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Confessions of a Full-Time Wizard 
What I Did for My Summer Vacation
By Shelly Mazzanoble

Welcome back, kids! It was a long, surprisingly hot summer in Seattle— mostly pleasant, but not without a few challenging encounters. My constitution was low and my hit points took a beating, but after an extended rest, I’m back and ready to roll. (See what I did there?) 

Talk about this article here.

no pdfs for these anymore? you guys should be ashamed for what you have done to the magazines

Sep 27, 2012 -- 4:42AM, frothsof wrote:

no pdfs for these anymore? you guys should be ashamed for what you have done to the magazines

     PDF  is a memory hog, places a greater burden on servers. Not sure why any would be unhappy about an easier access to an article. If a user wanted to save it for presonal use, all they need to do copy and then paste to a file.

Oct 3, 2012 -- 7:02AM, Kentinal wrote:

Sep 27, 2012 -- 4:42AM, frothsof wrote:

no pdfs for these anymore? you guys should be ashamed for what you have done to the magazines

     PDF  is a memory hog, places a greater burden on servers. Not sure why any would be unhappy about an easier access to an article. If a user wanted to save it for presonal use, all they need to do copy and then paste to a file.

i dont pay them to do the work myself. these articles have ALWAYS been in pdf form. it isnt easier to access; now it requires an active internet connection to read. suggesting that the confessions articles have any major drain their servers' memory is a real laugh.

you have done a poor job in convincing me of your opinions. besides, as a non-subscriber, i dont see how your opinion would matter, regardless of what it was. i have also blocked you so i dont have to read any more of your 'thoughts'.

Well I have a better sense of why first post by that user was edited.
Not sure why user can claim i am not a subscriber.

He can claim that because subscribers (if they use the same login to DDI as to the forums, which a very large share do) get a distinctive little icon over on the left, and you don't have one. (I do, you can go look: in a rounded square gules, a dragon's head sinister argent.)

Why he thinks it's relevant to the desirability of PDFs, I have no idea. 

But since he thinks it's relevant, and I *am* a subscriber, here's my take on it:

PDF should only be used when PRINT layout, on PAPER or some other non-electronic material, is critical. And even then, it should only be used when you can correctly predict the paper proportions in question. Documents that will be printed both in the US on US-standard-size paper, and in Europe on European-standard-size paper, are not a good candidate for PDFs. (If you must, use the smaller of the two standards - or a custom paper size that is the smaller width and the smaller length.)

PDF is not for stuff that's largely going to be read in web browsers, e-readers, smartphones, etc. 

HTML or any ebook format is vastly better for those uses, because those format don't make assumptions about page size.

I don't think I have ever printed any of these articles. I doubt that I ever will. I suspect this is very common.

Having the articles in HTML does NOT mean you have to be connected to the Internet to read them - aside from the first time, which is a characteristic they share with every other form of Internet content including PDF. In SRWare Iron, I can click on the wrench icon in the toolbar and select "Save As".  I recall other browsers having the same capability but don't remember how to get to it.

Oct 3, 2012 -- 7:02AM, Kentinal wrote:

Sep 27, 2012 -- 4:42AM, frothsof wrote:

no pdfs for these anymore? you guys should be ashamed for what you have done to the magazines

     PDF  is a memory hog, places a greater burden on servers. Not sure why any would be unhappy about an easier access to an article. If a user wanted to save it for presonal use, all they need to do copy and then paste to a file.

PDF files are more convenient to save, and they used to be smaller.  I have no idea why the PDF files generated in the past couple of months are so much bigger than the prior ones even when they contain less content.