thingoid

You probably know that on many web pages you can make a link directly to a specific spot within the page. For instance, let’s say you wanted to point someone to the information about the Web Site Design SIG at Melbourne PC User Group - it’s at this web address:

http://groups.melbpc.org.au/

But there’s a lot of other information on that page and you can be even more helpful by directing your friend right to the relevant part of the page, by doing this:

http://groups.melbpc.org.au/#webdes

Where there’s a marker in a web page, called a “named anchor”, you can link directly to that spot by adding the name of the anchor (in this case “webdes”) onto the end of the web address with a # symbol.

Seen it?

Well, you’ve probably seen that trick before - but did you know the same idea also works for PDF files? There’s something about PDF files on the web, isn’t there? They’re often huge and they’re always harder to navigate than a normal web page - so much the better then if you can offer a link that takes people right to the relevant page.

Now let’s say you also want to recommend some books on web development to your friend. Well, the Melbourne PC User Group library listing is available at:

http://www.melbpc.org.au/library/Library.pdf

But it’s 26 pages long! How could you help your friend locate the relevant books? They are listed at the bottom of page 6 and the top of page 7, so perhaps you could provide a link that goes straight to the top of page 7:

http://www.melbpc.org.au/library/Library.pdf#page=7

Do you see how it works? Nominate the appropriate page number and add it to the web address with a # symbol. And unlike web pages, this works for all PDF files without needing to have special anchors included in them.

Open parameters

There are several of these “open parameters” that you can play with, for example:

http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/acrobat/
PDFOpenParams.pdf#page=5&pagemode=bookmarks&view=fitbh,400

Since I was shown this trick by a friend at work, I’ve used it frequently and I reckon you’ll find it handy as well.

More information

For more information on “named anchors” in web pages, see:

• the HTML specification, or
• W3Schools

For more information on PDF “Open Parameters”, see:

• Adobe’s Open Parameters

When it comes to security of your personal information, don’t trust it to anyone else: put a bullet through an old hard drive before you dispose of it. That’s what Henry and Roma Gerbus should have done before they had a hard drive replaced at “Best Buy”. According to Yahoo! News, some time later Herb…

got a phone call from a man in Chicago. “He said, ‘My name is Ed. I just bought your hard drive for $25 at a flea market in Chicago,’” said Gerbus … A total stranger had access to the couple’s personal information, including Social Security numbers, bank statements and investment records.

That’s a pretty amazing feat given that “Best Buy” had assured Herb that they drill holes in old hard drives to make them useless.

Don’t outsource this job

Personally, I’d have done the replacement - and destruction of the old drive - myself. It’s really not that hard. But if I had to pay someone to do the job, I’d be demanding the old drive back as well. With all the best intentions in the world, you can’t rely on some bloody chain store to always do the right thing.

“I’m not leaving myself open to identity theft,” said Gerbus.

Sure, Herb, sure.

These days a commercial computer or video game requires a battalion of programmers, graphic artists, animators, writers, actors, and miscellaneous other contributors - probably about as many people as a modest movie production. But thanks to tools like Inform and TADS Interactive Fiction is still within the scope of a single author, hence the enduring attraction of IF for “after-hours” programmers. A programmer with a creative bent or a writer willing to learn to program can turn out a decent Interactive Fiction story while holding down a “real” job or full time study (more…)

There’s very little required to start playing with Interactive Fiction: install an interpreter and download some game files then you’re ready to roll (more…)

On his blog Tim Bray recently offered some advice on protecting your data - it’s backup advice for the rest of us (more…)

Speaking of what’s in the news, today’s Age features a series of photos of two senior staff from AWB acting like complete dickheads while “doing business” in Iraq. No doubt the Cole Royal Commission will reveal what really went on, and I reckon this is the least of their problems, but these guys could have done well to heed my long-standing view on photography in the digital age (more…)

Here’s my Markdown/PHP Markdown cheat sheet or syntax summary. (more…)

When I print off a web page I like to have the URL printed with it, and the date of printing is often handy also. Well it must be the New Year or the summer heat or being away from work for mumble-mumble months but for the life of me I just couldn’t make it work in Firefox or Safari this morning.

It turns out that the solution was right there in front of me all the time. (more…)