BibleWorks 8

BibleWorks 8 is due out in December. Since BW7 was released in early 2006, it's been about 3 years. If you have a PC, this is really all you need to tackle the original biblical (and related) texts. If you want to build an electronic library, you might want to consider Logos.

The full version costs $349 while there are also a number of upgrade packages which start at $149 if you're upgrading from version 7. There's a special price of $20 for those who have just recently purchased version 7 (after October 15th) directly from the folks at BibleWorks (good only through Dec. 24th).

It looks like the system requirements have been shaped with the new netbooks in mind, which have a smaller screen resolution (typically 1024 x 600).

Though the overall look is familiar, they've revamped the user interface some. Take a look at the analysis window, for instance:


Here's a list of the full contents, with new items in blue. Some of the highlights include an updated Hebrew Bible database (4.10 from 4.4), the Greek Pseudepigrapha, tagged, and with English translation, the TNIV, as well as Jouon-Muraoka's and Waltke-O'Connor's Hebrew grammars, now both included free (they were previously available as add-on modules).

A Portable ESV Study Bible

The ESV Study Bible has been out for awhile now and the reviews are generally favorable, at least from its target market -- Evangelicals. Here's a useful roundup of reviews. Sales have been healthy, and the ESV Study Bible is already headed for its third printing.

Be that as it may, the one complaint that most have at least mentioned in passing is that it's simply too heavy to lug around, although the child to the left apparently doesn't seem to think so.

Thankfully, the folks at Crossway have announced plans to release it in electronic form across as many platforms as possible, including Mac, PC, and the various handheld devices available nowadays.

Predictably, Olive Tree software is already working on a beta. I got my hands on one a few days ago and it's already quite functional and promises to be infinitely more handy than the actual book version, at least as far as carrying it around goes.

I'm very glad to have it, and I doubt that I'll actually ever purchase the book version.

The 44th

It looks like it's Obama's night all the way. I'm personally a bit skeptical of the guy since I have a nagging feeling that he'll turn out to be another Jimmy Carter (i.e., the last time a Democratic President swept to power in the wake of an unpopular war).

At any rate, though he isn't my president (I'm Canadian), I will be praying for him.

Elections

With the U.S. elections slated for Tuesday, I know Americans have probably been urged to go out and vote by just about everybody from every possible angle. However, I just recently came across an appeal NOT to go out and vote that I thought was interesting:

... Tuesday is Election Day and, though Brawling Hibernian is an avowedly apolitical blog, I did want to make a point. No doubt, you have all been inundated with a continuing guilt trip from the media about getting out there to vote on Tuesday (MTV, I'm looking in your direction). I would like to make a slightly different request. If you have been following the issues and the candidates and actually have a solid understanding of both, you should absolutely go out and vote. However, if you don't follow politics closely and are only voting because the cast of Gossip Girl told you to, please stay home. Voting is a right, not an obligation and if you don't know what you're doing, you shouldn't be there. Let me put it another way, owning a gun is also a right, but I don't remember the last, "Everybody Get a Gun!" ad campaign. You know why? It would be irresponsible. Not everyone should own a gun. Same deal applies to voting. I'm Brawling Hibernian, and I approve this message

I've frequently been appalled by people I know who go out and vote based on watching a few political debates and the news on TV for the two or three months running up to election day.

And then I hear about those who vote based on less than that, and I'm truly horrified.

I therefore second Brawling Hibernian's appeal. Please, for God's sake, if you don't know what you're doing, in the name of all that's holy, don't let the fate of the free world be affected by your uninformed decision. It's not only your right NOT to vote, it's your OBLIGATION not to.