Biblical Studies, Exegesis, Theology, etc. by Josh Mann
Zotero is a firefox browser plugin which can do some quite amazing things (and save you tons of time in the process). I’ve been using it for about a year now, and I love it. For more info, you might check out Lifehacker.com’s recent post, or some of Thomas Keene’s posts on the topic (he uses it in the context of biblical/theological studies).
A rundown:
Posted in Technology.
– February 4, 2010
Problem: When I run Windows XP in Parallels, I cannot run a program (in my case, Logos) which is on a partition separate from the one from which Parallels runs. (I split my hard drive into 3 partitions: (1) mac osx; (2) extra stuff (FAT32); and (3) Windows XP. Logos is on “extra stuff” drive, but Windows would not recognize it properly when running inside the Parallels program.)
Solution:
Best instructions are found here. Instructions were written for Parallels Desktop 4, but they worked for me in PD5.
In this scenario, the Mac’s hard disk is partitioned into 3 volumes:
- Macintosh HD (HFS+, Mac OS default)
- Data (NTFS)
- Windows (NTFS, created by Boot Camp Assistant)
The output for Terminal’s command “diskutil list” is as follows:Code:
/dev/disk0 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *298.1 Gi disk0 1: EFI 200.0 Mi disk0s1 2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 145.5 Gi disk0s2 3: Microsoft Basic Data Data 50.2 Gi disk0s3 4: Microsoft Basic Data Windows 101.9 Gi disk0s4MacFUSE and NTFS-3G for Mac are installed in Mac OSX. They are required for read/write at the Data partition from the Mac side, but they wouldn’t be neccesary if the Data partition is FAT32.
When Windows boots natively it can read and write the Data volume perfectly. However, when running the Boot Camp Windows inside a Virtual Machine the partition is detected but it cannot be accessed. Here’s the procedure for allowing it.
1- Locate the file of your Boot Camp virtual machine in Finder (~/Documents/Parallels), i.e. BootCamp.pvm. Ctrl-click the file, then “Show package contents”.
2- Locate a file with extension .hdd, in my case Hitachi HTS543232L9SA02.hdd. Ctrl-click this file, then “Show package contents”.
3- There’s a file named DiskDescriptor.xml. First, make a duplicate as backup (cmd-D), then open it with TextEdit (ctrl-click, Open with…)
The <StorageData> section has several <Storage> sub-sections. The last one should be pointing to the current Boot Camp partition:
Code:
<StorageData> .... <Storage> <Start>411453440</Start> <End>625141759</End> <Blocksize>1008</Blocksize> <Image> <GUID>{5fbaabe3-6958-40ff-92a7-860e329aab41}</GUID> <Type>Bootcamp</Type> <Flags/> <File>/dev/disk0s4</File> </Image> </Storage> </StorageData>In order to grant access to our Data partition we need to add a new <Storage> section after that one. First we need to gather some data:
Start, End:
Use the Partition Inspector application included with the rEFIt package. You don’t need to install rEFIt, simply download the DMG file and run the Partition Inspector application located inside. It produces an output like this:Code:
*** Report for internal hard disk *** Current GPT partition table: # Start LBA End LBA Type 1 40 409639 EFI System (FAT) 2 409640 305620663 Mac OS X HFS+ 3 305882808 411191295 Basic Data 4 411453440 625141759 Basic Data Current MBR partition table: # A Start LBA End LBA Type 1 1 409639 ee EFI Protective 2 409640 305620663 af Mac OS X HFS+ 3 305882808 411191295 07 NTFS/HPFS 4 * 411453440 625141759 07 NTFS/HPFS ...The Data partition is number 3, so the Start and End values are 305882808 and 411191295 respectively.
File:
The Data partition is disk0s3 (see the output of “diskutil list” above). So the <File> tag for the Data partition is /dev/disk0s3Now, back to DiskDescriptor.xml file, duplicate the last <Storage> section and change the Start, End and File values in the copied section leaving all other values unchanged. The result for the <StorageData> section will be this:
Code:
<StorageData> .... <Storage> <Start>411453440</Start> <End>625141759</End> <Blocksize>1008</Blocksize> <Image> <GUID>{5fbaabe3-6958-40ff-92a7-860e329aab41}</GUID> <Type>Bootcamp</Type> <Flags/> <File>/dev/disk0s4</File> </Image> </Storage> <Storage> <Start>305882808</Start> <End>411191295</End> <Blocksize>1008</Blocksize> <Image> <GUID>{5fbaabe3-6958-40ff-92a7-860e329aab41}</GUID> <Type>Bootcamp</Type> <Flags/> <File>/dev/disk0s3</File> </Image> </Storage> </StorageData>Save the file, open Parallels Desktop and start the BootCamp virtual machine. Now the Data partition will be fully available.
Posted in Misc., Technology.
– February 3, 2010
I formatted my new partition FAT32 so that I could fully utilize it from my mac side or my windows side. I also run Parallels in mac osx from my bootcamp partition. One problem: running windows in parallels causes problems in reading partitions. My next post will address this.
Posted in Misc., Technology.
