This is my blog following the trials of a man torn between pride and quality.
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last.fm records
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Monthly Archives for January 2004
CutePDF Printer
At home I do not have an Acrobat license, yet I sometimes want to make PDFs. I have tried messing with GhostScript before but it was too complicated. Today I did a search and found CutePDF Printer. It is an awesome freeware app that does all that I need, i.e. it prints to PDF files. As far as I can tell it has only one setting: the file location. It produces much better quality images than Acrobat, it doesn’t seem to recompress the images at all.
Verdict: If you want to produce the occasional small PDF file and don’t need the fancy features, get CutePDF.
*I just read the help file, and apparently CutePDF uses GhostScript, just in a user-friendly kind of way.
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elf over twaalf
Ric in Middle Harbour. I had a great time swimming around the beach, riding in the boat and attempting to wakeboard. After six attempts I was unable to get up, although I did manage to get dragged underwater. I didn’t want to give up and let go of the rope. I had to stop as I had swallowed a lot of saltwater and felt like I was holding up the more experienced wakeboarders. I returned to the beach for ball games and swimming.
Whilst at the beach I had time to ponder my foolishness. On Friday I bought a new mobile phone, outright. On Sunday I swam in the harbour with the phone in my pocket. I only realised that it was there when it went into its death throes, and suddenly started vibrating constantly. After a little while, it stopped. An expensive lesson.
After a bit of a swim I reapplied sunscreen and prepared for my next challenge: water-skiing. It took me quite a number of tries, in front of boatloads of laughing spectators, before I managed to get up, which I did twice. I never went further than 50 metres, but it still felt like an accomplishment.
later…
Henk just called me and asked “hoe laat is het?” but I became flustered and couldn’t answer. The Dutch tell the time by a complicated system of addition and subtraction and under the pressure of the moment I couldn’t calculate the answer and then translate it into Nederlands. The answer was, of course, elf over twaalf.
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Bullet Proof
It is not in the best condition, but it serves its purpose well. I have so far been on 5 rides with it, two of them over 14 km, and the last one being 29.1 km. It is during this last ride that I discovered a feature of the bike that had not previously captured my attention: the tyres were not in good condition. I know this because they are bald; in some places I can see structural mesh; they are wavy-looking; and mostly because I got two punctures during that 29 km ride.
I resolved to do something about this so today I went to the bike shop and asked for the most puncture-resistant tyres that they had. I was offered tyres that are made from kevlar! I didn’t see that I had a choice - if something has kevlar then a purchase is automatic. I left the shop whistling happily and dreaming of a life fighting crime from atop my bulletproof bicycle.
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