Does lemmy have any communities dedicated to archiving/hoarding data?
FWIW :
fabien@debian2080ti:/media/fabien/slowdisk$ ls -lhS offline_prep/ total 341G -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 103G Jul 6 2024 wikipedia_en_all_maxi_2024-01.zim -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 81G Apr 22 2023 gutenberg_mul_all_2023-04.zim -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 75G Jul 7 2024 stackoverflow.com_en_all_2023-11.zim -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 74G Mar 10 2024 planet-240304.osm.pbf -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 3.8G Oct 18 06:55 debian-13.1.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 2.6G May 7 2023 ifixit_en_all_2023-04.zim -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 1.6G May 7 2023 developer.mozilla.org_en_all_2023-02.zim -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 931M May 7 2023 diy.stackexchange.com_en_all_2023-03.zim -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 808M Jun 5 2023 wikivoyage_en_all_maxi_2023-05.zim -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 296M Apr 30 2023 raspberrypi.stackexchange.com_en_all_2022-11.zim -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 131M May 7 2023 rapsberry_pi_docs_2023-01.zim -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 100M May 7 2023 100r-off-the-grid_en_2022-06.zim -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 61M May 7 2023 quantumcomputing.stackexchange.com_en_all_2022-11.zim -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 45M May 7 2023 computergraphics.stackexchange.com_en_all_2022-11.zim -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 37M May 7 2023 wordnet_en_all_2023-04.zim -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 23M Jul 17 2023 kiwix-tools_linux-armv6-3.5.0-1.tar.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 16M Oct 6 21:32 be-stib-gtfs.zip -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 3.8M Oct 6 21:32 be-sncb-gtfs.zip -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 2.3M May 7 2023 termux_en_all_maxi_2022-12.zim -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 1.9M May 7 2023 kiwix-firefox_3.8.0.xpibut if you want the easier version just get Kiwix on whatever device in front of you right now (yes, even mobile phone assuming you have the space) then get whatever content you need.
If need a bit of help I recorded TechSovereignty at home, episode 11 - Offline Wikipedia, Kiwix and checksums with a friend just 3 weeks ago.
I also wrote randomly update https://fabien.benetou.fr/Content/Vademecum and coded https://git.benetou.fr/utopiah/offline-octopus but tbh KDE-Connect is much better now.
The point though is having such a repository takes minutes. If you don’t have the space, buy a 512Go microSD for 50EUR then put that on, stuff it in a drawer then move on. If you want to every 3 months or whenever you feel like it, updated it.
TL;DR: takes longer to write such a meme than actually do it.
Watch out for flash data corruption. Lots of cheap flash (USB sticks, SD cards, SSDs) lose data after just a few years of offline storage. Something something quantum tunnel bullshit, iirc.
So either look for media that guarantee long cold storage retention (lots of businesses need to keep shit for 10 years for tax reasons), or occasionally plug it in and let do the housekeeping.
It’s more that flash NAND uses a small electric charge to keep the NAND gates in the correct configuration. Over time, that charge dissipates. If you power the storage device every once in a while, you minimize these chances.
Here’s a video explaining why it happens to Wii U’s after being powered off for a while. https://youtu.be/JHME4zLs6Qs
User older flash tech can be useful here. You might not always need the highest density storage if you want to maintain files for a long time. Getting stuff built in a much larger process node makes for a much more stable form of storage.
Or look for industrial / business grade stuff with long retention times. Old flash also means less sophisticated controllers etc
Thanks but even though it’s on a plugged HDD I don’t even care for any of that data. What I mean is that none of that data is sensitive. It might be useful, potentially, but it’s not unique. What I mean is that if somehow my
.zimfile for Wikipedia was corrupted I could download it again from https://library.kiwix.org/#lang=eng&category=wikipedia or elsewhere in ~30min (just checked).What I’m trying to highlight here is more the process than the actual outcome.
TL;DR: yes, if one is actually serious about just getting and storing, they should verify periodically if the data is indeed fine. What I do want to highlight though is to first know how to do it at all. Anyway, you are right that for a proper solution on the long run one must understand how (cold) storage actually works. My heuristic is that it’s like can food (which I don’t use much), it might last a while, but not forever.
