Adobe Reader

Calling it like he sees it:

Today brought us the advent of Acrobat Reader 6. And at a first glimpse this is a piece of software that wants to make you puke.

...

They’re en par with Microsoft for moronicity there.

More ...

I haven't looked at this extensively yet but everything he says in this review resonates.  So I guess my analysis is:

• Review of Acrobat 6 -- Recommended
• Acrobat 6 -- Utterly and Completely Not Recommended

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Really Good Thoughts on Software Localization

Well worth reading.  He's been there, done that, knows the drill.  Recommended.

9:50:40 PM  | Permalink:   | comment []  |  IM Me About This   

Hey you get off my penguin!

Wow.  I bet I just routed this email right to my Spam folder.  Glad Demitrious caught it:

Dear Red Hat Network User,

We never received either a paid subscription or a completed survey from you. Because of this, we have disabled your Red Hat Network demo account. If you would like to reactivate your account with Red Hat Network, please visit: [link] Thank you for your support and continued usage of Red Hat Linux.

--the Red Hat Network Team

Where to begin? More...

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Pssst ... Want an Email Alias ? 

Just Say NO !!!!

Like a lot of us I have both email addresses and email aliases.  Now in case you aren't a mail junkie like me, here's the difference -- an email address is a mailbox where mail accumulates.  It actually is an address, has storage space, etc.  Now an alias is nothing more than a forwarding instruction that says "whenever mail comes to scott@xyz.com send it to sjohnson@fuzzygroup.com".  Very simple.  And its a nice way for a web publication to give you a vanity address that basically costs them close to nothing.  So if you're an author for a web publication then you might grant all your authors FIRST_NAME@publication.com.  That looks good and is cool, right?  I mean its just an alias, why not.  Well the next time someone offers one of these to me, I think I'll run for the damn hills. 

Since I do anti-spam professionally (in addition to consulting and blog searching as well as janitorial services on alternate thursdays and yard work on bi-annual July 4ths ), I'm pretty aware of where spam comes from.  Still I was actually shocked to realize that something like 40% of my spam comes from one email alias -- that not only do I not even control but I can't even get the person who gave it to me to delete it.

Email Aliases: Just Say No!!!

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Embarassing Is ...

Writing the equivalent of Google Images for the blog world and showing it to your Mother.  And then having some of the blog world's more steamy aspects show up.  Ack Foo Squared!  I'd rather eat glass.  Really I would.

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New Email Virus

Ouch!

A variant of the Sobig worm that appeared over the weekend is now spreading rapidly, security experts have warned.

This is the third Sobig variant to hit the Internet this year, and the experts believe more variants may already be in the pipeline, as the virus is set to self-terminate on June 8.

The new version, W32/Sobig.C-mm, had already reached a "high level" outbreak status by Monday, according to security analysts. U.K.-based MessageLabs, which offers e-mail outsourcing to companies around the world, said it had stopped nearly 17,000 copies of the virus in the past 48 hours, placing the virus in the No. 2 position on the company's list of most-prevalent viruses.

...

The e-mail can have one of several subject lines, such as "Approved," "Re: 45443-343556" or "Re: Application." The body always reads: "Please see the attached file." The attachment is called "document.pif", "screensaver.scr" or a similar name, using a .pif, .txt or .scr extension.

More...

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Have a Camera Phone and Want to Blog?

Check out Photocide.  That's right -- they'll let anyone with a camera phone contribute pictures.  No idea how they're paying for the bandwidth.  And, yes, the images posted are pretty much what you expect.

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Marketing Like a Man!  or "Tease Me, Flirt with Me, Don't Just Take Me!"

Note: Even though I am a man, I think I've talked with enough women about the issues they have with men to use this title.  Now since I don't want to be a total schmuck, I'm hiding the guilty party's specifics.

