Today is Cycle to Work Day: Pedal Your Way to a Healthier You! 🚴‍♂️💨

Ah, Cycle to Work Day! That glorious 24 hours when we all pretend we’re Tour de France contenders while trying not to get our trousers caught in the chain. If you’re still debating whether to dust off that bike and join the fun, let me convince you—because cycling isn’t just about dodging potholes and aggressive pigeons. It’s a one-way ticket to a healthier, happier you!

First, let’s talk fitness. You might not be sprinting up the Alps, but even a gentle ride to work gets your heart pumping and your legs working. It’s basically a sneaky workout disguised as commuting. Bonus: no need to suffer through a sweaty, overcrowded bus / train / tube.

Then there’s mental health. Cycling is a natural mood booster. The wind in your hair (if you weren’t wearing that safety helmet, which, of course, you are!), the freedom of the open road (or, let’s be honest, the cycle lane squeezed between traffic and a hedge)—it all helps reduce stress. Plus, science says exercise releases endorphins, which basically turn you into a happier, less grumpy version of yourself.

And let’s not forget longevity. Some evidence suggests regular cyclists could live up to 14 months longer! Sure, that’s more time to pay bills, but it’s also more time to enjoy cake. Because cycling burns calories, meaning guilt-free cake. This is the life hack they don’t teach in school.

So, grab your bike, channel your inner pro cyclist (or wobbly beginner—we don’t judge), and get pedaling. Your body, mind, and cake-loving soul will thank you. 🚴‍♀️✨

Answering the “Tribe of Mentors” questions posed by Tim Ferris

I am a big fan of @TimFerris. In one of his books he asked lots of people (either famous, or preeminent in their field) to answer a standard set of questions.

This book, “Tribe of Mentors” is not one I have ever read from cover to cover, but is one I have dipped in to from time to time. Often when I want to be stimulated, but don’t want to commit to a long read, I’ll dip in to “Tribe of Mentors” and read an entry or two.

My favorite one so far has Been @DitaVonTease whose lessons I have taken forward are two-fold:

i) Own who your are and use who you are as your brand

ii) Pay extra to own good luggage.

While I have never read the book end-to-end, I have read most of it. Below I am going to answer Tim’s set questions. He never asked me to (for some reason! ) – but I feel like they are a great set of questions to answer. Maybe you should think about what your answers would be.

Please do read my answers, but then go buy Tim’s book I have taken the questions from – and all of his other books as he is one of the great minds of our time.

My answers:

Q. What are the book or books you have given most as a gift / or what are the one to three books which have greatly influenced your life? (And why?)

A. “The Four Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferriss – I used to be so, so, sooooo busy, all the time. While I haven’t got my work week down to four hours, what I constantly do is check if what I am doing is actually useful, or just “work for work’s sake”(which I don’t do anymore).

“Rich Dad, Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki – totally changed my view on money. Totally changed my life.

Q. In the last five years, what new behavior or habit has most improved your life?

A. I seem to have a natural talent for short to medium-term planning. I am really organised in terms of what I am doing tomorrow, this week, next month, next season and 12 months from now. And I’ve always been able to do this on a rolling basis.

But ask me the dreaded interview question – “where do you see yourself in five years time?” and I would fall apart. It was always too far away for me to comprehend.

What I have done in the last few years is really think about where I want to be in a few years time, what I want to be doing – and I made a 10 year plan. By knowing where I wanted to end up it has made those short to medium-term plans even more coherent as they are all moving towards a clearly defined objective.

I watched a YouTube video from a guy called Patrick Bet David where he asks what your next 15 moves are. I could only get to three moves before I was stumped. By using his thinking I have managed to find a clear direction for myself over a longer period.

Q. What is the best, or most worthwhile investment you have made?

A. I was the first person in my family to go to university. That investment in myself has opened all the doors for my career. In terms of social mobility for me, the piece of paper I got after three years of study has been the golden ticket.

Q. What purchase of $100 or less has most positively impacted your life in the last six months (or recent memory) My readers love specifics like brand and model, where you found it, etc.

A. I got an electric razor for the personal grooming of my body hair.

I’m not ready to give a specific product recommendation. I got a cheap one to see if it could make a difference. Now I am sold on the idea I am going to look for a more expensive one to use.

