PDF: Pure Evil or Necessary Evil?

I had long detested Adobe's PDF files and the Acrobat reader. It was, and largely remains, a big, bloated, cumbersome program that tied up your Web browser and took too long to load.

But it's a necessary evil if you want to present material, especially print material, in a very specific format -- as one must for things like consistent pagination. And Adobe has significantly improved it over the years. The way one navigates through the pages, in particular, is much more intuitive than it used to be.

But it still ties up your Web browser and is slow to load. However, one can speed up its load times if you eliminate a lot of its plug-ins. I found instructions on how to do so in an Inquirer article:

1. From the Start->Run windows menu, Open the "x:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader" folder, where x is the right drive letter.
2. Find the plug_ins folder and rename it plug_ins_disabled
3. Create a new folder named plug_ins
4. Copy the following files from "plug_ins_disabled" to "plug_ins": EWH32.api, printme.api, and search.api

These directions are specifically for Adobe Reader 6, but I've just applied them to version 5 and they appear to work. So far. One difference is that 5 does not appear to have the printme.api file. And the plug_ins folder is (on Windows XP):

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 5.0\Acrobat\Plug_ins

The reason I'm still using version 5 is because Adobe "in order to serve you better" (which may be the title of my next blog) removed the OCR function from version 6. (Or was it initially removed in version 5 and then restored later? Something like that.) That is, in the pro, commercial version of Acrobat 5 one was able to take a PDF and run OCR over it to convert it to a text document. The OCR wasn't the greatest, most accurate in the world, but it worked. Then Adobe disabled that and forced you to use their crappy online system for OCR.

Ugh.

So even though Acrobat Reader is up to version 7 now, I'm still chugging along with 5 because it is less crappy software.

myBama: $8 Million of Crap

Article in the Tuscaloosa News this morning covers the crash of myBama. They lead off with and repeatedly stress the fact that the system cost eight million dollars.

Omigawd!

It would be funny if it weren't money so annoyingly misspent. And the poor students bear the brunt of the annoyance. Not only does it not work, but their computer fees were raised from $55 to $140 (!) to pay for it.

Appalling.

Slimy AOL Bastids

I recently made the mistake of subscribing to AOL. There was a good reason for it. Honest! I needed free dial-up service for a couple of weeks while on vacation in New York and my cable-based home ISP (Comcast) does not provide a dial-up option.

'Course, I knew that I was risking having AOL insert software so deeply into my system that I'd never get it out, but it was that or go without Internet service for a week. (Unthinkable!) And, yes, AOL did bulk up my system with tons of its crappy software, but later I was able to crowbar most of it out. What I did not expect is that they would pull some very sneaky shit when I canceled the service.

Short version: I called to cancel. The operator said she would and then she continued my subscription. I sent them a sharply worded letter of complaint, which I append below.

So, I was particularly interested when, today, an article appeared in Slashdot titled, "AOL Fined for Making it Hard to Cancel Service." It refers to ZDnet coverage of a recent court decision: "AOL agrees to customer service reform." Indeed! Well, about time, I say.

I noted, in particular, this part of the article:

In addition to paying New York state $1.25 million in penalties and costs, AOL will also reimburse eligible New York consumers with a cash refund worth up to four months of service. Those consumers will have 120 days from Wednesday to fill out and submit a claim form necessary to collect their reimbursement.

Hey! I used AOL while in NY! Maybe I qualify! I think I'll file the form for a refund. Even if I don't get it, it'll still make AOL go through some extra paperwork.

The slimy bastids.

---- my letter to AOL ----

I am very angry with how you have handled the cancellation of my AOL subscription.

I phoned on 16 July with the sole intent of canceling my subscription. I was annoyed to start with that I had to go through your phone system in order to cancel instead of simply filling in a form online. Then I was further annoyed by the AOL operator badgering me with sales pitches trying to convince me to stay with AOL.

I was fed up with your crummy service and just wanted to cancel. Finally, after spending 10 or 15 minutes on something that should have taken 2, the operator accepted my cancellation.