I'm finding an increasing amount of marketing messages that feel to me like bad dates.  I mean they just want to get right down to business -- without even telling me anything up front.  It feels like they want to tell me all about their most intimate details -- without telling me who they are.  I mean no introduction, no sweet talk, no context.  Here's an email I just got:

Hi J. Scott,

As an alumni of XYZ Events, I am happy to announce our special promotion which we are offering the alumni of our events during the month of June.  If you register for the Fall 2003 RST Tradeshow and Expo ( url  ) during the month of June, I'm happy to offer you the opportunity for significant savings. :-)

By using the special priority code: PALUM, you can register to attend the  Fall 2003 RST Conference for:

   RST Package -     US$  1895
   Full Conference - US$  1595

Both of these prices reflect an additional $300 savings from our available "Early Bird" pricing.

If you are interested in just the Fall 2003 RST Expo, you can register for as little as US$ 75 by using the same priority code.

We already have over 60 confirmed exhibitors <url> in our exhibit hall.  At our current sales rate, it looks like we will have a sold out exhibit floor with over 100+ exhibitors.  Delegates with an "Exhibits Only" Registration will have access to the exhibit hall as well as the RST Keynotes and the General Session.

Please note that this offer expires on June 30, 2003.

If you have any question, please feel free to contact me directly.

Kind Regards,

Joe "Market Like a Man" Smith
company.com RST Events, Inc.

Now this email is factually correct.  I'll grant you that.  What it never told me was this:

What the #*)($*#)($# *$# is RST?

That's lame.  One phrase like this would make all the difference:

If you register for the Fall 2003 RST Tradeshow and Expo ( url  ), the leading forum for TCP/IP Networking Over Salt Water, ...

Yeah -- that's a small change but it tells me right away if I care or not.  Right away.  As it is, I couldn't even place what RST meant and had to go look at the web site to see -- and very, very few people will even bother.  Or worse they might go look it up and then just decide to pick on you (as I did).

Basic Marketing Rules of thumb:

1. Assume people are busy.
2. Assume that your marketing is an intrusion into their time.
3. Make it easy for people to dismiss your marketing message -- while letting them get something from it.  Without going to their website, I got **nothing** from this marketing message.  I mean nothing.
4. Don't market like a man.  Market like a gentleman.

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Drupal 4.2 is Coming

Very, very cool.  The next release of the Open Source Drupal CMS is coming:

The code freeze for the Drupal 4.2.0 release has begun. As of now, no new features or functionality is being added. Just bugfixes. Though, in the initial stage of the code freeze, documentation updates, usability improvements and performance improvements are still being accepted.

If you have a Drupal site and you want to help testing, consider upgrading now. Anyone who doesn't have an old site and wants to help out can of course setup a Drupal site from scratch. Drupal has been remarkably stable during the past weeks so everything should be well.

The release candidate is available at:

http://www.drupal.org/drupal/drupal-4.2.0-rc.tgz

Thanks to Dries for making sure I was aware of it.  I spent some time at the bar at OSCOM talking to one of the TikiWiki developers about Drupal's distributed authentication system (what's that you say?  Your blog can't let you log in using your Yahoo ID or your Hotmail ID?  For shame!).  It really wouldn't surprise me at all to see this Drupal feature end up in his Wiki tool at least based on how enthusiastic he was.

9:11:36 AM  | Permalink:   | comment []  |  IM Me About This   

Not an OSCOM Summary

I know I should be posting an OSCOM summary but others have done that and I've been under the weather ever since the conference ended (nothing like ending a conference with a mild touch of food poisoning) AND was out of the office on some personal business.  But I do have to make just two comments:

• Sam Ruby has to be one of the nicest guys around -- I ran into him at the end of a session and we swapped war stories for a while.  It was just plain cool.  Always nice to find some who's been gored by the same bad object databases as I.  Even better when he can imitate the same technical support calls you've heard yourself i.e. "You: My object database is crashed.  <Send them Database>  Vendor: Yes it is crashed."
• Greg Stein of WebDav / mod_dav fame gave what had to be the nicest presentation ever.  Not only did I learn tons about WebDav but he did it with style and grace.  Outstanding.

Back in the saddle again today grinding on Feedster and on IM.  More later.

7:44:58 AM  | Permalink:   | comment []  |  IM Me About This