So we’re at Jim’s place in Pennsylvania this week, having our annual board of directors meeting and doing a little skiing at Blue Mountain. Jim’s on ski patrol there, which requires that he receive training as an Emergency Medical Service: First Responder. We’re on our way to the local Panera Bread to drink some coffee, tap their WiFi, and have our second session of meetings.
As we’re approaching the mall we come across a very fresh accident. The driver of a mini SUV has apparently run a red light and been clipped by a semi, causing the SUV to spin and the driver’s head to break out the driver’s-side window. Jim pulls over, grabs his med kit and heads to the scene to offer assistance. There he finds that the driver is covered with broken glass and is bleeding from a cut on her ear. Pictures after the break…
Jim (in the red cap, bending over) gloves up and begins to assess the situation.
From left to right, the semi-truck driver tells his story to cop #1 (Pee Wee Herman); cop #2 talks to witness (obscured); Jim briefs the first EMT (wiping nose on sterile glove).
Second ambulance arrives.
Third ambulance arrives.
Jim briefs paramedics from the second and third ambulances.
Pee Wee Herman briefs cop #3.
Finally at Panera Bread, Jeff regales Jim with his ideas for Laridian in 2009.
Craig and the other Jim listen as Jeff continues rambling on.
What are the keys on the PC for next word, next word and front of line, end of line… are their separate keys for those? On the Mac word to word is option left or right arrow… for the line it is command left or right arrow… I don’t think it’s much harder… it’s just different.
I’ll be glad to admit the Mac is not as refined in some places if you’ll admit that the PC is not as refined in other places. The PC cut it’s teeth on word processing so the manufacturer’s still put labels on their laptop keys for page up, page down, etc. Apple has all those keys, they just don’t put labels on them because so few Mac users care about them… the typical Mac user didn’t grow up trying to get as much text as possible edited as quickly as possible… notice that there is not even a fake numeric keypad on the Mac laptops anymore… Apple figured out that it’s users were more annoyed by having the num lock be accidentally turned on and not knowing why their keyboard wouldn’t work than they cared about a poor excuse for a numeric keypad.
So, Windows is may be more refined for text editing but the Mac is far more refined for handling things like PDFs (built in creation and viewing), photos, editing movies, etc.
Finally, Firefox is NOT windows. Firefox on the Mac works the same way as it does on the PC. If you want you new windows to open in a new tab, use Firefox… just like you do on a PC!
Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right for previous and next word, respectively. In Windows apps, they always take to the beginning of the previous or beginning of the next word. On the Mac, command-left goes to the beginning of the previous word and command-right goes to the end of the next word. They’re not analogous. As a result, if you do previous followed by next you don’t end up where you started.
Home and End take you to the beginning and end of the line. There are keys for that. Those keys on my Mac take me to the beginning and end of the document. I can imagine I might want to go to the top or bottom of a document, but if you’re going to use a single key for something, make it be something that is frequently used. So use the two-key combinations to go to the top/bottom of the document and the single keys to do start/end of line.
I’m not buying your word processing history on the PC. You would’ve never heard of the Mac if not for desktop publishing, which is all about typing text. The early killer app for the PC was Lotus 1-2-3, hence the separate (and very convenient) numeric keys on PC keyboards and the lack thereof on the Mac.
Microsoft released numbers recently showing that 77% of U.S. Mac users use Microsoft Office. Even if no other Mac users use any office applications, that’s a lot of word processing going on using Macs.
My experience is with doing development on both platforms. That’s all about typing text, hence my sensitivity to that particular element of the overall experience with the platform.
I agree with you regarding the fake numeric keypads on laptops. It’s a bad solution; they shouldn’t even try it.
Forget Firefox, let’s talk about IE so we can stay with Microsoft vs. Apple. I can configure IE to open new tabs instead of new windows. I can’t do that in Safari.
I’m not a big home video editor (though my 16-year-old runs Vegas on his PC and edits real movies) but I’ve used both iMovie and Windows Movie Maker and Movie Maker wins hands down. There’s way more flexibility. Sure, there are probably some good high-end products for the Mac but for what the average person does every day we’re just talking about the software that’s bundled with the machine.
I’ll have to go download Firefox for browsing on my Mac. It will be interesting to see how the speed compares. I do most of my Web browsing these days on the Mac because it’s faster (my Mac Pro has dual quad-core processors and 8GB RAM).
>Forget Firefox, let’s talk about IE so we can stay with Microsoft vs. Apple. I can configure IE to open new tabs instead of new windows. I can’t do that in Safari.
Do you mean opening in new tabs when you click on a link in an application? In Safari 3, it’s in General Settings at the bottom.
