Redacting Information in PDF Files - Free!

If you have a PDF you want to share, but want to hide some sensitive information, there is a way to do it for free. You'll just need the following ingredients:

• Adobe Reader® (free from adobe.com/reader)
• CutePDF™ Writer (free from cutepdf.com)
• The PDF file you want to modify

First install CutePDF Writer.  This is a very handy tool that adds itself like a printer to your system. Anything you print to it will be saved as a PDF file instead of going to a physical printer.

Next, open the PDF file you want to redact in Adobe Reader.  This is just how you'd normally view it. To make modifications, follow these steps:

1. Click on "Comment" in the toolbar. This opens the comment tools along the right side of the program.
2. Under "Drawing Markups", right click on the shape you'd like to redact with (typically the rectangle), and select "Tool default properties" from the popup menu.
3. Change the "Color" and "Fill Color" both to black, and make sure "Opacity" is at 100%, and click OK.
4. Click on the tool (rectangle for example) to select it, and draw a rectangle over the information you want to redact.
5. You can save this as a PDF if you like, but it's not necessary.

Now you have a document that looks redacted, but in reality you just drew black comments over the information, and that original information is still there.  If you save this and distribute it, someone can remove the comments, or even copy/paste directly from Adobe Reader.

To really redact it, there is one more step, and that's to print it using CutePDF.  By default this would not give you anything different than saving from Adobe Reader.  The trick is to tell CutePDF to print it as an image, and not a composed set of text and comments. Here's how to do that:

1. From Adobe Reader, go to the "File" menu and select "Print..." (or press Ctrl-P).
2. Make sure CutePDF is your selected printer.
3. Click the "Advanced" button to the right of the printer choices.
4. In the advanced dialog, check the box called "Print As Image", then click OK.
5. Press the "Print" button and select a file name when CutePDF prompts you for one.

That's it. Once CutePDF prints it as a PDF file as an image, the data you hid is no longer visible or retrievable.

Nissan Leaf: The Charging Timer

Before getting into complaints, I have to say I love the Leaf. Ours is the 2015 Leaf SV and I've got very little to complain about. Good job Nissan!

However... when it came to setting the charging timer to only charge when electricity rates are low, I found myself confused and stumped.

The Goal

Only charge during the cheapest rate periods. In my area that means avoiding 7am through 7pm on weekdays.  All other times are cheap. Sounds so simple!

How The Timer Works

The first thing that makes it complicated is that the Leaf charging timers work by telling it when to charge instead of when not to charge. Since most utilities give cheaper rates overnight, that means you're usually crossing the midnight boundary into the next day. For example, considering the following Timer setting:

Timer	Start	End	Assigned Days
Timer 1	5:00am	7:00am	Mon

This means that charging will start at 5am Monday, and end at 7am Monday. It's intuitive and straight forward.

Now consider this example:

Timer	Start	End	Assigned Days
Timer 1	7:00pm	7:00am	Mon

The only change is the start time is 7pm. Now it turns on at 7pm Monday, and turns off at 7am Tuesday (not Monday!). I was confusing "start" and "end" with "on" and "off". I thought that an "end" time for 7am assigned to Monday meant that the timer would switch off on Monday at 7am, but actually it's Tuesday because the "start" time was later.

The Solution For Me

For my case, I want the timer off during weekdays 7am to 7pm, so this is what I had to do:

Timer	Start	End	Assigned Days
Timer 1	7:00pm	7:00am	Sun,Mon,Tue,Wed,Thu
Timer 2	7:00pm	7:00pm	Fri-Sat

The following table shows how this works with each time block showing which timer is active, and when the start / end actions take place:

Time	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
12:00am	T2	T1	T1	T1	T1	T1	T2
...	T2	T1	T1	T1	T1	T1	T2
7:00am	T2	T1 end	T1 end	T1 end	T1 end	T1 end	T2
8:00am	T2	T1	T1	T1	T1	T1	T2
...	T2	T1	T1	T1	T1	T1	T2
7:00pm	T2 end T1 start	T1 start	T1 start	T1 start	T1 start	T2 start	T2 end T2 start
8:00pm	T1	T1	T1	T1	T1	T2	T2
...	T1	T1	T1	T1	T1	T2	T2
11:00pm	T1	T1	T1	T1	T1	T2	T2

Thanks to the folks at MyNissanLEAF.com for their help in the discussion forum!

Proof of purchase

When we buy something we need to feel that we have something real for the money. Many people still order a CD version of software they buy online for at reason. Companies put extras in the box to make people feel good about their purchases. Apple includes some logo stickers in theirs for example.

When you buy music, video of books online, you lose that connection with something real and nifty. There's no sticker or souvenir bookmark or prize in the box because there is no box.

Would people be more ready to buy if they got back some of that thrill of purchase? Maybe but what can you give them electronically that they can get that feeling from? Action figures or autographed collectible cards are liked because they are real. Who values something digital that can be copied or mass produced?