Q. What advice would you give a smart , driven college student about to enter the “real world”?

A. Listen to everyone, but make your own decision. People you don’t have time for can still be right. Some people are wrong 90% of the time, but don’t miss the times they are right because you have written them off.

Q. What advice should they ignore?

A. Anyone who tells you that you are too young* for anything. I spent years being told I was too young to do x or y or z. Finally that changed. But now they tell me I am too old to do x or y or z. I don’t seem to have ever hit the point where I was the right age for any of the things I wanted to do.

I heard a story about a guy who retires at 65 and decided to do a degree. His children say to him, “But dad by the time you graduate you’ll be 68.” And he says to them all: “In three years time I’ll be 68 whatever happens, but if I do this course, I’ll finally have that degree I always wanted.”

*Substitute “too young” for too tall, too happy, too whatever!

Q. What are bad recommendations you hear in your profession of area of expertise?

A. I hear lots of people saying taking courses in media studies is a bad investment. You hear there are no jobs at the end of it, or you should do a “proper degree”. Bearing in mind how powerful of a tool mass media can be for influencing large numbers of people, not having people who understand how it works is bad for society.

Q. If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere, with anything on it – metaphorically speaking, getting a message to millions or billions, what would it say, and why? It could be a few words, or a paragraph (It can be someone else’s quote)

A. On the wall in my workspace I have pinned the words: “The difference between winning and losing is often not quitting” which I believe is attributed to Walt Disney. That would be my first choice.

Another option would be “The worst phrase in the English language is: we’ve always done it that way.”

Q. How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favorite failure of yours?

A. I used to work planning and running election campaigns. I won my first couple and then I lost one. A guy I worked with, who I didn’t have much time for, told me I’d learn more from that losing campaign than any of the wins. He was right, I analysed that election hundreds of time in my head, role playing how the outcome might change if I had done x or y or z or even a.

Q. What is an unusual habit, or absurd thing that you love?

A. On and off since I was a teenager I have played Dungeons and Dragons. It can be time consuming, so getting busy adults to commit the time to play regularly has been difficult. I played the game with my kids as they were growing up, which was a fun bonding experience.

Q. In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to? What new realisations / approaches have helped? Any other tips?

A. I got to the point of burn out because I said yes to just about everything. I have learnt to say no a very hard way. Understand where you are trying to get to both personally and professionally and if what you are asked to do doesn’t fit with your direction of travel, then push back.

Q. When you feel overwhelmed, or unfocused, what do you do?

A. Walk away for a while. take a ride on my bicycle, do something else to take my mind off it. Then come back to the issue with a fresh mind later.

I often wake up in the middle of the night when my subconscious has finished processing a problem and wants to let me know the answer!

Transformative Themes in Crazy, Stupid, Love

I kept getting recommended I watch this one Steve Carell movie, Crazy, Stupid, Love. But I kept thinking, rom coms are mostly not my thing.

But this is different they kept saying…

I finally gave in – and somehow they are right. This is different.

The film centres around the fractures in the marriage of Steve Carell’s character to Julianne Moore. It co-stars Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone and Kevin Bacon.

Carell plays a believable middle-aged man struggling with his marriage, so far so type cast for him.

But he meets Gosling’s character in a pick up bar, who decides to go all Pygmalion on him. Thereby changing Carell’s character into someone who dresses well, has a good hair cut and is attractive to women.

Carell asks why Gosling would want to help him change and Gosling says something about Carell reminding him of someone. Who he means is never explicitly spelled out, but the answer is implied in later scenes. While in the final dialogue between Carell and Gosling in the pick up bar, the theme of change goes full circle.

There is a sub plot of Carell’s 13-year-old son falling for his baby sitter, who in turn is in love with someone else. This is a sweet little side line in expressing the themes of the movie through the eyes of other characters.

So sometimes, recommendations which go against your usual type can be exactly right for you.

So if you have been putting off watching Crazy, Stupid, Love, maybe give it a go.

And if you happen to know a movie you think I’d like, which I might not have selected for myself, please do feel free to share the title in the comments.

1999 – The Year the Movies Woke Up

There are years you remember because of what happened to the world. And then there are the quieter revolutions — years you only realise were important later, looking back, once the smoke has cleared and the dust has settled on a generation.