Then, today, I was astonished to receive mail from you that told me I had not canceled my account, that instead this note “confirmed” my continued service. And, it told me, if I wanted to cancel my account I'd have to take the trouble to fill out a form and mail or fax it to you! So now the onus is on me to take action to escape being billed for the substandard service that I already canceled.

Since I was so explicit with the AOL operator in my wishes to cancel, I can't help but think that this letter is a deceptive ploy you use. I would not be surprised if everyone calling to cancel was sent a letter denying their cancellation. How many people would read the confirmation note carefully enough to see that it confirmed the opposite of what they wished to do? And what if they don'’t return the Cancel Request Form quickly enough to avoid being billed for AOL service they thought they had canceled? It'’s outrageous.

Once I figure out which Better Business Bureau oversees where AOL is based, I will be filing a complaint about your deceptive practices. And I will be advising my family and friends, and anyone else I know who suffers from using your service, to cancel their AOL accounts as soon as possible.

23 June 2006 Update:

AOL is still slime. And they were recently caught on tape sliming a customer who wanted to cancel his account. CNBC did a story on it and included video of the phone call.

Oh, and AOL informed me recently that I did not qualify for their settlement.

---- http://www.nbc10.com/news/9406462/detail.html ----

"On Tape: Rep Won't Let Customer Quit AOL"

POSTED: 4:11 pm EDT June 21, 2006
UPDATED: 11:29 am EDT June 22, 2006

An incredible video from CNBC shows an AOL customer trying to cancel his account, but a phone rep won't let him do it. What customer Vincent Ferrari got when he tried to cancel his account was a lot of frustration.

It took him 15 minutes waiting on the phone just to reach a real, live person.

And, what happened next was recorded by Ferrari on audio and lasted about four minutes:

CLOCK READOUT - 00:00

AOL REPRESENTATIVE: Hi this is John at AOL... how may I help you today?

VINCENT FERRARI: I wanted to cancel my account.

AOL: : Sorry to hear that. Let's pull your account up here real quick. Can I have your name please?

VINCENT: Vincent Ferrari.

CLOCK READOUT - 00:30

AOL: : You've had this account for a long time.

VINCENT: Yup.

AOL: : Use this quite a bit. What was the cause of wanting to turn this off today?

VINCENT: I just don't use it anymore.

AOL: : Do you have a high speed connection, like the DSL or cable?

VINCENT: Yup.

AOL: : How long have you had that...

VINCENT: Years...

AOL: : ...the high speed?

VINCENT: ...years.

AOL: : Well, actually I'm showing a lot of usage on this account.

VINCENT: Yeah, a long time, a long time ago, not recently...

CLOCK READOUT - 01:47

AOL: : Okay, I mean is there a problem with the software itself?

VINCENT: No. I just don't use it, I don't need it, I don't want it. I just don't need it anymore.

AOL: : Okay. So when you use this... I mean, use the computer, I'm saying, is that for business or for... for school?

VINCENT: Dude, what difference does it make. I don't want the AOL account anymore. Can we please cancel it?

CLOCK READOUT - 02:21

AOL: : Last year was 545, last month was 545 hours of usage...

VINCENT: I don't know how to make this any clearer, so I'm just gonna say it one last time. Cancel the account.

AOL: : Well explain to me what's, why...

VINCENT: I'm not explaining anything to you. Cancel the account.

AOL: Well, what's the matter man? We're just, I'm just trying to help here.

VINCENT: You're not helping me. You're helping me...

AOL: I am trying to help.

VINCENT: Helping... listen, I called to cancel the account. Helping me would be canceling the account. Please help me and cancel the account.

AOL: No, it wouldn't actually...

VINCENT: Cancel my account...

AOL: : Turning off your account...

VINCENT: ...cancel the account...

AOL: : ...would be the worst thing that...

VINCENT: ...cancel the account.

CLOCK READOUT - 03:02

AOL: Okay, cause I'm just trying to figure out...

