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First, the filesize is ridiculous.

The interface needs a lot of work, unless I have a scrolling mouse I won't even bother reading one. The little hand widget must go. Also, I don't want to have to resize my screen to be able to read half the poorly produced PDFs out there. No use in jumping to the next page when I can only display 2/3 of the current one. So back to the little hand.

They're non-editable for the most part once you make them.

They are in a closed format and controlled by a litigious company unafraid to use the DMCA for their own questionable ends.

The plug-ins are notoriously buggy.

Its great for sending something straight to the laser printer, but as an on-line advance it really just stinks.

P.S.:And this has a score of 4? :-(

There is actually a free DPS library for X. It's made by Aladdin, the people who brought you Ghostscript, and the package itself is called Display Ghostscript.

It's actually not complete, and I don't know what's going on with it currently. I had seriously toyed with the idea of writing a window manager based off the library, a la' OSX, but from what I gathered the lib wasn't quite in a useable state. You can get it on debian via "apt-get install libdps" and there are dev packages too.

I would seriously love to see someone (particularly the Windowmaker & GNUStep team, as it fits them best) create my project of the DPS window manager and Widget set. I don't know how useful it would be, but I think it would definitely compel people to move forward. The URL for DPS programming info is here, if anyone is interested.

Where would Adobe be today without the rampant piracy of Photoshop by tens of thousands of graphic art students (don't tell me this is not happening).

Probably selling a lot of copies of Photoshop Elements (that is, Photoshop minus the prepress engine) at $100 a piece (not $600) and making a wad of dough.

Photoshop has a HUGE learning-curve to do anything but the most basic operations.

How does it compare to GIMP's? Is GIMP 1.2 easier or harder than Photoshop Elements?

The PDF File Format Specification is available from Adobe as ... PDF! This means that if you want to implement a PDF reader for a new computer/OS, all you need is an editor, a compiler and a PDF reader.

No - there're several specification documents freely available from Adobe:

Scroll down to the File Format Specification section.

The letters in the article asked for alternative formats, which can be created with MS-Word: text, HTML, and PDF. The third can be created within MS-Word if you have Adobe's Acrobat software. (not just the reader; the distiller).

The letters in the article asked for alternative formats, which can be created with MS-Word: text, HTML, and PDF. The third can be created within MS-Word if you have Adobe's Acrobat software. (not just the reader; the distiller).

Adobe has a little advertised web service that will convert a variety of documents formats, including MS Office, to PDF files. Cost is 9.95 a month, but the 5 conversion freebie trial which is controlled by email address.

If you're going to write documentation in PDF, I might suggest checking out Adobe InDesign 2.0 when it ships (which should be shortly, according to what some Adobe folks said at the recent Macworld.) You can use XML to build the docs structurally, then you can use InDesign to map those structures to text styles.

I'm a bit of a font geek, and one of the things I've always hated about printed app documentation is that so much paper is wasted on bad layout and typography. The great thing about InDesign is its support for OpenType fonts, whose professional typography features like small caps, ligatures and oldstyle figures make text easier to read. InDesign automates all of these features, so all you have to do is define the styles in terms of their XML/XHTML counterparts.

I realize some Slashdotters have been led to believe that Adobe is responsible for Sklyarov's recent ordeal and will thus not bother considering this as a solution, not to mention it doesn't run on Linux, but you should keep it in mind as an answer to both the structural and aesthetic aspects of software documentation. InDesign 2.0 in combination with one or more OpenType Fonts can churn out truly beautiful documents.

My second choice would be LaTeX through the LyX front-end. You still can't beat its bang/buck ratio, and it's really still the best way to do layout in Linux. If you're sick of the standard TeX fonts, though, you should check out the book TeX Unbound by Alan Hoenig.

If you're going to write documentation in PDF, I might suggest checking out Adobe InDesign 2.0 when it ships (which should be shortly, according to what some Adobe folks said at the recent Macworld.) You can use XML to build the docs structurally, then you can use InDesign to map those structures to text styles.

I'm a bit of a font geek, and one of the things I've always hated about printed app documentation is that so much paper is wasted on bad layout and typography. The great thing about InDesign is its support for OpenType fonts, whose professional typography features like small caps, ligatures and oldstyle figures make text easier to read. InDesign automates all of these features, so all you have to do is define the styles in terms of their XML/XHTML counterparts.

I realize some Slashdotters have been led to believe that Adobe is responsible for Sklyarov's recent ordeal and will thus not bother considering this as a solution, not to mention it doesn't run on Linux, but you should keep it in mind as an answer to both the structural and aesthetic aspects of software documentation. InDesign 2.0 in combination with one or more OpenType Fonts can churn out truly beautiful documents.

My second choice would be LaTeX through the LyX front-end. You still can't beat its bang/buck ratio, and it's really still the best way to do layout in Linux. If you're sick of the standard TeX fonts, though, you should check out the book TeX Unbound by Alan Hoenig.

Try FrameMaker 6.0 and mif2go if you want to produce HTML and PDF from the same set of master source files. I've used them with spectacular results, for docs ranging from 20 to 350 pages, including Table of Contents and Index. mif2go does help files, too -- WinHelp, MS HTMLHelp, JavaHelp, etc.

