Handbill Evokes International Furor, Charges of Anti-Semitism!

The names in the image below have been blurred out to protect the person guilty of a sin we’ve all committed: a double typo! This person is someone I like very much; very sharp. It happens to the best of us!

But I still got a big kick out it:

I already have a Jew, so I’m not going to the sale—even though she’s not a “classic” Jew, I guess. My wife’s great grandfather was a Jewish émigré from Lithuania (which Laura and I got to visit together on the Musical Mission Team in 2006!).

Firefox’s Keyword Search, Or How to Be Popular in Ten Easy Steps

Just do what I say. Trust me!

Open up a new Firefox window and position it side-by-side with the one you’re reading my post in! All keystrokes I’m asking you to perform are highlighted in red.

Ctrl+N (Mac users, substitute Cmd for Ctrl)

Now make sure your cursor is in the address bar!

Ctrl+L

Now type “amazon.com” and hit enter!

Now right click inside the empty search bar, the place where you would tell Amazon what you want to find!

Select “Add a Keyword for this Search…“!

Don’t stop! Stick with me!

Now type “a Amazon” in the “Name” box and “a” in the “Keyword” box. Click “New Folder” and save your new keyword search in “Shortcuts” within the “Bookmarks Toolbar” by clicking “Add.”

Now keep doing what I say!

Open up a new Firefox tab!

Ctrl+T

Search for Dr. Layton Talbert’s books on Amazon by typing the following:

a layton talbert

That’s it! You’ve created your first keyword search. Do the same with Google. Do the same with Google Books. Use my little system and you’ll have a way to remember what your shortcut is if you ever forget. Take a look at my list, and please steal from it.

Now, rather than opening up a page for Google or Amazon every time you want to search (or having to select it with a mouse in Firefox’s search bar), you can ready a search in as little as four keystrokes:

Ctrl+L, a [space] [your search terms here]

Safari users can do something like this with Sogudi.

IE users can get Firefox.

Keyboard Shortcuts, Or Nirvana Is Getting Crowded

I love keyboard shortcuts. When I was a child, I eschewed DOS in favor of the wonders of GUI! I thought: why type on the keyboard when you can click with a mouse! But—as the green lady in C.S. Lewis’s Perelandra would say—”I am older now,” so I use the keyboard for as much as possible. My skills even came in handy in a life-or-death situation when I forgot to bring a mouse to hook up to my iMac to run my wedding photo slideshow at our reception!

But keyboard shortcuts only go so far because they can usually do only one thing. For that reason, there are command line interfaces. BibleWorks was probably my first great command line love. But Quicksilver has now come into my life, and other utilities are vying for my key depressions.

For example, yesterday (read: three months ago in Internet time), Mozilla released Ubiquity, a command line utility for Firefox.

My verdict? I don’t like it. But I’m intrigued by one of its key features: it automatically pulls live Internet content into your launch window while you type. That has real potential. I’m watching, I’m watching…

Why Don’t You Like It, marklwardjr?

Why don’t I like it? It’s too verbose. I have to type too much to do what I’ve already been doing with Firefox’s keyword search (watch for a future post on that).

What Do You Use, marklwardjr?

I use Quicksilver for launching almost everything, for moving files, and even for quick e-mails.

I also use Spark, because it can record macros and it’s always in the background. I use it to Pause/Play iTunes while another program is running, to output my e-mail signature, even to input my username, a tab, my password, and enter so I can quickly get past a login screen.

What Do You Not Use, marklwardjr?

I don’t use Google Desktop Search. I did on my old Dell, but the indexing was taking up noticeable processing power. Spotlight does just fine or better, and it’s more integrated. I thought I might miss having cached versions of documents. That saved me a time or two on my Dell. But I haven’t needed that. I haven’t even really needed Time Machine, for that matter—though I use it just in case.

What Would You Use if You Had a Windows Machine?

Well, I do run Windows, but only for Bible software and word processing. But if Windows were still my main OS, I’d use Launchy:

I’d also use Enso, though it, too, is more verbose than I care for a launcher to be:

Stay tuned for an exciting list of keyboard shortcuts for Firefox. If you’ll patiently try what I suggest in that post, you’ll amaze your friends and family and, if you’re single, be married to the girl of your dreams very soon. Hey, it worked for me.

Free Commentaries by Actual Scholars!

I picked up this free commentary within minutes of its release, but I neglected to tell you… Please forgive me!

It looks like a slightly beefed up BKC, or maybe a slightly beefed down EBC. Looks, in fact, like a Tyndale series commentary (some of which, especially in the OT, are fantastic no matter what level of scholarship you’re working on).

Bock, of course, is someone whose work in the Gospels I have come very much to appreciate (see his blog and this two-volume Luke commentary). He’s a public face for sound evangelical scholarship. I’m not familiar with Turner, however.

HT: Phil Gons

Two Romantic Textual Criticism Stories—Really!

The Israeli Antiquities Authority is going to put the Dead Sea Scrolls online in amazingly high-quality digital format. In addition, the half-century-old infrared photographs will go up. Have you never read the romantic story of the release of the Dead Sea Scrolls by Marty Abegg, Biblical Archaeological Review, and the Huntington Library? Don’t miss it!

Something else you may have missed: Sinaiticus is already out there on a very cool site. Have you never read the romantic story of the finding of Sinaiticus by Constantin von Tischendorf? Don’t miss it!