From Programmer to Puppet-Master: How I Didn’t Rig the Zimbabwean Elections with a PDF Converter

Here is the unbelievable story … Last Thursday (03/28/2008) a newspaper called “Zimbabwe Online” published an article accusing my company (Cogniview) of helping Robert Mugabe, The infamous Zimbabwean president, rig the Zimbabwean elections.

Link to full story

The article continues to claim that my company has secret ties to the Israeli Mossad, and that the accusations came directly from the General Secretary of the MDC, Zimbabwe’s largest opposition party.

Before I go on with the details of the story, here’s my official response … this story is NOT TRUE. In fact it could have only been more fictional if we were accused of using alien technology. Here are some more facts:

We have no ties with Robert Mugabe’s party. We have never met or dealt in any way with him or any of his people.
We have no connections to the Israeli Mossad.
No Cogniview employee has ever been to Zimbabwe.

The full story up until now…

On Wednesday, a day before the article was published, I received an email from a Yahoo email address, inquiring whether my company was helping Robert Mugabe win the upcoming Zimbabwe elections. The email was so funny, I assumed it was spam and deleted it (not before being very impressed with how well it was tailored for my company).

A day later, an email from the site ZimOnline alerted me that there was an article on the site that concerned Cogniview. The article was even funnier than the email. At this point my respect for the Zimbabwean scam-artists was at an all-time high. Not only did they send me a well crafted email, they went as far as to setting up a mock newspaper and publishing an article there.

And then it became very serious very quickly …

I was contacted by a gentleman called Phil Matibe, a human rights activist from Zimbabwe currently living in the US, who wanted to get to the bottom of this story (I will be speaking with Mr. Matibe later today).

We also started getting emails from angry people telling us that we “sold the Zimbabwean people for 20 pieces of silver”

And then additional articles began to appear. Apparently we got 3 million dollars for helping Mugabe.

What I think happened

About a year ago we developed an Open-Source PDF converter called CC PDF converter. This converter (which is available for download for anyone that has an internet connection) allows one to convert anything printable into PDF. It also allows adding a Creative Commons license as the last page of the document. And at the very end of this page there is a link to Cogniview’s website.

I also learned (from the people that called to chastise us) that the voter-roles that were provided to the MDC by Zimbabwean officials were in PDF format and had a link to Cogniview’s website.

My guess is that the people at the MDC wanted to get the voter data in a format they could easily handle (like Excel) and instead got it in a PDF file (that was produced by our converter). They got (justifiably) angry and concocted a story about the Israeli Mossad and my company (this part isn’t justifiable).

Here’s what we are willing to do to help sort out this mess

Every respectable party (UN, US, European) that will want to investigate this matter will get Cogniview’s full cooperation. We will give them unlimited access to our legal and financial Records. We will also allow them to interview any employee in the company. Heck, they can strap us all to lie-detectors - we have nothing to hide.

But I’m hoping it won’t come to this. This story has the potential to damage my company’s reputation as well as to seriously damage the credibility of the MDC officials who spread this lie.

One last thing: If anyone from the MDC is reading this, please check your facts and denounce these lies. They bring you no honor.

I will continue to update as the story unfolds.

The End of the Ebook?

Kindle Ebook Reader Yesterday I had a debate with my friend Ryan about the future of ebooks.

I had just uploaded my audio and PDF transcript and was seeing subscribers coming along nicely. I was suggesting the same tactic for another project we were working on together.

You might already know, I am a big fan of ebooks. I buy them, I read them, I give them away, I even plan to sell them.

Ryan doesn’t believe in them. He thinks bloggers should do series posts instead. In fact, he doubts ebooks have much of a future.

I can see his point. Ebooks are about reading a large amount of material in one package. Most I imagine get read online rather than printed out or downloaded to a reading device such as Amazons Kindle.

Then look at prominent bloggers such as Aaron Wall and Brian Clark, their content has been turned into member sites rather than ebooks. Aaron in particular is surprising as for years he made a good income out of his SEOBook but now his content is delivered as an SEO Training Course.

