For the Love of Mike…

…someone break down and buy James White his Animaniacs DVDs already. In fact, just get him all three.

And maybe add a Tex Avery Droopy set while you’re at it.

The guy’s posted 414 YouTube videos on religion, he could use the laughs. To say nothing of YouTube needing the break from his constant uploading.

 

And Another Links Roll: Godpod

The right sidebar is getting quite long, but there’s an awful lot of good biblical audio available on the web, so I thought I’d start a blogroll for that, too.

Eventually I’ll have to have  a second page just for links, at this rate.

 

Yet Another Set of Links: YouTube Bible

YouTube being a bit of a modern phenomenon, and many people nowadays much more likely to watch videos than read any extended prose, I take this opportunity to add a hopefully growing Link Category: “YouTube Bible.” Bottom of the right-hand sidebar. Additional suggestions requested.

Truthfully, I like to think of the category as : “Redeeming YouTube”. Have you seen some of the stuff on YouTube?

Music Resources- Yet Another Link List

Four lists down the right sidebar you will see the addition of five music stores in their own grouping. That’s three mp3 stores, one classical music review site (alas, where did you go, Gramophone?), and one soundtrack CD specialty store.

Amazon serves most of my music needs (and books, and movies, and….), but sometimes you have hit the specialists.

In Really Important News….

Jim West is the NUMBER ONE BIBBLIOBLOGGER. Again. And again. and again. and… you get the point. And if you don’t get the point Jim will give it to you. He’s been working out and gathering an army of buff bibblio-minions.

Nick Norelli received YET MORE FREE BOOKS. UPS is considering abandoning his route to save their aching backs and the world’s limited fossil fuel supply.

Eric Sowell’s Zune HD is acting GLITCHY. How strange for a MICROSOFT product.

Robert Eisenman has magically transformed April DeConick into a CONSERVATIVE. He’s gonna try something easy like changing lead into gold, next.

Galgala, Gilgal… The Jericho Cave

The latest archaeological discovery of Biblical interest out of the Middle East: a cave in the Jordan Valley that corresponds to the rough location of Galgala on the Byzantine mosaic map at Madaba.  Some people have equated Galgala with biblical Gilgal, but the Haifa University Professor in charge of this dig, Adam Zertal, has apparently previously identified another site, Khirbet el-Unuk, NE of Shechem, as Gilgal.

This news story is so new there is not much to report. Jim West has posts about the cave here, here, and here. Todd Bolen has some links to some photos and information on the Medeba map at his BiblePlaces Blog. No doubt there will be more news to come in days ahead.

UPDATE 6-23-09: It being a slow depravity day, Jim West posts more photos from the cave here.

e-Sword 9.x modules up at e-Sword Users

The good folk at e-Sword Users dot orgapparently put in a very long and busy weekend, and have upgraded the site so that “the eSword Resources” pulldown folds out to “esword modules” that then handily splits into “esword 8.x and below” and “esword 9.x and above”. Furthermore, clicking on “eSword Resources” takes you to an index page split into 8.x and 9.x modules. You also get a large brightly colored warning under module type pages stating whether the modules on that page are for 8.x or 9.x, and even a note at the end of each module listing noting its format as an 8.x or 9.x module.

OTOH, Rick Meyers’ download page for e-Sword 9.x is still down as of this writing, presumably still waiting for the cable upgrade to handle the massive traffic the new format has created.

So now much of the pain of switching over has been relieved, thanks to the folk at e-Sword users.

5-12-09 UPDATE: Rick Meyers has reopened the e-Sword download page with e-Sword 9.02 now available

e-Sword 9.0.1: A Bumpy Turn onto a New Road

E-sword 1.o was released almost exactly nine years ago. Since then, it has gone on to some nine million downloads and worldwide use, including an ever-increasing demand for multiple language interfaces  and support for the apocrypha/deuterocanonicals, as Christians of all nationalities and traditions have come to use the software for personal bible study.

Now at the end of April, 2009, a major change has come to e-Sword as the database engine behind the software (Access/Jet) has finally lost Microsoft support. Thus Rick Meyers, the originator of e-Sword, has changed the database underneath e-Sword with the brand-new e-Sword version 9.0.1.

What does that mean?

As the title of this post suggests, a bump while turning onto a new road. Specifically, to quote Vaughn Jacobs of the excellent e-Sword Users dot org:

“all the current modules are useless in the new version”.

