We’ve had a number of problems with the secretary’s PC lately.
The infamous Blue Screen of Death
It’s doing this a lot. A whole lot.
If you have a not-too-obsolete PC you could spare, we could certainly put it to work in the office.
Archive for software
Dictation Software Chuckle
In my work, I use MacSpeech Dictate, a voice-recognition program for the mac, a fair bit. (It’s pretty good software: the kind you swear by as much as you swear at. Most bad software you either throw out or become resigned to. Dictate I like enough to entertain hopes they’d improve it. Another sign of my regard: I’m thinking about getting their new product, MacSpeech Scribe, so I can have non-interactive voice recognition. Think, sermon transcriptions.)
Anyway, one of the ways I use it is to save myself the trouble of typing some of the prayers in the PC(USA) Book of Common Worship. Mostly, the software does a good job, but once in awhile you get something amusing, like this:
Two.
Grant us, O Lord,
the grace always to do in pink
what accords with your purpose;
That’s an interesting image. It was supposed to be “and think.”
Maybe this was an “inspired” error: it’s a lot easier to think about things than to do them. So, to combine two slogans (from Nike and the breast-cancer awareness people): Just do it. In pink.
Membership
I just spent awhile reading our Book of Order to understand the different categories of church membership.
I can’t claim to understand it all, but one thing is clear: the spreadsheet I have now lists different people with their membership status in one column. At a minimum I need to add another column that says when their status last changed. But I should probably change all the ‘inactive’ people to any of three different varieties of inactivity.
(Who thinks this stuff up? “Deck chairs, meet Titanic.”)
Mechanical Bible Study
On a lark, I just posted an item about a search I did for all the verses in the New Testament that matched certain criteria. I’m posting this note because it might not be obvious that I’m aware of some dangers inherent in a too-mechanical study of the Bible.
First, as I considered the problem, I realized it is a hard thing to describe grammatically. For example, my original search was for 2nd-person verbs. But that’s not enough, since many commands or promises or reassurances are issued to a third person yet have implications for the hearer (John 3:16, for example: “everyone who believes … may have”). If I spent any more time, I’m sure I could come up with other examples.
Second, I didn’t (initially) make it clear that the list is not the end. The list of matching verses is rather a starting point for further study. For example, the first result is from Matthew 2:20, where the angel says to Joseph: “get up” and go to Egypt with the child and its mother. This is obviously not a command to all future Christians, because it is directed at a specific person in a unique circumstance. The software can’t figure that out, but a reader can.
What Should We Do?
Have you ever wondered what the Bible says that we are supposed to do? Or what we are able to do? Or what we will do? Here’s your answer: Read the rest of this entry »