It is easy to see the attraction of a member site for content producers. First off is obviously the recurring revenue. One sale versus monthly income. After that it is also about lifetime value, a one-off book purchase versus an ongoing relationship with all the opportunities that implies.

For the customer, with a member site you get not just words and pictures but video, audio, discussion, web conferencing, chat, and maybe tools and utilities also. An ebook is capable of more than words and pictures but rarely is.

The downsides to ebook delivery is clear also. Ebooks are routinely copied and shared, it is so easy to do and largely untraceable. The more people try to prevent it, the more damage is done to legitimate customers by applying restrictive DRM and other draconian measures.

Is this the beginning of the end for the humble ebook or is there life in the old dog yet?

Please share your thoughts in the comments …

PDF Editing & Creation: 50+ open source/free alternatives to Adobe Acrobat

Adobe Acrobat is expensive, but that doesn’t mean you have to live a life without portable documents. What many people don’t realize is that PDF is a Federal Information Processing Standard, which means the specifications behind the format are widely published. Numerous developers take advantage of this fact and create programs that offer effective alternatives to Acrobat. Check out our list of these programs and take advantage of these tools that are full of some of the best PDF features and functions.

Downloadable PDF Creators

These simply and emminently usable programs will allow you to quickly create your own PDFs.

CutePDF: Create a PDF file from almost any printable document. CutePDF has an open SDK and doesn’t bog down their software with popups or watermarks.
PDF reDirect: The freeware PDF reDirect offers loads of robust features, including PDF creation, previews, encryption, and more, that go a long way to replacing Adobe.
doPDF: Install doPDF as a virtual PDF printer driver, and you can create PDFs using your printer function.
CC (Free) PDF Converter: This printer driver can be used to create a PDF file from any printable Windows application.
PDFCreator: Use PDFCreator to create PDFs from any printable program, as well as encrypt and autosave files based on predefined terms.
Open Office: Open Office has a PDF export feature that allows you to define compression levels as well as handle thumbnails and hyperlinks.
Scribus: Use this desktop publishing program to create interactive PDF presentations and forms.
HylaFAX: HylaFAX is an open source fax server that can be configured to deliver in PDF.

Online and Desktop PDF Editors

PDF manipulation is easy and free with these tools.

PDFescape: This online PDF solution is a reader, editor, form filler, and form designer. All you need to use it is a JavaScript enabled web browser.
PDFedit: Use this editor to manipulate PDF documents, with an option to do your own scripting and plugins.
Multivalent browser: Although not a pure editor, this browser allows for minimal editing in the form of creating annotations. In addition, it includes several command-line PDF specific tools which allow for things like merging, compression, and extraction.

Viewers

If you need a simple way to open and read PDFs, look no further than these lightweight viewers.

Sumatra PDF: This Windows PDF viewer is light and minimalistic. It’s even designed for portable use, so you can run it from a USB drive.
FoxIt Reader: The Foxit PDF viewer is an all time favorite (especially of Digg users). And has a strong set of features (with a very competitive price )
PalmPDF: Use this PDF viewer for Palm OS devices.
Evince: Gnome users can take advantage of Evince, a document viewer that supports both PDF and PostScript documents.
Preview: Mac OS X comes with Preview, an application that displays images and PDFs.
ePDFView: This lightweight PDF viewer uses the GTK+ and Poppler libraries.
Okular: This document viewer for KDE 4 supports PDF, PostScript, and lots more.
Xpdf: Xpdf, available for nearly any Unix OS, is a PDF viewer that allows you to read encrypted PDFs, extract images, and more.

Compatability

Make the PDF format compatible with HTML, XML, non-proprietary formats, and more using these tools.

