This is certainly off-topic, but I thought I would mention it, given the unusual character of this phenomenon in our part of the world…

We were snowed in most of the day today here in Minorca (the eastmost island). What you see above is the beach, barely 100 meters away from our home. Yep, big snow at sea-level!

And here I am, just to prove I was there I know, can’t really see much of me. It was freezing! Anyway, don’t worry, you’re not missing much :-)))

I have added a new link to a recent review of BibleWorks 6 (with thanks to John Kendall for the heads-up) written by Moisés Silva, and published in the Fall 2004 edition of the Westminster Theological Journal (Vol. 66, No. 2). Good read by a well-known scholar.

I’m happy to announce that a “macro” Bible Software Survey is now available at the following address: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=91866814127.

This is not a BSR survey, though it links to us at the end (thanks!). It is a general survey intended for all Bible software users, irrespective of the program(s) or platform(s) used. Participation is absolutely anonymous, and the results will “help Bible software companies and web sites build more useful tools and give the user a way to send feedback to the whole community at once”, says Bob Pritchett, one of the “masterminds” behind it. Quite a few companies are already announcing the availability of this survey, and
requesting their user base to take it. You just have to check a few boxes, for the most part, knowing that your opinion does count. I would encourage you all to give it a go.

In support of this interesting and valuable survey, I have not included a new Poll of the Week on the sidebar. Will do so later on. Right now, please concentrate on this general survey. I will have quite a few things to say about the results (available only to Bible software developers and specialized websites) when the survey is finished.

The second of our polls was meant to show the background of our visitors.

As expected, the majority of our users are trained in some area of Biblical Studies (52%). This figure would greatly increase if we add the students (14%). Overall, this is pretty much what I had in mind when we first started BSR. There are other sites that deal with Bible Software, but most are of a more popular level.

It is difficult to strike a balance between “technical” and “general” reviews. Perhaps we are getting close to it when scholars/ministers label them as “too simple”, and others think they are a bit “too technical.” We’ll do our best to improve. Thanks for your participation!

Contributed by guest blogger Ken Ristau

David Clines, avid Accordance user, editor of the Dictionary of Classical Hebrew, and great scholar, has had three basic guides to using Accordance available online for some time and I was just reminded of them the other day while browsing through my bookmarks:

• Accordance: A Basic Guide for Students of the English Bible [pdf format]
• Accordance: A Basic Guide for Students of Greek [pdf format]
• Accordance: A Basic Guide for Students of Hebrew [pdf format]

A number of bibliobloggers have been “assimilated to the Blogosphere” (to put it in Jim Davila’s words) in recent weeks. I am particularly happy to see that Joe Weaks has just started The Macintosh Biblioblog, defined as “All things Macintosh for biblical scholarship. Providing news, help, and discussion for bible scholars using Macintosh technologies as a tool for doing their work.” Great! I have immediately added Joe’s blog to my Bloglines blogroll.

Yet another SESB review can be found at the Bryn Mawr Classical Review website.

Note that this review, written by Catherine Conybeare and a group of five “senior undergraduates or first-year MA students,” has some oversights that could have been easily avoided with more thorough tests, but you might want to check it out nonetheless.

Interlinear Scripture Analyzer (ISA) is currently at version 1.1.0, which includes an Old Testament Hebrew-English Interlinear. There is a new website where you can find out about this free interlinear and concordance search software. I have wanted to review ISA for some time now, but it’s still on my looooong to-do list. One interesting thing about it is that it is the only program I know of that displays the text of the Greek NT in uncial characters. I should also point out that there are downloadable PDF files available for the different books of the Bible, in case you want to take a look.

Accordance has released a new training DVD introducing most of the program’s features (see topics here).

A more comprehensive edition is planned for later in the year. Video tutorials are becoming fairly popular among Bible software companies, particularly those with more advanced applications (e.g., BibleWorks or Logos). It is said that users don’t generally read manuals, which contain far more information and detail than what is shown on training CDs/DVDs. Let’s hope they at least watch videos…

Only 73 people participated in the first Poll of the Week, a very small percentage of those who visit this weblog regularly. I was hoping to offer the results based on at least a sampling of 100 users, but I suppose the data would not be that different anyway. So here are the results:

As you can see, 66% said they were most interested in Bible software for PC, 26% indicated they would much rather read reviews about Macintosh-based Bible software, whereas Linux (4%) and PDA/Tablet PC (4%) were the platform of choice for the remaining 8% of our visitors.

The new Poll of the Week is up on the sidebar. Please take a few seconds to cast your vote. Thanks!