We have a user manual (350+ pages) and a demo document (~60 pages) that contains a subset of the stuff in the manual. We used to keep one copy of each document in PageMaker (hey, before I came along it was WordPerfect; give me a break!). This required constant, simultaneous editing of the almost-identical sections in both documents. It introduced errors and inconsistencies, and it effectively doubled my editing workload, since the sections we edited most often were the ones in the demo document. Worse, PM isn't suited to long-document problems like re-numbering sections. Any time we added a new section, I had to renumber, by hand, all sections that came after it, including cross-references to other sections (there are hundreds of these). I knew there had to be a better way.

Three years ago, I switched us over to FrameMaker. Now, I keep ONE set of master documents, from which I produce print, PDF, HTML and Help files for both the manual and the demo document.

Here's how it works:

Instead of one big file, I have 31 separate FrameMaker files, each of which corresponds to a section or chapter in the user manual. I have two "book files": one for the manual, which includes all 31 section files, and one for the demo document, which includes only three.

One of FrameMaker's most powerful features is its "conditional text," which lets you tag certain text for display only on certain conditions. In my case, I created three tags: ManualOnly, DemoOnly and Normal. Most text in all sections is Normal. But, some is ManualOnly and some is DemoOnly; for example, there's a completely different introductory subsection in the demo version of Section 1. That part is tagged DemoOnly; the intro subsection for the user manual is tagged ManualOnly, and the rest of Section 1 is tagged Normal. Now, deciding what gets tagged how takes a bit of work, but once it's done it simplifies things greatly: I open the book file I want, set the display to "Normal" along with "ManualOnly" or "DemoOnly," depending on which book I want, and print. Or, I can save as PDF -- a feature built right into FrameMaker. Note that the sections are numbered differently in the demo document than they are in the manual. That's OK; Frame handles the renumbering automatically, and even renumbers any cross-references between sections as needed! It likewise generates the Table of Contents and Index for me, with page and section numbers as appropriate.

Now, that works fine for print and PDF. What about Help files?

This is where mif2go comes in. mif2go generates FrameMaker Interchange Files (MIFs) from your FrameMaker originals and converts them to WinHelp, JavaHelp, HTML, HTML Help, XHTML: you name it. mif2go is US$299, produced by a small outfit called Omni Systems. The price includes free tech support (email only) for a year, and they have been VERY responsive to email, usually responding within the day. The only comparable conversion product I know of for FrameMaker is WebWorks Publisher, which is produced by a self-important corp that charges three times as much for its software that, IMHO, works far less well than mif2go (and yes, I've tried both; a demo version of WebWorks even comes with FrameMaker 6.0).

Before mif2go, help file creation went like this:

• export FrameMaker section files to RTF (with FrameMaker's lousy RTF filter), losing most of the markup in the process, such as cross-references.
• use a HAT (Help Authoring Tool) like RoboHelp to re-format what didn't translate properly, and to replace all the missing links. This usually took about six weeks, and introduced inconsistencies (like spelling mistakes) from the original files. It also had an ugly format, and some tables in our original document just WOULDN'T work no matter what we tried.

Here's how it works now:

• Choose File > Save Using Mif2Go.
• Double-click the .hpj file that mif2go generates, to compile the help using the (free as in beer) Microsoft Help Compiler.

Done. Perfectly-formatted help files, in less than five minutes. HTML output is much the same.

I have yet to see anything with the combined power of these two. FrameMaker is available for Windows, Mac and a couple of flavours of Unix (though unfortunately not for Linux), which is a heck of a lot better than you can say for LaTeX, which I wouldn't touch with a barge pole. For serious document work, give me WYSIWYG anytime: I can manage the layout -- even simple things like widows and orphans -- much more easily in a GUI than I can from a basic text editor.

And finally, FrameMaker is rock-solid. I use it every day, for serious work, and it has crashed maybe four times in the three years I've used it. I can't think of any other piece of Windows software that has been so reliable.

A word of warning: I've made this sound like a Great Thing, and it is. But it's not easy to begin with. FrameMaker has a pretty steep learning curve; it's been said that you can do anything to a text document with Frame, but nothing easily. However, your coding background will probably give you a great headstart. Some of the things, like the automatic renumbering of sections and cross-references I mentioned, will be much easier to set up, for example.

Good luck -- and stay away from Word.

I've heard FrameMaker is nice (it's what my instructor suggested in the Tech Communications course I took). There's even a UNIX version (no mention of a Linux version though).

Is Mac OS X a Threat to Linux?

In short, yes! On March 24, Apple Computer, Inc. released its next-generation operating system, Mac OS X (the "X" is pronounced as "ten," for the version number of the operating system) to Macintosh addicts around the world. While this isn't such a big deal to some, others view it as a new beginning that could squash all thoughts of a desktop Linux for the general public.

What's this, "Apple out-maneuvering Linux?" you say? Well, maybe not as a server platform for the immediate future, but just think about this for a second: Would it be possible for Apple to deflate the hopes and dreams of developers worldwide of bringing Linux to the desktop? The short answer to this is yes, but it's more complicated than that.