PythonPoint: Use this tool to create presentations that can be opened with any PDF viewer.
AxPoint: Create PDF slideshows from XML using AxPoint.
DocBook XSL Stylesheets: Create and store documents in a presentation-neutral form that can be published in HTML, PDF, and more.
Unipage: Unipage turns any page, online or local, into an HTML file that can function as a portable document. Although Unipage is currently only available on Windows, additional OS and browser support is coming soon.
EasyPDF SDK: The easyPDF development toolkit helps you create PDF functions with minimum effort and very little code.
KWord: KWord is a word processor for KOffice, and it offers a PDF import function.
PDFlib: The PDFlib development tool offers a way for developers to PDF-enable software and create PDFs on their own server.
Ghostscript: The Ghostscript software can interpret PostScript language and PDFs interchangeably and convert them to faster formats.
Mozilla Archive Format: This extension can save pages in MHTML format, which creates a portable document of the page.
Pstoedit: This program converts PostScript or PDF files to other output formats such as WOMF/EMF, PDF, DXF, CGM, and HTML.

Command Line Manipulation and Editing

These editors won’t be used on your desktop as you would use Acrobat or any other PDF application. Rather, you can use these offerings to build into your own apps so that you can automate the PDF creation and manipulation process.

PJ: Etymon’s PJ, the parent of PJX, is one of the earliest open source attempts to make PDF’s more accessible. PJ is a class library in Java that allows parsing, manipulation, and generation of PDF files.
PDFlib: The PDFlib development tool offers a way for developers to PDF-enable software and create PDFs on their own server.
mbtPdfAsm: The mbtPdfAsm application is an in line tool for assembling and merging PDF files, extracting information from them, and updating PDF metadata.
PDF::API2: PDF::API2 offers a “next generation” tool for creating and manipulating PDF files.
PDF Clown: The PDF Clown is an open source library which includes capabilities such as document splitting, merging, and more.
iText: iText is an ideal library for developers seeking to automate PDF creation and manipulation.
FreeDist: This freeware distiller can convert files into PDF as well as compose multiple files to one PDF in a specific order.
Pdftk: This toolkit offers command-line functionality for lots of features, like merging, form filling, and encryption.

PDF Creation Libraries, Scripts and Systems

If you’re a developer and you want to move beyond the capabilities of a desktop PDF creator, these libraries, scripts, and systems will help you incorporate PDF creation into your own applications.

CUPS: The Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) is primarily a system for enabling a computer to act as a print server, but which has a robust feature that allows PDF exporting.
Lout: This document formatting system, the implementation of which is referred to as Basser Lout, can be outputted in PDF, plain text, and more.
Indexed PDF Creator: This tool automatically generates a keyword index for PDF documents which allows readers to quickly locate specific words and phrases in a document.
Cairo: Cairo, a vector drawing library, allows creation of PDF documents.
LyX: This document processor which is particularly popular amongst the scientific community offers PDF exporting.
Fly2PDF: You can create PDF documents directly using this ActiveX library.
PDF Creator Pilot: Use this library to create PDF files from popular programming languages like Visual Basic and ASP.
XeTex: XeTex is a typesetting program that offers PDF creation.
FPDF: Use FPDF to create PDF files with PHP. You don’t need PDFlib to use it.
Inkscape: Inkscape is an open source vector drawing program that offers support for PDF exports.
PdfTeX: This typesetting program can output PDF files and allows a number of features like links and tables of contents.
ReportLab: This library offers a PDF generation solution specifically suited for web publishers, developers, and creative designers who are looking for a high-speed automated PDF generation.
Tiny RML2PDF: You can create a PDF document from RML with this tool, giving it the appearance of a printed document.
HTML_ToPDF: This PHP class allows users to convert HTML to PDF files quickly and easily.

Other Tools

Get even more function from your PDFs using these tools.

Skim: For OS X, Skim is a PDF reader with features that allow you to take notes and highlight on any PDF file.
Notepad Generator: This tool makes it easy to create a PDF notepad, and it’s fully customizable.
PDFmap: PDFmap offers automated generation of interactive PDF maps.

With these tools, you should be able to go way beyond Adobe. Even better, you can do it for free and have the option to customize your experience using their open source status.

Conversion Central: 101 Tools to Convert Video, Music, Images, PDF and More

Few things are more irritating than having to deal with a format that is incompatible with what you need it to do. It doesn’t matter if it’s a media file, document, or shoe size; it’s just plain frustrating. To make your life easier, check out this list of 101 tools that will allow you to convert just about anything.

