For Valentine’s Day, my wonderful wife purchased for me a Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader. I have to say, this is probably one of the two best technology purchases I’ve ever made. I love reading from this device!

Curiously, as a software developer, I’ve never been comfortable for reading for long periods of time from a computer screen, particularly when reading for pleasure. But the eInk display is so much more like paper that I’ve already read through an entire novel in the week or so since I got the e-reader.

A lot of people have asked why the Nook, vs. Amazon’s Kindle or other e-readers. (Or, for that matter, why not wait for the Apple iPad? But that is a topic for another day. Short reason? eInk.)

In a nutshell, what drew me to the Nook specifically were those features which distinguish it:

• Native support for PDF and ePub formats – Without any conversion, as the Kindle requires (or at least did initially), you can drag and drop any PDF or ePub (which means pretty much anything from Project Gutenberg – but more on sources of free and cheap books in a later post) directly into your Nook’s storage, which shows up on your PC as just another drive, like an SD card for your camera.
• The “Lending” feature – This feature has gotten some bad press, mainly due to the restrictions (you can only lend a book once per friend, and for a maximum of 14 days with no renewal) as well as the publishers’ reticence to allow it (they can turn it off for any title), but the plain and simple fact is this: B&N are the only big player doing something about making the eBook market friendlier and more like owning a hard copy book. (Now if they’d just figure out a way to do used eBooks that would be something…)
• In-Store features – Speaking of making it more like hard copy books, the in-store features of the Nook (which they really need to actually get around to activating) are pretty intriguing. In a nutshell, while you’re in any B&N and connected to their (free) Wifi, you can read the full text of any book they offer. Which you can do with the hard copies, so why not with your Nook? This is a stroke of genius – browse the stacks from the cafe or while watching your kids in the children’s area.
• The color touchscreen + Google Android OS – The combination of these two opens up wonderful possibilities for future developments….
• Expandable Memory – I’m a hoarder when it comes to books, and no doubt will be when it comes to eBooks as well. The Nook has an SD card slot which you can expand up to 16GB of memory.
• Replaceable Battery – The Kindle’s battery is, I believe, like the iPhone, not replaceable. This means a hefty price down the road to either replace the device or send back for factory battery replacement when it finally dies. With the Nook, on the other hand, you can already purchase a replacement battery should you so desire.

So… what’s wrong with the Nook? Well, a few things, still:

• Different features for B&N eBooks vs. “My Library” - The Nook separates the books you’ve purchased from B&N, from those you loaded yourself (PDF’s, ePubs, 3rd party eBooks, etc.). With B&N content you get coverflow view, searching by author or title, sorting by last read, etc. With your content, you get – none of those. You are limited to a view sorted by title or author (and BTW – the title sort doesn’t handle “a, an, the” properly). I could, in theory, load the hundreds of books I’ve downloaded from Project Gutenberg into my Nook. But that would mean having to scroll through the list to page 20 every time I wanted to read “Tarzan of the Apes.”
• Sluggish – The Nook is not the fastest thing in the world. After using an iPhone for a year+, the touchscreen is not as responsive as it should be. The eInk takes a second to turn pages, but that is actually tolerable.
• “Open” OS, but… – OK, so it uses Google’s Android OS. Give us custom apps!

I’m hopeful that in future updates (there have been 2 already since Nook’s debut), they will continue to enhance the device and address these shortcomings. I understand from previous reviews that the first releases of the Nook system were barely usable with regard to performance, but that newer updates have really gone far in addressing speed issues. as I said, the sluggishness is tolerable, but could still stand improvement. I’m also hopeful that they open it up to more apps, or even 3rd party development (The guys at nookDevs have already started down this path with hacking the Nook. I’ve tried their stuff, and it has possibility, but is not ready for prime time yet.)

In the coming days (weeks?), I’ll be posting more on the Nook and eBooks, including good sources for free and/or cheap content for the Nook, and a review of the classic novel Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Stay tuned…

Now, if I’m immersed in God’s Word and biblically based literature, then and only then am I able to discern from the newspaper and Time and Hemingway and movies what values are being communicated and whether or not those values are true. Scripture becomes my grid, my moral filter by which I judge all other claims to truth. I can now pick and choose what is right based on my knowledge of God’s Word.

But If I do not spend sufficient time in Scripture, or if I fail to realize the essential authoritative difference of Scripture and all else, or if I interpret Scripture in light of Seinfeld or Hemingway or Gladiator, then I will be led astray. If I am biblically grounded I can read the Book of Mormon and a book by the Dalai Lama and evaluate it appropriately. If I’m not, by reading such things I run the risk of believing untruths and being sucked into anti-Christian heresy.

via Eternal Perspectives (Randy Alcorn’s blog): Building a Biblical Worldview.