I thought the point of backing stuff up was to have things in case just downloading it again isn’t a viable option?
Whoa, what are all those things you have?
Commenting inline :
-rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 103G Jul 6 2024 wikipedia_en_all_maxi_2024-01.zim # encyclopedia Wikipedia English with images and more -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 81G Apr 22 2023 gutenberg_mul_all_2023-04.zim # Project Gutenberg, book collection in multiple languages -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 75G Jul 7 2024 stackoverflow.com_en_all_2023-11.zim # StackOverflow, programming questions and answers -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 74G Mar 10 2024 planet-240304.osm.pbf # OpenStreetMap low resolution for the whole World -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 3.8G Oct 18 06:55 debian-13.1.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso # Debian base ISO -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 2.6G May 7 2023 ifixit_en_all_2023-04.zim # iFixit colection of guides to fix appliances -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 1.6G May 7 2023 developer.mozilla.org_en_all_2023-02.zim # Web development documentation -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 931M May 7 2023 diy.stackexchange.com_en_all_2023-03.zim # Do It Yourself Q&A -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 808M Jun 5 2023 wikivoyage_en_all_maxi_2023-05.zim # WikiVoyage, the version of Wikipedia for traveling -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 296M Apr 30 2023 raspberrypi.stackexchange.com_en_all_2022-11.zim # Raspberry Pi Q&A -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 131M May 7 2023 rapsberry_pi_docs_2023-01.zim # Rasspberry Pi documentation -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 100M May 7 2023 100r-off-the-grid_en_2022-06.zim # Off the grid documents -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 61M May 7 2023 quantumcomputing.stackexchange.com_en_all_2022-11.zim # Quantum computer Q&A -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 45M May 7 2023 computergraphics.stackexchange.com_en_all_2022-11.zim # Computer graphics Q&A -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 37M May 7 2023 wordnet_en_all_2023-04.zim # Graph of words in English -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 23M Jul 17 2023 kiwix-tools_linux-armv6-3.5.0-1.tar.gz # Kiwix to read .zim files -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 16M Oct 6 21:32 be-stib-gtfs.zip # public transport database in Brussels, Belgium -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 3.8M Oct 6 21:32 be-sncb-gtfs.zip # train transport database in Belgium -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 2.3M May 7 2023 termux_en_all_maxi_2022-12.zim # Termux, Linux tooling on Android, documentation in English -rw-r--r-- 1 fabien fabien 1.9M May 7 2023 kiwix-firefox_3.8.0.xpi # Kiwix Web Extension for the Firefox browserBy the way, there’s now a Wikipedia 2025 snapshot.
I am currently trying to fit that on my phone somehow. I wish I could just omit the index database at the end that can’t be split it seems. I have to keep it, but when it’s split up, it doesn’t work anyway (search is broken that way) (https://github.com/openzim/zim-tools/issues/295).
My phone can only do FAT32 for SD cards…For 2024 Wikipedia, that seems to be around 18GiB of wasted space.
Thanks, updating (~20min) accordingly.
FWIW I have a CMF Nothing 1 and I can put a 500Go microSD in it.
I’ve got Ulefone Armor 24. It can take a 1TB Micro SD, but only FAT32. Why a Linux-based OS can only do FAT32, despite supporting other FSs on internal storage goes beyond me.
Weird, assuming you have Android 13 it should be usable at least as exFAT and thus can be large enough
I would love to have a small Wikipedia browser that can survive the apocalypse.
E-ink display, mini keyboard and touchpad, multiple ways/ports to transfer info, All wrapped up in a heavy duty equipment case that’s able to survive a building collapses and burns in an earthquake, that’s shielded from EMP.
I would love to have a small Wikipedia browser that can survive the apocalypse.
I’ve got the full 120 GB Wikipedia dump running in Kiwix on a Raspberry Pi Zero. Works great (surprisingly)
E-ink display, mini keyboard
Have been using a Minimal Phone for a few months now which has both of those. Can connect to the Pi easily.
multiple ways/ports to transfer info,
Add a USB-C hub (or add a hub to the Pi) and you’re set
All wrapped up in a heavy duty equipment case that’s able to survive a building collapses and burns in an earthquake, that’s shielded from EMP.