Original Art by Bob Ostrom

Using This Article : This is a fairly long article that can be used as a resource. If you don’t have time to read it now, you can bookmark it on del.icio.us and return to it later.

Mega Tools

There are lots of specialized tools out there, but sometimes you just need one good tool to get the job done. These mega tools are great for general conversions.

Zamzar: Zamzar does all sorts of conversions, ranging from documents and images to music and video. In addition to its versatility, this tool boasts the ability to do all of your conversions without downloading software.
SUPER: This aptly-named tool offers a simple and efficient way to convert any multimedia file to any format you need. You won’t need to download any additional codecs or deal with any time or function limitations.
CZ Document Converter: CZ Document Converter is a powerful batch document converter. It supports every popular document file you may need, including PDF, HTML, DOC, XLS, and WPS.
Media Convert: This tool is another great all-around converter. It can take files from your computer or a webserver and convert them into pretty much any format. The tool is web based and full of versatility.
Image Converter Plus: Image Converter Plus can professionally convert graphic files, photos, drafts, finance documents, and any image format. It supports more than 120 graphics formats and more than 800 dialects of these formats. You can convert files in a batch while also altering and enhancing images.
Quad-Lock Unit Converter: The Quad-Lock Unit Converter does conversions for more than 650 units. With this all-inclusive library, you’re sure to find what you’re looking for.

Media

If you use an MP3 player, download movies, or even just rip CDs, there’s a good chance you’ve had to deal with the frustration of having a format that’s incompatible with your device or software. These tools will make it all better.

Audio

Audacity: Audacity is a great tool that can be used to convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs. Check out their site to see what else this audio powerhouse can do.
RM to MP3 Converter: If you’ve got a bunch of Real Media files, but want to be able to listen to them on other players, check out this tool. It will convert RM files to MP3s individually or in batches. You can even save them with space-efficient VBR.
OSS Audio Converter: This tool is an audio format converter with a high level of customization. Using the OSS Audio Converter, you can select the coding method for VBR compression, fine-tune settings, and choose a range of frequencies to filter.
All Converter: Use All Converter to switch your files between popular formats like MP3, APE, AAC and many more. Files can be converted in batches, even if they’re not the same media or convert-to type.
Audio Converter: Audio Converter has lots of formats for conversion, including AIFF, Vorbis OFF, MP3 and more. You can convert files one by one or do them in batches, all while editing options like volume normalization and silence removal.
Intelliscore Polyphonic WAV to MIDI Converter: With IntelliScore, you can convert MP3, WAV, and WMA files to MIDI. It has lots of additional features, like vocal track removal and sheet music.
Free WMA to MP3 Converter: With this tool, you can take any Windows Media file and turn it into an MP3 that can be used with a variety of different players.
Zune Multi-Extension Support Mod: With this hack, Zune users can covert formats that the player doesn’t normally recognize, like AAC, DVR-MS and MPEG.
FreeRIP: This freeware application allows users to convert files between MP3, FLAC, WAV and more.
dBpoweramp Music Converter: The dBpoweramp can be used to rip CDs and convert audio files to pretty much any format you might need. This can all be done without altering tags.
Acoustica MP3 to Wave Converter Plus: Acoustica’s converter makes it easy to convert MP3 files to WAVs so that you can create custom CDs or edit audio.
Direct Audio Converter and CD Ripper: Music lovers can use this tool to convert music files to popular formats while keeping folder structures and tags intact.

