PDF to HTML to DOC - Oh My!

I am experimenting with converting Adobe Acrobat .pdf files to either .doc or .xls in order to import them to a database.

Here's myproblem: The inspection program that the company I contract for requires me to run does not allow it's users to print any information to text files including open inspections or history regarding completed orders. I'd love to be able to keep information on properties I've inspected previously in a database or at least a spreadsheet or word document so that I could refer back to it once I receive a request to complete another inspection on the same property. Mainly, so I could quickly see a photo, remember what the property looks like and where exactly on a particular street it's located, and the condition it was in at the time of the last inspection. Basically, I'd like to have all the information in one place and the software provided to field inspectors does not allow you to lookup any info on previous inspections except for date completed and order number.

I was thinking, though, if I got my order list converted from .pdf to .doc or .xls format, then I should be able to import that information into a database. Once there's about a month's worth of data is in the database, I should be able to maintain it with little effort which would save time and effort on my part of going through the same iterations of printing, cutting, pasting, scanning and re-printing every few days.

So, while perusing my options, I discovered that GMail allows you to convert a .pdf to .html quickly using their 'See it now' feature. All you do is this:

1. Login to your Gmail account and compose a new email
2. Put your own gmail email address in the 'To' field
3. Attach the .pdf file you want to convert to .html and click 'Send'
4. The message will appear in your Gmail Inbox. Click it, then choose to view the attachment as .html
5. One step further and you can convert that to a .txt file. While viewing the .html file from step 4, just click 'File' then 'Save As' and choose to save the file in .txt format

Neat little feature - and the best thing is, you don't have to install any new conversion software and it's free!

PayPerPost.com Birdo Release

With the latest release, PayPerPost.com has made a pretty big change in the way they're marketing their business model. There are some new interesting features in the latest release, but one of the biggest, most interesting feature has to be the concept and implementation of PayPerPost Direct. In the past, posties like myself sifted through opportunities that were available on the PayPerPost website. But with the latest site update that took place last night, posties can now market their own blog to advertisers via the PayPerPost Direct feature.

The concept should be a win-win for advertisers and bloggers alike. For advertisers, it goes beyond segmentation as another way for advertisers to target the blogs and audiences for which they'd like their products and services marketed. The Direct concept should also prove to be cheaper for an advertiser since PayPerPost Direct only charges the advertiser a 10% fee (which mostly goes toward covering transaction fees) unlike competitors like ReviewMe who can charge 50-100% markup for the same exposure. For bloggers, PayPerPost's Direct tool allows the blogger to advertise their own blog and to negotiate with the advertiser concerning advertiser requirements. In addition, PayPerPost is handling the transaction which saves the blogger time and money.

It's a great plan which may draw more advertisers to PayPerPost. If you want me to
blog ads for your product or service, click on the "Hire Me" badge in my sidebar.

UPDATE on TiVo Bug

After reporting about a possible TiVo bug, I've got my TiVo communicating with my wireless network again. I had to unplug the wireless adapter and the TiVo unit itself. Then, I plugged the adapter back in then plugged the TiVo unit back in which reset everything. The unit then hit the network and I was able to make a connection and get updated programming data. It seems that this happened while I was out of town, but I did notice that the last successful attempt to contact the TiVo service was on May 15th which was the same day that they released a new update to make TV more searchable. Coincidence?

Anyone else experiencing this? Better be safe than sorry because you might not notice until you're nearly out of programming data...

TiVo Bug?

I'm not sure if this is a bug or not, but wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this. I've noticed that my other networked TiVo unit disappears from my "Now Playing" list. It's happened twice since I've had 2 TiVo units networked. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with service updates from TiVo since there was a new update on my TiVo when I returned from vacation - the new search feature. I haven't looked into the problem since I don't normally use the transfer option, but last night I noticed my other TiVo unit was not showing up in the list. I'm going to check into it further tonight if I get a chance. Anyone else having this issue?

Truckload of Plasmas for $9999

WHAT? 50 Plasma TV's for under $10 grand? There has to be a catch. The deal is that there's a semi truck loaded with over 50 TV's that were damaged during shipment with the insurance claim on most of them being "broken screens". Now, I don't have a clue how much someone could salvage from all those broken TV's, but I do know that a Pioneer 50" Plasma costs around $2,000 and there are 10 of them (including a 60") and a Panasonic 42" Plasma retails for about $1500 and up and there are 29 of these on the truck ranging from 42" to 58" models. Wow - if only 5 or 6 of these 50+ TV's worked and just had minor cosmetic damage, you could recoup the cost. What's more is that the seller has 100% positive feedback rating which is outstanding for a wholesale distributor - or, anyone else for that matter.

Can anyone out there loan me 10 grand?

