Now he has followed up that beginning with a Prologue and I am still being carried along, though I wonder what NT specialists will make of the decisions he took to create the tale - I look forward to any discussion.
Incidentally, Stephen there's another nomination for the carnival, make sure that all the NT bloggers see the series, and so we get some juicy responses.
Labels: writing
¶ 2:43 PM
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OK, we've all done it - even those who don't admit it - overwritten the version we need of some vital document and lost hours of work. Barbara suffered this just the other day, from the dreaded "I saved the attachment when I finished editing it" syndrome (which is also my most common cause). I am not bad at finding the backup copies that Word scatters liberally round one's hard-drive, but I've bookmarked "How to recover lost Word files"? from EaseUs software people (even if it does advertise their shareware products) because it suggests some wrinkles I did not know or often forget... (HT to the usually interesting LifeHacker for the tip.)
Labels: software
¶ 5:32 PM
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Argh! Saved attachments in MS Entourage on the Mac and MS Outlook on the PC have both devastated me. I'm hoping that Apple's "Time Machine" feature might help that if I upgrade the laptop.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/features/timemachine.html
By 
Stephen G, at
June 29, 2007 5:44 PM
Each poet was given a stimulus, so Marge Piercy got this quote about exodus:
She writes - at least on this occasion, with a short time limit - by slapping the main ideas down fast, and then tinkering till it is "right".A people with a moral vision for themselves and humanity emerged through the birth waters of the Sea of Reeds. This vision was created out of the dark night of slavery, from being crushed in the cruel womb of Egypt. They now march toward Mt. Sinai, to meet the Divine Presence that has called them into history.
Rabbi Mordecai Finley
IFbook also pointed to Ian Spiro's fascinating Dlog, at neat Javascript (I think) application that records what you write... So here is me writing a short fragment titled "Writing". (You need Firefox or Safari for this to work, apologies to those with sub-standard browsers ;-) for such impaired folk, and for those without the time (or too lazy) to go watch as you read here is the (final) text:
I've now started wondering what this process does to our reading...
I wonder how such a writing "space" might affect the process of composition. For certainly the "word processor" impacts the way we write [do I need to check the reference for that book?]...
Might putting a recording like this on a blog inhibit, or would we all - good exhibitionists that bloggers are - write rubbish at great speed, or indeed learn to think BEFORE we write - now that would be novel ;-)
I started this with no idea where it was going... and I still do not know how to title it! [I must have missed that bit in skimming the instructions!]
This whole experiment was stimulated by reading the post on the IFbook blog at http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/archives/2007/06/poetry_in_motion.html
and then looking at some of the poems they link to, and then wondering, how would such a tool (if always available) impact writing - after all writing is as interesting as reading!
... and how cool it would be if someone produced an edition of Amos that reproduced this using Wolff's redaction critical analysis to make the "edits" would one "see" the canonical shaping process at work more clearly? When I have time I must try...
Labels: technology, writing
¶ 7:41 AM
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This recipe is easy, quick, tasty and unusual. As Donna Hay says it captures "those strong flavours synonymous with roasts... in half the time".
Heat the oven I suggest about 170oC fanbake, or a bit more conventional - Donna recommended 200oC but I think that starts the tomatoes too fast - cut about three or four tomatoes per person in half, put them on a baking tray with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and a small handful of herbs (Donna says thyme, but it is not the thyme season round here - so how come a recipe for thyme was in last week's Herald? Go figure! I used marjoram and it tasted good last night, today I found thyme in the vegie shop, so maybe our thyme dying is just bad herbiculture). When the oven is hot put them in for 12-15 minutes - they should be starting to loose shape and concentrate the flavour as the water evaporates.
Turn the oven up to 225oC (perhaps more if conventional). Prepare the couscous equal parts hot chicken stock and couscous, enough for the number of people for a meal one cup does two, for one course one cup might serve 3-4 people. and pour over the tomatoes. Back in the oven for 10 mins. Donna says cover, I preferred to soak the couscous first and then half cover so the higher heat could begin to make nice dark baked bits.
Meanwhile whizz some more oil, lemon juice to taste, salt and pepper and mix in pinenuts (if you have no pinenuts cashews work well, but put them in to whizz and get partly chopped - I've tried both, pinenuts are best but cashews are good too). Mix this dressing with a handfull or two of baby spinach leaves per person and plenty of grated parmesan. (Yes, this time you need the fresh stuff the tubes of dry grains will NOT do!) Pour this over the hot tomato couscous mix in the oven tray to wilt the spinach before serving. It goes down a treat on its own, or with chicken. To save bother if you are using chicken I suggest cutting small and putting into the oven about half way through cooking the tomatoes the first time.