Video

Koyote: This tool can covert FLV, DIVX, AVI and other formats to an iPod video format. That means you can download YouTube videos and put them directly on your video iPod.
MediaCell Blackberry Video Converter: If you want to view videos on your Blackberry, check out this tool. It converts all popular video files to Blackberry video while maintaining a high standard of quality.
Videora: With Videora, you can convert pretty much any video file into an iPod format. The tool includes an auto-resize feature that chooses the best resolution for you.
VidDownloader: This simple tool allows users to save streaming video and convert then to DivX AVIs.
Avi2Dvd: Avi2Dvd is a freeware program that converts AVI files to a format that works for DVDs, VCDs, and SVCDs.
iSquint: Mac iPod users who want a way to convert videos to something that works for their device will be happy to find iSquint. This tool converts videos to the correct format and also optimizes their resolution.
Any Video Converter: Using AVC, you can convert any video format to any other video format. The tool supports AVI, DIVX, FLV and more. You can create custom profiles that for devices like the iPod and PSP.
Tube Sock: Tube Sock is for Mac OSX users who want to download, convert, and copy YouTube videos to their iPod, Mac, or PSP.
Zune TVWatcher: Use this tool to convert recorded TV shows to a Zune-ready format.
Grand Theft Auto Mission Converter: Use the Grand Theft Auto Mission Converter to convert GTA1’s INI mission to GTA2’s .MIS mission.
Mplayer: Mplayer is an open-source video player, but it also has an interface called mencoder that allows users to convert between lots of formats, including TiVo’s tystream.
Lathe: With Lathe, you can convert TiVo files to play on a variety of media devices, including Archos, PDAs, smartphones, and more.
Hey!Watch: You can upload videos from your hard drive or online video sites to Hey!Watch, then use the tool to convert the files to pretty much any format you’d like.
PodTube: Mac YouTube enthusiasts will love the convenience of PodTube. It allows users to point to a URL, then let the program get to work by downloading, converting and adding the file to your iTunes library.
iTube: iTube is just like PodTube, but it’s made for Windows users.
HandBrake: HandBrake is a free, open source application that rips DVDs to a number of different formats, including those supported by Apple TV, PS3, Quicktime, and more.
MediaCoder: MediaCoder is a batch media transcoder. It can be used to convert to and from different formats as well as compress files.

Images

Graphic designers, professional photographers, and point and shoot enthusiasts can all benefit from using these easy image conversion tools.

Photo To Sketch: This program takes your photographs and converts them into black and white sketches or watercolor paintings. Using this functionality, you can make your own coloring book.
Image Thumbnailer and Converter: Image Thumbnailer and Converter makes it easy to create thumbnail images, convert formats, adjust sizes, set folders, and create web pages automatically.
GIMP: The GNU Image Manipulation Program is a great program for easily changing the format of images.
Smart Converter: This multipurpose program allows users to convert, view and edit images, even in batch mode. You can apply over 100 image effects, watermarks, and use loads of supported formats.
Easy Graphic Converter: Convert image files to lots of different formats while at the same time taking advantage of features like previews, 50 different effects and filters, simple editing and more.
Advanced Batch Converter: Use Advanced Batch Converter to change the format of multiple graphics at once. You’ll also be able to do minor editing. This program supports about 90 file formats.
Image Icon Converter: Convert images of various formats into Windows icons using the Image Icon Converter. You can also use this program to convert icons into popular image files and do basic editing.
Image Converter .EXE: Take things a step further with Image Converter .EXE. This tool allows you to change the format of multiple files at once, plus apply affects to the files at the same time.

Documents

These tools make it easy to read and print all sorts of documents, so you can avoid having a difficult discussion with your boss about why you just can’t open his MS Works 1996 file.