1999 was one of those years. A strange, glitchy, simmering year that turned out to be a creative supernova — at least at the cinema.

I was twenty-something. Which means I saw most of these films in dark cinemas, sometimes with friends, sometimes alone, always wide-eyed. Y2K anxiety was in the air, but so was something else: a kind of generational shrug. What if the system was broken? What if we’d been lied to? What if there really was something else out there?

And then — boom — along came The Matrix.

I don’t need to rehash what The Matrix meant. We all know. The trench coats. The bullet time. The existentialism in sunglasses. But what’s easy to forget is that The Matrix didn’t just ask, “What is real?” — it asked, “What if we’ve been looking at the world all wrong?” That’s a radical question in any decade. In 1999, it felt like prophecy. And it wasn’t the only film doing that.

Fight Club dropped that same year — I remember the hush in the cinema as the end credits rolled. A stunned silence, not because of the violence (though there was a bit of that), but because it was like someone had taken a crowbar to the inner walls of the male psyche and invited us to look inside. Self-destruction as self-discovery. Ikea catalogues. Split identities. Soap. It was messy. Ugly. And brilliant.

Then there was Cruel Intentions — glossy, dangerous, and soaked in sex and cynicism. We all had that one friend who bought the soundtrack. It was senior school, but not as we knew it. Similarly, 10 Things I Hate About You showed us the teen rom-com could be smart, sharp and still swoon-worthy. Shakespeare in a Seattle suburb. Heath Ledger with a paintball gun and a smile that cracked the fourth wall of your teenage heart.

But 1999 wasn’t just about American cool.

Strange Planet and Two Hands reminded us that Australia wasn’t just Crocodile Dundee and dust. These were films about urban life, about young people just trying to make sense of it all. Sometimes with guns (Two Hands), sometimes with emotional chaos (Strange Planet). There was something beautifully rough around the edges in both. As if the filmmakers had decided it didn’t matter if the polish wasn’t there, as long as the truth was.

And then there was the weird stuff.

eXistenZ, David Cronenberg’s gooey, paranoid fever dream, asked similar questions to The Matrix but filtered through a biological horror lens. Where The Matrix was clean and sleek, eXistenZ was sticky and pulsating. Like crawling into the rib cage of your PlayStation and discovering it dreams.

Dogma made theology funny — and blasphemous — and weirdly touching. Alanis as God. Chris Rock as the 13th apostle. A film that was both juvenile and wise, sometimes within the same sentence.

And then Human Traffic, which I remember watching and thinking: this is what it feels like to be young and broke and wired at 3am, talking absolute nonsense about everything and nothing. It was the British rave scene distilled into a 90-minute ping-pong of monologues, club scenes, and kitchen-sink dreams.

But the one that really messed with us? The one that changed the way we thought about marketing, cinema, and reality?

The Blair Witch Project.

No script. No stars. Just a camcorder, a forest, and fear. Everyone thought it was real. Everyone wanted to believe. And for a moment, we did. It was the first viral film. The first truly digital myth. In a pre-social media world, Blair Witch showed what could happen when storytelling became immersive.

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Looking back, 1999 feels like a dam bursting — all these stories that had been simmering suddenly spilled out at once. Films about reality, identity, rebellion, intimacy, artifice. All of them whispering the same unsettling thing: there’s something off about the world, and you’ve felt it too.

In hindsight, it was the last breath before the millennium tipped over. The last great gasp of 20th-century cinema before franchises, reboots, and streaming began their inevitable, inexplicable takeover.

We thought we were going to party like it was 1999. Turns out, we were going to wake up like it was 1999.

(Do I need to explain the Matrix / Rage Against the Machine reference here – and in the title?)

And some of us never quite fell back asleep.

Books I read in 2025

SS-GB by Len Deighton – An alternative history book where the Nazis won the Second World War and Occupied Britain. Written from the point of view of a British bobbies (Deighton apparently couldn’t bring himself to make the hero a German), this novel shows an insiders take on the occupation.

Fatherland by Robert Harris – a variation on a theme! An alternate history book where the Nazis won the Second World War. Written from the point of view of an SS officer working in the Berlin police dept, who while investigating a murder uncovers a much more serious crime. I first tried to read this one in my teens, when I had no interest in WW2 or in how such evil could rise to power. Having reached the age where those things are now of interest to me, I breezed through this book in a few days.