Ingredients (per person as a main):
- Tomatoes: Roma or other acid free - 3-4
- Pinenuts - 1/3-1/2 cup for 2-4 people
- Baby spinach leaves - 1-2 handfulls
- Couscous - 1/2 a cup
- Chicken stock - 1/2 cup
- Lemon juice - tablespoon
- Parmesan cheese grated - 1/3 cup or so
- Olive oil, salt and pepper
I didn't wait for the sun to shine, I stoked up the fire, and imagined it. There is no one else at home they are at conferences or skiing or soaking in the hot pools at Rotorua, so my consolation prize was starting the day my way: salmon and the Baked Couscous and Tomato as a salad. It was delicious, so you deprived summery types need not wait, add a delicious unusual new salad to your repertoire!
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Since:
- The issue is not going away any time soon.
- Problems financing online biblical content are similar.
- Although illegal copying of music is widespread it is publicly discussed seldom in Christian circles.
As background, here is how I understand our situation:
- Christian ministry needs to be paid for
- although amateur efforts are great professionals are needed too
- few churches can really employ musical originators
- Copying of recorded music is:
- endemic - can YOU be certain you have no "pirated" material on your MP3 player. or family computer
- technically easy - despite record companies flirting with dubious protection technologies (think Sony and "rootkits") in fact all they do is restrain the less determined or technically literate users from "pirating"
- culturally almost accepted1 (see 1 above, opinions are still quite split, but informal evidence suggests an inverse correlation of age and knowledge of, and respect for, copyright laws)
- No one has yet found a way to turn downloads into cash (dreams of advertising revenues may change this, but have yet to be proven viable for material other than blogs and other text-based sites dedicated to such a business model)
- The morality (and cultural desirability) of the notion of intellectual "property" is debatable2 .
I wish I knew! That is my point. I do not see a future where renewed private morality ensures that we all dutifully avoid "consuming" pirate music, videos etc.. DRM schemes will fail (they represent at best an ineffective sea wall against a storm tide). Advertising may succeed though as I wrote below:
I think Keith's claim that we live in a "world that is used to paying for the products it consumes" is not true any longer for "intellectual products", at least when they are distributable online. And in such a world I begin to wonder if a return to some form of patronage (see "Subscription, advertising and appeals online") is the only answer. To some extent this is already our situation, churches support preachers and increasingly musicians, educational institutions support certain forms of publication (at least through research time, but increasingly through direct payment towards publication), companies sponsor sports teams and symphony orchestras...
...welcome to the new renaissance!
NB. Claude has posted again in "Christians and the Copyright Laws" on the specific issues of Christian music, I have not commented on that post here as this post is already too broad and I wanted to ficus on the financing of publishing (of music, and other intellectual "products") today.
Peter Kirk also has an interesting and careful discussion "Is breach of copyright theft?" which is well worth adding to your reading on this topic! In a comment on his own post Peter refers to "Copyrights and Copying: Why the Laws Should Be Changed" by Vern Poythress concluding:
I am still in the middle of the first semester marking crisis, and so reading Poythress and further comment will have to wait!
what might happen if the restrictions on copying were loosened.
Not quite, he can look at what happens in the many countries in the world (mostly towards the East) where such restrictions, even if existing in theory, are in practice not enforced and ignored by almost everyone. I used to live in such a country. But his speculations seem reasonably accurate about what things were like there: life went on, but intellectual work tended to depend on sponsorship.
1. How culturally acceptable it is may be debated, "pirating" intellectual property is evidently illegal in most countries, but the ubquity and scale of copying (here I offer the increase in plagiarism in student essays as hard evidence) suggests that culture and law are at odds here. [return]
2. The notion of "intellectual property is modern, it was introduced to protect "authors" from publishers. It is now used mainly to protect publishers from the public. It is culturally vital that ideas (including artistic "ideas") get remixed. The concept of property relates to physical objects, "intellectual property is immaterial. Yet "authors" need to derive a living from their work, unless all creativity is to be a spare time activity. [return]
Labels: copyright
¶ 3:24 PM
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It's interesting to watch the fringes of the music industry. More than a few 'indie' type artists are making a living by giving away their music, and selling 'value-added' bits like live shows, or early previews of their music. Of course, this depends on being the sort of musician that people will pay to see in person, but the idea's there.
