WTF Bites
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@Vault_Dweller said in WTF Bites:
: Single document.
: So can't you just put everything together in a single zip file?That's a single file not a single document.
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@PleegWat Are you not able to read my mind to know that I meant file?
to fix
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@Vault_Dweller if the application actually used the word "document" and not "file", it's quite possible I wouldn't think of putting it in ZIP file either.
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@Gąska Maybe, but would your first thought be to print everything out and scan it back in again?
And yes, the application said file.
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@Vault_Dweller said in WTF Bites:
@Gąska Maybe, but would your first thought be to print everything out and scan it back in again?
Depends on whether it would take less time for me to google up how to convert multiple PDFs into single one or to google up how to make my scanner scan multiple pages into single PDF. At this moment, I don't know how to do either.
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@Vault_Dweller said in WTF Bites:
@PleegWat Are you not able to read my mind to know that I meant file?
No, I forgot the
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how to convert multiple PDFs into single one
On Linux you can use PDF Shuffler
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@TimeBandit that's good, because the scanner wouldn't work
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As a note, the people they're sending it to probably don't understand zip files either. The intent was almost certainly a single pdf. One of the few things MacOS does really well is Preview--you can (relatively) effortlessly combine PDFs by dragging and dropping the pages between windows. Windows it's more of a pain (for which I blame Adobe, because I blame Adobe for anything PDF related).
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@TimeBandit said in WTF Bites:
Online PDF Combiner
@TimeBandit said in WTF Bites:
On Linux you can use PDF Shuffler
$ man pdfunite | head -n12 pdfunite(1) General Commands Manual pdfunite(1) NAME pdfunite - Portable Document Format (PDF) page merger SYNOPSIS pdfunite [options] PDF-sourcefile1..PDF-sourcefilen PDF-destfile DESCRIPTION pdfunite merges several PDF (Portable Document Format) files in order of their occurrence on command line to one PDF result file.
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@PJH PDFs, unite!
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@Vault_Dweller
I always mistype the command and then all my PDFs get untied and trip over their own laces...
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@PJH <blakeyrant>we're not in 1970 anymore, drop that CLI nonsense</blakeyrant>
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@Benjamin-Hall said in WTF Bites:
The intent was almost certainly a single pdf.
I wouldn't be so sure. Maybe they're cataloguing the documents in a way that makes single ZIP files much more convenient than multiple email attachments - either automatically or by hand. I cannot think of a scenario where you want different documents in a single PDF where a single ZIP wouldn't work.
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I cannot think of a scenario where you want different documents in a single PDF where a single ZIP wouldn't work.
Secretary receives the PDF and prints it off, scanning pages to send the individual parts to the relevant departments.
And the licence for WinZip has expired on her Win98 computer.
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licence for WinZip
I believe it's completely understandable why I couldn't think of this scenario.
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I cannot think of a scenario where you want different documents in a single PDF where a single ZIP wouldn't work.
Secretary receives the PDF and prints it off, scanning pages to send the individual parts to the relevant departments.
And the licence for WinZip has expired on her Win98 computer.
WinZip costs apparently €26.04 if I were to purchase a license right now.
7Zip is rather free.There's several WTFs here, starting with the odd fact that WinZip is still alive and apparently in their 23rd version. Further, it is being marketed to Windows 10 users. And, if I'm reading 7Zip's manual right, sports support for more than 10 file types less than 7Zip.
But it has "Win" right there in the name.Now, I know someone will just tell me that I've gravely misunderstood somethjing here. But still...
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I know someone will just tell me that I've gravely misunderstood somethjing here.
Yes, human stupidity
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@Vault_Dweller I love the free PrimoPDF printer. Because it allows you to append to an existing file.
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WinZip is still alive and apparently in their 23rd version. Further, it is being marketed to Windows 10 users.
I saw it in the wild when I had some training last month on the trainer's laptop. Licensed WinZip on Windows 10 on a laptop provided by a big tech/IT services firm.
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@TimeBandit that's good, because the scanner would work
Not if you're using Linux.
