Research on the go (or Photocopiers are so 20th century)

Most of you have probably already figured this out, but I find I need to remind my students occasionally about some research tools we now have that were not readily available even five years ago. So, let's say you are in the library or a bookstore and you find something you want to remember. The 20th century way would be to get out paper and writing utensil or, if you were in the library, bring the book to a copy machine and make some paper reproductions. What does the true 21st century researcher do? [Check Tommy Keene's (TK) comment to this post.]
If it's short enough:

• I use my PDA and add it as a note.
• Send a text message to myself on my cell phone.

If it's a bit longer:

• Use my PDA and make a voice recording.
• Send a voice message to myself on my cell phone.
• Send a voice message to your drop.io box. (Thanks, TK! I've been using drop.io for files, but I was unaware that you can also drop voice mails as well. [drop.io is free, but you do have standard phone charges.])
• I had really liked using Jott (I'd blogged about it here) because it did voice to text conversion and sent them as text messages or emails. (I really hate trying to type out text messages on my phone...) Jott is dropping their free, basic plan, however. A standard plan will now cost $3.95/month which is not bad at all, but I wasn't using it quite enough to justify it. Do check out Jott Links, though. Using your phone, you could use the voice to text to set appointments for your Google Calendar, add items to your Remember the Milk list, update Twitter or FaceBook, or name some item/book and come home to find a link to that item on Amazon.
  

If it's a chunk of text or a visual:

• In our seminary library, we now have a copier that saves files as PDFs and delivers them to my network folder. That's sweet...
• No PDF copier? Use your cell phone camera or (if, like me, your cell phone is one of those ancient ones that only is a phone) take a digital camera picture. (Now, how do you get the pic from your phone to your PC? Good advice HERE.)

But what if it's really the text and not just a picture of it you want? Open your picture in optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.

• I have an inexpensive scanner that comes with some basic OCR software. I can open JPG, PNG, TIFF... and it does a pretty good job of getting everything into text. Note that this also works well if you want to convert PDFs which are 'images' and not text. Use a screen capture utility (suggestions here) to take a pic of the PDF, then feed it through the OCR.
• Don't have a scanner or OCR software. Check the Wikipedia OCR entry, and note the list of software (some of which is free/open source) available.
• Don't want to bother with dedicated OCR? Want to try full-featured note-taking software? Then remember that Evernote (there is a free version--my review here and another here) and OneNote ($59 for Microsoft OneNote Home and Student 2007 or $80 as part of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007) have a built-in tool that can identify and extract text from pics.

For biblical studies sorts, however, there is a problem... None of the OCR software (unless you buy very expensive professional stuff) knows how to deal with Greek or Hebrew text. (I do know of HOCR which is free OCR software for Hebrew, but I have not tried it.)

Do you have any research tools suggestions for the 21st century? Help save some paper and share them here!

BTW, as TK points out in the comment, did you see the Zotero icon up in the address bar of this (and any other) blog post? Click on that folder icon to see the Zotero options for saving info.

BibleWorks, Logos, Accordance on your mobile device

The question was recently asked again on one of the Bible software forums whether the Bible software application could be run on a mobile device like a smartphone or such. Short answer: No, you can't really run one of these programs on your WindowsMobile or smartphone as far as I know.
BUT... if you really need it and are willing to put up with a little inconvenience and have good eyes... You can see from the screenshot below that I do indeed have BibleWorks7 on my WindowsMobile device. (In my case, it is a Dell Axim x51v with true VGA display.)

Here is what you need to do:

1. Go to www.LogMeIn.com or go here directly for the free version.
2. Download/install the program on your home PC or Mac. Set up account, access codes... (It is indeed free and secure.)
3. Now, on your WindowsMobile device or smartphone, you need to get on the web, go to the LogMeIn site, and logon.
4. You will get a display showing which computers are online and on which you have set up the LogMeIn software and provided access. Click on your home computer, supply the access code, and you will now see your home computer screen on your mobile device. You will have complete control over your home computer, but due to screen resolution/sizes, you will probably have to move around the screen quite a bit.
   

