hi everyody!<br><br>just wanted to post a letter i just send to one of my lecturers,<br>would like to know the opinions on that issue - what can and cannot be done.<br>so here's the deal:<br><br><br>hi, owen!<br>
<br>
you are probably thinking: "this guy is getting on my nerves", but yes - i am writing to you<br>
about the same issue as last time. <br>
the article <span class="label"><font color="#000000">"The 12" Single as Medium and Artifact"</font></span> (week 8 reading on vital site)<br>
was once again uploaded in a Win32 only format, which can only be opened <br>
on a machine running microsoft windows. it is (!) a windows executable (.exe) file,<br>
perhaps a self extracting archive, as i understand. <br>
as this is a Win32 binary file, on Linux and *BSD platforms it can be only launched<br>
by installing the binary distribution of Wine "emulator" (or compiling it from the source code).<br>
in case of Mac OSX platform - there is no binary distribution and the only way is<br>
to compile the binary from the source code (what i am just doing right now - as i am with my macbook,<br>
a bit away from home with my linux desktop).<br>
well, you might say that there are not many people running linux in the university, so it's just<br>
a single case of mine, but is this what discrimination is all about, i wonder?<br>
but in case of Mac OSX - there quite a few students with Macs in a university (and especially<br>
in our course as this is a music course anyway). yeah, if you live in the halls - you can just<br>
knock at the next door and get the file unpacked, but that's not always the case and it is an <br>
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">unnecessary</span> inconvenience, isn't it?<br clear="all">
what i really want with this letter is to know for what reason on this earth would someone<br>
put the article not in a zip file (which is a common practice on uni sites), but in a Win32 binary?<br>
the same as last time - with *.mht web archive microsoft-only file (instead of just a simple HTML,<br>
what couldn't be explained in terms of the size of download as the archived file was twice as big).<br>
i sincerely apologize if my letters are annoying.<br>
<br>
best regards,<br>--------------------<br><br>isn't it annoying?<br><br><br>vladimir<br>