (ever wonder why your "new" computer is running so slow?), Macs are virtually virus and spyware free. I say virtually because technically, you as a Windows user could email me a message with a virus attached. Once I received it, yes, there would technically be a virus on my computer. However, a Windows virus will NOT execute on a Mac, so it's dead weight.

Yes, I do run antivirus software on my Macs just in case there ever is a real Mac virus, but to date (five years since the release of the OS X beta), there hasn't been one. All my antivirus software ever detects is occasionally when one of you Windows users sends me a virus in an email. My software deletes it so that I don't accidentally forward it back to one of you Windows users who would then really be infected.

Many defenders of Windows will say that Macs are virus free because there aren't as many of us. That's partly true, but it's party a red herring. If all things were equal, there should be significantly less viruses on Macs than on Windows computers. However, remember that there are NO viruses for Mac OS X. That's because the two operating systems work differently. Viruses and spyware are in reality little programs running on your computer. On a Mac, a program cannot be installed without the direct intervention of the user by typing in a password. Therefore, there is no way that a virus can install itself onto a Mac without a user's knowledge. Yes, there have been occasional security holes in the Mac OS, but these have been plugged fairly quickly resulting in no viruses to date.

If you are a Windows user it's imperative that you run antivirus software and that you update it daily. However, there is a better solution than that. Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal said it best in his column, "How to Protect Yourself from Vandals, Viruses If You Use Windows," when he wrote the following:
 
Opting out: The single most effective way to avoid viruses and spyware is to simply chuck Windows altogether and buy an Apple Macintosh. Apple's operating system, Mac OS X, is harder for the criminals to infect, and the Mac's market share is so small that hackers, virus writers and spies get little thrill, financial gain or publicity from attacking the platform. 
 
I switched over from Windows to the Mac in 1998. To the rest of you who are still hesitant to jump in, all I can say is "Come on in--the water's fine..."