Agileview

Now that Open Office is a standard installation on Linux, Mac & PC desktops the ease of generating PDF documents has increased dramatically. No longer do we require Adobe Writer to be installed just to produce a PDF file.

However, there’s still a gap between producing PDF’s and basic manipulation of PDF files. In my case, the most common requirement is to combine 2 or more PDF files into a single PDF. Useful when attaching combining written documents with scanned images.

I encountered this problem recently and was determined to locate a free & open source solution (isn’t PDF/PS an open standard anyway?).

pdftk to the rescue! A really handy utility which runs on a variety of platforms, including: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, and Solaris. And it works like a charm.

For example: to combine 2 PDF files into a single PDF simply issue the command
pdftk front.pdf back.pdf output combined.pdf

Exerpt from the readme file:

If PDF is electronic paper, then pdftk is an electronic staple-remover, hole-punch, binder, secret-decoder-ring, and X-Ray-glasses. Pdftk is a simple tool for doing everyday things with PDF documents. Use it to:

* Merge PDF Documents
* Split PDF Pages into a New Document
* Decrypt Input as Necessary (Password Required)
* Encrypt Output as Desired
* Fill PDF Forms with FDF Data and/or Flatten Forms
* Apply a Background Watermark
* Report PDF Metrics such as Metadata and Bookmarks
* Update PDF Metadata
* Attach Files to PDF Pages or the PDF Document
* Unpack PDF Attachments
* Burst a PDF Document into Single Pages
* Uncompress and Re-Compress Page Streams
* Repair Corrupted PDF (Where Possible)

Download at http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/.

Other really useful PDF tools are:

• HTMLDOC converts HTML files and web pages into indexed HTML, PostScript, and PDF files suitable for on-line viewing and printing.
• Xpdf is an open source viewer for Portable Document Format (PDF) files. (These are also sometimes also called ‘Acrobat’ files, from the name of Adobe’s PDF software.) The Xpdf project also includes a PDF text extractor, PDF-to-PostScript converter, and various other utilities.
• For PHP programming, FPDF is a PHP class which allows to generate PDF files with pure PHP, that is to say without using the PDFlib library.

In summer, I usually grow a few vegies in our small vegetable patch out back. This year I thought I’d try out Zucchinis. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so here’s some to put things in perspective. And yes, these are real

My daughters, Megan (2 yrs, standing up and holding the small Zucchini) and Holly (4yrs) just behind.

Measured against a 30cm ruler.

The entire stack with accompanying Zucchini modeller.

We usually stick to growing copious amounts of Basil and Tomatoes, for making Pesto, Sauces, Jams and Soups. A couple of years ago stored 16 litres of Tomatoe sauce, which took an entire year to eat!

So this year, to do something different I decided I would try out Zucchinis. They’re a pretty versatile vegie, something you can BBQ, stir fry, bake, omelette or add to a cake.

I planted 3 seedlings and within 8 weeks it had started to produce. And it produces like a fully automated factory. Each 7 days I collect a minimum of 12 kgs of Zucchini! Much to my wife’s despair.

Each of the Zucchinis shown in the photos is the result of 7 days growth and on average is, 40cm long, weighs 1.5kgs and approx. 15cm wide. Hefty little buggers.

So if you’re a friend of mine and I ask, “do you want some Zucchinis?” please help us and say “yes”

Found this great article on skyzyx.com that describes how to install multiple versions of Internet Explorer. And the best thing of all, it actually works!

Read the article on http://www.skyzyx.com/archives/000094.php

And you can download the packaged versions of Internet Explorer on the website here, http://www.skyzyx.com/downloads

Now it is possible to test Internet Explorer 3, Internet Explorer 4, Internet Explorer 5, Internet Explorer 5.5 and Internet Explorer 6 all on the same PC. Great!

(too bad people still use those older web browsers)

Thanks skyzyx.com!

This is a really common problem. You want the outgoing emails from your Domino system to have a a special Reply To and From address. Domino is a bit of a pain in this regard, because by default it will always assign the email address of the code signer or person executing the code as this address.

For example: For the Agileware Support Request system, we want all outgoing emails to have a FROM and REPLY TO address of agileware-support [ at ] agileware.net. But when emails are sent out by our agents they are marked with a FROM and REPLY TO addresses of justin [ at] agileware.net. Eeek!

Here’s a few simple solutions to this problem.

1. Do not use Domino to send the final outgoing email (this is what I currently do for our Walnut website). You can either trigger a process in another piece of software, like PHP, Java or Perl which sends the email message or route it thru something like PostFix which mangles the FROM and REPLY TO fields.

2. In Domino compose the outgoing email message directly in the Domino Server or Notes Client mail.box database. Set the from field to whatever you want. When you save the document the router will automatically route the email for you. No need to send it. This is a really simple solution. Just make sure that when you save the document, it is ready to be sent! Remember most users only have DEPOSITOR access to mail.box.

3. The more standard/orthodox method is to assign the following fields to a Notes document then just send it. I use this method for the Agileware Support Request system. Example as follows.
docEmail.Principal = “support@agileware.net@NotesDomain”
docEmail.SMTPOriginator = docEmail.Principal(0)
call docEmail.send

In any environment, you should be able use options #2 and #3. For more complex situations you may need to revert to option #1.

Anyway - hope this helps!

If you use Skype and also run a local Web Server for development, then remember that Skype binds to Port 80.

Depending on which service starts first, you may receive errors that your Web Server “cannot bind to Port 80″. Turn off Skype, restart Web Server and it’s working again.

Still love Skype

First of all, running a small business is hard-work. So if you ever are thinking of setting up a small-business yourself, please be prepared to invest a heck of a lot of your personal time/life into your business, just to get it off the ground. The up-side is that it’s your business and you can drive it where you want. And so, here’s my latest drive for Agileware - a website which accurately describes who we are and what we do.

It’s really tough trying to see “outside your own box”, to try and perceive how people see you, your services, products and to determine what your differentiators are. Together, as a team we must’ve spent at least 400 hours working it all out (discussion, whiteboarding, plan, documents etc). Having a marketing diploma or degree would definitely have been useful here (note to self - get a Marketing Grad. Dip).

The technical component of installing, configuring and customising the website software itself was a no-brainer. It was actually up and running within a day. Of course, based on open source software. I shudder to think how much more time would have been wasted (initially and on-going) had we not used a good open source content management system like we did. Not to mention the licensing fees etc.

The next major task was defining the information architecture (structure) and writing the content itself. Again, it is very easy to underestimate this task. And I can appreciate why Professional Editors and Writers are in high demand these days. It’s bloody hard work.

So I am now proud to announce that we are out of beta testing* and version 1 of the Agileware website is now open for business. Check it out, let me know what you think and if you really want to put a “smile on my dial” - buy something

*Like all good beta testing programmes, this took us about 3 years to complete.

Congratulations to Cathy & Michael Manning on the birth of their daughter, Heidi Jane Manning. Born on the 9th Feb 2005, 8 pounds and bright-eyed and bushy tailed.

9 months of waiting and now Heidi’s finally her. What a great week you guys have had! I am absolutely stoked that you had a girl, which means someone my girls can play with

Best wishes from Justin, Frances, Holly, Meg & Jessica.