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Old 12-17-2008, 11:29 AM   #16
Charles Patrick
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Originally Posted by Dr. Drib View Post
Yes, I use programs that suit my needs. However, this program is a "Free demo," and wants a registration code in order to access more newspapers/magazine.

They want users to register the product for activation for compatibility purposes."
<snip>
Don
There is absolutely no obligation to register News2PDF

News2PDF is no longer a "demo" it is now simply a "Basic edition."

Don, have you even downloaded the program? It's a 30-second, 2MB download.

Last edited by Charles Patrick; 12-17-2008 at 11:49 AM.
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Old 12-17-2008, 01:13 PM   #17
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I tried the program.
It errored out for few feeds.
Forbes - Autolt Error. Array varaible has incorrect number of ....
Newsweek - it showed the progress bar, downloading articles, but did not create an output file
Time - Errored out
After each error program exited, my options (Sony, font size, etc.) were not saved.

USA Today, SF Chronicle and NYT worked well. It created nicely formatted pdf files, with TOC.

I used "Images On" option, but did not get a single image. The filter on days also didn't seem to work, I put "1 day old" but got much older articles.

At some point it opened over 20 windows, "Register and get more features"

Charles, you seem to know about this program. What are the more features that you get with registration? The web site is not clear:
"After you register, we will send you an activation code and we will tell you how you can download HUNDREDS of magazines".

I use Calibre for daily news. This program could be useful if I could quickly add feeds that did not exist in Calibre.
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Old 12-17-2008, 01:20 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles Patrick View Post
There is absolutely no obligation to register News2PDF

News2PDF is no longer a "demo" it is now simply a "Basic edition."

Don, have you even downloaded the program? It's a 30-second, 2MB download.
No, I have not downloaded the program. I see a number of people reporting problems with this program.

Charles, are you affiliated with this program in any way?

Don

Update: Charles has now disclosed that he's a consultant for the company that produces this program.
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Old 12-17-2008, 01:31 PM   #19
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Originally Posted by ddavtian View Post
I tried the program.
It errored out for few feeds.
Forbes - Autolt Error. Array varaible has incorrect number of ....
Newsweek - it showed the progress bar, downloading articles, but did not create an output file
Time - Errored out
After each error program exited, my options (Sony, font size, etc.) were not saved.

USA Today, SF Chronicle and NYT worked well. It created nicely formatted pdf files, with TOC.

I used "Images On" option, but did not get a single image. The filter on days also didn't seem to work, I put "1 day old" but got much older articles.

At some point it opened over 20 windows, "Register and get more features"

Charles, you seem to know about this program. What are the more features that you get with registration? The web site is not clear:
"After you register, we will send you an activation code and we will tell you how you can download HUNDREDS of magazines".

I use Calibre for daily news. This program could be useful if I could quickly add feeds that did not exist in Calibre.
The basic version doesn't allow you to download publications for which you pay a subscription fee, for example, if you subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, that's added. The Standard edition has a feature that automatically can e-mail the PDF to your Kindle or iPhone.

Depending on the publication, the source we use may not have images. Try downloading the Reader's Digest subscription, it usually has images.

Sorry about the errors -
Please check Newsweek, and Forbes again. I think they're poorly executed timeout (Internet connection) problems because they're working here.
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Old 12-17-2008, 01:34 PM   #20
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Originally Posted by Dr. Drib View Post
No, I have not downloaded the program. I see a number of people reporting problems with this program.

Charles, are you affiliated with this program in any way?

Don
I see one person reporting a problem with the program. Are there others?

Is there anyone who has tried the program that says it does not provide value?

I'm a bit surprised by the confrontational attitude about something that can be free and beneficial to forum members.

Don, Have you tried it yet? 30 second download.

Last edited by Charles Patrick; 12-17-2008 at 01:42 PM.
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Old 12-17-2008, 01:40 PM   #21
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Though the web site states it can run on a Mac under Parallels, I was unable to get it do anything. The app installed, but left me with a blank screen and no options. It kept giving me a 404-error saying it could not find email.

As for feedbooks, many of those options are just the shortened-RSS articles. I would love an quick way to process newspaper web sites to PDFs for my 505. I want entire articles, however.

Unfortunately, this program is not the answer I need.
News2PDF has been tested with VMware Fusion (Mac)
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Old 12-17-2008, 01:41 PM   #22
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Originally Posted by Charles Patrick View Post
The basic version doesn't allow you to download publications for which you pay a subscription fee, for example, if you subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, that's added. The Standard edition has a feature that automatically can e-mail the PDF to your Kindle or iPhone.

Depending on the publication, the source we use may not have images. Try downloading the Reader's Digest subscription, it usually has images.