Kevin DeYoung continues his series on social just and the Bible:

My contention, and I am willing to prove myself wrong as I work through several other texts, is that social justice in the Bible is not an achieved result but equal treatment and a fair process. No bribes. No backroom deals. No slanderous judgments. No breaking your promises. No taking advantage of the weak. That’s what the Bible means by social justice. Ideally, justice is blind. That’s why Lady Justice on our courthouses has her eyes covered. That’s why the U.S. Supreme Court building has inscribed on it the words “Equal Justice Under Law.” Justice means there is one law for everyone, not different rules for different kinds of people.

via DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed: Social Justice and the Poor (2).

Kevin DeYoung begins a new series today on social justice, and today’s entry is very thought-provoking:

I’m starting a blog series today and I don’t know how long it will go or how often I will do it. But I do know what it will be about. I want to take a look at what the Bible says about social justice and the poor. I imagine that this series will last a couple months, with probably a post a week on the subject.

via DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed: Social Justice and the Poor (1).

(HT: Challies)

Both slavery and abortion ultimately reduce to competing claims over unalienable rights. No one can justly take the liberty or life of another if that other qualifies for the rights with which all of humanity is endowed. Thus, debates over slavery eventually became — as debates over abortion eventually become — debates over the humanity of the slave or the fetus. If the slave or the fetus are among those beings who, in the words of the Declaration of Independence, “are created equal” and “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” then their unalienable rights to life in the case of abortion and liberty in the case of slavery must be secured. If they are not, then a slave-master may be said to have a right to property in a slave, and a pregnant woman may be said to have a right to liberty in the form of abortion.

via Pajamas Media » Does Obama Resemble Lincoln or Lincoln’s Adversaries?.

HT: JT

Albert Mohler quotes from J. Gresham Machen and a modern-day counterpart, Howard P. Kainz, on the rivalry between Christianity and Secularism:

Kainz concedes that some will resist his designation of secularism as a religion. “Religion in the most common and usual sense connotes dedication to a supreme being or beings,” he acknowledges. Nevertheless, “especially in the last few centuries, ‘religion’ has taken on the additional connotations of dedication to abstract principles or ideals rather than a personal being,” he insists. Kainz dates the rise of this secular religion to the French Enlightenment and its idolatrous worship of Reason…

Similarly, Kainz argues that modern secular liberalism includes its own dogmas. Among these are the beliefs “that mankind must overcome religious superstition by means of Reason; that empirical science can and will eventually answer all the questions about the world and human values that were formerly referred to traditional religion or theology; and that the human race, by constantly invalidating and disregarding hampering traditions, can and will achieve perfectibility.”

Read more at Albert Mohler’s Blog: Two Rival Religions?.

Everybody involved wanted to invoke God’s name, as you’re supposed to do when remembering a loved one, but it was clear that most of them invoked a god made in their own image. Even those who spoke of Jesus or who prayed to Jesus did so without any clear reference to the Jesus of the Bible. They spoke of a Jesus who accepts all and even (or perhaps especially) those who had rejected him. Never did Michael Jackson give any evidence of putting his faith in Jesus Christ, yet those who watched were assured, time and again, that he was now safe in the presence of the Lord, waiting there for the rest of us to arrive. Words and phrases invoked God and used the Christian lexicon but without any reference to the gospel, the true gospel, the gospel that saves. Lost men declared to other lost men untruths about the god they wish for, not the God who is.

via Idolatry New and Old :: culture, idolatry :: A Reformed, Christian Blog.

Seems to me that the “official” policy of Reuters on the topic of abortion is a trifle slanted:

abortion

Unless quoting someone, refer to aborted foetuses rather than unborn babies. Describe those campaigning for a woman’s right to have an abortion as abortion rights campaigners and those campaigning against abortion rights as anti-abortion campaigners. Terms such as pro-choice, pro-life and pro-abortion are open to dispute and should be avoided.

via A – Handbook of Journalism. (Emphasis added.)

So… “pro-abortion” is open to dispute, but “anti-abortion” is encouraged? And “rights” is not “open to dispute”?

In their new book, “The Mirror Effect,” addiction medicine specialist Drew Pinsky and business professor S. Mark Young argue that following the foibles of reality TV stars and other celebrities is not a wholly harmless pastime. The more time we spend observing the shocking, materialistic and egotistical behavior of reality TV stars, they argue, the more likely we are to mimic that behavior in our own lives and view the pathological self-centeredness of these “Joe Six-Pack” celebrities as normal.

That’s troubling, since most reality TV stars are anything but normal. In a 2006 study published in the Journal of Research in Personality, Pinsky and Young used the Narcissistic Personality Inventory to assess celebrity egoism. They found that reality TV celebrities ranked highest in narcissistic traits, surpassing even rock stars and actors.

via “Exploitative Reality Shows Degrade Us, Too”. HT: Challies

This weekend, at our church, Pastor Brian White preached on Daniel 1:1-21, and how Christians can take a stand for God’s way in the culture.

He suggested 4 ways to do so (though there are many more), in the forms of statements the Christian can make to the culture:

1. “Culture, I will not worship your gods.”
2. “I will not allow you to change the definition of truth.”
3. “I will not allow you to parent my children.”
4. “I will not allow you to take anyone with you down the wrong path.”

Listen to the whole sermon here.