Well, more accurately, all add-on modules need to be updated to the new database format. This is not a problem with “official” e-Sword modules found at e-Sword dot net and eStudy Source dot com, because Rick Meyers has already switched those over. No, the problem is with the fourteen hundred user- created modules like those collected at e-Sword Users dot org. They won’t work with e-Sword 9.0.1. And while there is work going on to convert the old format modules to the new, that’s a lot of work and very few hands.

It’s a bit of a dilemma, then. On the one hand, the new version has some excellent features, as Rick Meyers catalogues in the release notes:

“This update uses a completely different database format for all resources. Everything is faster and more reliable as a result of this change… Study Notes can be made on any verse in the Bible, now including the Orthodox Apocrypha and the Catholic Deuterocanon…You can now Export the Study Notes and Topic Notes in HTML, Word DOC and Adobe PDF file formats, in addition to the previous plain text and Rich Text formats…You can now Import both HTML and Word DOC files directly into the Study Notes and Topic Notes…Localization of the e-Sword user interface continues with the implementation of fully Unicode compliant controls.”

On the other hand, the thing that so many e-Sword users loved was the availability of so many resources under one roof, so to speak, and most of them free. The user of e-Sword 9.0.1 is going to miss many of these resources, most only temporarily.

The obvious answer to the dilemma is to wait until many resources are converted to the new format to switch over. This is not a problem for old time e-Sword users. It does affect new users interested in the wide selection of user-created modules, however, and I personally can’t give new users the obvious answer. My glitchy Internet Explorer locks up at every site where I tried downloading the setup file for the last old format e-Sword version, 8.0.6.  Maybe that’s my IE, maybe it’s the unreliability of those sites. You’ll have to discover that on your own, e-Sword users. Be careful what and where you download.

Speaking from the sidelines, as I have no special channel to Rick Meyers or the folk at e-Sword users dot org, my take on the format change is that it is partly necessitated by the sheer age of the program, and partly a solution to the long-standing issue of easy copyright infringement with user-created modules. There has always been talk of many resources that might become available for e-Sword, except that publishers take understandable exception to some e-Sword users creating and distributing modules of copyrighted works without any remuneration to the copyright holders.  I suspect the new version will curtail that capability, which will then encourage publishers to make in copyright works available for a modest price.

There is also talk of many out- of- copyright works that are all but ready for release for e-Sword, which may now see the light of day as version 9+ modules. That’s something to look forward to.

So, what is my conclusion about the big change? See the title, again. I hope that better and brighter things are ahead for e-Sword, after we break in the new “engine”, so to speak. It’s an excellent program I use almost daily, and I am only encouraged by its expansion into the non-Protestant traditions and its new multiple language interface support. These changes only make it a program for all Christians around the world, which I believe was Rick Meyers’ intention when he created the program nine years.

The Church Fathers for e-Sword (Almost!)

Is two out of three really not bad?

The Ante-Nicene Fathers are readily available on the e-Sword download menus under “Extras” here.
The Nicene Fathers are available for download at e-Sword users dot org here.
Alas, the Post-Nicene Fathers and extras are yet to be converted for e-Sword. However, they are available at CCEL.

The CCEL page also has a link to Roger Pearse’s More Fathers page. This is too small an intro to that digitizer extraordinaire. Try this link for his blog, his various ancient Christian writings projects, his wit, wisdom, and unfortunately, programming hints (BLEECH!!). WARNING: Mr. Pearse has curiously strong opinions on some things. Whether they are mint-flavored or not I don’t know. The only strong opinions I hold are a recital of Crash’s beliefs from “Bull Durham”. I keep telling you I’m  not original.

4Truth Dot Net: MP3s and more

Just a quick note before I head out the door to the bookstores and a movie (State of Play): If you are an inveterate collector of mp3s on religious topics, you might go to 4truth.net, and interfaith apologetics and evangelism site. They have an audio interview page featuring downloadable mp3s featuring such notables as Dan Wallace, Craig Keener, Tom Schreiner, Darrell Bock, Paul Copan, and Gary Habermas. While you’re at it, I also recommend browsing their topic pages, as there are a few more mp3s buried in the site. There are also many useful articles to read., of course.

I’m particularly pleased to point this site out as it is sponsored by the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, my own denomination. Hurrah for them!