[muglo] Re: Adobe Acrobat for 8.6 or 9.2 (internet payments)

>Martin A has told me a bit more about PrintToPDF, which is still
>available as a download, but it involves paying online, which I
>detest, even from a secure site.

Do you ever give out your credit card over the phone or use phone-banking? 
Do you ever allow someone to make a physical imprint of your credit card 
(the way CC payments used to be processed before the advent of card 
readers). If so, you should be aware that these are [often much] *less* 
secure than paying on-line, especially if you ever use a cordless phone or 
cell phone to make your calls (with a cheap $50 receiver you can tune into 
any cordless phone, and for only a little more you can tune into analogue 
cell calls). A physical imprint of your credit card is the worst for your 
personal security -- not only do people have you CC number, name and expirey 
date, but they *also* have your signature. All they need is your birth date 
and they can start doing nasty stuff in your name.

Anyway, I understand your skepticism of paying on-line. For the longest time 
I was leery of it and never thought I'd dare use it (even though I'd been 
banking on-line for years). That was about a year ago. Now I do as much 
on-line as possible (more convenient). A lot of companies are giving 
discounts if you use their on-line service rather than calling in or doing 
things in person, and on-line transactions are inherently more secure than 
those conducted in person (since less information is transferred).

Also, if you're leery of paying on-line to just anyone with your credit 
card, you may want to open up a PayPal or Kagi account which act as 
intermediaries btween you and the merchant. Both are reputable companies 
with secure connections.

PS Am finding the UK an interesting place to observe. Web access is slow 
compared to Canada, smoking is still culturally accepted and accepted in 
public places, food is *horribly* meat-centric (& they even put meat in 
their pies... shudder), everything is pasturised, even freshly squeezed OJ 
sold in the supermarket (the pre-packaged OJ here tastes like tang), the 
vegetarian selection is pretty limited (about where Canada was 5-6 years 
ago... soya milk... I've *only* found 1 L So Good plain (no flavours, 
nothing like Beatrice 's fruit-concoctions (yummy)) and some fruits 
(oranges) and veggies are pretty bland or unpalatable (zucchinis have been a 
dismal failure whenever I got them.... bitter).

But there are upsides to the food too, more than compensating for the 
drawbacks: the markets are wonderful and the apples and pears are *amazing*, 
they have lots of good Dutch & European cheeses  and some excellent local 
cheddars (I like (the cheap) Red Leicster (spelling?)), a *wide* range of 
Indian foods (lots of premade sauces) and lots of organic stuff (& lots of 
bakeries with fresh bread)!

The entertainment and TV culture is interestingly different (from my 
Canadian POV). They still bleep afew "dirty" words (piss-ing/-ed off/-er is 
the only one I've noticed) but fortunately fewer than in Canada and they 
don't have the debased NA puritanical phobia/obession regarding nudity. They 
also have religious services on the BBC (shocked the hell out of me when I 
first figured out what I was listening to on *public* radio).

The "debate" about a gay preist (or cardinal or whatever) shows an 
interesting aspect of UK society (maybe my take on things will change with 
further observations). In Canada we'd have some pretty nasty vitriole about 
the evilness of homosexuality/homosexuals followed by a platitude like "love 
thy neighbour" (so long as they're straight ;) (as evidenced by the filth 
coming out of Canadians' mouths about gay marriage). Here the clergy make 
noise but it seems like real people are not scandalised by the thought of 
having a gay guy ordained (maybe this is b/c most peopole here don't care 
about/for religion). In contrast to that ambivalence about something that 
would be a hot button issue back in Canada it seems that xenophobia is  all 
too common (not that we don't have anti-immigrant factions in Canada... you 
just don't usually get exposed to these anti-immigrant/anti-refugee people 
(except when a CRAP MP or Ontario Tory MPP opens their mouths :()... the 
things I've heard from a few locals about "Pakies" makes the hairs on the 
back of my neck stand up (it seems like they assume that b/c I'm white and 
am a native English speaker I am naturally a "like minded person"... but, 
this is only a minority of the people I've met (still a disturbing minority 
though)!).

Also, no real 24 hour news channels  or weather channels (& that's with Sky 
TV (digital cable service)... though, there are so many channels (>100 I 
figure)  I may be missing the2 4 hour news channels)

Anyway, tha's a lot of OT stuff mixed with some on-topic stuff. It's an 
interesting country. The UK has problems where Canada has none and vice 
versa. (lots of bureacracy here).

PS AOL is truly AOHell. Why someone would in their right mind pay for AOHell 
boggles my mind. (I'm using it only b/c it gave one month free while I look 
for a high speed provider)

L8r, Eric.

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