Aside from the fact that an apple is a fruit and a penguin is a flightless waterfowl, there used to be a big difference between the Apple Macintosh operating system and Linux. Apple had a nice GUI; Linux did not. Linux had a command line; Mac OS did not. Linux is a multitasking OS that supports multiple processors; Mac OS is not. Linux runs on just about anything these days; the Mac OS runs on, well, Apple equipment. Linux is free (well, sort of, depending on your method of install); Mac OS X will set you back $129.

So, the lines were pretty clear about the differences between Linux and Mac OS. But lately, that clarity has been blurred as Apple rolls out Mac OS X to the public. The new Mac OS now has preemptive multitasking and support for up to two processors, which is still a far cry from Linux's support for up to 16 processors, but it's a move in the right direction.

Traditionally, the only control Apple users had over their system was via the Control Panels and scripting system functions with AppleScript, MacPerl, or ResEdit. However, with Mac OS X's BSD base, Apple users were given something they've always wanted: a latch to take a peek into Apple's core.

At the core of Mac OS X is a kernel built on the Mach 3.0 kernel, BSD 4.4, and Darwin (Apple's open source kernel project), giving network and system administrators the ability to use Unix programs and add them to their Macintoshes. When combined, these components offer a rock-solid operating system that's hard to beat. (OK, I know that Mac OS X has its fair share of bugs, so no flames, please.)

One of the advantages of Mac OS X is that it now offers Macintosh users with a command line on top of a slick, stable GUI, known as Aqua. With OS X's BSD core, Macintosh users will now be able to use GNU software. This means they will be able to run tools like Emacs, vi, Apache, and even XFree86 and the GIMP (something that Adobe Systems should fear). If you're looking for a place to download ports of GNU tools that run under Mac OS X, you should visit the GNU-Darwin Project on SourceForge.

One of the downsides of OS X is that it requires you to have a native G3 or G4 processor. This means you have to be running a G3 Mac, an iMac or iBook, a PowerBook G3 or better, or any of the G4 models and above. So, if you have an older 604 PowerPC-based Mac, you can't run OS X (that is, unless upgrade manufacturers, such as Sonnet Technologies release updates to their processor software). For now, though, if you want to run OS X your best bet is to run it on native hardware.

One group that stands to lose a chunk of the market is the Mac-based Linux distributions, such as MkLinux, LinuxPPC, or Yellow Dog Linux (YDL) from Terra Soft Solutions. Up to now, these were your best options for running Linux on the Mac, with LinuxPPC and YDL leading the pack. But OS X changes this landscape significantly. The downside to running Linux on your Mac in a dual-boot configuration (as with Windows) is that if you want to access any of your Mac apps, you had to either reboot, or install and run Mac-On-Linux. Neither option is ideal, but now OS X allows you to work in the command line, and run your Mac apps right along with them--no rebooting required.

My father got a Canon Elph S100 last year (and gave me a S110 this year so I'd stop borrowing his) and he's been struggling with photo tools. He's a bright guy, indeed did a lot of the originial stuff on computers in business etc. but tossing him into Adobe Photoshop, even Adobe Photoshop Elements is just sooo wrong.

iPhoto from all rumors is what he needs - something to lay the photos out, fix them up a bit (Extensis Intellihance is great for him, hope iPhoto supports Adobe plugins), then put together some galleries to post or send to relatives. Heck, on my todo list for today is pull a bunch of pix off of his hard drive (6 ~10MB .psd's no less) then arrange them on a single-page montage for him.

Cable-modems & remote control software aside a good sturdy photo management tool with Apple's simple & intuitive design (yes not to *everyone* but if you use their stuff regularly it does have an enormous amount of internal consistancy) will do well. Heck I've started thinking of advertising my services at some high rate to folks who got digital cameras last year or this and are stuck trying to get them to work, print out decent shots, post them online.

Apple, if the iPhoto is anything like iTunes & iMovie then hurrah - you've just sold my Dad a new iMac if I have to go get it for him myself.

You don't need Photoshop. 90% of the people who use it (including people who pirate it) don't need Photoshop.

Adobe realized this and released a stripped-down product called Photoshop Elements. It retails for $100 and includes everything but high-end color separation. Many other users (such as myself) are also happy with GIMP or WinGIMP.

If Adobe sold Photoshop for $20, that would be a lot like a certain company releasing a certain web browser for free.

"Certain company" meaning AOL, whose Netscape division contributes engineering labor to the free Mozilla web browser suite?

http://access.adobe.com/simple_form.html

will automagically translate any PDF document into HTML. It uses a perl engine, too! :)

I invite you to surf to Adobe's site. There is a free (as in no money involved) program available called "Acrobat Reader," which will allow you to read the file quite simply. It's available for every version of Windows, Mac, Linux, a slew of Unices, and even PalmOS. Now please explain your preoccupation with whether it is not open source or not.

Does it really matter? PDF is a copyrighted format (i.e., Adobe owns it). Releasing the source code to it would be absurd --- Acrobat is theirs, why should they not capalitize on it? Capitalism is the foundation on which the American economy is built. Remember our friend Dimitry? He was arrested because he violated that copyright for another Adobe software. Rights are treasured in American society... if we treasure our rights for the ability MP3s (ones we rip from discs we legitimately own, of course), etc... why should Adobe be denied that same right for their own software?

Are you saying that they should be forced to release all their documents in TXT format just because some poor slob can use /usr/local/bin/pico to view it? PDF is an Internet (dare I say industry) standard nowadays.

