Quod Scripsi, Scripsi

The Bulletin

The new Penn State web bulletin is going live any day now. There are still a few tasks on the list to complete before final hand-off, but it’s functional and the response has been very positive. It’s built on ColdFusion 8, MySQL 5 and Red Hat Enterprise 4 (5 came out too late to switch).

The content is all managed via a web interface, though I’m not completely happy with it. I will probably continue to tinker with it for a few weeks. We’ve also discussed some features for the second round of updates, like exposing the data via RSS and/or custom XML, allowing construction of “booklets” of PDF pages, and other fun things. I’ve already built some code for that and we’ll be talking to the ANGEL folks soon about piloting some features.

These kinds of web-legacy integration projects are picking up steam. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of this type come along, especially as more of the mainframes are exposed via Java or other modern network interfaces.

Adobe Acrobat 8 Pro Printing Strangeness

I was printing a form in Acrobat 8 Pro on my Mac Pro Tower. The form had been created in an earlier version of Acrobat. The printer is a networked HP Color LaserJet 3800dtn. The output is “mirrored”, that is it would look correct if you held the document up and read it in a mirror. I updated my printer drivers and the printer firmware with the latest from the HP site. No change. I did find one post on a forum about the issue, but no resolution.

I opened my XP image in Parallels on the same machine, opened the same exact file in Acrobat 8 Win and printed to the same printer using the latest PCL6 driver. Worked fine. This is a really strange bug.

Vista Licensing

Wasn't one of the original supposed advantages of the PC it's component flexibility? You could replace any piece, upgrade as you saw fit, etc. This was a touted advantage over Macintosh and other “closed box” architectures that didn't allow component swap, or didn't have third-party options. I guess it's no secret that Microsoft wishes it had that kind of control now. Ironically, the Mac is much easier to upgrade now than ever before.

The more I learn about Vista licensing, the more I am convinced that Microsoft is making this stuff up as it goes along. Some of it seems reasonable, much of it seems really half-assed. At least it's not as completely brain-dead as the Adobe scheme. I wonder what it's going to take to show the big vendors that not all organizations are neat vertical org. charts with locked-down networks and central IT groups? You would think they have never dealt with large educational institutions.

Commodore 64 -> Amiga 2000 -> Macintosh G3 and now Intel systems. I learned Windows out of necessity (and morbid curiosity), Linux because it seemed cool and really useful. I wonder how long it will take these new licensing systems to drive folks to the Mac and Linux in droves? Those of us who have been around a while should accept the refugees with open arms and a minimum of pity. Maybe a little.

Edit After activating a Vista install on Parallels, I think I “get” the volume licensing requirement now, and it’s not so bad. I certainly limits abuse of the keys.