acrobat dude


A few things are bugging me about contemporary internet interaction. I am really tired of the constant friendly prods and reminders to update software, as my computer chats away with corporations online, trolling for software products, both free and not free but all time-consuming to implement, supposedly on my behalf. Also (and granted this is partly due to human error) I'm sick of inadvertantly clicking on links that are direct to PDF files I really don't want to download. What really ramps up my aggravation is that Adobe Acrobat takes a little while to load and we have to look at this STUPID and insulting graphic the whole time. This dancing guy who is supposed to represent me, the happy user, is more like the assholes who cut me off in their SUVs while I'm riding my bike (and they're talking on their cell phones) than he is like me or anyone I associate with. I guess that just means I'm lucky I don't have to work in an office downtown, but geeze, even on Bay street I'm sure there's some other types of folk using Adobe Acrobat besides slick, trim, self-empowered white guys with their shirts tucked in producing file after file of ugly boring reports and purple bar graphs. Also, what are those cyclindrical things? Slinkys? And, um, nice letter 'A' there. I guess that little item represents both the broad field of typography, layout and design, and the whole line of Adobe products that service that field, and that your computer can constantly remind you to update and upgrade, keeping the brand recognition strong and the user's consumer indentity prepped and fresh for purchase 24-7. Arrrrg.

- sally mckay 5-07-2005 6:50 pm

Holy shoulder pads Batman!
- Jatsimpleposie (guest) 5-07-2005 8:13 pm


Agree about links leading to pdfs--linkers should add "(pdf)" after the link as a warning. PDFs are "the new fax" in the workplace: everyone uses them now to send enormous documents, even though they are "inbox-busters." I used to say "wouldn't you rather fax or snail mail this?" but I've given up because they *are* convenient in a lot of ways (better imaging, you can print them, etc.). It just means everyone has to increase server capacity, widen internet pipelines, ad infinitum.

And yes, that graphic is so 80s. What are they thinking?
- tom moody 5-07-2005 8:37 pm


acrobat butt


I just got this over email with the subject header "would you like to upgrade?" Very nice. Thanks! (you know who you are.)

- sally mckay 5-07-2005 11:57 pm


so I guess you don't like the fact that OS X's printing engine revolves around rendering your documents to PDFs before printing.
- anonymous (guest) 5-10-2005 4:18 am


hm....maybe not. I didn't know that.
- sally mckay 5-10-2005 6:02 am


those pants...
- steve 5-11-2005 5:41 pm


Those pants are coming back........mark my words! Just like an unwanted PDF.
- thom (guest) 5-11-2005 5:53 pm





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