From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jul 4 08:49:21 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EF0941065672 for ; Fri, 4 Jul 2008 08:49:21 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) Received: from mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com (mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.192.90]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ACEDB8FC0A for ; Fri, 4 Jul 2008 08:49:21 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) Received: from TEDSDSK (nat-rtr.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.197.130]) by mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with SMTP id m648nK02076962; Fri, 4 Jul 2008 01:49:20 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" To: , "FreeBSD Mailing List" Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2008 01:50:20 -0700 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) In-Reply-To: <539c60b90806301348l4b09cd90n3972b41339276d6f@mail.gmail.com> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1914 Importance: Normal X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-3.0 (mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.192.90]); Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:49:21 -0700 (PDT) Cc: Subject: RE: anyone been crazy enough to mirror wikipedia? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:49:22 -0000 > -----Original Message----- > From: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Steve Franks > Sent: Monday, June 30, 2008 1:49 PM > To: FreeBSD Mailing List > Subject: OT: anyone been crazy enough to mirror wikipedia? > > > So call me a sociopath, but times are a bit scary. I'd like to do the > 2000's equivalent of the 1960's bomb shelter, and have my very own > snapshot in case of major local/regional internet disruption, etc. > This is not a silly idea. For many many years people would spend hundreds of dollars on a complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica or World Book encyclopedia to have it sit on their shelf gathering dust (until their kids used it for school, etc.) The fact that your even asking the question and wanting to do it is to your credit. I really feel the big value of doing something like this is to be able to go back to it, years later, and compare the old entries on a topic with the current entries on a topic to see how they have changed. I also think that solving the technical problems and learning how to create a wikipedia mirror would be a great learning experience for anyone. But, as for the practical value, I would encourage you to read Asimov's Foundation series to really understand that any attempt to catagorize and store the world's accumulated knowledge in a storage medium in a single location is ultimately an exercise in futility. Asimov made the valid point that book knowledge of facts must work hand in hand with experience to be useful, and experience isn't documentable. Terminus itself, the entire planet and everyone on it, was the encyclopedia - the actual encyclopedia that the encyclopediests were working on, was nothing more than a sham. Ted