Should you choose to protest the PDF format, my friend, you can choose to do so. However, the fact that Adobe hasn't placed their company secrets (read: treasured source code) on the dinner table, is hardly a legitimate reason to release useless whining bullshit about Acrobat not being open source.

Grow up. Closed source software sells because it's a valuable, solid product. Otherwise, no one would buy it.

Except it doesnt work :p

try here instead :)

Yeah it could, as OSX provided no options for selecting your own background graphic. I understand that this got fixed in the newer release. At that time you could only pick from the themes that Apple put together from anywhere in the control panels.

Spent hours dinking around with it. I finally called up Apple tech support about this. According to Apple I had to create an 8gig partition in order for it to work.

In contrast, I slapped a Mandrake install in a blank PC and it was the single sweetest installation routine I've ever seen

Heck, Linux even has more apps NATIVE to it.

Until Adobe starts porting apps to OSX like Photoshop and Illustrator I'm not even going to bother looking at another version of OSX.

Yeah it could, as OSX provided no options for selecting your own background graphic. I understand that this got fixed in the newer release. At that time you could only pick from the themes that Apple put together from anywhere in the control panels.

Spent hours dinking around with it. I finally called up Apple tech support about this. According to Apple I had to create an 8gig partition in order for it to work.

In contrast, I slapped a Mandrake install in a blank PC and it was the single sweetest installation routine I've ever seen

Heck, Linux even has more apps NATIVE to it.

Until Adobe starts porting apps to OSX like Photoshop and Illustrator I'm not even going to bother looking at another version of OSX.

Yeah it could, as OSX provided no options for selecting your own background graphic. I understand that this got fixed in the newer release. At that time you could only pick from the themes that Apple put together from anywhere in the control panels.

Spent hours dinking around with it. I finally called up Apple tech support about this. According to Apple I had to create an 8gig partition in order for it to work.

In contrast, I slapped a Mandrake install in a blank PC and it was the single sweetest installation routine I've ever seen

Heck, Linux even has more apps NATIVE to it.

Until Adobe starts porting apps to OSX like Photoshop and Illustrator I'm not even going to bother looking at another version of OSX.

I Wish I had written it. Enjoy!

As an enlightened, modern parent, I try to be as involved as possible in the lives of my six children. I encourage them to join team sports. I attend their teen parties with them to ensure no drinking or alcohol is on the premises. I keep a fatherly eye on the CDs they listen to and the shows they watch, the company they keep and the books they read. You could say I'm a model parent. My children have never failed to make me proud, and I can say without the slightest embellishment that I have the finest family in the USA.

Two years ago, my wife Carol and I decided that our children's education would not be complete without some grounding in modern computers. To this end, we bought our children a brand new Compaq to learn with. The kids had a lot of fun using the handful of application programs we'd bought, such as Adobe's Photoshop and Microsoft's Word, and my wife and I were pleased that our gift was received so well. Our son Peter was most entranced by the device, and became quite a pro at surfing the net. When Peter began to spend whole days on the machine, I became concerned, but Carol advised me to calm down, and that it was only a passing phase. I was content to bow to her experience as a mother, until our youngest daughter, Cindy, charged into the living room one night to blurt out: "Peter is a computer hacker!"

As you can imagine, I was amazed. A computer hacker in my own house! I began to monitor my son's habits, to make certain that Cindy wasn't just telling stories, as she is prone to doing at times.

After a few days of investigation, and some research into computer hacking, I confronted Peter with the evidence. I'm afraid to say, this was the only time I have ever been truly disappointed in one of my children. We raised them to be honest and to have integrity, and Peter betrayed the principles we tried to encourage in him, when he refused point blank to admit to his activities. His denials continued for hours, and in the end, I was left with no choice but to ban him from using the computer until he is old enough to be responsible for his actions.

After going through this ordeal with my own family, I was left pondering how I could best help others in similar situations. I'd gained a lot of knowledge over those few days regarding hackers. It's only right that I provide that information to other parents, in the hope that they will be able to tell if their children are being drawn into the world of hacking. Perhaps other parents will be able to steer their sons back onto the straight and narrow before extreme measures need to be employed.

To this end, I have decided to publish the top ten signs that your son is a hacker. I advise any parents to read this list carefully and if their son matches the profile, they should take action. A smart parent will first try to reason with their son, before resorting to groundings, or even spanking. I pride myself that I have never had to spank a child, and I hope this guide will help other parents to put a halt to their son's misbehaviour before a spanking becomes necessary.

1. Has your son asked you to change ISPs?

Most American families use trusted and responsible Internet Service Providers, such as AOL. These providers have a strict "No Hacking" policy, and take careful measures to ensure that your internet experience is enjoyable, educational and above all legal. If your child is becoming a hacker, one of his first steps will be to request a change to a more hacker friendly provider.

I would advise all parents to refuse this request. One of the reasons your son is interested in switching providers is to get away from AOL's child safety filter. This filter is vital to any parent who wants his son to enjoy the internet without the endangering him through exposure to "adult" content. It is best to stick with the protection AOL provides, rather than using a home-based solution. If your son is becoming a hacker, he will be able to circumvent any home-based measures with surprising ease, using information gleaned from various hacker sites.