Others are selling things by escrow -- they'll take, say, $5 donations, and if they get to a predefined amount they'll go ahead and finish producing whatever the work is, with copies to those who 'donated'. If they don't raise enough money, the cash gets returned to the donors, and the work goes back on the shelf.
Also, in certain sectors piracy is largely tolerated -- Adobe seems to not mind too much about students pirating Photoshop (businesses is another matter altogether), because those students are then getting creative jobs, where their employers will buy photoshop for them, partly because it's the standard, but partly because they already know it.
But yes, interesting questions.
By Matt W, at
June 26, 2007 5:03 PM
few churches can really employ musical originators
Maybe few churches do employ them. But plenty of churches seem to employ pastors who find time to write books, and mostly don't depend on income from them (Rick Warren may be an exception). Also quite a lot of churches employ worship leaders. If a reasonable number of churches would employ worship leaders who also write original songs, and encourage them to do so, then these songs could be made available freely. Why don't churches do this? Perhaps because they pay the worship leader so little that he or she has to rely on sales of music. But if churches really believed in their worship leaders, they would pay them enough that the songs could be distributed free. In the long run it would be to their advantage, because having a well known worship leader attracts a larger congregation and so more tithe money; also the church (rather than the worship leader) can profit by staging concerts.
By Peter Kirk, at
June 26, 2007 10:00 PM
In the Netherlands we have the same problem. Some time ago I wrote an article about this problem and supposed to introduce "open source" music, free to use for no commercial events.
By J. P. van de Giessen, at
June 27, 2007 5:48 AM
Tim,
The problem will not go away because many people don't see anything wrong with taking what belongs to another person. You are busy with markings (grading for Americans). I finished my grading but now I am very busy with editing the Self-Study report.
I a few days, when I finish editing the Self-Study Report, I will respond to Peter’s post and comment on the article by Vern Poythress. I believe this article deserves a response. If you read it, tell me what you think of the article.
Claude Mariottini
In a post "You Talk - PodBible interactive" I mentioned that Mark Brown (the CEO of Bible Society in NZ) had become some kind of Anglican Bishop of Second Life well, now Wired blog has featured the story: "Anglican Second Life Inhabitants Construct Medieval Cathedral".As you may NOT remember when Wired Blog posted about Librivox, my Stalky and Co. quickly passed 1,000 downloads despite its size and obscurity! So, I hope Mar and his Cathedral staff are well prepared for all those virtual tourists who will soon be winging their way Ephany Islandward ;-)
PS, even if you are not a virtual tourist, do visit Mark's blog, it is more colourful than its name ;-)
Labels: internet, virtual.theology
¶ 12:17 PM
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Because, while as currently structured breach of copyright is theft, it is also true that as it currently operates the "intellectual property" ideology combines with the worst features of capitalism to become the means by which "stars" and record companies, make excess profit, young struggling artists are NOT supported and the Christian message becomes a commercial "product" to be packaged and sold - quite literally. To my mind selling the gospel is sin - and that is worse than theft, for theft is merely a crime!
I am deeply saddened when I hear of copyright Bibles, that people cannot copy to disseminate, I am equally sad when I hear of Christian Musicians who make more than a good living out of
"selling" the gospel, just like the worst TV Evangelists. Next thing Pastor X will copyright his sermons, and how long before Disney trademarks the term "Gospel".
So, I agree with what you say, but I wish people would say and do more to help undo this sad
commercialisation of what should be good news for everyone!
Until Christians (whether musicians or not) learn to opt out of the diabolic system of fame, pride and wealth that has crippled the Church in the Western world, and is decimating our reach into our neighbourhoods, Christian music will remain an "industry" and "Christian music" will continue to be protected by complex and restrictive DRM mechanisms, and will continue to be stolen.
Labels: copyright
¶ 9:25 AM
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It is expensive to produce music and tour. How do you propose Christian musicians do this in a world that is used to paying for the products it consumes?
By Keith, at
June 21, 2007 5:33 PM
Perhaps by trusting God? I know more non-Christians with more faith then this: who give away their music, etc, etc.
Since when was the cost of something a limiting factor in any ministry that someone truely believes they are called to.