PDF

Adobe Online PDF creator: For quick PDF conversions, check out the official Adobe online PDF Creator. This tool converts a number of different formats, including DOC, JPG, WMF and more.
ExpressPDF: If you need a high quality PDF output in a hurry, consider using ExpressPDF. Users can upload documents, choose an output quality, then receive an email with the new PDF. This is all done without downloading any software, so it’s great if you’re in a pinch on a borrowed computer.
CC PDF Converter: Install this tool as a printer subsystem. It will enable you to print pretty much from any Windows application to a professional quality PDF document. It will also allow you to set the copyright terms for your PDF file.
Scan to PDF: ScanToPDF is a simple tool that allows you to convert your paper based documents into PDFs. Just insert the pages into your scanner, press the scanning button and the paper document will be converted into a PDF file.
Cogniview’s PDF to Excel Converter: If you get a lot of numerical data you need for your work in PDF format, Cogniview’s PDF to Excel Conversion tool is the best solution for you. Open your PDF file, mark the data you need and it will be instantly pasted into an excel spreadsheet.
Solid Converter PDF to Word: With the Solid PDF Converter, you can open up PDF files in Word and edit text in the original document. Solid PDF will identify and maintain the formatting of the original document (tables, bullets and so on) which makes it perfectly suited for PDF to word conversion.
Easy PDF Converter: The Easy PDF Converter tool, like many others, converts various document formats to PDF. What sets this program apart is its ability to convert an entire batch of files in one click, eliminating the need for lots of user input.
PDF Converter Professional: Using PDF Converter Professional, you can convert static PDF files into fillable forms.
PDF to Image Converter: You can convert PDF files to lots of popular image formats using PDF Image Converter. The program will convert detailed elements like text, color, images, ellipses, and more.
RSS 2 PDF: Use this tool to convert your RSS or OPML newsfeed into a PDF file quickly. It creates a readable, formatted file that you can view offline.

Word Processing

Docx Converter: The Docx Converter makes it easy to read Word 2007 files without having to upgrade your software. It extracts text and formatting from DOCX files and turns them into simple HTML files. You can even download their desktop widget for the tool.
3A PDF to Word Batch Converter: If you have a PDF file that needs text editing, you may have a hard time getting it to do what you want. Use the 3A PDF to Word Batch Converter to convert PDF documents into Microsoft Word, where you’ll be able to edit as much as you like.
WordFast: This language translation tool can be used on any language that’s supported by Microsoft Word. You can also use it with external dictionaries and machine translation engines.
MS Works Converter: With this converter, you can turn Microsoft Works files into Excel files, even in batches.
Doc to Image Converter: This simple converter allows users to save Microsoft Word files as image file formats including JPEG, TIFF, BMP and more.
Babel Fish: If you’re looking for a light, web-based translator, Babel Fish is for you. The translations aren’t always perfect, but you should be able to get a good idea of what’s being said. You can translate a block of text or an entire webpage.

Excel

Excel to PDF Converter: This spreadsheet converter is very simple. All you do is select “Save as PDF” in Excel, and the converter will create a document that can be read by PDF viewers.
XLS Converter: You can use this converter to take data from Excel files and turn them into formats like HTML, TXT, and CSV. It can be run in command-line mode, plus Excel isn’t required for it to work.
ABC Amber Excel Converter: With the ABC Amber Excel Converter, you can turn Excel files into PDF, HTML, RTF, DOC and more, all without the use of the MS Excel program. This tool offers command line support and batch conversion as well.

PowerPoint

Presentation to Video Converter: If you’re tired of manually clicking through PowerPoint slides during presentations, you can convert them into a video that eliminates the need for your interaction.
Convert PowerPoint: With Convert PowerPoint, you can turn PPT files into PDF, HTM, TXT and more. This application can be run on a command line.

Drafting

Universal Document Converter: Use this converter as a virtual printer to export any document to a raster PDF or image file. Doing so ensures that your document will be change-protected and viewed accurately. Universal Document Converter works with Adobe PDF, PowerPoint, AutoCAD and more.
AutoDWG DWG to PDF Converter: If you’ve been sent an AutoCAD drawing, but don’t have the software to open it, use this program to view it as a PDF. It has lots of options, including merged files and batch creation.
DWG2Image Converter: Convert DWG and DXF files to popular image files like BMP and JPG using the DWG2Image Converter. This program works without the use of AutoCAD.
Any DWG: Any DWG has lots of specialized tools that allow you to convert between lots of file formats, including DWG, PDF, DXF and various image types.
Raster to Vector Converter: Use this converter to take raster formats and create vector formats like DXF, ASCII, and AI. It will refine curves, create fine lines, and more.
Universal CAD Converter: This handy tool makes it easy to turn AutoCAD drafting files into pretty much any format you like, converting between DWG, DXF, PDF and DWF without using AutoCAD. You’ll also be able to convert any of these formats to images.

