Locations of visitors to this page

Install problems under Vista

I upgraded my laptop from XP Home to Vista Business a few months ago and apart from needing to add extra memory – Vista needs at least 1GB to run reasonably – it has been more painless than I feared. Most of the initial hardware and software problems have now been resolved by program patches and drivers but there are a few outstanding niggles. One of these was that some installers didn't complete properly. Apple Quicktime was failing with error code 2738. Using the world's ultimate IT problem solving tool (Google) I just tracked down a solution which resolves the Quicktime issue and apparently several others.

For some reason Vista doesn't register vbscript.dll so you need to do it manually.

  • Check where vbscript.dll is: usually
    C:\Windows\System32.
  • Now you need to start a command prompt with admin privileges: go to start -> accessories and the right click on
    command prompt, choose "run as administrator" and enter the administrator password if asked.
    • If not already there, change to the folder where you found vbscript.dll.
      Use a command like this: cd
      C:\Windows\System32
  • Now enter: regsvr32 vbscript.dll
  • You should get confirmation that vbscript.dll has
    been registered

Now, hopefully, your install should work. Apparently this fixes several
installs including iTunes, WinZip and even Outlook 2007.

May 29th, 2007 | Leave a comment

NET Bible – NeXt Bible

You must try the NeXt Bible web-based study tool. In my opinion the NeXt Bible is the best integrated online Bible study tool
available today. Technically the web implementation is first class. I
recommend downloading the fonts to make best use of the reverse
interlinear translation and other study tools. Read on for more on the NET Bible incuding a link to a set of useful comparative translation reviews …

 

{mosimage}You must try the NeXt Bible web-based study tool. In my opinion the NeXt Bible is the best integrated online Bible study tool
available today. Technically the web implementation is first class. I
recommend downloading the fonts to make best use of the reverse
interlinear translation and other study tools.

For some time I have appreciated the NET Bible which is the
basis of the Next Bible site. I won't attempt to review it since others
have done that more competently than I ever could . See for example these helpful reviews of the ESV, the Message and the NET Bible. Suffice to say here that the
NET Bible follows first class Bible translation principles and
footnotes are used extensively (60k+!) to explain reasons for the wording used.
Also from the Bible.org site you can download the NET Bible for your computer or PDA – in most cases for free – or purchase printed copies.

 

May 25th, 2007 | Leave a comment

Penal Substitutionary Death

Last night I listened to a talk by Steve Wilmshurst on the current atonement controversy. I appreciated Steve's clear explanation of the debate which has particularly erupted following Steve Chalke's repeated denial of penal substitution. Steve W. noted in passing that Affinity is in the process of clarifying its doctrinal basis by stating its belief in Jesus' penal substitutionary death. Whilst I do believe the Bible teaches the doctrine, I find the phrase penal substitutionary death grammatically awkward and therefore unclear. The main audience for the statement is probably those with significant theological education, but I'm sure that it will be read by others, if only when it gets posted on church noticeboards. Steve said that this was already the third draft and wonderered if I
had a better suggestion. So far the best I can do is his death bearing the punishment for sin in the place of sinners. My purpose here isn't to debate penal substitution itself but please do comment if you can suggest clearer
ways of phrasing this belief.

May 11th, 2007 | Tags: | One comment

Kenya, BA and Bhete

Thanks to all who prayed for my recent trip to Kenya. By and large
I achieved what I went for and had quite a few other opportunities to
help individual missionaries with their IT needs. My overall impression
was that we in AIM have a long way to go in providing better IT support
for ordinary missionaries who don't work in our office locations. Would
you fancy a job travelling around Africa helping missionaries overcome
their computer problems? Let me know if you are interested.


Continued…  

Thanks to all who prayed for my recent trip to Kenya. By and large
I achieved what I went for and had quite a few other opportunities to
help individual missionaries with their IT needs. My overall impression
was that we in AIM have a long way to go in providing better IT support
for ordinary missionaries who don't work in our office locations. Would
you fancy a job travelling around Africa helping missionaries overcome
their computer problems? Let me know if you are interested.

It turned out that Luke's sickness before I left was due to a urine
infection. Margo had a real struggle getting him to take some
unpleasant tasting medicine, but he seems fine now anyway.

I arrived back last Wednesday morning having actually managed to
sleep for about 5 hours on a night flight! This may have been because
BA's fancy new 70 channel video-on-demand in-flight entertainment
system crashed about five times before they finally switched it off -
(it did appear to be running under MS Windows). However my good sleep
probably had more to do with another recent innovation: someone should
award a Nobel prize to whoever invented those little cushioned wings
which fold down from the headrest on modern airline seats – not only do
they help you sleep, they stop you drooling over the person in the next
seat. One video BA did manage to show before the system crashed was a
ten minute presentation of the beds in Clubworld class – another way
of winding up passengers like me who will never afford that kind of
comfort.

Thanks to the Brigada
missions newsletter I just had a look at Gospel recordings website. If
you are interested in what the Bhete of Gagnoa language actually sounds
like then go to this page
and listen to one of the audio files listed at the bottom. The songs
aren't the best example of Bhete singing, but will give you an idea of
what it was like to be in a Bhete church. The site also has a good
article by a Wycliffe member called Evangelism for Computer Nerds which gives some insight into the world of mission IT.

May 8th, 2007 | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

An Upside-down World

{mosimage}Distinguishing between home and mission field no longer makes sense. – In a great article for Christianity today Chris Wright points out that we must turn much of our thinking about mission upside-down if we are going to be in line with what God has been doing in history from Genesis through to the present day.

We ask, "Where does God fit into the story of my
life?" when the real question is, "Where does my little life fit into
the great story of God's mission?"

We want to be driven by a purpose tailored for our
individual lives, when we should be seeing the purpose of all life,
including our own, wrapped up in the great mission of God for the whole
of creation.

May 4th, 2007 | Leave a comment