TiVo Desktop and Windows Vista

I just downloaded TiVo Desktop so I could transfer some shows that I haven't seen this week over to my new laptop and found out that TiVo Desktop does not yet work on computers running Vista. Dammit! Oh well, I'll just be further behind when we get back from our vacation. This is probably not going to be the only compatibility issue I'll find with Vista, it's just the first...

Netvibes Customizable Homepage

It's been around for some time, but those of you who are new to the net or are new to having multiple computers may find Netvibes a useful tool. It's a customizable homepage that you can access from anywhere (if you register which is free).

Welcome to Netvibes!

This is your personalized page, you can now modify everything: move modules, add new RSS/ATOM feeds, change the parameters for each module, etc. Your modifications are saved in real-time and you'll find your page when you get back on Netvibes.com. If you want to be able to access your page from any computer, you can sign in (at the top right) with your email and a password.

Cool! My buddy Ron told me about this site and I'll be spending some time setting up my custom home page.

New Laptop

I finally broke down and ordered a laptop last week. I didn't want to put a whole lot of cash into it since I'll be using it for my part-time inspections job, so I've been looking around since January for a good deal. Last Thursday, I found a nice little setup at BestBuy.com that has a 15.4 inch widescreen, wireless, dvd/cd burner, 1.5 GHz, 60 GB hard drive, 512 of RAM for $399. That's a tough deal to beat, but you can also find Best Buy coupons and coupon codes for other major merchandisers offering discounts on products, services and shipping to save even more!

It does have Windows Vista pre-installed, so I don't know how that's going to work out, but I mainly need it for inspections and general Internet usage, so it should be fine - I'll keep you posted...

Everex StepNote Notebook with Via C7®-M Processor
Model: NC1501

• Via C7®-M processor with 400MHz bus, 128KB L2 cache and 1.5GHz processor speed
• 512KB PC4200 DDR2 SDRAM for multitasking power, expandable to 2GB
• Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive with double-layer support records up to 8.5GB of data or 4 hours of video using compatible DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media

Viper's Video Quicktags *UPDATE*

Yes! Finally, I have video on my WordPress blog, the easy chair, thanks to Viper's Video Quicktags plugin. If you can't get video on your WordPress blog, try these simple steps to get and use this effective little plugin:

• download the plugin then upload it to your server (FTP) into the 'wp-content/plugins' folder
• Go to WordPress then click the 'Plugins' tab in the WP admin area
• Find the Viper's Video Quicktags plugin in the list and click 'activate'
• Click the 'Options' tab from the WP admin page and configure the plugin
  

After I activated the plugin, I tried to edit a post to include a video, but the buttons weren't there in the WYSIWYG editor. I cleared my cache and refreshed and the buttons appeared and I was able to embed the video into the post. w00t!

AccuWeather.com

I just created a weather widget over at the AccuWeather.com website. It was really easy to do since you just pick from drop-down lists and put your zip code in to customize and generate the code for the widget. You choose the unit of measure (degrees in F or C), the language (English or Spanish), your zip code (over 3 million locations) then choose from 9 different sizes, pick your color or theme and voilà - the code is generated for you and you have a nifty little weather widget to place on your website, blog or myspace page. Check my sidebar to see how it looks. I literally completed the whole process in less than five minutes and best of all, the widget is free!

Viper's Video Quicktags

I just uploaded Viper's Video Quicktags which is a plugin for WordPress users to make video's from sites like YouTube.com and Google Video work. I'm anxious to see if the plugin will do what I need it to do - I'll let you know...

Zeiss Conquest Binoculars

My husband and I do quite a bit of fishing, but not as much as we'd like. If you know me or read any of my blogs, you know that I love the outdoors and just about any type of electronic gadget. I've been looking for a new digital camera and am leaning toward one with a Zeiss lens, but I didn't even know until I did a search that there are zeiss binoculars, too. I was looking around Eagle Optics website and noticed they offer the Zeiss Conquest 10x25B T*P* Binoculars which are compact and waterproof - two essential qualities you look for when you're going to store them in a bass boat. I'd really like to have a pair of binoculars for the boat, because you never know what you might see when on the lake, and next time I see some birds diving for bait fish, it would be nice to see if there was a school of fish churning the water under them.

Free Sudoku!

I was searching around the web and found a site that offers billions of Sudoku puzzles available for free online. I hadn't fallen victim to the Sudoku craze, but I worked my very first Sudoku puzzle - it took a while to finish it, but it's pretty cool. I can see why so many have been consumed by these puzzles - it's very addictive...

Each Sudoku has a unique solution that can be reached logically without guessing. Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces. Every row must contain one of each digit. So must every column, as must every 3x3 square.

