Acro bytes by Kurt Foss

Government reports aren’t typically considered popular reading material, much less as best sellers. Occasionally one comes along that, due to its highly newsworthy and/or controversial subject matter, breaks through as a bona fide literary ‘hit.’ The latest example is probably the 9/11 Commission Report following the 2001 terrorist attacks, which sold more than a million printed copies–even though it was also freely available online in PDF.

Today’s release of the Iraq Study Group Report won’t likely reach those types of numbers, but will be a popular download for political junkies eager to read the full assessment of the war in Iraq–concluding that a change in the focus of U.S. military operations there is needed–by a blue-ribbon panel.

If you’re among those who are eager to get your hands on it, you can purchase a printed version or snag a free, no-frills copy [PDF: 1.3MB] from a number of websites.

The free Adobe Reader is up-to-date with Adobe Acrobat 8. Adobe.com now offers downloads of Reader 8, which for Macintosh users for the first time includes a version specifically for the newer Intel-based Macs.

Reader 8 includes a similar ‘Getting Started’ screen as Acrobat 8–that began shipping a month ago–detailing what’s new and highlighting some of the key new and enhanced features, and linking to the most-used functions and tools.

Among the long-awaited and often-requested capabilities is the ability to Reader-enable PDF files with Acrobat 8 so users of the free Reader can directly save user-entered form data. Also, Reader 8 includes a “Start Meeting” button for launching a real-time, online meeting. Similar to Acrobat 8, the Reader 8 user interface has also been streamlined. Note also that the Reader 8 application icon (at right) is much easier to distinguish from that of the full-featured commercial program.