Okay, note a couple things:

• You don't really have the software on your mobile device. You are simply running your home computer's installation. Hence >>>
  
• You do have to leave your home computer running and LogMeIn enabled...
• It really is quite fast. The only real issue is viewing and moving around the screen, not the speed. (If you want to make it easier, reduce the resolution on your home computer display.)
• I use this program regularly, but my main use is to control computers for other members of my family. I'm the computer guy in the extended family, and when they have problems... well, it's just a lot easier taking over their computer and fixing things than trying to provide instructions over the phone.
  
• I have had absolutely no problems with security or with spam using this program.
  

Give it a try...

Bible software on smartphones

I'm still managing just fine, thank you, with an ancient (3 yrs old!) cell phone that doesn't do anything but work as a phone. I can use that as long as I have my Dell Axim x51v with its VGA 640x480 resolution screen and all my Bible software on it, namely (with main items bolded):

• OliveTree's BibleReader with NRSV, Gramcord Greek NT w/ parsing and UBS dictionary, BHS Hebrew, NET Bible, Josephus, Philo, Vulgate, and a few others
• Pocket e-Sword with CEV, ESV, LXX, KJV and others
• Laridian PocketBible with ESV, NRSV, HCSB, commentaries, dictionaries, and maps

Now, if I am ever going to bother to upgrade my phone, I would like to do so and eliminate carrying around the Axim. I.e., I want a phone that has WiFi, Bluetooth, WindowsMobile to run all my software on my Axim, expandable memory, can function as a modem for a laptop, and... oh, yeah, be a phone. I'm not sure such a phone exists yet (or for how much money?), but another drawback for me has been the small screen size on phones. But maybe this is the solution: This is the not-yet-released REDFLY Mobile Companion. It connects to your phone (USB or Bluetooth), runs off the phone's operating system (WindowsMobile), and provides an 8 inch 800×480 display and a decent keyboard. Read this review of the beta and then check out the linked image gallery, especially this page which shows PocketBible on the screen.I could get used to that! Now if the device sells for its list of $500, I doubt that it would be worth it. Why not just get an ASUS Eee PC instead which is a fully functioning computer selling for $300-500?
Well, I suppose it's fun to think about these options, but I guess I will be keeping my current gear for quite some time yet...

Bible on a phone

I still count on my Dell Axim x51v handheld to carry around all my Bible resources, but the newer cell phones make access to the Bible on your phone a reality. David Ker, of Lingamish fame, also runs the lingalinga blog where he has been running a series on this topic. Here is the list he has posted so far:

• SMS: The Bible on your phone
• MMS: The Bible on your phone
• mjBookMaker: The Bible on your phone
• MTextReader: A Bible on your phone
• Go Bible: The Bible on your phone
• Also note this link to the NET Bible for Java Cell Phones
• BibleGateway: Lots of Bibles on your phone

Continue to check the lingalinga blog for more posts on this topic. Note that the last link is really just using a phone's web browser to view one of the online sites that carries biblical texts. As Ker indicates, it will help to go through a site like Skweezer to view a site on a phone without all the stuff that will complicate the download and viewing. A site I most often use on my PDA is Google Lite (which allows me to eliminate images altogether). Also check Google PDA and Google Mobile.

If your phone is running Windows Mobile or Palm, you can, of course, run one of the Bible programs that were designed for PDAs using these platforms. (Pocket e-Sword for Pocket PCs is a a great choice, and it is free.) The major players for Bible software in the PDA and now cell phone field are Laridian and OliveTree. Both these companies have been working hard at providing support for a wide variety of phones. Laridian (note the graphic below) is particularly notable for providing integration between the various devices you may use. That is, whether you use the Bible software on your desktop, PDA, or cell phone, you can keep all your notes in sync. For now, they provide synchronization between the Windows Desktop, PocketPC, and iPhone/iPod Touch versions of their software.Finally, since I am on this topic, did you see the little "Mobile Version" icon on the right just below the banner near the top of this page? Click on it to 'really' see how this page would look on your phone. I'm using Mofuse to create the mobile version. It is free, and absolutely all the work of conversion is handled without a problem. As they claim, you can convert your web blog into a mobile version in 5 seconds.