The greatest problem is that we have bought into the actual notion of 'not sharing' - which is essentially the legal framework that copyright provide. It might be worth learning something from the people who use Copyright to enforce sharing: Creative Commons, Open Source, Free Software, etc.
By Dwayne, at
November 13, 2007 9:20 AM
Dwayne,
I tend to agree with you. I try to give away as much as I can of what I write and speak. BUT I am fortunate, someone pays my salary, and it is enough to live on reasonably comfortably. There is a real problem with funding the production (except where it is done part time in "spare time") of material that is given away. Famous names can do it, like bands do by making money on gigs, but most writers and musicians can't. So, the issue is how we (i.e. the church or the academy) fund such things.
By Tim, at
November 13, 2007 9:32 AM
Labels: video
¶ 9:52 AM
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Sean is pushing ahead with his Bibleref idea. (You remember, adding a bit of invisible code that makes your references to the Bible machine readable, so that search engines and the like can do clever things, and smart people can help make the web a better place for rule-obeying Bible students.) It seems Bibleref is ready for the prime time! In Sean's Bibleref: Going Public post he offers - an overview, a more formal specification, as well as some suggestions for how others can help and a place to describe new tools as they become available.
- [he's] also created an online discussion board where people can comment, critique, etc.: you’ll find that at http://semanticbible.com/forum/.
- Chris Roberts has released a new version of his ESV WordPress plugin that includes bibleref support. This is a nearly painless way to start supporting bibleref: thanks Chris!
PS if you are an early adopter, you can either take the badge above (right click Save As) or make a better one and post it to Seans discussion HERE.
Labels: bibleref, open.biblical.studies
¶ 8:23 AM
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So now all we need are some sort of addin for Blogger and/or Performancing and perhaps one for Wordpress that is not linked to a particular (controversial) translation.
Your wish is my command, for WordPress at least:
Bibleref Plugin for WordPress
- you are not at all tech savey and just want to type Hebrew, Greek or transliterations that others can read - go HERE and use the Tyndale Font Kit
- you are a bit tech literate AND you would like a choice of fonts - go HERE after installing the Tyndale Font Kit (but BEWARE do not follow the advice at Greek Geek to install or use BW fonts, they are great for users of the BibleWorks program but they are "legacy fonts" and do not transport well)
- you are moderately techie, and want (possibly better) a choice of different keyboards and fonts perhaps even for Syriac or Coptic - go HERE and feast
Bible Texts in Unicode (for cut and paste if you do not have Logos and can't make BibleWorks export in Unicode):
- TanakhML Hebrew Bible Browser (nb. at the right under "Display" you have a choice of turning vowels, accents and other marks "On" or "Off" to make your text maximally readable turn accents "Off" - they will show as little empty boxes for people without the specialised fonts, while the basic consonants and vowels should display OK even for them)
- Greek NT and LXX (I was not able to find an accented Greek
Labels: greek, hebrew, open.biblical.studies
¶ 8:09 AM
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Since I'm sitting here with Linux in front of me, I decided to see how this sort of thing might work with that. (Specifically, I'm using KDE as my desktop, rather than Gnome or anything else.) I went into the Control Centre, and had a look at the Regional options. All sorts of keyboard layouts were waiting there for me, so I chose to enable the Israel one, as well as the U.S. English one. A little icon appeared in my system tray to let me switch between them. I went into OpenOffice to test them out, and sure enough, I could choose to type in either the Roman alphabet or the Hebrew one.
Furthermore, the Sword project's free software integrates directly into KDE's file browser, so you can read "over 200 texts in over 50 languages" without leaving home, or at least those texts that you choose to install. You can copy and paste from there, and even switch on links to dictionary entries for Greek words in the New Testament, for example. Not being a scholar of any Biblical languages, I haven't yet bothered to find out if there are any accented Greek versions of the New Testament, or anything like that.
I understand the Sword project has software that works with Windows, too, but I haven't personally tried it.
<><
By 
, at
June 19, 2007 3:27 PM
Thanks, I couldn't really comment on Linux, I am stuck with XP, and most of the people who ask my help use it too. Linux users on the whole are tech savey enough to fix it themselves!
Sword is also available for PC (and I think Mac) it is probably the best multilingual Bible software available for free, though e-Sword for PC is easier to use. For serious sustained work with the languages one of the paying programs is well worth the money (if one has it) but the free programs allow one to do a lot.