2. Are you finding programs on your computer that you don't remember installing?

Your son will probably try to install some hacker software. He may attempt to conceal the presence of the software in some way, but you can usually find any new programs by reading through the programs listed under "Install/Remove Programs" in your control panel. Popular hacker software includes "Comet Cursor", "Bonzi Buddy" and "Flash".

The best option is to confront your son with the evidence, and force him to remove the offending programs. He will probably try to install the software again, but you will be able to tell that this is happening, if your machine offers to "download" one of the hacker applications. If this happens, it is time to give your son a stern talking to, and possibly consider punishing him with a grounding.

3. Has your child asked for new hardware?

Computer hackers are often limited by conventional computer hardware. They may request "faster" video cards, and larger hard drives, or even more memory. If your son starts requesting these devices, it is possible that he has a legitimate need. You can best ensure that you are buying legal, trustworthy hardware by only buying replacement parts from your computer's manufacturer.

If your son has requested a new "processor" from a company called "AMD", this is genuine cause for alarm. AMD is a third-world based company who make inferior, "knock-off" copies of American processor chips. They use child labor extensively in their third world sweatshops, and they deliberately disable the security features that American processor makers, such as Intel, use to prevent hacking. AMD chips are never sold in stores, and you will most likely be told that you have to order them from internet sites. Do not buy this chip! This is one request that you must refuse your son, if you are to have any hope of raising him well.

4. Does your child read hacking manuals?

If you pay close attention to your son's reading habits, as I do, you will be able to determine a great deal about his opinions and hobbies. Children are at their most impressionable in the teenage years. Any father who has had a seventeen year old daughter attempt to sneak out on a date wearing make up and perfume is well aware of the effect that improper influences can have on inexperienced minds.

There are, unfortunately, many hacking manuals available in bookshops today. A few titles to be on the lookout for are: "Snow Crash" and "Cryptonomicon" by Neal Stephenson; "Neuromancer" by William Gibson; "Programming with Perl" by Timothy O'Reilly; "Geeks" by Jon Katz; "The Hacker Crackdown" by Bruce Sterling; "Microserfs" by Douglas Coupland; "Hackers" by Steven Levy; and "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" by Eric S. Raymond.

If you find any of these hacking manuals in your child's possession, confiscate them immediately. You should also petition local booksellers to remove these titles from their shelves. You may meet with some resistance at first, but even booksellers have to bow to community pressure.

5. How much time does your child spend using the computer each day?

If your son spends more than thirty minutes each day on the computer, he may be using it to DOS other peoples sites. DOSing involves gaining access to the "command prompt" on other people's machines, and using it to tie up vital internet services. This can take up to eight hours. If your son is doing this, he is breaking the law, and you should stop him immediately. The safest policy is to limit your children's access to the computer to a maximum of forty-five minutes each day.

6. Does your son use Quake?

Quake is an online virtual reality used by hackers. It is a popular meeting place and training ground, where they discuss hacking and train in the use of various firearms. Many hackers develop anti-social tendencies due to the use of this virtual world, and it may cause erratic behaviour at home and at school.

If your son is using Quake, you should make hime understand that this is not acceptable to you. You should ensure all the firearms in your house are carefully locked away, and have trigger locks installed. You should also bring your concerns to the attention of his school.

7. Is your son becoming argumentative and surly in his social behaviour?

As a child enters the electronic world of hacking, he may become disaffected with the real world. He may lose the ability to control his actions, or judge the rightness or wrongness of a course of behaviour. This will manifest itself soonest in the way he treats others. Those whom he disagrees with will be met with scorn, bitterness, and even foul language. He may utter threats of violence of a real or electronic nature.

Even when confronted, your son will probably find it difficult to talk about this problem to you. He will probably claim that there is no problem, and that you are imagining things. He may tell you that it is you who has the problem, and you should "back off" and "stop smothering him." Do not allow yourself to be deceived. You are the only chance your son has, even if he doesn't understand the situation he is in. Keep trying to get through to him, no matter how much he retreats into himself.

8. Is your son obsessed with "Lunix"?

BSD, Lunix, Debian and Mandrake are all versions of an illegal hacker operation system, invented by a Soviet computer hacker named Linyos Torovoltos, before the Russians lost the Cold War. It is based on a program called "xenix", which was written by Microsoft for the US government. These programs are used by hackers to break into other people's computer systems to steal credit card numbers. They may also be used to break into people's stereos to steal their music, using the "mp3" program. Torovoltos is a notorious hacker, responsible for writing many hacker programs, such as "telnet", which is used by hackers to connect to machines on the internet without using a telephone.

Your son may try to install "lunix" on your hard drive. If he is careful, you may not notice its presence, however, lunix is a capricious beast, and if handled incorrectly, your son may damage your computer, and even break it completely by deleting Windows, at which point you will have to have your computer repaired by a professional.

If you see the word "LILO" during your windows startup (just after you turn the machine on), your son has installed lunix. In order to get rid of it, you will have to send your computer back to the manufacturer, and have them fit a new hard drive. Lunix is extremely dangerous software, and cannot be removed without destroying part of your hard disk surface.