And that’s where I’m limited - My 3D printer can only do so much lol. 😆
I’ve been working on a side project this week with a Orange Pi Zero 2W (Pi Zero “clone” but with better specs). It’s got the Kiwix+Wikipedia like my older Pi (described above) plus a bunch of other neat stuff. It’s kind of a combination travel router, portable web app server, party box, and extremely over-engineered bluetooth speaker all-in-one. Hoping to put together a show-and-tell post about it when I get the last of it squared away.
Very interested in your setup for that opi2w. I have one that is being retired from pihole duty that I’ll be doing similar to. Also want to add an sdr to it so it can pull ghostnet js8call and the like.
Ooh, I haven’t tried RTL-SDR on it yet, but I think I’m nearing capacity on what it can do at once lol.
Here’s the block diagram for it (in spoiler below). Everything’s up and running except the Bluetooth Receiver -> Snapcast (it works on the bench but I don’t have the scripting/automation done yet). I’m also adding an SMA connector for an external antenna, but the new base part is still printing. Photo shows it “as is” of this writing.
SSL for the web apps was a PITA since I wanted real certs. Had to make a wildcard domain under my main hobby domain, so all my apps are like “https://{APP_NAME}.mobile.mydomain.xyz/”
As soon as I can get the Bluetooth + Pulseaudio scripting done, I’m gonna try to do a write up and maybe a show/tell post.
Block Diagram
Current Case
Sounds like the beginning of a proper Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
Actually having something telling me Don’t Panic is big friendly letters would help my mental health…
You mean like the wiki reader:
I used it as an ebook reader until the screen gave out.
I would also add Openstreetmap to the list
Okay so where do I find some cheap hard drives? Europe if possible :-)
look for dvr’s they have huge hdds in them and you can find them at thrift stores for cheap
I stumbled across this sort of fascinating area of doomsday prepping a few weeks back.
A nice addition to that, don’t just make it a USB, but a raspberry pi. So you’d have a reasonably low-powered computer you could easily take with you.
Not suggesting this one as it seems a bit expensive to me, but https://www.prepperdisk.com/products/prepper-disk-premium-over-512gb-of-survival-content?view=sl-8978CA41
at this point why not just use a phone running postmarketos?
Last I checked (3 years ago) postmarketOS drained the pinephone battery in record time :(
You’d first have to buy a phone that can run postmarketos and these are much rarer than I wish they were. Is there even anything new that can run it? Pine64 stopped making phones and said they’ll make a new one when they can make it RISC-V.
Fairphone maybe I guess. 4 is listed as a supported device, but someone has gotten it working on 6 too.
there’s lots of devices it runs on iirc, something like the pixel 3a can be had for less than a new rpi3b+ where I live
Just built one of these myself. I went NVME M.2 instead of SD Card to avoid data corruption. I know SD Cards are fine if you don’t write to them a lot but if you wanna update or add your own stuff, scares me. Plus NVME is just so much faster.
How would you access the info if electricity permanently goes out?
You find a generator, or solar panels, or wind mill, or water turbine, or a bicycle hooked up to a generator.
If electricity permanently goes out then we’re in a scavenger situation and it is time to start taking apart things that are no longer necessary to build the things that are.
start taking apart things that are no longer necessary to build the things that are
Hey finally a good use for all of those cars, grab the alternators out for small generators (since bicycles are the ultimate apocalypse vehicle: simple, small, easy to maintain and don’t require complex fuels)
Pretty much what Sinthesis said; USB power brick and/or solar panels. Both at the ready and tested. Also got a big ass battery backup that will charge off solar panels.
You only need 20 watts of power. One of those dinky fold up solar panels would work. Add a USB power brick for cloudy days.
2W for a RPi Zero with data on a microSD
You’re going to need a monitor as well.
I have a PaPiRus ePaper eInk e.g. https://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data Sheets/Pi Supply PDFs/PaPiRus_ePaper_Web.pdf and even though I don’t know the watts for a refresh but I assume it’s one of the lowest solution you can use.
