Technology Archives - Joshua L Mann

Samuel b. Jacob Identified as Scribe in Another Firkowich Ms., L17

Dr Kim Phillips, a research associate at Tyndale House, Cambridge, makes the argument in a recent issue of the Tyndale Bulletin (68.1), “A New Codex from the Leningrad Codex: L17“:

Samuel b. Jacob was the scribe responsible for the production of the so-called Leningrad Codex (Firkowich B19a), currently our earliest complete Masoretic Bible codex. This article demonstrates that another codex from the Firkowich Collection, containing the Former Prophets only, is also the work of Samuel b. Jacob, despite the lack of a colophon to this effect. The argument is based on a combination of eleven textual and para-textual features shared between these two manuscripts, and other manuscripts known to have been produced by the same scribe.

Machine Override: Artificial Intelligence and Human Agency

One of the concerns that many share about training computers to perform certain tasks (like driving) is when or whether to allow a human to override the machine’s decision(s). I have encountered three recent discussions of this to serve as some food for thought. First, the example that gets trotted out frequently is a self-driving car that must… Continue Reading

Type or Wipe: A free app that erases everything unless you type.

Need to rid yourself of writer’s block? I recently heard about an open-source web app, appropriately called The Most Dangerous Writing App. Select the length of time you wish to work (e.g., 3 min) and start typing. Stop for more than 5 secs and your work is lost. Type for the selected duration and you have an… Continue Reading

Chad Wellmon on Reading, From Augustine to Digital Humanists

Chad Wellmon, in “Sacred Reading: From Augustine to the Digital Humanists,” recounts various shifts in the conception of reading over the centuries–how we read, for what we read, the telos of reading, etc. Underlying the compelling narrative Wellmon crafts is a comparison of ‘close’ and ‘distant’ (sometimes equated with ‘computational’) reading: Continue Reading

Owning vs Syndicating Content

On Tuesday (12 April 2016) Facebook opened up applications to its Instant Articles service to all publishers. I signed up that evening and began the tedious process of setting it up. Continue Reading

Website re-design: dropcaps, indents, and more with CSS

I took advantage of some down time to redesign the blog. My design goal was to (1) maintain some of the minimalism but (2) dial up some sophistication and (3) give a nod to old-book elegance: dropcaps, indentation, and retro font. The previous iteration of the blog was uber-minimalist and came at a time in which my priority was improving backend speed and security (i.e.,… Continue Reading

What You Publish Online Is NOT Forever

A myth is often repeated that what one publishes on the web is permanent. But like any medium, it is anything but permanent. (It would be fun to go just 20 years into the future and see what we have). Digital media are especially susceptible to corruption and deletion. Sometime in 2005-06, I started blogging… Continue Reading

Making the Most of Shifting Modes of Scholarly Communication

That was the subtitle of a talk I gave at a seminar of the Centre for Humanities Innovation (CHI) at Durham University yesterday. What I wanted to do was initiate a conversation about new and old forms of scholarly communication and offer a way of classifying them to help scholars consider taking up new forms. Along the way,… Continue Reading

Web Dev in the Humanities: What’s the Use?

Recently someone asked me what I was up to with my work. I answered that in addition to my New Testament work (a discipline we share), I was doing front- and back-end web development for a project related to biblical studies. The response: “Oh. Well, I’m sure that will come in handy in the future.” Perhaps it was… Continue Reading

What is Digital Humanities Research?

A few months ago, the CODEC team discussed pieces of Defining Digital Humanities: A Reader (Ashgate, 2013). One interesting chapter from that book is entitled “Selected Definitions from the Day of Digital Humanities 2009–2012.” The diversity of quoted scholars and their various definitions are instructive and reflect to some extent ongoing debates in the area. One of… Continue Reading

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Category Archives: Technology