By Tim, at
June 20, 2007 4:48 PM
BTW thanks to Nichthus for pointing me to Common Craft's You Tube output (their item on Wikis at last enabled me to see what apart from Wikipdedia they are good for) (-;
Labels: web2.0
¶ 5:27 PM
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My text was Matthew 5:17-48. A long, complex, and difficult passage! Basically I focused on the opening: where Jesus affirms unequivocally that he came to "fulfil" the Law and Prophets, and NOT to abolish them. Noticing how Jesus develops this in a series of examples where what he demands of us is stronger and harder than what Old Testament law requires. He closes the section saying: "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Mat 5:48) It's too long (at 30mins plus question time!) for 5 Minute Bible so I am posting it here:
- Matthew 5:17ff. : How to read the Old Testament (download 14MB)
- Matthew 5:17ff. : How to read the Old Testament (stream as you go)
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Thank you, Richard for adding the comment below and pointing me to the La Parola Greek Testament with both variant readings and a list of Patristic citations. It is both magnificent, and a fine example of how (if the data are in suitable formats) people online can build on, and add value to, each other's work. You have put together a really useful site!Richard lists het following resources which have been used in his project:
- James Tauber and CCAT (Center for Computer Analysis of Texts) at the University of Pennsylvania for the Greek Text (Nestle-Aland and the UBS, and is only available for NON-COMMERCIAL personal/scholarly and educational use.) He notes that he "added the punctuation to the text, and know that it still contains many errors" so do your bit and write to the address on his site if you find one.
- Christian Classics Ethereal Library for the Westcott and Hort text and Maurice A. Robinson for the parsing and for the Byzantine Text.
- Ulrik Petersen for the Tischendorf text.
- Christian Classics Ethereal Library for the text (in the Ante-Nicene Fathers translation) and Early Christian Writings (Peter Kirby whose blog seems currently unavailable) for the index to the fathers.
Labels: new testament, open.access.scholarship, open.biblical.studies
¶ 8:27 AM
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Coffee: Pretty Good - Good Barbara pronounced the Mochaccino good and not too sweet <aside> </aside> The long black was tasty, not bitter but with a smooth bite, but too "long". <aside>
Labels: auckland_cafes, coffee, food, review
¶ 12:57 PM
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i used to love blue strawberry and felt the place sort of lost it's soul when it became columbus.
steve
ex-onehunga-kiwi
By , at
June 20, 2007 10:56 AM
Hi, Steve,
Change happens, as they say, or perhaps fairer, not all change is good (-;
By Tim, at
June 20, 2007 1:09 PM
Peter poses the question: "What kind of Internet resource would be worth paying a subscription to access?" implying (I assume the question presumes a Bible-related Internet resource (-;
He goes on to outline a tool that he thinks would be worthy of payment:
Now, assuming such a tool were available online, would people pay?
- A text of the New Testament with apparatus. This means that textual variants would be noted in an online format. To my knowledge, this is not done in a thoroughgoing way on a website, even now.
- Texts from the Roman, Greek, Jewish, and Ancient Near East worlds that have interest on their own and that may shed light on the Bible. These texts should be both in English and in their original tongues.
- Cross-references between texts to note connections (like the "e-Catena" and the Thomas commentary's parallels do in miniature).
No.
Now, I do not know this as a fact - no one has yet tried a subscription model for such a tool. But we do know that when Zack Hubert appealed for funds to support development of his fine Greek Bible tool he got almost nowhere. People will not donate to support good useful projects. The (lack of) sales of the CD version of Amos: Hypertext Bible Commentary, which we had hoped might help cover some of the costs of that project also points in the same direction. The culture of the free is deeply rooted online. Although offline people would be quite happy paying larger sums of money for products, online we expect them to be free, and we resist paying.
It gets worse, even when people will pay for online electronic content, as they do for iTunes music, many of them copy the content freely for their friends. So, iTunes sales are beginning to flatline, and Peter Gabriel (the musician and Internet angel) and other less famous investors are setting up an ad-supported (un-DRMed) MP3 download service. Whether this will work, whether we like the idea of adverts everywhere, or not, this reinforces the deep roots of free culture in the electronic world.
Perhaps incidentally, perhaps not, Matthew Haughey noticed that people who click on ads are usually one-off visitors, not returnees. So, he claims, you can turn off ads for regular visitors, but keep them for those who stumble across your site. I really like this idea, except how do you ever turn visitors into regulars if the visitors are bombarded by ads?!
