Available for almost every operating system in use today - Reader is a format that works!

No, I haven’t been exploited. I feel fairly protected with the software I have running on my machine (which effectively removes a good amount of performance - Why do you think that when you look in the instructions to many games the first thing mentioned is suspending the antivirus program?)

No, I am very sure that somewhere, in some publisher’s thought process right now is the idea that putting out their magazine in PDF format is a bad idea. The reason is that if somehow exploiting code is found to have gotten into it, they will be blamed, and the good PR from the availability of PDFs will be totally removed by the bad feelings generated by any harm to user’s computers.

This would be a bad thing - a very bad thing.

Not only is making the content of magazines freely available for download a good thing for the user, it is another, otherwise missed, opportunity for advertisers to get a crack at selling their wares. Further, the downloaded content is likely to end up on a CD or DVD somewhere, archived, making it more likely that generations from now, someone will have the ability to clearly see some aspects of life today, without the jaundiced eye of the historian.

For the short term, it makes reference to data much easier than flipping through pages, or, if available, indices in print. The pictures available in a PDF, never fading if the file remains intact, provide much more than the thousands of words that might replace them in another document format.

Many magazines have started to make this content available. Maximum PC and The Perfect Vision are just a couple that quickly come to mind. But the trend should be allowed to continue.

The format has become so pervasive that almost any large program that is supplied with documentation is also supplied with Acrobat Reader, so that the user can immediately see what is needed in the setup or troubleshooting pages. Adobe has worked to make a very usable, helpful, and hopefully durable format. It shouldn’t become another also ran, simply because someone wanting to show hacking skills decided to focus on the format.

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Tags: adobe reader, pdf, hacking, exploits, publishing concerns