Creating web content is incredibly easy — but filtering content is really hard. In late 2014, I realized I was reading too much bad content. I felt enraged by some of the articles I clicked on, because they were such a thoughtless waste of my time.

I got so frustrated that I decided to invest serious effort in fixing the problem on my end, instead of fruitlessly swearing at my laptop. I hoped to determine what what was non-optimal about my media habits, and how I could improve them. So I audited my habits (with a spreadsheet and everything!) — and what I learned might surprise you.

Current clickbait solutions

I’m not alone in my anger about clickbait and my desire for a better media diet. There’s plenty of mocking commentary about this, like The Onion’s satirical site ClickHole, or the amazing Twitter feed Saved You A Click by…

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Preaching: More Than Teaching

25 January 2015 by particularkev

Not my Review: ‘The Heart is the Target,’ by Murray Capill.

The Reformed Reader Blog

Good Christian preaching certainly includes doctrine – who God is, who we are as humans, who Jesus is, and so forth. The early church was devoted to the apostles’ doctrine (Acts 2.42). But preaching is more than just teaching a doctrinal truth. It is also aimed at changing God’s people in various ways (Rom. 15.4, Col. 1.28, 2 Tim. 3:16, 4:2, Heb. 4:12-13, etc.). I have to admit, as a preacher, that this would be an easy vocation if all I had to do was teach people doctrine (which is sort of what I thought when I was a young preacher)! The hard part is preaching it in such a way that God’s people see how his Word is applicable to and practical in all areas of faith and life. [Questions I now ask are ones like these: How does this doctrinal truth matter to the woman who just had…

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Not My Review: The Mingling of Souls, by Matt Chandler

24 January 2015 by particularkev

The link below is to a book review of ‘The Mingling of Souls,’ by Matt Chandler.

For more visit:
http://www.bloggingtheologically.com/2015/01/20/the-mingling-of-souls/

Amazon launches Kindle textbook tool to compete with iBooks Author

23 January 2015 by particularkev

Gigaom

We often think of digital textbooks as being read on iPads, and Apple rolled out iBooks Author, which lets users create textbooks and other interactive ebooks, in 2012. But Amazon, not surprisingly, wants in on the self-published textbook action, and on Thursday launched Kindle Textbook Creator, a beta tool that lets users convert graphics-heavy PDFs into ebooks.

Authors can also add highlighting, flashcards and some other features to the books. Textbook Creator is available for free download on Mac or Windows here.

The tool is only available in English and, according to the FAQ, “textbooks and other content created using Kindle Textbook Creator can only be sold via the Amazon Kindle Store as outlined in Amazon’s Software End User License Agreement.” Apple’s similar rule caused a lot of consternation when iBooks Author launched.

One thing I’m wondering about here is the revenue split. Right now, [company]Amazon[/company] KDP…

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