International Standards

These conversion tools are useful whether you’re traveling, baking, or just buying some nice Italian shoes on eBay.

Measurements

Metric Converter: If you often need to do complicated metric conversions, use this tool to get the job done.
FCC Conversion: This FCC webpage converts degrees, minutes, and seconds to decimal degrees in latitude and longitude, or vice versa.
EZ Unit Converter Wizard: This unit converter is highly customizable. You can add or delete the units that you’d like to use, with more than 130 units to choose from.
Unit Conversion: This tool does calculations for lots of different units, including Celsius to Farenheit and pounds to kilograms.

Currency

Google Search: You can use Google to calculate currency conversions as well as units like gallons and liters. It’s great because you can get an answer by using a nationality if you don’t know the name of the currency.
Universal Currency Converter: XE’s UCC performs forex rate calculations with live currency rates. They offer conversions for the top 85 currencies in the world as well as special units and precious metals.

Clothing Sizes

International Show Size Conversion Charts: These charts convert shoe sizes from Europe, Mexico, U.K. and more.
Ring Size Conversion: Use this ring size tool to determine what your size is in the U.K., France, Switzerland and more.
Women’s Clothing Conversion: With this tools, you can find out what size clothing you should buy for France, Italy, and a number of other countries.
Men’s Clothing Conversion: This tool works the same way as the women’s tool, but it comes in men’s sizes.

Time

Time Conversion Tool: This utility from NASA makes it easy to convert from calendar dates and times to Julian dates, or vice-versa. You can also convert between featured world time zones and figure out what day of the week you’re looking at.
Time Zone Converter: Use this tool to convert time zones between two cities. It accepts dates for the past or future.

Web Development

These tools are great for converting between different script languages, databases, and more.

User Script Compiler: With User Script Compiler, you can convert your Greasemonkey scripts into Firefox extensions.
Advanced PDF to HTML Converter: Use this program to convert PDF files into HTML to make it easier for users to view them. It will preserve all graphics, hyperlinks, bookmarks and lines.
Access to Visual Basic Object Converter: Use this program to quickly convert Access Objects to Visual Basic.
Gmail: Using Gmail, you can convert most document formats into HTML. It’s as easy as sending an attachment to yourself and selecting the option to view it as HTML.
IRun RTF Converter: The IRun RTF Converter makes it easy to put your documents online by converting RTF files to XML or HTML. You can even generate HTML with CSS.
HTML to ASP Converter: This tool converts HTML code for use with ASP.
XML Converter Standard Edition: This converter takes data from MySQL databases, MS SQL Servers and more and turns them into XML documents.
IDN Conversion Tool: With the IDN Conversion Tool, you can translate an IDN or nameserver from native characters to RACE and Punycode or vice-versa.
C to Java Converter: This converter automatically translates C code source files into Java classes. It supports standard ANSI C runtime and L&R C libraries.

Mobile Tools

These tools let you create ringtones for your device and convert while you’re on the go.

Google SMS: If you need to get a short language translation or currency conversion on the fly, use your cell phone and Google SMS to get an answer. All you have to do is send a text message and you’ll get the information you need.
Ringtone Converter: This tool allows you to convert ringtone files from one format to another, like MIDI to Motorola. Ringtone Converter works with most makes and models, plus you won’t need any cables to get the tone on your phone.
Mobile Unit Converter: Do quick metric conversions on your Smartphone or PDA using Mobile Converter. It works for decides running Windows Mobile 5.0.
Coding Workshop Ringtone Converter: With the Coding Workshop Ringtone Converter, you can convert ringtones from one format to another. It supports most makes and models of phones. You can also trim and compress files as you convert.
Converter: Use your Palm to easily look up unit conversions like miles to kilometers on the fly.

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Why you should publish your PDF with a Creative Commons License

Over the past two weeks I talked to over a dozen people about publishing content and PDF’s with a Creative Commons License. One question came up again and again - What are the benefits of publishing my content with a creative commons license?

Here is my answer in … PDF form.