Sorry about the errors -
Please check Newsweek, and Forbes again. I think they're poorly executed timeout (Internet connection) problems because they're working here.
Thanks for quick reply Charles. You are affiliated with this program, nothing wrong with that. But it's fair to mention it right at the beginning.

Forbes doesn't want to work for me, I get the error message in 1 or 2 seconds. I changed Newsweek options, did get a pdf file.

By registering, do I get an option to add any rss I want? Or you give me a bigger collection?
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Old 12-17-2008, 01:46 PM   #23
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Originally Posted by ddavtian View Post
Thanks for quick reply Charles. You are affiliated with this program, nothing wrong with that. But it's fair to mention it right at the beginning.

Forbes doesn't want to work for me, I get the error message in 1 or 2 seconds. I changed Newsweek options, did get a pdf file.

By registering, do I get an option to add any rss I want? Or you give me a bigger collection?
I am affiliated as a consultant. I sent Don a private note about my affiliation.

I regret any confusion.

I hope you all consider my affiliation is a good thing - you have a hotline to the developers.
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Old 12-17-2008, 01:52 PM   #24
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Can you consult me on this?
"By registering, do I get an option to add any rss I want? Or you give me a bigger collection of built-in profiles?
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Old 12-17-2008, 01:55 PM   #25
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By registering, do I get an option to add any rss I want? Or you give me a bigger collection?
Send your requests and it's possible they may magically appear the next time you run the program. For now, we tweak the full-text result you receive from a dictionary on our server. A more dynamic product, but it's in beta.

You may have noticed that some of the choices pull a lot of articles - 500 articles for Newsweek, 500 for BBC, etc. This can cause timeout / overflow problems for some people. So what may happen is that either the date range or the number of articles will be limited for "basic" users primarily to avoid errors and tech support.

The main reason News2PDF was released now is because of an announcement by the Detroit Free Press.

http://www.freep.com/article/2008121...09/0/FREEPRESS

Regarding an earlier post, we've been developing PC software for more than 20 years, so you don't have to worry about us going out of business.
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Old 12-17-2008, 02:02 PM   #26
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Can you consult me on this?
"By registering, do I get an option to add any rss I want? Or you give me a bigger collection of built-in profiles?
The short answer is: We're not sure yet.

We've had pretty good luck with an algorithm that delivers full-text results from what were intended to be partial-text feeds. The product to deliver Full text from partial text will probably be a separate offering.

News2PDF is intended to be as simple as possible - it's mostly aimed at users who are generally much less sophisticated than the people in this forum: Select a checkbox. Click a button. I would expect many News2PDF users may not even know what RSS is - and they don't need to.

Last edited by Charles Patrick; 12-17-2008 at 02:08 PM.
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Old 12-17-2008, 02:09 PM   #27
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I tried to register, after filling out the form it took me to the front page, without any message about registration. No email with an activation code yet, but it's only been 15 minutes.

"Contact us" page is "Error 404".
Clicking on Russian language link gives this error from Google: 403 forbidden. We're sorry... ... but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application.

You may have a valid application here but these are not signs of 20 years of application development.
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Old 12-17-2008, 02:20 PM   #28
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Originally Posted by ddavtian View Post
I tried to register, after filling out the form it took me to the front page, without any message about registration. No email with an activation code yet, but it's only been 15 minutes.

"Contact us" page is "Error 404".
Clicking on Russian language link gives this error from Google: 403 forbidden. We're sorry... ... but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application.

You may have a valid application here but these are not signs of 20 years of application development.
Actually, they are the signs of a release 3 weeks early.

A decision was made to release it on the Detroit Free Press news. I would have waited 3 more weeks, but not my choice.

Sometimes valid applications don't necessarily start bump free. Take a look at MS Vista... Or on second thought...

The foreign language module (Russian) was a (free, somewhat extraneous) plug in. It's now been disabled.

I just checked the contact us links in the program and they all work for me. There are several "contact us links". Can you tell me which one returned 404? (or, what is the URL?)

By the way. I appreciate your help.

Last edited by Charles Patrick; 12-17-2008 at 02:27 PM.
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Old 12-17-2008, 02:29 PM   #29
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I just checked the contact us links in the program and they all work for me. There are several contact us links. Can you tell me which one returned 404?
At the bottom of your main page, under "Got Questions?".

Charles, what about registration? I tried twice, both times it directed me to the front page, without any notice. Is it broken or it takes long time to get the activation code?
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Old 12-17-2008, 02:33 PM   #30
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At the bottom of your main page, under "Got Questions?".

Charles, what about registration? I tried twice, both times it directed me to the front page, without any notice. Is it broken or it takes long time to get the activation code?
"Contact Us" link fixed. thanks.

The autoresponder is not broken - just delayed. Really, we didn't plan to release this for another 3 weeks - but with 650 sources reporting on the Detroit Free Press the timing was right to get attention (even if the News2pdf program only delivers value 85% of the time)
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