Enigma by Robert Harris – Another variation on the theme! In a similar way to Jurassic Park, this pacy novel brings the science centre stage – and succeeds in making it interesting! Again, tried to read this years ago, before that mid-life WW2 thing kicked in – and didn’t get very far. This time breezed through it in under a week. Really enjoyed it, loved the mystery and plot twists till the end.

The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley – From the Afterword it turns out the setting and historical facts are true. Although the main characters and exactly what happens to them is made up. For starters – how on earth is it I have only just learnt about this Soviet era nuclear accident from the 1950s? Following on from that shock, the novel is mostly well-written. (a couple of sections towards the end speed through what in earlier chapters would have been lengthy passages – ie the final visit to the village leader) It is an enjoyable read – I whizzed through it at a canter (six days). While I agree with the passages in the narrative about feminism. I wonder if a Soviet political dissident in 1963 would actually have thought in that way? That slight hair-splitting quibble aside, this is a good book and worth reading if you like this sort of thing.

Price Writer by Jeremy Keating – Turns out my brother is a prize-winning non-fiction writer. The book is about insurance pricing, so not for everyone. But a big deal in its niche. It is written in an accessible way, and while not my field, there were some transferable concepts which I found to be a fresh perspective.

The Prefect by Alastair Reynolds – Set in his fictional solar system of Yellowstone and the Glitter Band, this is part mystery thriller and part AI horror story. Reynolds is particularly good at describing the world he envisages of 500 years from now. His action set pieces are also excellently written. You need to have read some of his other books as one this refers to what happens in other books as shared history. So not the place to start if you are interested in reading Reynolds. But if you have read some of the other Glitter Band novels, you’ll find this a great next book.

The Armageddon Rag by George RR Martin – An entertaining story. I liked the concept of the novel. Inventive and clever, allowing for an examination of (one assumes) Martin’s life in his teens and early 30s, albeit fictionalised. Some of the chapters are Martin at his very best, notably the balloonists at West Mesa. Some aspects, particularly the dream sequences, didn’t work for me. Very much worth reading if you are a fan of the great man and want to read his early works.

Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds – The scope of this novel is breath taking. It took a while to get going, but once it did I was spellbound. Interstellar travel when light speed remains a barrier is a key theme in Reynolds work. Here, this makes for a slightly jumbled narrative at the start as characters are in different solar systems. But once you get your head round this, and especially when the narratives eventually collide, the story is intriguing. (Also filled in some background on the other Reynolds novel I read this year).

Towel Day has rolled around again

Today is Towel Day, the day of the year we specifically ask “Where is your towel?”

This is to mark the genius of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. The idea for the books apparently came to Douglas Adams while looking up at the stars. This happened one drunken evening while on a trip around Europe in the early 1970s.

As well as the notoriously badly titled trilogy in five parts that is Hitchhikers, Adams was a contributor to Doctor Who during the Tom Baker years.

According to the books, knowing where your towel was is important as beyond making you dry. Your towel can be used to keep you warm, be something to lay down on and can apparently measure how many light years you have travelled, if used in the correct manner.

Towel Day always seems to me to be a particularly Douglas Adams-ie way to remember the author. In that it is both irreverent and irrelevant. I like to think he would have approved!

Adams cited the number 42 as being the meaning of life, the universe and everything. The meaning of this is itself often argued about, which I like to think Adams would have found hilarious.

I read somewhere that 42, in an early coding language Adams worked with, was used to mean “anything you like”. That feels like a very Adams explanation for what has vexed people for decades.

If that is the answer he meant, then we should ponder if we have made our lives into what we intended?

So as well as checking on where you have put your towel today, maybe find some time to reflect if the meaning of your life is what you want it to be?

May the 4th Be With Rogue One – The Best Star Wars Movie Ever! 🌟🚀

It’s May 4, so you know what that means—time to argue about the best Star Wars movie! And if you just shouted “Empire Strikes Back!”, I hear you… but you’re wrong. The real champion is Rogue One.

