Monthly Archives: January 2006

techtrack.gov Redux: the Feds Need Google Tutorials

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Checking out my SiteMeter stats, I found a funny little entry. Please feel free to check it out for yourself. Apparently, my previous “techtrack.gov” post has caught someone’s attention (and made it to the #1 slot in Google’s results for the string).

A note to my visitor(s) from 65.125.25.# (GRAY HAWK SYSTEMS/DOJ-FBI): The proper way to run a site-specific search on Google would be to enter “site:techtrack.gov” (without the spaces). You’ll be happy to find Google hasn’t indexed your precious classified site. As you found from your botched search, though, quite a few server logs have made note of your visits.

Yep, “Big Brother is watching you.” That is, once he finds his glasses.

Blogos: ESV Hyper-Concordance

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Sean Boisen is looking at a Web 2.0-ish solution to the Semantic Bible Hyper Concordance:

“I spent some time last weekend working on changing the hyper-concordance to a MySql backend. The current implementation simply generates a large number of static HTML files: easy to implement, but a pain to move that much data around. Since there’s a file for each term, that’s about 3000 files, and 30+ Mb of data.

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But my recent ruminations on Web 2.0 buzz got me thinking that it might be time to try building on the ESV Web Service API instead.

Sounds like it’d be great; I can’t wait to check this out!

Jots and Tittles…

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This is a direct quote from Exodus 29:27 in ESV.org’s online ESV Bible:

“And you shall consecrate the breast of the wave offering that is waved and the thigh of the priests’ portion that is contributed from the ram of ordination, from what was Aaron’s and his sons.”

Now, at the risk of being too nit-picky about grammar rules, “from what was Aaron’s and his sons” must mean, “from Aaron’s property, and also from his sons [bodies].” The correct phrasing would be “from what was Aaron’s and his sons’.” Shoot, even “sons’s” is acceptable, depending on who your English teacher was. (Unless the Hebrew states that the wave offering could have been the breast of a Levitical priest, I think the ESV is in error here.)

Not that one missing apostrophe marks the end of the world or anything, but if I could catch this during a light perusal, how many other errors are going undetected? There have already been at least four revisions made to the ESV since it hit the shelves, but does anyone know how major they are? How would we ever know?

Here’s the kicker: I e-mailed Crossway about this almost three years ago. In the meantime, how many copies of the ESV have been sold with at least one known error?

Jots and tittles… jots and tittles…

WP Tiger Administration

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WP Tiger Administration

Ooh, it’s pretty.

Don’t get me wrong; the WordPress Team has put an awful lot of work into a free resource that’s loved by many (including yours truly). Still, the Admin Panel was always lacking in aesthetics.

Until now. Yep, I’ve just got me a copy of WP Tiger Administration by Steve Smith at Ordered List. This is lightyears beyond the default layout � and I actually enjoy writing in here again!

Much thanks, Steve!

Happy Birthday, Tim Cantrell!

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Happy birthday, indeed!

Hey everyone, help me out in celebrating Tim’s birthday! If you’re looking for web hosting from someone who’ll take you seriously, check out Cross PC, Tim’s tech support / software / web hosting company. He’ll give you a good deal without giving you a hard time. (He’d better, or I’ll go down to Knoxville after him!) ;)

How to Debunk (Macro-)Evolution

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“If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.” — Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species.

Shall we start with, say, the complex organ known as the cell? (Scientists had not reached beyond the cellular level at the time of Darwin’s writing, so he could not have known how utterly complex cells are.)

Affluenza in the Church

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Affluenza is the disease of greed. It’s the materialistic mindset that says that getting more money and possessions for yourself is the ultimate aim of life. Affluenza is the spirit of our age and it has infected all of us.

So Josh Harris begins a new series at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD. I highly recommend downloading the first message and checking back in the coming weeks to get the entire series.

This is a topic that’s been getting a bit of press in the “GodBlogger” world. Not only has Josh blogged on it, but DesiringGod‘s Justin Taylor has posted on “A Biblical Theology of Poverty and Almsgiving” and Dan Edelen wants to pool Christian bloggers’ resources so we can actually help some folks (rather than simply lobbing grenades in the latest doctrine war).

My only contribution at this point is my LibraryThing account — since all my books are there now, my brothers and sisters at Chesapeake Community Church can easily browse my collection, and are welcome to borrow whatever they’d like to. (Just please, no highlighting!) Just imagine the resources that could be freed up in a church if a 500-member congregation only needed 10-20 copies of a particular book? (Did the authors in the room just faint? Sorry, guys!)

But it’s a very small start. In Money, Possessions, and Eternity, Randy Alcorn lays out a vision of an Acts 4:32-37 church where there’s a master list of items members have made available to the congregation. (Have a fallen tree in your yard? Don’t go out and buy a chainsaw; Bill Smith’s got one on the list!) It’s like one big family!

Wait… isn’t that what we’re supposed to be?

Pray for John Piper

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(Thanks to Rae for the heads-up.)

Tim Challies has just posted that “John Piper has just announced to the members of Bethlehem Baptist Church that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.” Along with Tim, I ask that you would keep Dr. Piper in prayer; that he would be healed, of course, but moreso that Jesus would be even more wonderful to him through this experience.

In John’s letter to his church (which Tim has posted in its entirety), he wrote the following:

This news has, of course, been good for me. The most dangerous thing in the world is the sin of self-reliance and the stupor of worldliness. The news of cancer has a wonderfully blasting effect on both. I thank God for that. The times with Christ in these days have been unusually sweet.

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God has designed this trial for my good and for your good. You can see this in 2 Corinthians 1:9, "Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead." And in 2 Corinthians 1:4-6, "He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God . . . If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation."

Oh, that I could have the same attitude in a time such as this!