I was having the same problem.
When you hit the link on John's site it takes you to a JumboFiles page. Here's where I kept getting confused...at the bottom of the page there is a big blue "DOWNLOAD" button with a countdown timer next to it. DON't click on that one---it starts the whole VLC thing.
Just above it is a small gray download button which immediately opened the file in Adobe Reader.
Worked for me anyway.