Maybe we are returning to patronage, like in the Renaissance when rich Italians paid artists and scientists to generate a new and vibrant culture... anyone know a rich Italian with a passion for the Bible?
Labels: internet
¶ 7:46 AM
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For the text of the New Testament with apparatus, try
http://www.laparola.net/greco/
I think it is quite thoroughgoing. I'm afraid that it is free however :-) due to rich non Italians supporting an (almost) Italian artist.
Amy-Jill Levine, is an Orthodox Jewish feminist New Testament scholar (already an intriguing combination) with a fine reputation, the lecture "Jesus and Women" that Phil Wilson posted as an MP3 to his Teaching the Kingdom site is superb, thought-provoking and humorous.
If you live in, or within reach of, Auckland this is one theology lecture you should NOT miss!
At: The University of Auckland, LawSmall Law Building, 9-17 Eden Crescent, AucklandJesus and Judaism: Why the connection matters
On: Monday , 18th June, 2007
At: 6.00am - 7.30pm
Cost: Koha (Donation)
By Amy-Jill Levine, E. Rhodes and Leona B Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, Department of Religious Studies, and Graduate department of Regligion.
Amy-Jill's recent publications include:
- The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus (HarperSanfrancisco 2006)
- The Historical Jesus in Context (Princeton University Press 2006)
- The series: A Feminist Companion to the New Testament and Early Christian Literature
Labels: bible, judaism, new testament
¶ 3:51 PM
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At least in the instances I've seen or heard, when Levine describes herself, she describes herself as "belonging to an Orthodox synagogue" rather than simply "Orthodox." I don't know if she considers herself to be frum or not.
By Iyov, at
June 16, 2007 11:54 AM
Ancient History (aka the 1970s-1990s)
In the "bad old days" computers did not understand non-Roman alphabets (like much in this post this is a gross over-simplification, if that troubles you you are in the wrong place - try Alan Wood’s Unicode Resources for a more complete presentation). To overcome this biblical scholars (at least those who were also geeky enough to want to process words in Hebrew, Greek...) needed to install special fonts that fooled the poor machine into thinking that a lowercase "x" looked like this: ח or, on other occasions like this: Χ, in other words the font represented Hebrew, Greek etc. characters, while telling the computer that they were proper American ones (the coding system was called ASCII "American Standard Code for Information Interchange").This was simple, until you wanted to give your document (on a "floppy" remember those - once they were floppy too!) to someone else. At that point they had fun decyphering text like this: "d#r&k m*H$s@" and most gave up saying "It's all Greek to me!" at which point one informed them gently that it was actually Aramaic and everything went downhill from there!
I've seen the present - and it works!
All that is changing.
WindowsXP and most programs designed for it (like your Wordprocessor or Browser) understand Unicode. Like ASCII, Unicode represents characters by number codes. Unlike ASCII (which only had 128 characters, 33 of which wouldn't print anyway!) Unicode even in its simpler forms has THOUSANDS of characters so "x" means x and not ח or Χ which each just stand for themselves. And... when you send your document to someone else there is a very good chance the "foreign" alphabets will be readable, even if still without good fonts they may not be pretty. (The sad exception to this is complex accents and the like which risk showing up as little rectangles. The good news is though that whatever font they download that contains these signs will display them this sometimes looks untidy, but it is way more readable than "d#r&k m*H$s@".)
How to do it: Unicode for (Biblical Scholarly) Dummies
It is not difficult, just download the Tyndale House Font Kit. Install it, (you can pretty much take the defaults), so that basically means a double click after you download and then double click again on the install file.
After installation, at the bottom of your screen you will see a new little square with two letters (these represent the language you are using, EN = English, FR = French etc. - for these purposes Americans are understood to be using "English" ;-) If you click on the button (once will do, do NOT get overenthusiastic, Jean) you will see a popup like this:
This will allow you to select Greek or Hebrew as your input language (temporarily) Greek includes transliteration characters for Hebrew transcriptions too (just use shift lock). At first you will probably need the keyboard layout, so print out the file called: Keyboards.doc in the C:\Program Files\Tyndale Unicode Font Kit directory.
That's all folks!
Post Scriptum:
Except to add that as Daniel mentions in his comment below:
Thanks, Daniel, yes it has been a good feature that Logos adopted early, Bibleworks is still playing catch up in cutting and pasting.