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

Yes, Rogue One—the film that gave us space battles, brave rebels, and the most terrifying Darth Vader scene ever. This movie isn’t just Star Wars—it’s serious Star Wars. It proves heroes don’t need laser swords or fancy Jedi tricks. Sometimes, all you need is guts, determination, and a really cool droid (shout out to K-2SO, the sassiest robot in the galaxy, C3P0 isn’t even in the same solar system of sass).

Let’s not forget that ending. If you didn’t get chills when Leia appeared or when Vader went full lightsabre-mode, are you even a Star Wars fan? Rogue One connects perfectly to A New Hope, making it the most important prequel ever (sorry (really not sorry), Jar Jar).

And this movie showed us Disney could do Star Wars (see also Andor, Obi Wan)

And the best part? No awkward love stories, just a bunch of brave rebels risking everything to save the galaxy. Rogue One is Star Wars at its best—epic, emotional, and packed with explosions.

So, this May 4, forget the Skywalkers for a minute. Grab some popcorn, put on Rogue One, and remember: rebellions are built on hope… and really awesome space battles. 🚀✨

My top 10 albums of the 2000s

A long while back I listed my top 10 albums of the 1990s. A few years ago I wrote about my favourite album of the 00s, with a mention to some other albums I liked from that era. Below I expand on this second article, with a list of my top 10 albums form that time.

What I have noticed as I have pondered on this subject, is there are a fair few really long album titles in my list. Is that just a random occurrence due to my taste in music, or was that a trend in the 00s?

In no particular order of preference, here is my list:

Is this it? – The Strokes What an amazing debut. It seemed like one day these guys didn’t exist – then they were everywhere! In many ways they made rock music relevant again with this blistering album. From the anthem that is Last Nite to the joyful New York City Cops – which includes my favourite line in the album: “They act like Romans…”

Elephant – White Stripes – This is a bemouth of a record. It kicks off with one of the best rock riffs ever written – Seven Nation Army – Jack White would later say he had the riff in mind for his James Bond tune, but figured he’d never get asked to write a Bond theme, so released it on this album. This album propelled Jack and Meg from a band with a few good songs, to a band with an epic (fourth) album full of songs where every track is a banger, right through to the closer: It’s True that we love One Another, which is so sweet and fun.

Whatever People Say I am, that’s what I’m not – Artic Monkeys – As the Monkey’s themselves say “don’t believe the hype”. So just go listen to this blistering debut and judge for yourself.

Fox Confessor Brings the Flood – Neko Case – This is Neko’s most accessible work. She describes her style as country-noir. As someone who views country music as rural-emo (and ABBA as disco-emo), having a dark take on country is extremely my type of music. The themes of alienation in the modern world are drilled into the musical soundscape from the off. Listen to That Teenage Feeling and hear Case describe exactly how I feel about being an adult.

Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea – PJ Harvey I know Harvey is keen to emphasise this album is not solely her New York album as some songs were written in the UK, but the artwork of the album is of her walking through the city, so it is natural for the world to lean towards it being remembered as such. With collaborations from Thom York of Radiohead, this is Harvey’s magnus opus (in my opinion – and you know, so far in her career, which will hopefully continue for decades to come). Released in late 2000, the album is said to describe the cultural zeitgeist of New York at the turn of the century. One which would be irrevocably shattered a year later with the attacks of the World Trade Center.

Hot Fuss – The Killers – Ask anyone in England which rock track will get everyone in the place up and dancing and the universal answer shall be Mr Brightside. It is a guaranteed dancefloor filler. Everyone knows the words and will sing along – it is like there is some voodoo cast by this track on the minds of the English folk. The thing is, it isn’t even the best song on the album. There are at least four other world class tunes which I may put ahead of it, depending on the day, my mood and the direction the wind is blowing. And that doesn’t include Andy You’re a Star or Believe Me Natalie, which on certain days I will passionately proclaim either to be my favourite track off this outstanding album.

No Angel – Dido – The song which was the biggest hit off of this album had been kicking around for a while – watch the seminal 1998 rom com Sliding Doors and you’ll find Thank You is the track which plays over the end credits. Eminem then used the song as part of his own track Stan (Dido is in the video as Stan’s pregnant girlfriend) and she was propelled to superstardom. This album does not stand only on that one song, it is filled with intelligent break up songs, try Hunter, Isobel and My Lover’s Gone. Dido is a fantastic lyricist and singer.

