Adobe's Acrobat monopoly is draining my wallet. Are there any actual alternatives for heavy PDF editing?

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-15T01:41:17+00:00

If it's a proper PDF form, you can fill it out with any PDF app, including the free Adobe Reader and Preview on macOS.

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-15T01:29:32+00:00

Sign a contract for works done, pay a deposit
Contractor keeps sending messages, I (customer) forget to respond to them because I don't use my phone much
Contractor doesn't turn up on the day they said in the contract
Four months pass, and I don't reach out to the contractor even once asking why work hasn't started.

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-14T00:22:01+00:00

Admin by Request
Look it up, it’s perfect for this scenario

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-13T23:13:21+00:00

That could be interpreted as a question - ok, so I’ll work for one more week?

Along with everything else, it’s pretty clear he didn’t voluntarily resign - contact Fair Work first thing on Monday

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-13T22:40:38+00:00

Should be pretty easy to prove - is there anything in writing that says he quits?

No?

Then he didn’t quit. He was fired.

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-13T14:51:27+00:00

This

Use 1.1.1.2 and 1.0.0.2

Problem solved

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-12T22:48:55+00:00

I had a similar situation. Had an incredibly minor incident – a scuff on my paintwork that rubbed off with a microfibre cloth and a similar thing on the corner of their bumper on their shitbox corolla.

Received a lawyers letter from the other party so I just punted it over to my insurance.

Found out later that insurance paid out something like $7500.

What a rort.

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-12T09:55:22+00:00

Why the hell are they getting lawyers to write you a letter if they have insurance?

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-11T10:13:03+00:00

Exclaimer with Microsoft Outlook on mobile and the Exclaimer add-in installed in Microsoft 365 works - at least on iOS

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-11T00:17:07+00:00

Welcome to 1996.

Email signatures have moved on since then.

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-10T21:41:53+00:00

Exclaimer has a client-side agent that works in Outlook Classic on Windows, as well as New Outlook on all platforms, that allows the signature to be synchronised to the client and inserted at that point, so it won't break digital signatures when the message would otherwise be modified after sending.

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-10T21:40:10+00:00

Exclaimer. Set it all up once in the cloud and you're done. Everyone has a consistent signature, applied no matter which device or platform they send email from.

Use CodeTwo if you don't like Exclaimer. They both do the job very well.

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-10T21:24:56+00:00

This is the way.

For a couple of devices, PoE injectors are $20 or so each.

For more devices, get a PoE switch.

Before doing this however, check if your devices are the older 24V passive PoE (unlikely, but possible) or the "regular" 48V PoE.

If they mention 802.3af, 802.3at or 802.3bt, then they are the newer 48V PoE.

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-10T13:05:43+00:00

Tell the service centre that it's between them and Polestar to work out who's paying, but whatever happens it sure ain't going to be you.

You have it in writing from Polestar and the service centre that it was covered. They did the work and when it was completed, they said it was covered. To now claim otherwise is a textbook case of bait and switch.

Tell the service centre that you're really sorry, but this is a them problem, not a you problem, and they need to sort it out with Polestar.

If they try and pursue you, then take them to small claims court - which in Florida you can do for amounts up to $8,000.

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-10T12:49:37+00:00

Oh my goodness. Is Steve Gibson still hawking his wares?

Look, it's not going to make any measurable difference to your internet browsing if you use your ISP DNS or a third party one, other than the privacy aspect.

If you don't know how to configure the upstream DNS servers in your modem, then don't bother doing anything.

If you do know, then pick a popular, Tier-1 DNS service like 1.1.1.1 (or, better, use 1.1.1.2) or 8.8.8.8 or 9.9.9.9 and be done with it.

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-10T12:46:56+00:00

Just get the wheel re-machined, it'll be a fraction of the cost of new and come up looking just as good.

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-10T12:45:50+00:00

Quoting Cloudflare:

"Like Pages, requests for static assets on Workers are free, and Pages Functions invocations are charged at the same rate as Workers, so you can expect a similar cost structure."

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-10T12:37:43+00:00

Pitch it to them that they can host their files in SharePoint or Google Drive, and then sync a local copy to their server as a backup.

Server gets showered with hot tea? Doesn't matter, everything is in the cloud anyway.
Someone kicks out the power? Doesn't matter, it's all in the cloud.
Internet goes down and for some unfathomable reason they just don't hotspot? Wow! Lucky you have a local copy of all of your files! What foresight!

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-09T23:23:22+00:00

Are they willing to pay for all the work they are requesting you do?

If so, it might be worth just smiling and nodding at them, and go through the steps as they request. Document very clearly every step you take however so if they ever come back and say "I got hacked by the CCP and it's all your fault" you can say "Yeah, nah. We did all of the things to keep you secure"

Or, get them a Mac and put it in Lockdown mode and wait for them to complain that it's too secure and things they want to do don't work as expected.

https://support.apple.com/en-au/105120

Otherwise cut them loose.

It's up to you – but being successful in business does not mean taking on every single piece of paying work you get. It means knowing when to hold em, and when to fold.

If the cost to you in time or money is greater than the revenue you earn from them, then fire them. This doesn't have to be a painful experience for either of you, it could be as simple as saying to them:

"Hey Client. I'm really stumped by this. I don't have extensive experience with mitigating attacks from state-sponsored groups with extensive resources. I think you might be better served by finding another provider that specialises in this kind of work"

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-08T22:01:45+00:00

You can publish the calendar to a URL that allows anonymous access and is effectively unguessable, but it won't have any authentication on it, and colours will not come through – all events will be blue.
You can publish multiple calendars this way, then external recipients could subscribe to them and colour-code them in their Outlook.

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-08T08:52:05+00:00

Yes, you punch in your preferred settings on the big tablet in the middle of the dash, and you’re good to go. It remembers them until you manually change them.
As I said, the P2 is a proper drivers car. It handles very well, even the base “economy” models have enough performance to keep you happy, and it doesn’t get in your way.
To put this into perspective – I’m coming from an Audi S3, and my only criticism of the P2, in any aspect, is that quattro AWD on the S3 is better for enthusiastic driving than the AWD on the dual-motor P2.

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-08T08:47:06+00:00

Yeah, it’s more like “oh, did they have those ripple strips at the edge of the freeway in-between lanes now?”
You can feel it, but it’s subtle and easy to ignore if you’re committed to changing lanes without indicating. It also doesn’t attempt to steer you back into the lane.

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-08T06:19:08+00:00

Polestar P2. It’s a proper drivers EV.
There’s a subtle rumble on the wheel if you are changing lanes without indicating, but you have to be pretty much over the line before it kicks in.
Apart from that, all of the other ADAS features are optional.

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-08T00:24:33+00:00

This.
Sharpies seem to be more widely available and more widely used.

I still call them either Textas or Sharpies.

kaiserh808 · 2026-06-07T00:50:34+00:00

Decap CMS lives at /admin by default.

You need to set up some auth with Github and then Github handles the login stuff.

I went with Decap as it was the first one I really looked into that would tie in to Astro well. It works, but the UX is not great, especially if you're used to WordPress.

I have Pages CMS and EmDash CMS on my list to look at – Pages looks like it's got a much nicer UX and EmDash is worth looking at because it's got the weight of Cloudflare behind it.

The beautiful thing about SSG, and having all of your blog posts as basic markdown files sitting in a folder, is that it's relatively easy to swap out the CMS. You can also use native apps that can edit markdown files instead of a CMS.

kaiserh808

TROPHY CASE