9. Has your son radically changed his appearance?

If your son has undergone a sudden change in his style of dress, you may have a hacker on your hands. Hackers tend to dress in bright, day-glo colors. They may wear baggy pants, bright colored shirts and spiky hair dyed in bright colors to match their clothes. They may take to carrying "glow-sticks" and some wear pacifiers around their necks. (I have no idea why they do this) There are many such hackers in schools today, and your son may have started to associate with them. If you notice that your son's group of friends includes people dressed like this, it is time to think about a severe curfew, to protect him from dangerous influences.

10. Is your son struggling academically?

If your son is failing courses in school, or performing poorly on sports teams, he may be involved in a hacking group, such as the infamous "Otaku" hacker association. Excessive time spent on the computer, communicating with his fellow hackers may cause temporary damage to the eyes and brain, from the electromagnetic radiation. This will cause his marks to slip dramatically, particularly in difficult subjects such as Math, and Chemistry. In extreme cases, over-exposure to computer radiation can cause schizophrenia, meningitis and other psychological diseases. Also, the reduction in exercise may cause him to lose muscle mass, and even to start gaining weight. For the sake of your child's mental and physical health, you must put a stop to his hacking, and limit his computer time drastically.

I encourage all parents to read through this guide carefully. Your child's future may depend upon it. Hacking is an illegal and dangerous activity, that may land your child in prison, and tear your family apart. It cannot be taken too seriously.

You mean this FrameMaker?

With the latest versions of Mandrake, you can use a tool called drakfont that will import your windows truetype fonts. It's a nice GUI application and you just press a button. May I suggest that if you want to do everything the very easiest way, that you choose a distribution that is renowned for making things much easier.

People often become upset because you start blaming them for not fixing something when they have gone to the trouble of finding workarounds (or sometimes outright solutions) and written them down the best they can. Then you say you say you can't be bothered to read the workaround? Are the guides not clear but you can still understand the process? Please give back and rewrite the guide in a clearer simpler form.

It's one thing to say my distribution ships with fonts that make Netscape suck. But maybe there's a reason for that - making them not suck in all circumstances might not currently be possible out of the box...

Considering the retail on Adobe's Design Collection is a cool $999 (ditto for their Publishing Collection), that doesn't leave a helluva lot for hardware, even if you don't pay retail.

I'd double the budget, buy a used Apple G4 like this, and one of the Adobe sets and a scanner.

- Freed

Considering the retail on Adobe's Design Collection is a cool $999 (ditto for their Publishing Collection), that doesn't leave a helluva lot for hardware, even if you don't pay retail.

I'd double the budget, buy a used Apple G4 like this, and one of the Adobe sets and a scanner.

- Freed

Adobe has a plug-in for IE and many nice SVG demos. Unfortunately the plug-in is not integrated into IE, so you have to download it.

IE directly supports VML (try it here if you are using IE), which does more or less the same as SVG except that it's older, not standardized, and only supported by Microsoft.

Adobe has a plug-in for IE and many nice SVG demos. Unfortunately the plug-in is not integrated into IE, so you have to download it.

IE directly supports VML (try it here if you are using IE), which does more or less the same as SVG except that it's older, not standardized, and only supported by Microsoft.

[All links pulled from google's first page for each letter - sick, ain't it?]

Again, not a bad thing, but we don't want to be misguided into thinking that these lawyers working pro bono support our causes.

Do you think Keker has a shot at making dough on a countersuit or wrongful imprisonment suit? Also, is there any legal recourse against Adobe for starting this?

Photoshop is major $$$. Why do you think so many Mac users have been interested in a GIMP port?

Well photoshop is available to students for only about $200, which is how I first bought it years ago. Anybody who isn't a student will have a job and therefor money, but even then one can still find photoshop for about $500, sometimes less if you pick up an older version and upgrade.

Add to all this the fact that the GIMP is useless for print, and if you're not doing print then you'd be better off buying Photoshop Elements for a mere $99. There are even upgrade programs to buy Photoshop Elements for as low as $70 if you have a copy of Photoshop LE (included with many scanners, and I've even seen it included free with magazines and at tradeshows!)

It should also be noted that while I've seen many Mac users interested in the GIMP (hey, everybody likes free stuff), I've run into exactly zero who were impressed by it when they finally got it running. The GIMP is a nice idea, but despite what many (ignorant) zealots preach, the GIMP does not, in any way shape or form, come close to the power of Photoshop Elements, nevermind Photoshop.

