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Subject:RE: Nielsen's Rating From:Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- jci -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 22 Jun 2001 09:09:59 -0500
>While I'm sure both Mr. Emory and Mr. Nielsen make some salient points, I
>haven't got enough time or energy to address them all. But here's a basic
>point that someone recently made to me about PDFs: The Internet is not an
>8.5 x 11 medium.
If that comment actually had any relation to PDFs, I'm afraid I missed it.
I'm assuming this person thinks that you can only build 8.5x11 PDF files,
which only displays complete ignorance of PDF in general. I doubt that even
half of the PDFs I have laying around here are 8.5x11.
Most of the comments about PDF, from ease of use to linking to graphics
resolution are caused by exposure to bad PDF design, just like Mr Emory's
comments about HTML are caused by exposure to bad web design (and the idea
that no one worries about old versions of Explorer underlines the fact he's
had no real exposure to good web designers; how to handle old browsers is
the #1 topic among web designers. That's why they all have at least half a
dozen different browsers near at hand for testing. Let me tell you Mr
Emory, old versions of Explorer are easy, try accomodating AOL and WebTV
sometime. Now that's *really* fun.
Oh, and standards *can't* be Open Source. That's a development methodology.
They *can* however, be open, as opposed to proprietary. But that doesn't
seem to be very important in the grand scheme of things. PCI, for example,
is a proprietary standard, as is USB, and Firewire (though it's true that
both PCI and Firewire have earned endorsement from a consortium, they were
developed and "standardized" by a single company) yet that hasn't hampered
their adoption in the least. OSI was an open standard (heck, the "O" stands
for "Open") yet it went nowhere.
Geoff notes we should never accept an expert's word blindly. Kudos, Geoff,
but let me modify that a bit. Never accept *anyone's* word blindly. What
you know is quite likely wrong, and other folks don't fare any better.
If you throw away the pomposity from Nielsen's bit, you get "HTML for
content people skim, PDF for content people read." What's odd is that if
you toss out the bombast from Mr Emory's contribution, you get the same
thing. Interesting, eh?
Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 224
Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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In God we trust; all others must provide data.
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Opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.
If JCI had an opinion on this, they'd hire someone else to deliver it.
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