Creative Commons PDF Converter – Update

Since the release of the Creative Commons PDF Converter, 3 weeks ago, It’s been downloaded more than 700 times. We received about two dozens of emails containing ideas and suggestions (and a couple of bug reports). And the overall response has been exceptionally good (except for a couple of guys on Digg).

In the near months we intend to add the following:

Better support for XMP
Color printing
Support for links in the PDF file

I would like to thank the Creative Commons community, the readers of this blog and all the good people that have taken the time to test the CC PDF Converter. A Special thanks goes to Nathan Yergler and the creative commons staff who helped define and launch this tool.

Announcing the Creative Commons PDF Converter

The CC PDF Converter is a free (open source) application that enables you to create PDF documents from almost any application (Word, Excel, Internet Explorer and more). The CC PDF Converter also allows you to easily embed a creative commons license in your PDF file.

If you find any bugs or have any suggestions, I would really appreciate it if you leave them as comments on this post.

I can also be contacted through my email (see the About the author page).

How typing may lead to madness (and how to avoid it)

Warning: shameless self-promotion ahead

The Psychology of Typing

Sometimes, there is no way around it. You just have to sit down and spend an hour—or two, or three—typing. It’s boring and often infuriating. Boredom, as Wikipedia tells us, leads to anxiety. And mixing anger with anxiety can lead to—madness!

And so, at Cogniview, we have decided to create a new product line that will help lessen anger and anxiety in the world. Products that dramatically reduce the amount of typing in your life. The new Typing Free™ product line.

A typing-free world

PDF2XL is our primary and best-selling product. Several thousands of clients are already using it and IMO it’s the best PDF to Excel conversion tool in the universe (I’ll admit I am a bit biased).

So if you want to avoid typing data from PDF documents to Excel, give PDF2XL a try.

PDF2XL OCR is a new product. It combines OCR technology from IRIS Software with PDF2XL’s data extraction interface.

I am proudest of two features in PDF2XL OCR:

The data-validation module: Every OCR engine has recognition errors, but one thing that most OCR tools lack is a way to efficiently browse through the suspected words and correct recognition errors. Our data validation module displays the suspected word and the image of the actual word from the document side by side (with a huge zoom). This helps you catch a problem in a fraction of a second, because your eyes see the difference and you don’t actually have to read.
The numerical column: An OCR engine works about a million times better if you tell it that it is trying to identify a number (I’ll expand on that if anyone is interested). When you define a column as numeric in PDF2XL OCR, it asks you whether you want to try to improve results by rerunning the OCR only on that column!

If you need to convert data from scanned documents to Excel, give PDF2XL OCR a try.

PDF2XL Enterprise is really a magical tool. It combines a print driver with an extraction tool. You can print whatever you want to it and then extract the data to Excel. It also includes all the functionality of PDF2XL and PDF2XL OCR.

Check it out. It’s really cool!

The secret, sure-fire way to avoid madness, hand cramps and blindness

Buy one of our products. They are good for your health!

Creative Commons Adobe Acrobat Plugin

The Creative Commons are one of the most important organizations/ideas in the internet today. I won’t try to explain what they are about since they do a much better job.

In any case, I am happy to announce that we have just released a Plugin that helps define and view CC licenses in Adobe Acrobat

I will be happy to hear your thoughts about it

Cogniview is now a certified partner of Microsoft

I am pleased to announce that Cogniview has achieved the rank of Microsoft certified partner. We were always putting off becoming a certified partner because it seemed to be a big hassle. We were right about that. We had, however, an ace in the hole that I wasn’t aware of: you, the customers.

Our customers deserve the credit for our becoming a certified partner. It seems that if you have a product that is used by thousands of customers, you just fly through the product-certification tests (we submitted our PDF-to-Excel conversion product).

The best part was the testimonials. As an ISV, you are required to submit customer testimonials to Microsoft and have the customers who gave those testimonials approve them. It took us just three hours to get approval for our testimonials. The speed with which the approval came moved me.

Thank you, dear customers.

Here are a couple of pictures of the gang and PDF2XL with the goodies that you get from Microsoft.

The Gang with the Microsoft flag

PDF2XL and the ISV competency plaque