- j

1. The OSS Fact sheet

2. The report on OSS usage and experience made

3. The report on market structure and issues related to public procurement

Annex. OSS alphabetical list and software identification

1. The OSS Fact sheet

2. The report on OSS usage and experience made

3. The report on market structure and issues related to public procurement

Annex. OSS alphabetical list and software identification

1. The OSS Fact sheet

2. The report on OSS usage and experience made

3. The report on market structure and issues related to public procurement

Annex. OSS alphabetical list and software identification

1. The OSS Fact sheet

2. The report on OSS usage and experience made

3. The report on market structure and issues related to public procurement

Annex. OSS alphabetical list and software identification

1. The OSS Fact sheet

2. The report on OSS usage and experience made

3. The report on market structure and issues related to public procurement

Annex. OSS alphabetical list and software identification

1. The OSS Fact sheet

2. The report on OSS usage and experience made

3. The report on market structure and issues related to public procurement

Annex. OSS alphabetical list and software identification

1. The OSS Fact sheet

2. The report on OSS usage and experience made

3. The report on market structure and issues related to public procurement

Annex. OSS alphabetical list and software identification

1. The OSS Fact sheet

2. The report on OSS usage and experience made

3. The report on market structure and issues related to public procurement

Annex. OSS alphabetical list and software identification

I'm not too impressed with anything I've seen from VRML, but Adobe's Atmoshpere was a bit of an eye opener. Check it out yourself at Adobe's Site ... free to play with while it's in beta. I haven't personally developed for this yet, but I hear it's quite intuitive. As a bonus, you have site-specific chat. Now if they will just add site-specific-VoIP I will start taking a more active interest, but for now I think all of this 3d Browser stuff is a bit academic as noone has found any particualarly good use for this stuff yet (at least nothing that the mainstream surfer is going to clamour for).

>Flash SWF format already has widespread installation... SVG has about 0%.

This sounds good, but is actually false. Adobe has been shipping SVG with Acrobat Reader, and Acrobat since about June (I'd have to look up the specific date) Photoshop, Illustrator, GoLive, etc. for almost a year. I don't have the precise number, but I know we have already distributed more than 35 million viewers. I don't think this includes any of the OEMs that distribute Acrobat free from Adobe so the number is probably much higher if anything.

> Have you ever tried to make dynamic web-based applications that run in a browser using javascript, java, DHTML, etc? Almost impossible to get anything that runs cross-browser/platform without writing multiple versions of it.. FLASH works great on Netscape, Explorer, Linux, PC, Mac, etc.

I agree, DHTML has been problematic for many reasons. This is a topic for another time. I would suggest you look at examples found on http://www.adobe.com/svg/demos/main.html. It is quite possible to create Web applications with SVG and JavaScript, Java, Visual Basic, Perl, etc. However, I believe that JavaScript is the only scripting language required by the W3C's SVG Recommendation. There are several advantages to SVG for Web applications including:

1. Vector graphics. (compared to all bitmaps)
2. Graphics that can be created in an advanced drawing tool by a graphic designer (not a programmer) (an advantage over Java)
3. The division of Business logic (scripting), Content (data), and Presentation (graphic). (superior to SWF, Java, rasters...)
4. Graphics that can be dynamically created or updated with live data. (a map, a stock chart, or an inventory control system, for example)

> So why use another standard proposed as SVG when there is already a great vector graphic system available that has lots of features: O.O. scripting, XML, huge user base, cross-platform compatibility?

Be sure and compare apples to apples here. SWF has no DOM (Document Object Model). It has some limited ability to do text substitution (XML is text) but it is not a structured format and lacks many of the niceties of having a full DOM.

There is then the issue of a proprietary de facto standard (albeit one that is commonly used) and an open standard. SVG is quickly catching on. Even though it has just become a W3C Recommendation, there are hundreds of SVG web sites, and probably close to a hundred SVG tools. I won't begin to preach the value of Open standards in a forum like this one because I assume that most people here appreciate their value. Having said that, I'm the first to say that SWF has appropriate applications. Authors should choose the tool (and format) that best suits their purpose.

As for the user base, I think you have over looked a few things. SVG can be easily picked up (with great success I might add) by any JavaScript programmer. I have seen first hand JavaScript programmers become quite proficient in very short time because there is a DOM in SVG. One must also include XML enthusiasts in the list of potential SVG-enabled develoeprs.Because SVG is XML (unlike SWF) it is easy for XML hackers (I use the term with the utmost respect of course) to jump in running. Then comes database experts. Oracle and the like have been on the XML bandwagon for a long time. With native XML support, one can bring the full power of an Oracle application to bear on a problem and paint the data into pretty pictures. XML is not unlike HTML in many ways so many of the people who are used to hand coding HTML are going to be at home with SVG. (Note that SVG also supports CSS, XLINK, HREF, etc, just like HTML and XHTML.) Now, when you add all of these talented people together and arm them with Design oriented tools (Illustrator, CorelDraw, JASC, etc.) and Developer oriented folks (with everything from XMetaL from SoftQuad to their favorite text editing and version control systems) you have a pretty awesome development opportunity. Oh, that's right version control!! Just try to check in a SWF project into a version control system, then check it out for a late stage edit (say to change some text element) and check it back in. Then show me a delta of the change. In SWF that little exercise is impossible. But I digress...

I urge people to look http://xml.apache.org/batik/ and http://xml.apache.org/fop/svg.html as just two open source SVG projects that do an excellent job of showing some of the value that dynamic, interactive, personalized web graphics can offer.



Michael Bierman

Senior Product Manager, SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)
Adobe Systems "everywhere you lookTM"
http://www.adobe.com/svg

SVG does allow for compression. See Appendix G of the SVG specification. Adobe SVG Viewer already has support for gzip which can be easily found for every platform. This often provides 60-80% compression, depending on content. Our current 3.0 beta even allows you to save an SVG in compressed or uncompressed format to a local drive.

Michael Bierman

Senior Product Manager, SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)
Adobe Systems "everywhere you lookTM"
http://www.adobe.com/svg

> Macromedia welcomes anybody to create their own plugin, as their SWF specs are open.