A Grand Don’t come for Free – The Streets – Mike Skinner’s rap opera was something I loved from the first time I heard it. Listening to it now is to hear a time capsule of that era, particularly returning a DVD and the use of a mobile phone. “Menu, right, message” is a lyric about navigating a turn of the century device (I assume a Nokia 3310). This is a concept album which covers a relationship which turns sour over time, but is so much more than just a love story.

Back to Black – Amy Winehouse – This girl could SING. The talent Amy had was immense. If Mark Ronson’s telling of how the song Rehab came about is true, she literally just spoke the intro one day while they were talking and he got her to make it a track. The track Back to Black is such a heart-felt expression of how it feels when a relationship ends and the other person moves on. And try really – I mean really – listening to Love is a Losing Game without welling up. While not on the album, her cover of Valarie (originally by The Zutons) is the definitive version of the track and the one you tend to hear played on the radio 20 years later.

Kid A – Radiohead – A different sound from what had come before. Although weirdly less of a huge jump from 1997s OK Computer than the jump from 1995s The Bends to OK Computer (in my opinion – I liken it to turning the thematic concepts of Fitter, Happier from OK Computer into a full album). The fusion of electronic music with Radiohead’s guitar-rock routes, the use of lyrics as a musical sound rather than solely for their meaning – was a huge step forward for the band. The album isn’t easily accessible – it takes a few listens to unlock its majesty, but once you reach the point where it has sneaked its way into your brain, the exquisite joy of this album is apparent. And the use of Everything in its Right Place at the start of the movie Vanilla Sky is one of the best uses of music in film ever.

Notable mentions (ie were strongly considered for the 10) :

Marshall Mathers LP – Eminem; Life for rent – Dido; Sam’s Town – The Killers, Original Pirate Material – The Streets; American Idiot – Green Day.

Do feel free to comment on any albums you think were the best of the decade:

Celebrating the silver screen with a movie…

I have recently watched a couple of movies which take a look at the film industry. One is overtly about the world of making movies, while the other is an allegory.

Firstly, Babylon (2022), which stars Diego Calva, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Li Jun Li. This explores the period in film making where the silent era ended and the talkies began. This ground has been trodden before, but never in quite such a spectacular – and at times grotesque – way.

Quick spoiler alert for what happens two minutes in: The movie starts with Calva’s Manny being pooped on by an elephant – which is a metaphor for how the film industry treats him for the entire movie. Although, he goes from being relatively poor to quite well off in the process.

The message of the film is the industry can batter you and chew you up, but in the end you are part of something bigger. Pitt’s character’s career takes a dive, yet he will be remembered, forever in celluloid (and probably now on a hard drive and going forward, on whatever replaces that, and so on).

The other movie I watched was Chef (2014). This is seemingly a sweet tale about a guy who loves to cook, but is fired when he wants to deviate from the menu he has been repeatedly serving up for five years to impress a critic. Made by Jon Favreau who is a key driving force behind the modern Marvel sequence of movies and TV shows, the kitchen he is fired from can be seen as a film studio which wants to keep making money through the releasing the same kind of productions. Favreau’s character goes indie on a food truck, which leads to financial and critical success for his cooking. But a clear message of the movie is you can only go so far as an indie film maker / food truck guy.

(There is also a cautionary tale in Chef about how social media can break you – although it also shows how people who understand the platform can use it to their advantage.)

This movie is clever and works well on the face-value level as well as the allegorical level. As well as Favreau, the cast includes Sofia Vergara, Dustin Hoffman and Marvel alumni Robert Downey Jr and Scarlett Johansson.

If you like movies about movies these are two fine modern examples of the genre.

A PDF bigger than Belgium? I need a fact checker

You may have seen the same meme as I have, which claims the largest size of a PDF is 15million inches square, or about 381km.

It is a fun meme. Where that size PDF is placed on a map of Europe and looks to be bigger than Belgium.

I have done a little bit of digging rather than plainly accept you can make a PDF this size. It seems there is sizing limit at those numbers in the Adobe software.

This post explains what I have read in other places. That this theoretical size exists and explains the history of it.

But, humanity being what it is: that post goes on to explain how to hack the size limitation. The author has a link to what he says is a PDF bigger than the universe.

I suspect somewhere Douglas Adams is amused!