VINCENT: Cancel the account. I don't know how to make this any clearer for you. Cancel the account. When I say cancel the account, I don't mean help me figure out how to keep it, I mean cancel the account.

AOL: : Well, I'm sorry, I don't know what anybody's done to you Vincent because all I'm...

VINCENT: Will you please cancel the account.

CLOCK READOUT - 03:32

AOL: : Alright, some day when you calmed down you're gonna realize that all I was trying to do was help you... and it was actually in your best interest to listen to me.

VINCENT: Wonderful, Okay.

CLOCK READOUT - 03:39

"I've never ever experienced anything like that," Ferrari told CNBC.

He recounts how the AOL representative - as a last resort even asked if his dad was home.

"I think I could've put up with everything, but at the point when he asked to speak to my father, I came very close to losing it at that point," said the 30-year-old Ferrari.

Ferrari then posted the call online, and the response was tremendous.

AOL sent him an apology and said the customer service rep was no longer with the company.

It Just Stopped Working

Don't you hate it when something that used to work, just stops working?

I've been draggin-n-droppin images into WordPerfect for quite sometime. Yesterday, drag-n-drop stopped working. Instead of the image being placed in the doc, I would get a generic placeholder with the name of the file.

This reminded me of the old WP10 issue covered in this forum post on WordPerfect Universe:

WP9,10: Cannot insert graphics files on Win2k, WinXP systems

But I wasn't getting the "Detected file format not supported" error message. I tried the old indexing hack, but it didn't seem to work.

So, I investigated further. Turns out that the same problem occurred when I tried to drag-n-drop into Word!

Then I came across this post:

Copy and Paste from Explorer yields an Icon Thumbnail vs picture

This seemed closer to my problem and I found that if I RIGHT-clicked and then dragged I could get a pop-up window that gave me the choice of inserting. Picking that worked. But LEFT-clicking and dragging still does not work.

So perhaps Windows OLE (object linking and embedding) is out of whack. But what could throw it out of whack and what could whack it back in?

This whole process took up hours of my day yesterday and today--all to get back to where I was originally. And I still don't have a full answer.

Of course, WordPerfect's tech support was useless. The only semi-answers I found were on a third-party bulletin board. WP doesn't even have true forums. They only supply a Usenet-style feed and it's not searchable!

Man!

I remember the days when WP was the gold standard for tech support. Anyone -- even someone with an unregistered copy -- could phone their toll-free line and get excellent, knowledgeable support.

Man!

Those were the days!

Then Novell bought WP and busted it up a little. Then Corel bought it and busted it up some more. Now I remain loyal to it in order to retain a few features that M$ Word doesn't have, but issues like this drag-n-drop thing are severely testing me.

Blogger Lets Us Down

Okay, so now Blogger is not working correctly.

One of the Crappy Software team posted an article just now and it won't appear in the blog.

How come?

Update @ 14:03: This one may not have been Blogger's fault. It appears that somehow the stored FTP password information for Crappy Software was changed, but (1) I can't explain how it was changed and (2) Blogger did continue to tell us that the FTP process had succeeded.

myBama? Mine? No Thanks!

I figured myBama would be fixed by this morning (Thursday, 25 Aug). Nope.

When you try to connect, you first get a security warning that's bound to confuse many:


Then you get a blank page. Nuthin'. Not even an explanation that the site is dead (Jim).

Makes me wonder how much myBama cost and why UA couldn't have used a fine open source portal like Mambo.

Update @ 06:31 26 August: Still dead (Jim), but at least now they have a page up explaining what's happened and how to work around it..

Why "Crappy Software"?

Why create a blog devoted to cranky rants about crappy software?

• Because there is so much of it out there.
• Because software companies don't seem to give a damn anymore.
• Because software support has become untenable.
• Because the more reviews that are not written by magazines whose bills are paid by software company's advertising the more likely we are to have unbiased information.

Okay, okay . . . so occasionally I might relent and post a positive review about software I really like, but essentially this blog is for venting.

I know you feel my pain.