From The Garden To The City by John Dyer

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Seth Grotzke

From The Garden To The City: The Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology

Author: John Dyer

Product Details

Publisher: Kregel

Date Published: 2012

Point: Though technology is a God-given and God-imaging tool which can relieve symptoms of the Fall, it cannot save our souls.

Path: Dyer walks through the story of the Bible, Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. In these broad sweeps of history he explains how technology has been used by both God and Man. Along the way explains that technology is not neutral, but by nature it changes both the world and the user. The final section of his book looks at the Modern revolution and then the present technological landscape.

Sources: Neil Postman, McLuhan and other thinkers. Internet articles, Blog posts, and more books on technology than I have heard about. His endnotes are helpful.

Agreement: This is the best book I have read on technology. I would include it in the top five books I have read all year. Dyer takes the time to not only define the terms, but to talk through the reasoning.

Technology is not neutral. It is always changing us.

Personal App: Am I evaluating not only the content but also the method that this technology is using to communicate to me?

Favorite Quote: “When technology has distracted us to the point that we no longer examine it, it gains the greatest opportunity to enslave us.”

Stars: 5 out of 5

It would be worth another read and I would recommend it.

If this review was helpful, let me know here.

My Top Mac Shortcuts

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Seth Grotzke

Beyond the typical Command + C and Command + V, there can be some helpful shortcuts to speed things up.

Command + Q – quit the application
Command + M – minimize the window that is open
Command + Tab – move through open applications (+ Shift and you move backwards through your apps)
Command + Tilde (`) – move through open windows of one application (+ Shift and you move backwards through your windows)
Command + Control + D while hovering over a word brings up its dictionary definition
Command + Option + Shift + V – pastes whatever you have copied with the same format that are working in. So if you are putting an outline from Pages into Keynote, you can paste directly into the formate on Keynote.
Option + Shift + Command + Esc – Force quit applications or see what applications are running
Shift + Command + I – inside Safari, using this command will open up a new mail message with the website address in it.
Control + D – For those of you who can’t live without a delete button (delete on Mac is backspace)
Command + Shift + 4 – Take a snapshot of a section of the screen (just move the crosshairs around). + spacebar and you take a picture of the whole screen.