BW users need to know that they have to go: |Tools| |Options| |Fonts| and tell the program that the "Export Fonts" should be Unicode, rather like this:
Post Scriptum II
Daniel (below) also points to Windows Keyboards for Ancient Languages as well as Greek and Hebrew (and transliteration) include also Syriac and one tailored for the entry of Coptic. If you have Logos installed these are probably both the easiest and best Unicode keyboards to use. If you use BibleWorks or another (non-Unicode) program then the Tyndale Font Kit is probably the easiest way to go. Either way your text will be readable by more people! (Everyone using WinXP+ or MacOSX+ if you use no accents... for accents they will require a suitable scholarly Unicode font but it does not matter which one they have :)
Post Scriptum III
Bible Texts in Unicode (for cut and paste if you do not have Logos and can't make BibleWorks export in Unicode):
- TanakhML Hebrew Bible Browser (nb. at the right under "Display" you have a choice of turning vowels, accents and other marks "On" or "Off" to make your text maximally readable turn accents "Off" - they will show as little empty boxes for people without the specialised fonts, while the basic consonants and vowels should display OK even for them)
- Greek NT and LXX
Labels: biblical.studies.online, greek, hebrew, open.biblical.studies
¶ 8:39 AM
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Yup, yup, yup. Right on all counts. The Tyndale Unicode thing is the best invention since they learned to slice bread (and call it a scone) and brew Starbucks.
By Jim, at
June 14, 2007 9:19 AM
Oh, much better than falsely advertising bread as scones ;-) this does what it says, does what is needed and does it easily. I made the post because three times in the last week I've had to help people who are, or are becoming, biblical scholars but who were having problems typing or letting others read the basic languages.
From now on I'll just send them the URL!
So, if anyone finds the instructions difficult or don't work please SAY, so I can fix them...
By Tim, at
June 14, 2007 9:27 AM
Ah yes, the brave new world of standards! :-)
Another cool thing about Unicode is that when you copy and paste text into your word processor from a program like Logos Bible Software the fonts just...work. This painlessness is what persuaded Logos to adopt the Unicode Way back in 2001 when it was first (barely) supported by Windows. But WinXP sure does offer fuller and easier Unicode support!
Here's another freebie: anyone in need of a good Coptic or Syriac keyboard can download one at no charge here.
By Daniel Foster, at
June 14, 2007 11:29 AM
Well, Rick Brannan (of Ricoblog fame) tells me he's pretty sure Logos used Unicode internally to the app as far back as 1995, when Logos Library System 2.0 was released. He says, "We didn't export unicode (by default ... but you could set it up) since almost no apps supported it in Win 3.x."
I stand corrected.
From the war stories I hear from veteran Logos developers, I think "bleeding edge" aptly describes the experience of working with Unicode back then.
By Daniel Foster, at
June 14, 2007 1:33 PM
A great invention, indeed, Jim, but not Tyndale House's. They only copied it. As mentioned on their own page, SBL and SIL among others had done more or less the same first, and several years ago.
Disclaimer: I worked on the some of the supporting files for the SIL Hebrew Unicode font package, and also provided some input to the SBL Hebrew font developers. And I was using Unicode Hebrew on Windows 95 - yes, you could make it work (if you didn't worry about precise accent positioning) even on that platform, with Word 97 and IE5.
By Peter Kirk, at
June 15, 2007 11:05 AM
Another nice site that helps simplify setup is GreekGeek.net.
By mgvh, at
June 17, 2007 5:03 PM
Daniel
I sometimes complain about the way default installations of Logos "take over", and so slow, my machine - I wish it were easier to turn off the "clever stuff"! But, I have been hugely impressed by the way Logos has consistently been at the forefront of significant technological and standards breakthroughs - I think XML is another case in point!
[BTW I will move your link to the Logos keyboards into the text as well in case anyone does not read the comments :( ]
Peter
I should probably have mentioned SIL, except the post was not intended to be a History of Unicode for Biblical Studies, just a quick and dirty instruction sheet for the perplexed and techno-phobic. But you are right, SIL were helpful early adopters!
Mark
Greek Geek and hopefully soon Hebrew Geek are really useful sites. However, I did not mention them as their focus is on BibleWorks "legacy" fonts, not Unicode, if people install the BW fonts from there (aside from being of dubious legality because of copyright) text they type in Greek will only be readable to others with the BW fonts installed. Just the situation that Unicode helps us avoid!
