Several times in the last few months, I've needed a way to combine two PDF files into one. I don't have the full version of Acrobat on my machine, and using Photoshop to do it is more hassle than it's worth, so I found this freeware utility that does the job handily:

pdftk

Ever since I bought my MacBook and made the switch to OSX, I have found the Stickies app to be quite useful. Even more useful would be a web based app that I could access from anywhere. Today I have found it. Save a tree and your desk.
Stikis

Last week I noticed that every time I tried to compose an email in Gmail, Firefox would have a hard crash. I figured it was something in the javascript and left Gmail alone for a few days since it is Beta. This week I decided to try it again and I experienced the same behavior. In an effort to debug this problem I tried Gmail in all the browsers that I had installed. I had the same crash in Camino and Opera but it worked fine in Safari. After much poking around I found that my Palatino font was corrupted. After replacing the font everything was fine.

I decided to play around with reducing page weight today. I wrote this script to strip out new lines and whitespace. There wasn't a huge amount of difference in the individual file sizes but when you subtract 8-10k per file from the total document weight the difference is noticeable.

download shrinker.rb

I was asked to make two simple changes to a PayPal store account this morning. I say 'simple' because, on the surface, they seemed non-trivial. I had to change the shipping charges for all items and update the email address where payment notifications are sent. Easy enough.

Easy enough, I say. . . not quite. PayPal has, surprisingly, an extremely un-intuitive user interface. My first task was to change the shipping charge for all items. My choices in the navigation for "My Account" are: Overview, Add Funds, Withdraw, History, Resolution Center, and Profile. Well, Profile is the obvious choice. It takes me to a screen with no less than 32 links for various settings. After scanning the links I see one that says "Shipping Preferences." Maybe that one. Nope. My next choice down the list is "Shipping Calculations." Bingo! I successfully change the shipping rate charges to $0. Not too bad.

Now I have to change the email address where notifications of payments are sent. This sounds like it will be a snap. Has to be the registered email address, right? Wrong. For some reason, all of the notifications are sent to a different email address than the one set as the primary account address. Hmmmmm. Well, of course I go back to the "Profile" page. I see an "Email" link and think that's the obvious choice. No, that's just the registered email, with no others listed. So, they only have one registered email, no secondary addresses, but the payment notifications are STILL being sent somewhere else. How very odd. So I go back to the "Profile" page and see an option below "Email" called "Notifications." Surely, if the "Email" option wasn't the right choice, "Notifications" is where I need to go. Nope, and don't call me Shirley. "Notifications" only control WHEN they send an email, not WHERE they send the email. Dead end. I scour the rest of the options under the "Account Information" heading. The only other choice that I can see as a stretch is "Business Information." Why not? Surprise surprise, right in your eyes, this is it!

The "Business Information" page has a value called 'Customer Service Email' with a helpful 'learn more' link out to the side. I click on the link to find out why this attribute is here. It explains:
'Your customer service email address is the address we will display to buyers in our communication with them about a transaction. If you choose not to identify a customer service email, your primary email address will be used.'
Who would have guessed. Either way, I was able to change the address and hopefully make the client happy.

Thanks, PayPal, for the giant headache!