a tutorial on how to break pdf encryption. i have no idea if this works:
Question: Will hiding in a cavern with stockpiled chocolate goods be any part of this plan?
Xander ,'Get It Done'
Buffistechnology 3: "Press Some Buttons, See What Happens."
Got a question about technology? Ask it here. Discussion of hardware, software, TiVos, multi-region DVDs, Windows, Macs, LINUX, hand-helds, iPods, anything tech related. Better than any helpdesk!
le nubian - May 18, 2009 2:22:35 am PDT #10002 of 25501
"And to be clear, I am the hell. And the high water."
brenda m - May 18, 2009 2:52:53 am PDT #10003 of 25501
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there
By the way, this site is amazing for breaking even locked-down pdfs into usable Word files. (No idea what it could do with encryption, though I'm guessing not much.)
Volans - May 18, 2009 2:55:48 am PDT #10004 of 25501
move out and draw fire
My bad, it's Androsa, not Andorra. The password appears to be the one that everyone on our project uses for project-related documents.
le nub, thanks, but it's not the PDF encryption. He used Androsa rather than Acrobat's encryption, so the PDF breakers won't even recognize the files.
I think my plan of action is two-pronged at this point: 1) kick the encrypted files up the mgmt chain to our boss; 2) coat coworker's desk with vaseline.
Ginger - May 18, 2009 4:59:27 am PDT #10005 of 25501
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
Does it get as far as creating AFP files? I do see there are a number of AFP to PDF conversion programs out there.
DCJensen - May 18, 2009 5:23:53 am PDT #10006 of 25501
All is well that ends in pizza.
Can you print it to another .pdf file? I have done that to rescue strangely encoded .pdf files.
Volans - May 18, 2009 6:14:49 am PDT #10007 of 25501
move out and draw fire
Does it get as far as creating AFP files? I do see there are a number of AFP to PDF conversion programs out there.
I do end up with AFP files. But when I try to run a conversion program (I've tried three) the converter tells me that "filename.afp is not an AFP file."
Ginger - May 18, 2009 6:23:26 am PDT #10008 of 25501
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
But when I try to run a conversion program (I've tried three) the converter tells me that "filename.afp is not an AFP file."
I hate that error message. Similar ones have left me pounding the desk and screaming "But it says it's a ____ file!"
Volans - May 18, 2009 6:59:37 am PDT #10009 of 25501
move out and draw fire
I even tried to rename it "filename.pdf" and open it with Reader.
In tech-success news, I added a second monitor, new speakers, and a new webcam to my PC at home. Then used them to skype my FiL, and ended up walking him through connecting his new Xbox to his home theater.
§ ita § - May 18, 2009 11:35:05 am PDT #10010 of 25501
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
I know that this list is a couple years old, but since I'm putting my Mac back together I wondered if there was anything else one "needs."
Other than what's on this list I had to have:
- Bluephone Elite: integrates my phone with my Mac desktop. I can text from my computer and I get call notifications onscreen (in combination with Growl, methinks) that can even be read aloud in annoying voices. It's not free, but I like it enough to buy.
- Skype. My family is overseas. 'Nuff said.
- Opera. Browser of choice
- Chicken of the VNC, so I can control my desktops in the other room.
Gris - May 19, 2009 6:50:14 am PDT #10011 of 25501
Hey. New board.
They got most of my big ones in there. I also love me some NetNewsWire, but if you're not an RSS Client kind of person there's no need. I also install LaTeXit about 20 minutes after installing because I require it for teaching, but that may not be a thing for you.
I use CyberDuck instead of Transmit because it's free and works fine. I like installing Gimp.app (and, by extenstion, X11) since I need image editing rarely but it's great when I do. iStumbler (wifi tool) is useful if it's a laptop. MacTheRipper and Handbrake if you do DVD encoding, ffmpegX for pretty much any other video encoding, PDFLab for editing, breaking up, and connecting PDF files. I don't use TextWrangler, preferring the look of Smultron, though it might not be as good for hardcore programming / editing (for which I tend to use vim in the terminal anyway). Transmission is my favorite bittorrent client. XSlimmer is cool if you have limited hard disk space (it strips the PPC code and useless languages from apps, making them much smaller). And last of all, audacity for audio editing.