So, a tipster has just shown you the document you need to nail a story.

Problem is, she can't give it to you, there's no copy machine in the diner where you met and you need to show it to your editor before the story runs.

What to do? What to do?

Enter Qipit, a free service that turns pictures from your cell phone into searchable PDFs.

Using Qipit is as simple as taking a picture of a document, white board or even handwritten notes with your
QIPIT-compatible phone and sending the image in text message or e-mail to copy@qipit.com or to color@qipit.com if it's color. (Yes, the service even handles color!)

Qipit will store the picture and the PDF on its server where you can pick it up later. You can also get a text message back with a link to view it on your phone. It can also forward a copy to someone else.

Don't fret if your phone isn't on the list; many will work even though they're not there. Qipit also works with digital cameras, which is useful if your phone isn't compatible (my Palm Treo 700 isn't) or if you need better resolution than a camera phone offers.

Remember, though, that Qipit makes PDFs out of photos that are essentially the same as scanned documents. What it creates cannot be imported as text into Microsoft Excel or any other program.

The program that'll convert a scanned PDF to text is a holy grail that hordes of geek-errants have yet to find.

I've attached a few examples of Qipit's output, as well as the pictures they came from. My phone's not Qipit-compatible, so I took the photos with the five megapixel Canon point-and-shoot camera my daughter carries around in her purse. The PDFs based on the image can be downloaded at the bottom of the page.

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Adobe makes big, clunky programs that do what they're supposed to do but are often overkill and over-the-top costly for what we do.

Ain't no boss gonna fork out hundreds for Acrobat because we want to make a PDF. And ain't much of a bigger pain in the butt than the free Acrobat Reader's constant reminders that we really should update even if the update adds nothing new and runs slower than what we have now.

Fortunately, there are alternatives.

Creating a PDF requires nothing more than installing a virtual PDF printer. Instead of sending a file to hardware that spits out paper, you send it to software that spits out a PDF.

There are lots of small programs around that'll do it, and and Microsoft finally included a PDF-making tool in Office 2007.

My favorite, though is CutePDF, freeware for both personal and commercial use. It's one of those rare creations that does exactly what it promises: print PDFs directly from Windows, whether you're running 98, ME (poor soul), 2000, XP or Vista x32/x64. Install it, and it'll add another printer to your machine. Print to it from any program, and — poof — you have a PDF.

I've found it useful for sending signed letters via e-mail. I've got templates for both my personal and work letterheads and a scan of my signature. I write the letter, insert my signature and print it as a PDF. I end up with a signed letter that can't be messed with, kind of. In any event, anyone wanting to lift my sig from it would at least have to work a little.

My favorite alternative to Acrobat Reader is Foxit Reader.

It's small, loads fast, integrates with Web browsers and doesn't nag. Say yes when they ask you to download their annoying little toolbar. Install and immediately go to View/Toolbars and disable it. Letting it stick around adds the capacity to mark up PDFs and — this is the important part — puts in a text viewer from which you can usually cut and paste any tables the PDF contains.

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There comes a time when even the biggest hard drive slows down to a crawl. Could be that half-a-terabyte database you're trying to index. But it more likely means it's time to defrag, which is the geek equivalent of restringing some beads after they've fallen on the floor.

When you first set up a computer, all the files are neatly smooshed together. As you use it, though, pieces of files get scattered around the platters, and it takes longer for software to find and assemble them. Defragging grabs all those pieces and lines them up again.

Windows comes with a kind of clunky defragging utility, and there are plenty of after-market programs both standalone and in utility suites like Norton or McAfee.

But I've not found one I like more than Auslogics Disk Defrag. It's easy to use, fast, pops up HTML reports when it's finished and, yes, it's free.

Worth checking out. While you're there, check out Auslogics' also-free Registry Defragmenter.

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YouSendIt Redux
I recently wrote about YouSendIt, a service that lets you e-mail files up to 100 MB for free and larger ones at a modest cost. You upload the file to YouSendIt's sight, and your recipient gets a link from which to download it. YouSendIt now offers plug-ins that let you send directly from Outlook, MS Office and a few others. There's also YouSendIt Express, which let's you send from your desktop. Cool additions to a cool service.