What if these companies included perks with their purchases? Give them a book related screen saver, or custom bookmark that would show in their reader based on what they've bought. Anything that makes them feel they have something more personal than just the bits that anyone can download could do the trick.

As it is, when I buy an ebook all I have to show for it is a tiny logo of the book cover art on my virtual bookshelf. That may not be enough for the average consumer to feel that they got value for their money. Time will tell what is enough to give them their emotional proof of purchase.

Money for nothing

When you buy a book you are buying more than a stack of paper the value is the information found on the pages. What you have really purchased is the license to access that information in a form that is permanent and transferrable.

There is a natural tendency to equate the medium with the content. The VHS tape is "Jaws". The bound volume is "War and Peace". This causes a problem when you separate the content from a physical form. Turn the compact disc into a set of mp3 files and people feel disconnected because there is nothing tangible left.

Maybe this is why people who would never shoplift a DVD from a store don't see a problem with downloading the same movie from the net.

It is the content that has value, not the medium. There is hesitance with buying content when the medium changes, but is it a valid concern? Is something lost?

The most recent emergence of this shift in medium is in the publishing industry. Books traditionally had only two forms - hardcover or softcover. That changes a number of years ago with audio-books. The book was now available on tape, CD, or electronic audio formats. That took a number of years to become mainstream but is fairly established now. The next step is the ebook. The ebook gives you nothing significant over a paper book it doesn't let you hear the voice of the author, or drive while reading. Instead it offers a lightweight, searchable form of  book that you can more easily tote around than it's heavier paper counterpart.

What remains to be seen is whether the public is ready to let go of the physical and truly value the pure information. There are a number of competitors in the apace so surely the book industry feels the time is now.

Consumers are choosing between Kobo, iBooks, Kindle and others when they dip their toes in the water of paperless books. Most come with samples or free books to try out. Whether that will translate into purchasing a desired new book in this form instead of the paper form remains to be seen.

The newspaper industry sure hopes people renew their interest in reading. If people get used to carrying around their readers and can wirelessly get today's newspaper they may find new life in the industry.

It hinges on our ability to emotionally let go of the medium and grab hold of the content.

With a paper book there is no worry that you won't be able to read it in 20 years. With a DVD nobody knows if we'll be a le to find a working player - just ask anyone with a collection of Beta video tapes.

With music it's even more restrictive when the music is properly licensed. The purchaser can only use it with registered devices and can't loan it to a friend.

Books are facing similar worries. If I buy a new book for a Kindle today, what can I do with it in 20 years? If the Kindle servers don't exist any more I won't be able to download it even if there are compatible readers available. It's that sense of risk that sellers will have to find a way to cope with if they want the  public to buy intangible products.

I type on iPad

I am not exactly on the bleeding edge but I grabbed myself a 64gb iPad today. First impressions are good. Apps do look better on it when they actually are built for it. The 2x feature to upscale an iPod app for use on the iPad sucks. It just ends up looking scaled and weak.

The most impressive difference i have seen so far is with newspaper apps. New York times did a good job of making it feel like a true publication and you can certainly get a better feeling from he experience, not to mention the help for old eyes!

Unfortunately it's too late to keep playing with it. The battery seems to have some good life in it and maybe tomorrow I will try doing some book reading with it. My Apple collection keeps growing.

The Indestructible Mac Myth

So stable... never crashes... just works

Right.

I've been using the Macbook Pro for a couple of months now and I'm finding it just as reliable as a Windows based PC.  Staying with the built-in hardware and software does keep it pretty stable, and granted, it does come with lots of core function that works well, but start doing your own thing with it and you're just as likely to get problems as with any computer.  The magic "just works" ideal is a myth.

Whether it's strange hangs when you put a usb drive in, delays when you start dragging some file around, or mysterious inability to open things like system preferences, it's not immune to problems.

I think the general belief that it's better is based on the fact that out of the box, it really does come with just about everything you need to be productive.  The web cam is built into the screen, as is the mic and speakers. Mail, calendaring, web browsing, entertainment and other software are in place and work with the hardware.  They should though - they're all from Apple and tested together.  For most users it's great because as soon as you open the box it's ready to do your thing with.  I have to admire that.  It's really a good experience.

I'm not slagging Apple or the Mac - I'm just looking at it with more realistic eyes than I started with and seeing beyond the myth.  It's a good system and well constructed, but it's not indestructible.

Mobile blogging and more let downs

Do computers ever just work? After hearing souch about how Macs "just work" I guess my hopes got too high. The latest disappointment is with mounting shared drives from Windows to the Mac. It works at first, but after any change, like going from wired to wireless, or sleep, the connection not only stops working but also causes weird problems like hanging system prefs or not being able to shutdown. Why is a stable mount too much to hope for?

Having shared drives also leaves little garbage files on the remote folders. Those little files that start with a dot that are invisible on unix can show on windows. Not too spiffy.

That's it for my first mobile posting by email... Hope it came through okay.  (well it mostly did - line breaks were messed up, but it could have been worse)