[Liverpool] proprietary formats @ liverpool uni

[Aidan McGuire]

I would suggest that you write an open letter questioning this  
approach and ask people on this list to agree to put their names to  
the letter

in the letter you could you could point out they are in effect  
excluding people who use other technologies and that this is against  
all guidance on interoperabilty as specified by gov guidelines and as  
they are supported by public money open to legal challenge. If you  
want to draft the letter i can get someone to check it for you.

Aidan




On 6 Mar 2008, at 12:34, Vladimir wrote:

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