September 2006 Entries
I've been working on a project where I am dynamically filling form fields on a PDF using the PDFToolkit from ActivePDF. It's been great, with one exception.
The customer had created their PDF and sent it to me to actually put the PDF form fields on it. When they sent their base document, it was 35K. I noticed that when I opened it, made my changes and saved it, it was 279K, almost 8x larger, even if I made a change and then used "undo", effective making no changes.
Google to the rescue. I found this
article on PDFs, which explained why. The gist of it: always use "Save As" when saving a final version PDF. If you don't, it saves all your changes as a part of the document by appending them, increasing the PDF file size.
The thing that was killing my file size the most, though, was using a non-Base 14 font. I was using Times New Roman. By switching to Times Roman, the file size dropped to 36K. Quite a difference. Strangely enough, even though I didn't have the font embedded in the doc (the optimizer didn't pick it up and show it as on option to un-embed), it was the difference in my file sizes.
Lesson learned!
I am constantly appalled at people's lack of manners!
I was recently on a flight from Phoenix, AZ to Orlando, FL. I was on Southwest Airlines, got to the airport early, and managed to get myself a nice exit row seat. After takeoff, I hear noise behind me. Sounds like a movie...yep, it was. Someone was watching a movie on their portable DVD player and not using headphones. I turned around and asked them nicely if they could turn it down. Apparently, they could, but it was difficult, painful and quite the bother - at least if the expression on their face was an accurate indication.
I fell asleep, and when I woke up, it seemed to be back to it's previous volume. I was going to ask the flight attendant to say something, but the movie ended or they got tired of watching it by the time I got up. (I had to use the lav and was waiting on the lady sitting in the middle seat next to me to get back so I didn't have to make the gentleman on the aisle get up more than he really needed too. Now that's courtesy!)
Would people consider listening to music on a plane without headphones? I doubt it. And if they did, they would probably be told by the flight attendant to turn it off. Why should a movie be any different? I did actually ask the flight attendant (out of curiousity) if Southwest has a policy against watching movies without headphones. She didn't know for sure, but she didn't think so. That, to me, is amazing.
I wouldn't think a movie being played aloud is something I should even have to a) say something to someone about, and b) wait for the flight attendant to say anything.
People are just rude.
This article on the
number of TVs in the average US household. There are now (on average) 2.73 sets per household and only 2.55 people per household (again, an average. How many .55 people have
you seen?). I hope it's a matter of convenience, rather than a matter of we want to watch that much TV.
Turn off the TV. Talk to your wife. Play with your kids. Learn something new. Don't let TV run your life. This all coming from a guy who loves a good TV show. When
24 starts back up in January, I'll be watching and/or recording! Will Jack Bauer have escaped from the Chinese and be unraveling a plot? Or will the show be about his escape? Can't wait to find out.
But, in the meantime, I hope I can continue to build the relationships that really count - with my God, my family and my friends.
I've already commented on how
not random my iPod is, but now it's getting weird. I selected "Shuffle Songs" and this is what it did:
Song 4: "I Am the Door" by
Day of Fire (from the Day of Fire album)
Song 5: "Run" by Day of Fire (from the Cut and Move album)
I know, I know, you can adjust in iTunes how likely you are to hear a song by the same artist. Mine's right in the middle. And I know that sometimes it's gonna' randomly repeat songs by the same artist, but it still took me by surprise.
One great thing about the iPod is the random feature. Sure, it may not be
totally random, but sometimes it just hits a great song. This afternoon it picked a great classic rock song "Rev On The Red Line" by Foreigner. What great song. Go buy it on iTunes if you don't have it - it totally rocks!
"...everybody knows at the green light you rev it on the red line..."