08/05/2004 - 08/11/2004

PBToMake - XCode to Unix

We're bringing some of our Mac & Windows tools over to Solaris and Linux, and were looking for an easy way to have the makefile (or at least a start of a makefile) auto-generated. A quick web search found this tool - PBTOMake. If anyone else has other suggestions, let me know! Hope others find it useful.

Imaging Algorithms

On the Krita mailing list, someone posted this link to a whole bunch of imaging algorithms. Figured i'd pass it along. Leonard

Acrobat Development Workshops

Adobe and PDF Sages will be offering a FREE set of workshops as part of the upcoming PDF Conference in Baltimore during September.

I'll be delivering the first workshop that morning - "Developing with Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader". It's a great half-day introduction to all aspects of using Adobe's PDF tools to deliver PDF solutions to your customers. We'll cover plug-ins, Visual Basic, JavaScript, XML and more!

The afternoon will feature Lori Defurio, Adobe's Developer Evangelist, speaking about their new LiveCycle architecture for server-based integration of PDF, XML and Java. It's VERY cool stuff and worth checking out - plus Lori gives good demo!

You don't need to attend the conference to attend our workshops, but I recommend the conference also - some of the smartest people in the PDF world will be there and happy to impart their knowlege!

Steve Jobs as Intelligence Czar?

I was driving home from the Poconos this morning, listening to NPR, when some guy comes on talking about how the US needs to bring in "outsiders" to evaluate our intelligence gathering situation and put it into a workable shape

He then went on to suggest that it should be Steve Jobs.

Why? Because Jobs has a history of taking failing companies and turning them around into a new, dynamic, profit centers.

Now I certainly agree that Steve has done an AMAZING job on turning Apple around - and giving it some profitable new directions - and moving the industry at large....but the idea of Steve running part of our gov't - let alone the intelligence ones - is just scary!

PDF Hacks - a book from O'Reilly

Looks like O'Reilly is doing a book called PDF Hacks. It's written by a guy named Sid Steward, whose bio reads well, but I've not seen or heard of him before in the PDF circles...

I'm going to hold final judgement till I actually get the book in my hands, but from reading a few of the available sample chapters, I'm not impressed - and in fact, I'm disappointed. A number of his "hacks" are bad recommendations - such as refrying the PDF (see my comments on this here

.

Can you be a techie if you can't type?

That's the question asked by an excellent article in the Christian Science Monitor.

Those of you who know me, will wonder what I doing reading the CSM....I don't normally, but in this case, my friend Dave Polaschek referenced this article and it sounded worth a read.

And it was indeed worth the read, since I completely agree with it and complain about the same things as I watch my girls do their homework and such on the computer. Completely self-taught typists and getting better all the time. (of course, we'll see what they remember when they finish their summers' at camp!

XFDF support for iText

Another open source project that I contribute too is iText - a GREAT Java-based PDF generation library. It also has some basic manipulation facilities, such as stamping, form filling, etc.

Although iText already had support for the Forms Data Format (FDF), it didn't support the new XML-based XFDF. Due to a request from a client, I've written the XFDF support for iText and submitted it to Paulo and Bruno for inclusion in the next update.

If anyone needs it sooner, drop me a line!

GraphicsMagick 1.13 Released

GraphicsMagick, a branch of ImageMagick which focuses on stability and performance, just released stable build 1.1.3

Although I'm one of the maintainers of this project, I haven't been active lately - but I still follow it and contribute when I can

Significant changes associated with GraphicsMagick 1.1.3 (released August 7, 2004)

   Bugs fixed:
     * PNG fixes for CERT security alert TA04-217A described at
     "http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/techalerts/TA04-217A.html".
     * Take resolution units into consideration when resampling an image.
     * If image units are changed, rescale existing image resolution values
     to match.
     * Fixed problems with reading and writing large PCX files.
     * Fixed crash in Wand library MagickSetPassphrase().
     * When a Wand library function is used for which a backing
     implementation does not yet exist, report a "not implemented" error
     rather than just returning an error status.
     * Fixed a problem when reading some BMP v4 files.
     * DESTDIR install now works properly with PERL 5.8.1 and later.

   Improvements:
     * Support reading RGB/CMYK scanline oriented TIFF images with arbitrary
     depth.
     * LZW support for GIF and TIFF is enabled by default.
     * Incorporated lcms 1.13 for more speed, and bug-fixes.
     * The configure script now looks for mozilla (or firebird) when looking
     for a web browser.  Netscape is used if mozilla or firebird are not present.

FoxIt PDF Editor and the "Graphic Keyboard"

Back in May, I discovered a new PDF tool called Foxit PDF Editor from a new entry into the PDF market, Foxit Software.

I was quite impressed with what they had done to build a PDF viewer with basic editing functionality integrated - sort of like Adobe Reader + Enfocus PitStop in a single product! In order to support the company, and given the LOW price of $79, I bought a copy!