Macromedia requires you sign a license to see their SWF spec (and FLA can't be licensed as far as I know.) Also, I belive that they have only released a SWF 4 spec not SWF 5.

> This is allow ports to platforms like Palm and other handhelds, linux, or whatever device you are creating.

You are confusing the license for their player source code and the SWF format.

> They require that it pass all the compatibility standards, to keep everything working.

No doubt, a very good thing.

Michael Bierman

Senior Product Manager, SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)

Adobe Systems "everywhere you lookTM"

http://www.adobe.com/svg

There are a great many SVG authoring tools. Adobe has been shipping Illustrator and GoLive for almost a year now with SVG support. As has been mentioned, Corel, JASC, and others have tools. There are also several open source projects like Batik. See http://www.adobe.com/svg/community/external.html and http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/SVG-Implementations .htm8.

Michael Bierman

Senior Product Manager, SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)
Adobe Systems "everywhere you lookTM"
http://www.adobe.com/svg

I don't know about Live Motion, but I know Go Live 5.0 does SVG, because I use it. (But don't take my word for it...)

I meant to suggest that people with Photoshop already can just import into GoLive and won't need Illustrator... but if you do not have Photoshop and want to get into SVG, Illustrator would be my recommendation as it is a Vector program on it's own and can export SVG without the aid of GoLive. Photoshop on the otherhand, is pixel based, so you need to import to Go Live before you can export to SVG.

Browsing SVG

The only browser plug-in for SVG right now is Adobe's, and it only works in NS4 and IE5 for Mac and Win32. However, there is a rapidly-developing Win32 SVG-savy branch of Moz by Alex Fritz. No text support yet, alas, but the author suggests that it should be easy to port to other platforms.

Generating SVG

Sodipodi is a Win/Linux vector graphics program with SVG at its heart -- well worth a look. Sketch runs in Python and includes SVG in its import/export set. I've had good luck transforming complex Illustrator diagrams into SVG using Sketch.

On the Win platform, I'm quite fond of Jasc WebDraw; it's in beta and a fully functional demo is provided.

Finally, the versitility of the Batiklibrary is staggering. Written in Java, it includes a viewer, transcoders to png and jpg and a very cool Graphics2D implementation. The latter allows anything graphics that can be drawn to a java G2D panel to be instead output as SVG. This is a great way to get font dimension info for precision layout of SVG, as we've done building dynamic timelines at the Historical Event Markup Project.

SVG Enjoys Broad, Continued Industry Support

Correct me if I'm wrong, but not a single current browser supports the format natively.

Of course "Adobe is very pleased that the SVG specification has been officially approved as a W3C Recommendation. SVG is a fundamental element of Adobe's Network Publishing strategy." You must download their flaky, propietary, plug-in. To even check it out...

This indictment is quite a preposterous scenario -- a foreign company, a foreign citizen, an untested law with the masses crying "unconstitutional" for its stomping on Fair Use and squeltching free speech and stymying legitimate research. The "injured" party is even calling for the indicted's release.

Perhaps the best way to get this law overturned is for the Federal Gov't to press for criminal charges in such a ridiculously overboard and publicized manner as is going on here. This way they generate a high profile case to lure enough public hatred for the DMCA that it makes it that much easier for a court to overturn it. I don't see anyone standing up for the DMCA now but the federal prosecution.

This could be just what we need. Maybe the Feds are on our side now, and just have to play evil for a little longer.

Watch closely for a wink at the camera from a DOJ attorney.

Display PDF is a successor to the Display PostScript system in NeXT/OpenSTEP. There is a Display PostScript extension for X Windows; you can read more about Display PostScript and the X Windows Display PostScript extension here.

Alpha blending (eg transparency) between windows is being addressed with the X Render extension. While neither Evas nor E17 currently make use of the Render extension, and Raster hasn't said much about it on the E-develop mailing list, he has made few posts to the XFree86 Render mailing list indicating preliminary work on a Render backend for Evas.

Now I don't mean to get off on a rant, but...
Someone remind me how the RIAA can charge $15 per CD, get $14 of that, and say that they aren't getting enough money? What about the artists, man?! I'd hope that they deserve something. I mean, god forbid that the RIAA would ever have to lose any of their precious, precious money. What are they even managing to spend it on that they need it so badly? That'd be an interesting story: Where The Money Goes: A VH1 Exclusive Look At The Lives Of Record Company Executives.

The most pathetic thing is they don't realize that by trying to squeeze every last dime out of the market they're pissing more and more people off and, in effect, endorsing the P2P transferring.
While I think the RIAA should crash'n'burn, at the same time, some things I agree with them on. Downloading entire albums should not happen (support artists!), but unfortunately human instincts are to Cheat, to Lie, and to Steal (and the artists don't get much, anyway). I mean, can anyone honestly say that they haven't ever been tempted to cheat on a test, or that they haven't ever lied to get out of something, or ever wanted to steal something so they wouldn't have to pay outrageous prices (see: Adobe, heh). No, I didn't think so.

I seem to have gotten a bit off track. I think that someone (or some people) should start a new music union. Fuck if I know how it'd manage to grow, but I think that if there was something like that that would give more money to the artists, charge less for CDs, and, most importantly, not combat P2P sharing but support it, the world would be a better place.

"Don't you hate pants?
I hope he tells us to burn our pants."