PS: FWIW if you don’t refresh the display can keep the information on for months, if not years.
Eink displays are pretty awesome for this sort of thing, I repuposed a kobo ereader as a household info display and it worked nicely. Those PaPiRus screens look easier to interface with, but a little small for reading wikipedia articles. They’d do in a pinch, but the eyestrain would have me looking for a bigger solution.
Yeah not gonna lie, i think i heard someone in a youtube video a while back talk about how the entirety of wikipedia takes up like 200 gigs or something like that, and it got me seriously considering to actually make that offline backup. Shit is scary when countries like the uk are basically blocking you from having easy access to knowledge.
UKGOV haven’t started on things like Wikipedia yet. They know kids use it for school and blinded by ideology though they are, even they can see there’d be an enormous backlash if they blocked it any time soon.
If that’s going to happen at all, I doubt it would be before the next election. That’s whether Labour get re-elected or the Tories make an unexpected comeback. You can tell how far Labour have fallen in the eyes of their party faithful when they’ve taken a Tory-drafted policy and made it their own.
Ironically, the up and coming third option fascist party, have said they’re going to repeal the Online Safety Act. They have other fish to fry if they get in, and they’ll want to keep their preferred demographic(s) happy while they do it.
I assume that eventually something like the OSA would come back to “protect the children”. They love the current US President.
None of this is hopeful. Take this as more of a rant.
Every day it seems the entire west is gonna bee a fascist hellhole in a decade
I’m certain that when UK forces DigitalID upon the nation it will be a requirement for access to every website
Yeah, it’s surprisingly small when it’s compressed if you exclude things like images and media. It’s just text, after all. But the high level of compression requires special software to actually read without uncompressing the entire archive. There are dedicated devices you can get, which pretty much only do that. Like there are literal Wikipedia readers, where you just give it an archive file and it’ll allow you to search for and read articles.
if you remove topics you are not interessed it can shrink even more
Sure, but removing knowledge kind of goes against what creating a Wikipedia backup is about…
Well, i doubt i will ever need to know anything about a football player or a car
“Fellow survivors, oh my God! What are your names?”
“I’m OJ Simpson. This is my friend Aaron Hernandez. And this is his car, Christine.”
If my experience with mashing the random article button is any indicator, you could reduce the size by 30% just by removing articles on sports players. I doubt I’ll need those
This is just minor datahoarding. I do it, on an extreme level.
It’s been on my to-do list for a few years now.
I saw that Wikipedia was having funding problems, what happened to Debian?
They lie. Wikipedia has plenty of money. Do not give those parasites any more.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation#Spending_and_fundraising_practices
I keep a wiki copy as well as Reddit pre-fuckuspez. A Debian archive copy sounds like a good idea.
I’m also curious about the reddit archive. Did you copy it yourself or is this available somewhere?
I got it from Archive.org. There was a monthly dump. I can’t easily find it but that’s where I got it from.
the whole reddit? how big is it?
Ask OpenAI, since it is in their dataset 😂
Speaking of, how do I back up the entirety of ChatGPT 4? I’ve got a couple of spare SD cards lying around.
old pcs off amazon usually come with good reliable 1/2tb harddrive.
Did I miss something? Whats happening to debian stable?
debian stable became the go to distro for long term usage in case our FOSS support structure goes haywire due to wars
Dont forget 3-2-1 when you do!
What is that?
3 copies of data, 2 of which are on different storage media (HDD, tape drive, etc.), 1 at an offsite location.
Don’t forget the copies sealed in faraday containers.
💯
I’ve lost family photos to a bad seagate drive in the 2000s and digitized VHSs to a fire in 2011.
If it matters throw it on a SSD in a Safe Deposit box. They are surprisingly affordable.
Wait, isn’t there an offline copy of a part of Wikipedia? The article Just by yourself a nice printer with enough ink and do it yourself ;)
It could cost a bit if you wanted to keep it up to date.
I would add in some rom collections and book repositories as well. The whole library of Nintendo games is under a gig and would go a long way for entertaining people.
Book repos? I didn’t know such a thing existed. Can you share more?
Project Gutenberg has a large collection of public domain books
Thank you kindly
