cups-pdf: printing to PDF does not work

Binary package hint: cups-pdf

using: ubuntu 8.04
cups-pdf version: 2.4.6-4ubuntu2 0
Printing to PDF from various applications (firefox, adobe acrobat)
Expected: pdf file to appear in ${HOME}/PDF
Happened: no pdf file.

Other notes: seems that cups-pdf was run under user 'nobody' - a user who had no rights to write under ${HOME}
(so cups-pdf could not create subdirectory PDF, that was not created).
This was reported in /var/log/messages

OK, so I changed the output to be in /var/spool/cups-pdf/${USER}, by editing the corresponding config file in /etc/cups/, but this did not work, either - 'nobody' had no write access to /var/spool/cups-pdf. So I changed the /var/spool/cups-pdf directory's rights to 777, and after this print-to-pdf worked.
Notes:
- it was strange for me to see that ${HOME} has 755 as access rights - and the files and directories in it had the same access rights - ok, this does not belong to this bug, but it looks like not very secure!
- is it possible to run the cups-pdf process under my user, not as user 'nobody'? Running like 'nobody' would make the resulting file readable by anybody (I need to be able to read the output generated by 'nobody', and so will need anybody who is allowed to print into PDF).