Comments on: PDF redaction still not working

By: yup

yup — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:43:12 +0000

The cap filter is in the CSS, not in the software. If it really annoys you (it annoys the hell out of me), you can edit the style sheet and remove the

text-transform: lowercase;

line from it, then apply it as a custom sheet to this site.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:12:02 +0000

I’m fine with auto-deleting all the “First!” crap posts.

By: Orv

Orv — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:06:20 +0000

IMHO the only reliable form of redaction is to print out the document, black out the redacted bits with a fat Sharpie, then scan the document back in. Labor-intensive, yes, but reliable.

By: twizzzzz

twizzzzz — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:44:24 +0000

all lowercase = win. its how i write all of my emails now, because of hackaday.

By: Wolf

Wolf — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:07:38 +0000

@dave

The whole no-caps thing is probably an attempt to make this feed a little more unique. As for shouting, it’s usually annoying when people do that in speech as well, but that doesn’t mean we should make it so they’re unable to. Besides, not allowing caps would be overkill for such a minor annoyance. While we’re at at it, we could start automatically deleting the first post on every story to reduce trolling.

By: dave

dave — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:19:55 +0000

they have the lowercase to prevent the morons that use the caps lock key. caps lock = annoyance. grammar freak = annoyance.

By: Noel

Noel — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:39:04 +0000

Ahhh…so it’s not the writers…it’s the software.
how damn annoying. My apologies to you all. May I re-direct my annoyance to the webmaster.

Stop re-formatting my text…..or I’ll claim, i don’t know, copyright infringement or something.

By: Noel

Noel — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:36:50 +0000

I really like visiting this site and reading the comments, but “MOST” of you make it more difficult each time. When did it become useful to start sentences without capitalization? It just means that I have to read, and then read again before the correct intent of the writer is interpreted.
Come on….

By: strider_mt2k

strider_mt2k — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:33:07 +0000

wordplay is hacking too. ;)

By: strider_mt2k

strider_mt2k — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 17:31:51 +0000

redaction reduction reduces obstruction
and who cannot use some obstruction reduction?

I’m known to be known for my fair predilection
and AE-three five series failure prediction

but documentation frustration deflation
detection requires some instrumentation

and courtroom proceedings are when I say when
and my silly head goes off to rhyming again

so please excuse me again when I say
I really could use more than one hack a day

By: Saites

Saites — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:52:56 +0000

@james: the redact feature wasn’t fixed until 9.0.

By: James

James — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:13:03 +0000

That’s odd — AFAIK the full version of Acrobat has had a *real* “redact” command since about 8.0 (and they’re now up to 9.0). My guess would be they just produced it with an old version of the tool (or using a non-Adobe distiller). Lazy/cheap users != bad product.

By: jimmx2

jimmx2 — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:53:07 +0000

Huh?

By: doomstalk

doomstalk — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:16:39 +0000

@dubmuffin: As someone who works with this stuff on a regular basis, it’s pretty clear to me that you don’t know what you’re talking about.

1) No, we can’t “avoid the official use of the word redaction”. This isn’t a choice on the part of Facebook, it’s a standard part of legal proceedings.
2) Facebook is legally required to not change the contents and/or formatting the document, with the exception of blanking out privileged or confidential material. You can’t just delete text– that alters the original document.
3) PDF redaction is a solved problem. Whatever tool they’re using just sucks. When done properly, it’s possible to scrub the original text from under a document. Or, barring that, you can produce in image only PDF, at which point there’s no question that the text has been removed.

By: Morden

Morden — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 12:44:38 +0000

So facebook turned down an offer by microsoft that was 4x their actual value? Does microsoft really have that bad of a stigma or were they attempting to driver investor interest by playing along?

Regardless, leave copy/paste on a redaction feature is one hell of a large (hilarious) oversight.