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licence for WinZip
I believe it's completely understandable why I couldn't think of this scenario.
You bought WinRAR instead?
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I cannot think of a scenario where you want different documents in a single PDF where a single ZIP wouldn't work.
Secretary receives the PDF and prints it off, scanning pages to send the individual parts to the relevant departments.
And the licence for WinZip has expired on her Win98 computer.
WinZip costs apparently €26.04 if I were to purchase a license right now.
7Zip is rather free.There's several WTFs here, starting with the odd fact that WinZip is still alive and apparently in their 23rd version. Further, it is being marketed to Windows 10 users. And, if I'm reading 7Zip's manual right, sports support for more than 10 file types less than 7Zip.
But it has "Win" right there in the name.Now, I know someone will just tell me that I've gravely misunderstood somethjing here. But still...
Probably some kind of "usability".
Does 7Zip support Slack? Didn't think so.
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licence for WinZip
I believe it's completely understandable why I couldn't think of this scenario.
You bought WinRAR instead?
What is this "bought" thou speakest of? I only know words "download" and "crack".
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@TimeBandit that's good, because the scanner would work
Not if you're using Linux.
Apparently, I forgot to write "n't" in there. Explains low upvote count on this normally-very-anti-Linux-hardware forum.
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Apparently, I forgot to write "n't" in there. Explains low upvote count on this normally-very-anti-Linux-hardware forum.
I Interpreted the joke as "the scanner would work, while your Linux CLI solution wouldn't". Same intent, different execution.
What is this "bought" thou speakest of? I only know words "download" and "crack".
Yes, I know where you're from.
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Some IT departments have this idea that free software cannot be used under any circumstances if there is a paid product out there that does the same thing, both because paid software is better and more enterprisey, and because paid software licenses are easier to audit than free.
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because paid software licenses are easier to audit than free
How?
Some people think it's the other way around
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Some IT departments have this idea that free software cannot be used under any circumstances if there is a paid product out there that does the same thing, both because paid software is better and more enterprisey, and because paid software licenses are easier to audit than free.
If you use an open source product, and it turns out to be faulty, there isn't anyone to sue.
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If you use an open source product, and it turns out to be faulty, there isn't anyone to sue.
Did you ever read a software license?
we can't be held responsible if it gives you cancer, kills your cat or make your wife pregnant
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@TimeBandit said in WTF Bites:
How?
Well, for an example on how those guys think, our corporate IT dinged a guy for having a 1998-era game on his travel laptop to pass the time in airports, not because you shouldn't have games on company-owned PCs, but because they had no way of auditing its license with their automated systems.
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@TimeBandit said in WTF Bites:
If you use an open source product, and it turns out to be faulty, there isn't anyone to sue.
Did you ever read a software license?
we can't be held responsible if it gives you cancer, kills your cat or make your wife pregnant
Funny looking terms in agreements - not just software licenses, all kinds of agreements - get overturned in courts all the time. The particular terms are treated as if they weren't there, while the rest of the agreement is left intact and it's still legally binding. Exact details vary by jurisdiction.
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@Gąska In this case, I wasn't talking about not having the software to handle zip files. But from my experience with non-technical people, they don't know what a zip file is. They'd see something that didn't fit their workflow (open in pdf reader, review/send pages to different departments) and mentally break. I'm teaching kids how to do this and it's...painful for both of us.
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@Benjamin-Hall the thing about computers is, there are millions of trivia that are all extreme boost to productivity, but you can go your entire life and have a very successful computer-related career without ever having an opportunity to learn about them unless someone tells you about them, or you click something accidentally, or you see someone doing something weird. How many people know about Ctrl+click? I didn't until last year.
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@Gąska true, but still doesn't mean that the spouse in question would have been better off sending a zip file.
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Do I want to return to present time, or do I want to return to present time? The choices!
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@Benjamin-Hall said in WTF Bites:
@Gąska true, but still doesn't mean that the spouse in question would have been better off sending a zip file.
Well, just like you're almost certain she wouldn't, I'm almost certain she would.