I just discovered today, however, that they have a 1.1 update - but as registered user, I am VERY disappointed that they never notified me of this upgrade.

In addition to some performanceand rendering improvements, which are always welcome - the 1.1 version has one KILLER feature that I've not been able to find elsewhere and will help my PDF development & debugging immensely.

It's called the "Graphic Keyboard" and is available when you are editing text. What it does is bring up something equivalent to Windows CharMap...BUT for only those glyphs in the font! In other words, you can actually see what glyphs are available in a subset font!!!

I can't believe no one else thought of this before now - but I know I'll be getting some use out of it

o:XML - XML as a programming language

Was wondering through FreshMeat today as I usually try to do at least once a week, and came across an update for a project called document, which is about an XML grammar (and tool set) for documenting source code.

While looking that project over, I discovered a related project on the same site called o:XML - which is an attempt to use XML as a programming language. They've apparently been at this for a while now, and have an interesting system in place.

Can't see myself moving from C++ anytime soon - but I wish them luck!

Angie's List

Dwight Kelly from Apago sent me a link about Angie's List.

Great idea - but I'm not going to spend $50 to see if anyone else in my neighborhood already spent the $50 to report on folks.

NOW - if I could at least see how many contractors were listed in my area FIRST, to know if I'd be getting my money worth...THEN I'd be willing...

Why "refrying" PDF->PS->PDF is bad!

I got into a discussion/argument today on the PlanetPDF Forums about the process of conversion of PDF->PS->PDF to help "clean up" PDF files. This process, called refrying is one that used to be quite popular, but since Acrobat 5.0 has been frowned upon by Adobe and others.

The reason for this process being avoided is due to the wide variety of PDF features that can NOT be represented in Postscript.

Here are a list of things that you might use in the content of a PDF that don't translate well to PostScript

• Transparency
• ICC-based colors
• 16bit color
• JBIG2 compression
• JPEG2000 compression
• Layers (Optional Content Groups)

Also consider that any additional information added to PDFs during a PDF-based workflow (such as from Creo or Agfa) will be removed during the PDF->PS downgrading...

Of course, there is also the myriad of non-content elements that can be found in a PDF that don't translate to Postscript/print, such as

• Hyperlinks
• Annotations, Commenting and Markup
• Forms
• Multimedia (movies, sounds, etc.)
• Bookmarks
• Metadata
• and more....

So in conclusion...

JUST SAY NO TO REFRYING

XMLSpy Home Edition goes freeware

Anyone looking for a GOOD free XML editor for Windows - run, don't walk to Altova to grab a copy of the Home Edition of XMLSpy!

HOWEVER, if you are already a paid user of XMLSpy, do NOT make the mistake that I did and overwrite your paid version with the free one - yuch!!

Though the company called me back within 24 hours and helped me get back to my older version

Security company that just doesn't get it

Essential Security Software is trying to sell their product to folks producing PDF files and looking for low-cost DRM options.

However, I see a WHOLE BUNCH of flaws with this including

1. Only available for Windows - so all your Mac, Linux, etc. users are out of luck :(
2. 2) Requires "key exchange" with each user, so no immediate security to an "unknown".
3. 3) Uses their own viewer which may limit your ability to properly format and structure your content
4. 4) The company offers NO physical address for their company NOR a phone number. What kind of support do you expect to get from a company like that?

Susan McGinty in their Business Development group responded to me as follows

1. 1) Sorry, this is true. Use with Linux may be possible in a future version.
2. 2) True, but this is the intended use for our product - secure exchange of information between known users. You need to get a passport from your intended recipient, which they can generate using the free trial version of our software. Even if they decide not to buy the software, their passport and the Reader will remain active so that you can still send them encrypted documents.
3. 3) The viewer is mainly window area - I think it actually takes up less screen real estate than the Acrobat Reader. Please try it with a friend (have them send you something with View Only rights) and see if it meets your needs. Please provide us with feedback if it doesn't because we are always trying to improve the product.
4. 4) When we opened our new Corporate HQ office the old address was deleted from our site but the new address was not added. A bad oversight but this has been corrected. Our address is 2828 North Harwood, Suite 1717, Dallas, Texas 75201. Customer Service may be reached toll-free at 1-888-454-2632. Feedback and questions are also welcome through our website, http:/www.essentialsecurity.com.

Having some fun here...

Now that I've got this up and running - I've modified the templates and made things look a bit nicer...

Been a while since I've had to hand edit HTML - but it all comes back to you...

And having to help Marla with her school project that also involves HTML authoring. Who knew?!?!

My First Entry

This is my first entry as a blogger...

Always wanted to try it out - we'll see how this goes!

I am using this tool called Thingamablog, so that I can author on my laptop anytime I want and then upload it to my existing website...

Welcome aboard the trip!