My stomach dropped when I heard the news. I was so relieved to see that archive.org still loads, and to hear that there was no data loss. It's become a ridiculously irreplaceable tool in my daily workflow.
You found an interesting tutorial/article/paper written in 1995 but it fails to load when you follow the URL? Internet archive that shiz.
An author has edited his webpage, and you're curious what it used to look like? Internet archive that shiz.
Have a PDF link, but it's not loading? Check the archive. More often than not, it will load.
If I remember correctly, I once recovered a ~1MB zip file from there as well. The zip file had disappeared from the normal web, but thankfully archive had snagged it. Maybe it was a PDF though.
It seems impossible for the internet archive to persist forever... But it also seems about as valuable as the Library of Alexandria was in its day. Or rather, future historians will find it as valuable. So I hope we can get triple redundancy for it.
Just like you, when I first read about it, I was worried, but then I hoped something serious had happened.
Why? Well, I like the Internet Archive like any other of us here does, but I am worried about his model: centralization.
This time nothing happend, fine, but something actually can happen, someday. I just think that the "Better shut it down, NOW!" theory[0] also applies to the Internet Archive, and I hope I that one day I'll see a new one, federative and distributed.
... would you say the same about the Library of Alexandria? What would you have suggested they do? Not kept a library?
You should play some poker. It'll give a healthy respect for how much odds can affect outcomes. Shocking situations will happen, but half the time you'll be the one doing the shocking. Often you can win with just a pair of 8's. Based on your attitude, it seems like you'd always choose to fold if you were only holding 8 8, but in reality it's sometimes worth it to call.
Your expected value by not playing at all, though, is zero. Meaning you won't lose, but you won't win either. This only makes sense when you're satisfied with your environment as it exists today.
I wouldn't be satisfied without the internet archive. It serves a vital function. They may be gambling against natural disasters, but you know what? They're still winning. And by choosing to play, they've improved our world a bit. We should be grateful, not scornful.
Read the link? Thought about the difference between books (paper) and data (bits)? Also the example you chose shows the problem with centralization. Never said "better off without the Internet Archive" but "I'd be happier with an improved one, but the existence of the present one puts everybody in a comfort zone".
However, there is a human tragedy here, for people who have done good work for us, and we want to help out.
If you don't want to, that's your prerogative.
I'm glad that you've scanned books and released them. Maybe scanners will become trivial; you might be right. They aren't there yet, though, and I feel like I owe these people a debt, to help.
I'm not telling you what to do or think. I'm just answering why I think there's more to the issue than that there could be a centralized storage, and that in the future maybe it gets easier to do.
Sometimes when there's a fire you just put some money in the hat to help, buddy. It's more about compassion than anything.
Didn't knew where the central office was until a few weeks ago, here is a nicely done documentary that shows what's inside the former church that now hosts the internet archive: http://vimeo.com/groups/17441/videos/59207751
FYI, the scanning/'reading room' areas shown in that video from about 8m25s to 8m50s are in the building that appears totally lost to last night's fire.
The blinky servers at the back of the large 'church hall', shown at the beginning (~0m45s-on) with concrete walls around them, are about as far from the fire area as is possible on the lot.
The other green-walled server room, shown starting at 5m01s, is in a non-concrete office-like room closer to where the fire was.
That "no data were stored at the San Francisco site" wording is a bit misleading.
There's tons of data at the Archive's SF headquarters - but the dedicated storage systems are in the building adjacent to where the fire was contained, from the photos I've seen.
My stomach dropped when I heard the news. I was so relieved to see that archive.org still loads, and to hear that there was no data loss. It's become a ridiculously irreplaceable tool in my daily workflow.
You found an interesting tutorial/article/paper written in 1995 but it fails to load when you follow the URL? Internet archive that shiz.
An author has edited his webpage, and you're curious what it used to look like? Internet archive that shiz.
Have a PDF link, but it's not loading? Check the archive. More often than not, it will load.
If I remember correctly, I once recovered a ~1MB zip file from there as well. The zip file had disappeared from the normal web, but thankfully archive had snagged it. Maybe it was a PDF though.
It seems impossible for the internet archive to persist forever... But it also seems about as valuable as the Library of Alexandria was in its day. Or rather, future historians will find it as valuable. So I hope we can get triple redundancy for it.