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"Rob" <rloldershaw@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> One issue needs addressing now though. I have assumed that the computer
> equipment that most science-oriented people use is adequate for viewing
> my website without any problems. If you think my assumption here is
> wrong, I would like to hear some credible evidence that a significant
> number of people could not access the website with their equipment. If
> I felt that there was a sizeable problem, then I would definitely try
> to remedy the problem.
I just tried again from someone else's computer, this one running Debian
Linux, based on kernel 2.4.23, using the lynx browser. Of course, lynx is
text oriented, but it was perfectly capable of downloading the two papers.
When I used the resident unzip to try to unzip them, I got the same
error messages I got on my own computer. When the smoke cleared, it turns
out there were two pdf files produced by the process. However, when I tried
to read them, I got error messages from xpdf (the pdf reader) to the effect
that pdf files are damaged, so it couldn't read them.
On the other hand, the file obstable1.pdf that accompanies the first paper
also downloaded without difficulty using lynx and I had no problem reading
it with xpdf.
I think the simple solution might be for you NOT to zip the pdf files
of the papers and just to leave them as pdf files. If you post that you
have made this change, I'm willing to make another attempt to download
them to see if the unzipped pdf files can be downloaded and read.
You say you are a novice at computers. I'm no expert by any means but I
think you might consider doing the following:
(1) Install some version of Linux on one of your computers. You can either
make it the only operating system on that computer or, if you want to
share the computer between Linux and Windows, and if you have enough
disk space and memory to support it, you can obtain a program called
partition magic, which will reallocate the disk space so that you still
have your old Windows system occupying a little less space and a new
partition on which you can install Linux.
(2) Learn to love Linux (or at least to use it).
Windows is universal in the sense that there are a lot of PC's running Windows.
It is universal in the sense of being, perhaps, the statistical mode. Unix
systems (and Linux is one of them) are universal in the sense that a wide
variety of different kinds of machines can run a Unix operating system
and software is fairly portable between them.
If you have trouble doing this, there are a lot of ways to get free help,
e.g. on various newsgroups devoted to Linux. A lot of people use Linux.
I might add that Unix systems provide a very good programming environment.
It comes with a free C compiler (the GNU C compiler, which is as good as
they come) and unlimited other programming tools. Also the editor emacs.
It also comes with TeX. As you might have noticed, the papers at the arxiv
normally start off as TeX files. I think that you should make the change from
Word to TeX at your first opportunity, if you haven't already done so. It
is also available for Windows for free, along with emacs).
--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler <ara@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.
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