The following is a Plus Edition article, written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. Some PDF files can be searched for any word or phrase. Other PDF files cannot. Until recently, the ability to allow searches was at the PDF file creator's option: anyone who created a PDF file could decide whether or not to make the files searchable. That option has now become moot as several companies have created solutions to convert any non-searchable PDF files into searchable PDF files, regardless of what the file creator intended. Why should you care? I would suggest there are many needs for...

I have written quite a bit lately about ebook readers. I started with an Amazon Kindle several years ago. Amazon has since introduced newer models and has dropped the price several times. Only a month ago, Amazon dropped the Kindle's price from $259 to $189 in response to the introduction of Barnes & Noble's new $140 WiFi-only Nook ebook reader. Today, Amazon announced a brand-new Kindle. The third-generation member of the Kindle family will sell in two versions: a 3G wireless version for $189 and a Wi-Fi-only version for $139. The new Kindle will ship on August 27. Details may...

100 years ago this month, Hawley Crippen was an American homeopathic physician who was arrested for the murder of his wife in London, England. His wife had disappeared and a dismembered body was found under the basement floor of their home Camden Road, Holloway, London. The body could not be identified. Of course, DNA did not exist 100 years ago. Crippen was arrested, convicted, and later hanged for murder at Pentonville Prison, London. The mild-mannered murderer became a national celebrity and his waxwork stands in Madame Tussauds to this day However, a recent DNA analysis of preserved body parts of...