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Well, Helena, the document in question was already in hard copy first...
Cult is in the next post.
To clarify my rant, I was just annoyed because I wasted over two hours this morning cleaning up a computer in my office. Why? Well, because the user of this particular computer has rights to install programs on her box. (Everyone else has the right to shut up...and that's about it. They can't even change their homepage! Hooray for fascist IT overlords!) So every two weeks, I have to go in and clean up her computer again, because it's filled with adware, spyware and trojans. Why does she have permission to install these things? Because her idiotic Quickbooks application refuses to run unless you give said users administrative rights. It has to write to the damn registry to run! So unless I make her an administrator on her box, she can't do her job.
No one else seems to notice that all the computers in the office work fine except for hers...of course, no one else is forced to blow an entire morning cleaning up the damage.
Okay, cult is coming! I missed the chance to have sushi for lunch today...because the place was too packed. Jealous of Helena...
Okay, first things first...did anyone read Ed's last post in its entirety? I love the kid, and began reading, even though he admitted at the outset that it wasn't about a cult. I thought it might approximate the McDonald's adventures of yesteryear. After the first quarter, I skimmed. I mean, why not just convert the Word doc to pdf from Word? Why re-scan? Maybe he covered this later and I missed it.
The latest from me is frustration that while I have accomplished the task of finding a new job, I still don't know when I'll make the switch. My current boss is unwilling to commit to a date, because he doesn't know whether one of my colleagues is going to a conference next month. He won't just ask her because he feels like she should have told him. Other political sensitivities abound. Please.
Good news is, I will dine on sushi and champagne this evening.
So I'll go into my cult-ish experience the other night later. For now, as I digest some tasty chinese food, I'd like to focus on a random event happening this morning: namely, some scanning.
Boring, right?
Well, in and of itself, yes. A co-worker asked another co-worker of mine to scan a small invitation. She had some trouble doing so, and asked me to help. I did, but afterwards, the first co-worker said that she wanted the result "in a pdf file...not in word, so that she could e-mail it to people".
Okay, a reasonable request, and one somewhat easily fulfilled. However, examining the statement reveals some internet ideas that deserve greater attention. It's clear that Adobe has succeeded in their attempt to make a single document standard somewhat ubiqitous on the web. I would argue that this is not a good thing, despite the relative open-ness of the pdf standard. Why? Well, fist of all, pdf documents are only tied to Adobe. Although other programs can allow you to edit pdf documents, if Adobe wants to change the standard, only they can do so. Sort of a "my door is open until I close it" level of openness. Of course, given that Microsoft Word is equally proprietary, it's not a solution either.
So the item in question is scanned again, and in doing so, the co-worker asks me to help her with it. After examining it, I tell her that rather than scan it as text and images, she should just scan it as one large image. This, of course, defeats the entire purpose of pdf documents, but it is quicker and looks nice. The item is sent out then as a pdf...
So, instead of doing the correct method, we ended up sending an image, wrapped as a pdf, to several people. Compatible? Sure. But so would an e-mail with the image embedded in it...or a link to a website instead. Too often with web design and technology in general, users want a quick solution at the expense of long-term goals. The real problem is that a universal standard (like those endorsed by the w3c) isn't around for documents. And xhtml just hasn't reached the saturation point where most editing programs edit in xml instead of something that's less open. The solution, as I've discovered, is not to educate voters. It's to fight dirty, the microsoft way. What do I mean? Well, Adobe and Macromedia both have some of the highest download rates for their two browser plug-ins, namely Acrobat and Flash. Neither Acrobat or Flash has ever been integrated into the browser, leading both companies to continue to market products which let users author content in pdf and flash formats for loads of cash. Microsoft has implicitly helped both companies by allowing IE to easily upgrade to include the latest plug-ins, which in turn help IE gain more market share.
The solution, then, is to simply place content of a different nature on websites and demand users install plugins to support it. Rather than offer the tired "we can't expect users to install plugins to visit our page" web developer should help boost important technologies by including them in their sites and placing the blame squarely where it belongs: on the backs of browsr developers. If every site began to use the open-standard SVG format instead of Flash, Microsoft engineers might think about embedding svg support into IE. If every site began to use png files instead of gif files, IE might include proper png transparency options.
To that end, I've decided to stop coddling Internet Explorer users. I'll code the site for firefox. If the css/javascript doesn't work in IE, so be it. Developers need to take a stand, and now is the time.
Armstrong is about to win L'Alpe d'Huez, I've got tons of stories from last night, and more coding for the backend to attend to. Perhaps during lunch I can catch up...
Congratulations to Helena, who scored the sweetest gig ever!
Head over here to throw Ginny Schrader some money. Jim Greenwood, a moderate GOP from the 8th district in PA, just cashed in his chips yesterday, making this seat a perfect pickup in a district that went for Gore by 5%. Schrader already raised $14K in a few hours yesterday after the announcement. So help keep it up!
Armstrong won the stage convincingly today, by enough time to snag the yellow jersey before tomorrow's time trial up Alpe d'Huez. He gets to start last, so be sure to watch the fireworks if you can tomorrow morning.
I don't normally like the New Yorker. But this account of the Cheney/Leahy smackdown is priceless.
Clarifying a discussion I had with Brad over the weekend, there are now 920 US military casualties in Iraq. Not including other coalition partners or contractors, etc.
John Edward's brother is wanted in Colorado. Read the article, then see if this is a better headline:
10 Year-old Charges On Relative of Democrat Mentioned Again For No Reason!
There. Perspective is nice, isn't it?
Went ape today. Busted out over two minutes over Ullrich. Armstrong and Basso won the stage after blowing everyone off. Tomorrow the fun in the mountains continues...
This is hilarious. Quite possibly one of the funniest flash animations I've ever seen. Go check it out!
Somewhere, Woodie Guthrie is smiling.