By Tim, at
June 18, 2007 6:50 AM
Labels: blog
¶ 7:01 AM
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Hat tip to LifeHacker for pointing me to this new addon for Open Office. Now those who do not enjoy paying for a copy of Microsoft Office to do basic office tasks (or indeed most complex tasks) do not have to write without any computerised grammar checking.
LangaugeTool is free it works in Java, and so anywhere OpenOffice does and checks your grammar and some word usage. This does not replace a sensible fluent friend, but does help you avoid many common errors. [Students and blog authors take note - this can considerably improve your credibility!]
LifeHacker's instructions read:
One less excuse for many of the simple errors in the essays I read. One happy (well at least happier) marker! One more reason not to "upgrade" to MS Office 2007, and make all your documents unreadable by others (unless you use the tip in the comments to this post ;-)
Labels: pc
¶ 8:56 AM
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Duane asks:
and like all good teachers, he answers his own question
Sociologically it is a good answer, but I think there is a little more to tease out here. A canon is a closed list of varied works - I realise that a canon need not be varied, though the Christian and Jewish ones John is discussing are, and need not be closed as indeed, at least for many centuries the Jewish canon was not (though I suspect that at any time it "felt" closed). As such a list a canon, as authority, allows an interesting mix of stability and flexibility.
Stability is useful to counteract the natural tendency for humans to "go off the rails" - at least with a canon there is some standard (the "rails") to call the human leader(s), or even whole communities, back to. (I can't think of any easy and simple way to avoid that sentence ending with a preposition ;-) Thus having a written authority over against human authority can be a "good thing". Both the reformers and the anabaptists are examples of such a calling back process that used Scripture as their primary tool.
Yet a canon is also flexible, the variety in the writings allows a greater degree, perhaps even a greater kind, of interpretation and thus allows for significant change. Think of the example of slavery, to some extent the battle for the Western mind over slavery was a battle over the interpretation of canon. A canon (of the sorts that Christians and Jews have) is both a tool for stability and for change.
Bob expresses this sort of idea vividly on a personal scale (I'll quote just a few lines here, but there is so much else in his post related to our question of the psychology of canon):
In his "Second Update" John also explores some of this, with a particular focus on Christian praxis in its relation with canon and doctrine (personally doctrine is a good word, but I am not so happy with "dogma", John) in this he is responding to a post by Doug (which I have not managed to mention above, but should have).
[12 June: Quote corrected to mirror author's correction]
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Why would you want to avoid ending sentences with prepositions? The English language (as it is actually used) has had no prohibition on this for many centuries. Check out http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004454.html for commentary.
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P.S. Interesting post, by the way. It relates to something I was reading today in one of those old-fashioned physical book things.
By , at
June 11, 2007 5:17 PM
Well... the parenthetical remark was intended to be somewhat facetious (hence the smiley), however - despite the entertaining discussion you point towards, and while I'm actually not at all averse to ending a clause or even sentence with a preposition when I have to (as I think I did twice there ;-) - I do think that often this is stylistic feature better avoided. Simply because, often, it makes the sentence or clause less easy to process. (Of course there are also times when the reverse is true as in Churchill's clever "up with which I will not put" example! See http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/churchill.html for an entertaining discussion of this reputed saying.)
By Tim, at
June 11, 2007 5:44 PM
Fair enough. By the way, the same site has some commentary on how Churchill's (or whoever else's) example is really cheating. http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001702.html
Sorry, we're straying remarkably off-topic here, aren't we?
<><
By , at
June 11, 2007 9:47 PM
Off topic is fine! Though maybe so as not to confuse people, or the Great Google, I should post about dangling prepositions and we could do it properly ;-)
By Tim, at
June 12, 2007 7:43 AM
The Kenzie Cafe is just a step from Greenwoods Corner in the heart of Epsom, a few steps from Cornwall Park. Parking is easy in Empire Road. Somehow I'd expect an Epsom cafe to be trendy and contemporary. Yet stepping into the Kenzie is a blast from the past. It is, and has the air of being a "corner cafe", then there are those "modern" bentwood chairs. There are not many other cafes within a kilometre or three in most directions, and perhaps this lack of competition shows.Service: was slow, made slower by having to sit and work from printed menus, rather than a cafe-style blackboard. However, it probably makes sense to work this way in view of space restrictions. There is a kiddie corner up some stairs, well out of the "way" of others, but perhaps worryingly out of sight for pare