– February 2, 2010
I tested the speed of Logos 4 on the following two hardware configurations:
Logos 4 performed similarly in both configurations. Here are a few tasks by which I compared the two:
Opening program (cold): Config. #1 took 57 seconds to fully load Logos, while config. #2 (surprisingly) took a couple of seconds longer (~60 seconds).
Passage search for “Rom. 1.1″: Config. #1 took 10 seconds for the biblical text to load and over a minute for the complete passage guide to finish loading (nb- commentaries were loaded by the 30 second mark), while config. #2 took about 14 seconds for the biblical text to load and over a minute for the complete passage guide to finish loading.
Resource search for “epigraphy”: Finally, the superior hardware configuration (#2) outperformed config. #1 by about one second. Both are amazingly fast, with config. #1 finishing between 1 and 2 seconds, and config. #2 finishing at under 1 second.
Instant details: When hovering over Greek text, instant details with parsing information display immediately. There was not a great deal of difference in either configuration.
Logos 4, thanks to its indexing feature, is blazing fast when it comes to searching for words or resources in your library (such as the search for the word “epigraphy,” above). Unfortunately, the program as a whole is a bit sluggish, much like Logos 3. Even so, the advantages of having a massive library at my finger tips is worth the ‘wait’. More on the advantages in part 3…
Read part 1.
Posted in Misc., Technology.
– January 27, 2010
Craig Blomberg has an interesting post entitled “Is Haiti Being Judged?” I’ll give away his answer…no. But go read his explanation for yourself. Here’s an excerpt:
But we don’t need any further detail to understand Jesus’ point. He is directly disputing the view that humans can usually discern a degree of wickedness greater among those suffering such tragedies than among others. Instead, he uses it as a timely reminder of the fact that all of us our mortal and will all face final judgment one day. If we have never repented and become right with God, or if we have let our faith or faithfulness lapse and we need to return to him, such horrible events should be important trigger points to help us do precisely that.
– January 21, 2010
As the subtitle suggests, one can purchase and download any version of Logos 4 without the need for a physical DVD. As long as you keep good records, I suggest this route. Here’s a summary of my experience:
From the time I downloaded the installer file to the time I was running the Logos program, about 3.5 hrs had passed.
Indexing is the process whereby every word in your Logos 4 library is catalogued. The result is worth the 3 or 4 hours it takes! Once your resources are indexed, you can type a title, author, or some word you are looking for in the command line and you get immediate results. When the Logos folks say Logos 4 is faster, I think this is what they mean.
NB- Indexing improves speed, but Logos is a massive program and needy of your computer’s resources. If you’re on a slower computer, you probably won’t experience speed increases.
Personally, I didn’t mind the time it took to download and index. Of course, if you don’t have high-speed internet, this would be torture (perhaps impossible…get the DVD).
In the next part, I will address speed and performance by comparing such in two hardware configurations.
Posted in Technology.
– January 20, 2010
Fellow biblioblogger Mike Fox has it all here…stinging questions and brutal honesty from Favre. 
Posted in Misc..
– January 19, 2010
I recently caught up on some of my blog reading, and here are a few highlights:
Jeremy Thompson seems committed to keep the biblioblog monthly rankings going.
Rod Decker has a nice morphology resource for first or second year Greek students. Pdf here.
At Current Epigraphy, Gabriel Bodard summarizes a seminar presentation by Graham Oliver on entitled: “Destroying Inscriptions: the authorised and unauthorised removal of inscribed documents in the Greek world.”
At Cultivated Classicist, Matthew Rogan asks “Where do Artifacts Belong?”
Posted in Misc..
– January 18, 2010
Richard Fellows recently suggested the possible connection between the name “Epaenetus” and benefaction:
Now, the name “Epaenetus”, means “praised/commended”, and, like “Stephanas”, also belongs to the semantic field of benefaction. There are numerous inscriptions in which beneficiaries agree to “praise” a benefactor, and Rom 13:3 also appears to use the term in connection with benefactions (so Winter).
Stephen Carlson responded with a related suggestion that the “brother of whom the praise is in the Gospel” in 2 Cor. 8:18 might be identified as Epaenetus:
…the thought occurs to me that Paul was actually making a pun. After all, the name of Epaenetus (Paul’s first-fruit in Asia according to Rom 16:5) means “praised.”
Of course, more epigraphical evidence would strengthen the original argument made by Fellows, but Carlson’s suggestion would certainly fit Paul’s frequent employment of lexical wordplays. In the end, I think one could only posit such a wordplay with a degree of probability since Paul is not more explicit in the 2 Cor 8:18 reference.
Posted in 2 Corinthians, Backgrounds.
– January 11, 2010
Once upon a time.
Mike Anderson recently discussed how the United States Constitutional Convention debated the form of governments employed by ancient and modern empires. Regarding how many senators ought to be elected from each state, Mike reports that “the convention debated two versus three, but decided three would be too expensive.”
Senate.gov recalls:
During the convention, they briefly discussed the advantages of two seats versus three. Gouverneur Morris stated that three senators per state were necessary to form an acceptable quorum, while other delegates thought a third senator would be too costly.
“Too costly”? –Those were the days before the United States Government discovered how to successfully grow and harvest a money tree, i.e., the Federal Reserve.
Posted in Misc..
– January 10, 2010