VoIP Forum

VoIP is Voice over Internet Protocol, or a phone that's connected through your Internet Service Provider (like your cable provider). Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), is a technology that allows you to make telephone calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular (or analog) phone line. One of the most popular providers of VoIP is Vonage and I've found a website that provides information, faqs, news, and forums all related to the Vonage VoIP Service. The VoIP variety of phone service is usually much cheaper than traditional landline service and has better packages and plans for local, long distance and international calling...

YouTube Video Plugin for WordPress

I was going nuts trying to get a video to embed over at the easy chair (my WordPress blog) last night. Each time I would paste the embed video code into my post, the beginning and end tags would shift instead of being around the code for the embedded video. I've found this plugin called Viper's Video Quicktags and am going to try it out to see if it helps...here's the skinny:

Tired of copying and pasting the embed HTML from sites like YouTube into posts on your site? Well then this plugin is for you.

Just simply click one of the new buttons that this plugin adds to the write screen (rich editor included) and then paste the URL that the video is located at into the prompt box -- easy as that. You can fully configure how the videos are displayed (width, height, alignment on the page) and much more. Best of all, it won't break your page's (X)HTML validation.

Currently supports these video sites:

* YouTube
* Google Video
* IFILM
* Metacafe
* MySpace
* Vimeo

SecureZip

I have many files on my PC which I often transfer from one PC to another - from work to home PC's and back again. I sometimes use a jump drive to transfer files, but often I like the convenience of using Microsoft Outlook to email files that I use on multiple PC's as well. Many people just assume that the process of transferring files from one place to another is safe merely because of the security of our networks, but everyday there are hackers trying to figure out how to get your information. All it would take to steal someone's identity or empty a bank account would be to decrypt a single file like a tax return or bank statement, but with an app like SecureZIP, you can transfer files through MS Outlook with confidence and security.

SecureZIP - The next generation of ZIP sets the standard for desktop data security. It is the best solution for protecting email messages and attachments, as well as data stored on hard-drives, laptops, and portable media. SecureZIP is a true security application, providing file level security that is as strong as any security application in the world, while it continues to leverage all of the benefits that come with compression.

Right now, the full version (not a trial) of SecureZIP is available for download here.

DoFollow Plugin for WordPress

I have a couple of new WordPress blogs that I've been working on - one's called the easy chair and it's got quite a bit of content. The other is a brand new blog called Great Day for Fishing which I'm still in the early stages of developing the theme and getting the kinks worked out. One thing I found was a plugin for WordPress called the Dofollow plugin which gets rid of the rel=nofollow attribute from your comments.

Perspective — Upon learning that search engine firms and blogwares endorsed the rel=nofollow attribute, I had some doubts the stratagem would ultimately lead to less comment spam. And from the looks of this interview with a link spammer, I'd even suggest you should get ready for more spam, not less.

Check out the Semiologic plugin

Stolen Laptop

Boy that would really make me steamed if someone stole my laptop, but it's occurring more and more since people are using them more publicly in coffee houses and airports with wifi hotspots. I was configuring a system (**dreaming**) at Dell's site and noticed that they have an option to add-on LoJack which is security software that runs in the background.

Computrace® LoJack® for Laptops is a theft protection service that tracks, locates and recovers stolen laptop and desktop computers.

Software installed on your computer works behind the scenes to silently and securely contact our Monitoring Center, and if stolen, reports its location using any Internet connection.

Our Recovery Team then tracks your computer’s location and partners with local law enforcement to get your computer back. If your stolen computer is not recovered in 30 days, you’ll receive a full refund for the purchase price of the software.

Cool, huh? Their website states that they recover 3 out of 4 stolen laptops. I know I was impressed and you can get a year for about $50 bucks which is cheaper than most of those extended warranties. The software can also be installed on desktops and tablet PC's.

Photoshop

Okay, I've installed Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Elements photo/video editing software on my computer, now what? I'm looking for some good tutorial websites to help me on my quest of mastering, or in my case, getting started with the software. Who's got some good links? Please leave me a comment about where to go for some info...

BestBuy and Coupon Chief

I am a BestBuy-aholic! My friends and my husband hate it when were shopping and I want to "run in BestBuy for a minute" because they know that I'll be in there for much longer than a minute. The closest store to me is located in Southern Pines, NC, but it's not as big as some of the other ones like Fayetteville, NC or some of the larger cities. I love to check out the new stuff and hot deals offered online. I've been looking for a deal on a laptop recently and BestBuy sometimes mails out coupons, but you can also find coupons, deals and special offers online at couponchief.com. They offer online coupons for BestBuy and many other merchants, too. If you're planning on spending your tax refund online, check out couponchief.com first to make your hard-earned dollar go farther.