KevinPierpont.com

For Mac users who use Logos Bible Software for Mac, version 1.1.1 is now available for download. This is an important download and a free upgrade for registered Logos users if you are now using the newest version of Safari (version 4) released this week. Get the download details on the Logos Bible Software blog.

What’s up with this thing called Facebook? The social networking site Facebook has become a popular place for teens and adults alike to stay in touch with friends, catch-up with old friends and make new friends. Having been asked about Facebook more than once I’m sharing here a few links to articles that may be helpful to you if you are a parent with a teen who wants to use Facebook or already does or if you are thinking about creating an account for yourself.

But first here’s my disclaimer. I don’t use Facebook the way many do. I don’t have time. And that would be my caution. Facebook can be a huge black hole for your time that could be and should be better used elsewhere. About the only thing I use the social networking site for is for sharing a few important links and updates with those who have “friended” me. But I don’t even login to Facebook to do this because I use third party tools to pull updates from this site and my Twitter feed which are automatically posted to my Facebook account. I think Twitter is a simpler and cleaner option than Facebook for staying up-to-date with friends and it’s much more easily made private. But that’s another post.

These will help you get started with Facebook.

• Justin Buzzard writes about Redeeming Social Life Online and shares “nine ways not to use Facebook” and “six ways to use Facebook to love God and others, and care for your own soul”.
• When you’re done with that then check out 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know.

These should help get you started. Share links in the comments if you have something else that will help newcomers to Facebook.

The Official Gmail Blog has announced the availability of Offline Gmail. Check out their post and the intro video.

The Google Operating System blog also has a thorough overview of Offline Gmail and they also point out a couple of downsides such as no offline contact access for now and no attachments when composing a message.

Overall this is a handy tool for folks who want to compose an email or re-read a recent message while away from an internet connection and don’t want the hassle of trying to keep their messages archived in a local email client. This should help remove one of the obstacles it seems many people have when I point them to Gmail — they often ask, “How do I get my email offline?”

That is, unless you shut down search engine indexing in your privacy settings for search. Here’s how. [Via: Lifehacker]

This 3.5 minute video is just what you need if you are clueless about “RSS” or “feeds” — RSS in Plain English.

[via: Desiring God blog]

Library Clips lists many ways to post to your blog .

Seems that my favorite method isn’t on the list — ScribeFire, a Firefox extension (previously called Performancing for Firefox) .

Great news for those of us who often need to move a Microsoft Word document to the web and wish to retain much of the formatting–and great news for those who wish to move Word documents to a WordPress powered website.

blog.dot is a Word document template with an associated DLL for Windows that makes moving a Word document to WordPress (or any other web application where HTML formatted text is needed) a breeze.

This tool produces very clean HTML–far better than Microsoft’s options for exporting HTML from a Word document. It can post directly to your blog or will give you a window of your HTML formatted text to copy and paste to WordPress or any other web application.

From: wpplugins.org

Wondering what it takes to be a Christ-honoring Christian blogger? Blog Responsibly at Boundless Webzine will give you good insight into what it means to be a real Christian blogger.

source: Tim Challies

I’ve been using the social bookmark manager del.icio.us for a long time now and don’t know how I’d keep track of my bookmarks as efficiently without it. If you aren’t using del.icio.us yet or aren’t using it much, slackermanager.com has a good piece today on “The Several Habits of Wildly Successful del.icio.us Users“.

Tips for avid Firefox users–The power user’s guide to Firefox–some of these are Mac specific (from)

Help for your blog or church site–The Top Ten Design Mistakes (from)

Steve Rubel asks if short, high value blog posts are better than long, in-depth posts. If your feed reader is full of feeds like mine you might agree with me that short is good.

Dan Edelen asks a fair question–”what is accomplished by Christians blogging?” Are Christian bloggers wasting their time? Are lives being changed?

Speaking for myself I don’t expect to turn the world to Christ while blogging. But as a pastor I long to see those I minister to wholly devoted to living for Christ. And for me the blog is one more avenue of teaching and encouragement toward that goal. There’s also the benefit of reaching beyond our small community with some of my teaching ministry as I share some of the studies and sermon audio that I spend a great deal of time preparing. I also benefit from blogging in that it challenges me to stay connected with current issues facing those to whom I minister.

In the few years I’ve been at this I have been encouraged by a few visitors that God has used what they’ve found here in some small way to move them forward in their service for Christ and for that God should get the glory.

With so much pointless verbiage spread all over the blogosphere I was impressed by Al Mohler’s podcast of his interview with a young Christian blogger, Tim Sweetman (Agent Tim). It’s refreshing to find some Christian young people with something Christ honoring to say.

Here’s a good article entitled, Blogs can help boost a career or sink it for all bloggers or would-be’s. There’s some good insight here for blogging Pastors and church leaders. (via Blogging Church)

Here are a few highlights of the piece…

• All bloggers, they said, would be wise to write as if their bosses, future bosses or grandmothers were reading over their shoulders.
• Anybody who is hiring would be absolutely, totally nuts if they didn’t ascertain whether somebody had a blog and, if they do, take a look at it,” Sun’s Bray said.
• Bray believes that blogs can boost careers. Those who get in trouble for blogging likely have other problems, too.

You’ve seen the link to an  RSS feed like this one before, right?

If it weren’t for RSS feeds there’s no way to know when your favorite websites are updated without going and checking each one. My tool of choice for tracking all the sites I follow is Google Reader. I give Google Reader the link to the RSS feed of the website I wish to follow for new content and Google Reader gives me the new information whenever it’s available. All I have to do is log in to my Google Reader account when I wish to see what’s new.

Here are a couple of resources that will help you understand RSS feeds.

• First What Is RSS? RSS Explained — at WhatIsRSS.com
• Second is this 3.5 minute video — just what you need if you are clueless about “RSS” or “feeds“: Video: RSS in Plain English

You may feel like you have something to say. Start a blog. I’ve suggested to several people who seem to have something to say they do just that. It’s never been easier to start blogging. Once you have a blog you never know who might show up and read your stuff. You think no one will show up and it will be a total waste of time? I disagree and think Joe Carter says it well in his post Notes on Blogging: The 5/150 Principle. Here’s a snippet…

If you have a blog that is read by more than a few dozen readers then you are making a bigger impact than you probably realize. If you have 50 people reading your blog then you have more people in your “classroom” than most professors at Harvard. If you have 90 readers then you have more people in your “pews” than most pastors have in their churches every Sunday.

Today’s New Thinking Newsletter from Gerry McGovern gives insight on Measuring your web content management processes. He asks and helps answer some questions I think are helpful to ask of your church website.

• Is the right content being published for the right reader?
• How quickly is content getting published on the website?
• How well is content being edited?
• Is the publishing schedule being adhered to?
• Is out-of-date content being removed quickly?
• How are authors and editors managed?
• Is the metadata of a sufficient quality?
• How is reader feedback managed?