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Funny looking terms in agreements - not just software licenses, all kinds of agreements - get overturned in courts all the time. The particular terms are treated as if they weren't there, while the rest of the agreement is left intact and it's still legally binding. Exact details vary by jurisdiction.
Let's be realistic. Have you ever heard of a company suing, say, Microsoft over a bug in Windows and winning?
Hint: we live in a world where companies have terrible IT security because they refuse to take it seriously, leak tens of gigabytes of sensitive customer information when they inevitably get hacked, and still only get a slap on the wrist.
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@Benjamin-Hall said in WTF Bites:
As a note, the people they're sending it to probably don't understand zip files either. The intent was almost certainly a single pdf. One of the few things MacOS does really well is Preview--you can (relatively) effortlessly combine PDFs by dragging and dropping the pages between windows. Windows it's more of a pain (for which I blame Adobe, because I blame Adobe for anything PDF related).
On Windows you could use one of several (probably GPL GhostScript-based) PDF printers to combine multiple documents into one by printing them to a single PDF. This would be simple and easy.
If you're more of a power user, you could use the CPDF toolkit, which is a command-line tool capable of transforming PDFs in a variety of different ways. Merging PDFs using CPDF is easy; you just give it a list of PDF filenames, and then you use the
-o
option to tell it what the output filename should be.
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licence for WinZip
I believe it's completely understandable why I couldn't think of this scenario.
You bought WinRAR instead?
/r/PaidForWinRAR/
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@anotherusername said in WTF Bites:
@Benjamin-Hall said in WTF Bites:
As a note, the people they're sending it to probably don't understand zip files either. The intent was almost certainly a single pdf. One of the few things MacOS does really well is Preview--you can (relatively) effortlessly combine PDFs by dragging and dropping the pages between windows. Windows it's more of a pain (for which I blame Adobe, because I blame Adobe for anything PDF related).
On Windows you could use one of several (probably GPL GhostScript-based) PDF printers to combine multiple documents into one by printing them to a single PDF. This would be simple and easy.
If you're more of a power user, you could use the CPDF toolkit, which is a command-line tool capable of transforming PDFs in a variety of different ways. Merging PDFs using CPDF is easy; you just give it a list of PDF filenames, and then you use the
-o
option to tell it what the output filename should be.But both of those require 3rd party software. The big advantage of Macs here is that it's built in and standard, with simple drag and drop functionality.
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@Benjamin-Hall said in WTF Bites:
@Gąska true, but still doesn't mean that the spouse in question would have been better off sending a zip file.
Yeah, in all likelihood the response would have been "I cannot open this, please send in PDF or Microsoft format". And even if you could convince them to open the zip up and see that all of the documents (files) that they need are in there, they'd respond with "I need it as a single file, please re-submit".
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@anotherusername said in WTF Bites:
@Benjamin-Hall said in WTF Bites:
@Gąska true, but still doesn't mean that the spouse in question would have been better off sending a zip file.
Yeah, in all likelihood the response would have been "I cannot open this, please send in PDF or Microsoft format". And even if you could convince them to open the zip up and see that all of the documents (files) that they need are in there, they'd respond with "I need it as a single file, please re-submit".
Yeah, that's my impression. My school is very (outwardly) tech-focused, but most of my colleagues would struggle if given a zip file, especially if their workflow depended on it being a single file. Habits are powerful things.
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How many people know about Ctrl+click? I didn't until last year.
Just wait until I tell you about shift-click!
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Do I want to return to present time, or do I want to return to present time? The choices!
Are you presently in the past?
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Do I want to return to present time, or do I want to return to present time? The choices!
Are you presently in the past?
I would have been in the future!
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Do I want to return to present time, or do I want to return to present time? The choices!
Well...you're in the past so it already happened and you don't really have a choice any more since you already chose.
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@Tsaukpaetra said in WTF Bites:
How many people know about Ctrl+click? I didn't until last year.
Just wait until I tell you about shift-click!
I know about it. And I hated it since before tabs were even invented.