That said, Firefox is much better than Safari on the Mac. My favorite Add-Ons are Adblock Plus (Ad blocker, duh) and Speed Dial (Caches images of sites you frequent so they’re displayed in a tile format on new blank tabs.)
P.S. = I also enjoy the consistency that comes from using one brand of browser on my Windows and Mac environments.
No I mean clicking a link that would normally open a new window. In Firefox and IE I can specify I want those links to open in a new tab instead. Keeps everything in one tabbed window, which is the very purpose of tabbed browsing in the first place.
With Safari, clicking such a link always opens a new window unless you suspect in advance it’s going to open a new window and you command-click instead of just clicking.
Trying to figure out why, though I keep getting emails letting me know I am on the ‘iphone mailing list’ I have never received anything from it – instead I come here looking for news.
I keep checking my junkmail/deleted mail – nothing. Any ideas?
Chances are good you’re on the wrong list. The iPhoneList is for iPocketBible.com and is related to our Web-based product. The only posting to that list recently has been one a couple months ago in which I explained that news about PocketBible for iPhone (our native app) is being posted to PocketBibleiPhone list.
Which brings us to the right list, which is PocketBibleiPhone. You should verify that you’re signed up for PocketBibleiPhone. http://lists.laridian.com is the lists page.
Thanks Craig – that was it! Now will be checking email in-box waiting anxiously for announcement of Laridian PocketBible for iPhone.
Craig,
Thanks for all you guys do – been using the products you’ve produced way back to Quickverse when it used to ship on all those 5.25 floppies! Still holding out for the ESV study bible notes – hopefully soon…
Keep up the good work.
I am a member of the Episcopal Church. I have often thought that there is a need (market) for two palm-based tools which might mesh well with your current products.
Firstly, a simple calendar-based reference tool for the Revised Common Lectionary which gives scripture readings based on a three year calendar. I find using the printed one in our Prayer book to be a pain. An add-on to my bible could list the readings for a given day and jump to the readings with a tap.
Secondly, our Prayer book itself. I think you could sell it as an add-on book and I don’t think the royalties would be much if anything.
Lastly, most Episcopal congregations seem to use the New RSV. I haven’t seen this translation for MyBible but I would buy it in a wink so I could remain in my Laridian world while using the same translation as my paper-bound brethren.
Is there a chance that there will be an audible version of the Bible (preferably – NKJV & NLT) available for the Pocket PC in the near future?
We have an MP3 version of the NLT available. Go to http://www.laridian.com and select the iPod link. You want iPocketBible NLT.
While you are thinking about ideas for Laridian, how about puting out a nice piece of hardware like a Sony Ebook. I am sure that there are many like myself who would like to carry my Laridian library in a pocketbook sized unit with a leather cover, particularly when preaching. A cell phone or PDA just doesn’t carry the same visual authority as a “real” Bible with a black leather cover; at least not in the eyes of many of our congregations who are still in the Gutenburg frame of mind. As Marshall McLuhan noted “The medium is the message.”
David Chesney
I would like to see a hyper-linked journal for recording notes in PocketBible. I would like to be able to link to references in reference material discovered during study, and to link to verses in multiple versions of the Bible. Thus the toplevel document that would be open would be the journal entry. The journal entry would serve as the overall organizational structure that points to the different references.
I would also like to see the HTML parser in the Notes editor on PocketBible understand multi-level numbered and bulleted lists.
Thanks,
Roger Benson
Roger,
One of the benefits of having moderated comments on our blog is I get an email that notifies me each time a new comment comes in. That’s good in this case since the comment is on an article about Jim VanDuzer’s EMT training and I wouldn’t have thought to look here for product suggestions.
With regard to your last sentence about the HTML parser in the notes editor handling multi-level numbered and bulleted lists, it already does this. I wrote this blog article about creating outlines using HTML. You might want to check it out. Also check out your HTML reference book for information on changing the bullets on bulleted lists. That works in PocketBible.
Thanks for your suggestion about the journal.
Craig
Hi to All,
I have been using the Laridian software for a number of years now with my iPAQ. My familily just switch this week to an iPHONE and was please that you have iPHONE support. I planned to call this week to see if there was pricing for migrating my current licenses to the iPHONE but see that is it is a Web app. His means that I can not use it unless I am in a place that has internet access? Will there be a native capability or are all iPHONE apps web apps? I am new to the Apple world. I definitly do not want to carry both my iPAK and iPhone. But the network connection seem to be a short coming. Blessing to you all,
Thom
Hi Thom,
We’re working on a native version for iPhone. That’s all I can say right now.
Craig
Hi Craig,
Thank you very much, I did not see the comment & statement on the other blog that addressed my question. You all do great work and I regret that for some there is a significant work remaining for the Holy Sprit in the area of basic civility. I use your software daily with my family in our evening study. Keep up the good work.
Blessings
Thom