[pdftex] Acroread and gettimeofday [was: Cropping bottom margin off one-page documents.]

[Robin Fairbairns]

> > strace is a program which records system calls.  It seems that
> > acroread has nothing else to do than permanently ask the operating
> > system "how late is it?".  See below.  I've never seen something like
> > this anywhere else.
> 
> Can't see why it would be needed, but it could be a benign nonsense command?

no.  wasted cycles cost, now.

perhaps it explains why acrobat reader, called from a browser,
consumes as near to 100% of its cpu as it can?  this is bothersome on
shared machines, and very tiresome on machines with graded fan running
-- acrobat reader called from the browser causes the rushing mighty
wind effect, as opposed to the nice quiet fans we're getting used to.

and it consumes more electricity... :-(

r