Archive of papers and essays

Miles' sites have all been down for more than several days, now. His email is also disconnected. Maybe he just forgot to pay his bill or something, but it struck me that we should probably compile backups of all his papers just in case. I have many of them saved (the .pdfs, anyway) on my workstation but need to sort them and perhaps number them by date written or something, so that it's easier to flip through.

Other than WayBack Machine or something, do you folks have any ideas about archiving his works? Perhaps some alternative free servers we could host them on?

I'm happy to put up a mirror on my site. I have already asked Miles if he is ok with that when I setup my alternative index page for his papers. Unfortunately, I did not actually store the papers, I just linked to his site. However, in doing that work I wrote an app that parsed his index page and downloaded the files linked on it, so I do have an old copy, but it is old.

I found a tool that I can install on my server and it will keep the mirror site up-to-date with the source site. It is called HTTrack and while I am using the command line version, there are GUIs for Windows, Linux and Mac if you want to use it for yourself. I'll set it to update every day and I might even setup another script and cron job that will zip it all up once a month\quarter\year. That will give us a history. But that depends on how large the site is. I don't have unlimited disk space. Of course, it also requires that his site is up again before I can even test this.

This information is just too valuable to lose like this.

That's the problem though - the site is down. I mean hopefully he'll get it back up, and hopefully he's well. But I don't think you'll be able to mirror the site if it's not there anymore? Maybe you meant automatic updating, so it would only add state, not replace it?

Either way, I'm downloading all his science papers again manually through WayBack Machine for now. I think I had all his .pdfs before, but now I'm saving the older .html pages too. So if we need those files, just lemme know. Here's a link if that helps:

https://web.archive.org/web/20170327165814/milesmathis.com

I can also host them on my personal website if need be, just in a non-published folder or something so you'd need the link to get there. His email is toast as well so I can't ask his permission, so I'll wait, but I can't imagine he'd say no. I may try to call him this week if he's still down for the count, but I don't know how he'd feel about that. Maybe I'm worried for no reason.

No, I can't mirror it without it being up and running, but once I get that working, it will be available if his site goes down again. I can't fix this outage, but I can be prepared for the next one.

The app I mentioned does both. It downloads a site for local use and it can also be used to update that local copy when the server changes. That way you don't need to download the whole site every time, it just grabs what has changed and it can even remove things that have been deleted on the server (or not, if that is what you want). It is a very powerful application. Complicated, but powerful.

I might have a go using the WayBack Machine to get it started and tested. At least if I have something there, I can then setup the cron jobs to update it when it does come back.

As far as permission goes, Miles did state on his site somewhere that you can use it for non-commercial purposes. However, I felt the need to ask explicitly when I was thinking about using his content. Which he gave without question.

removed

It appears that he's finally overhauling his old, terrible HTML site. I mean, we can dream? I'd love to be able to read his stuff on my stupid phone.

Nope. The site is back and looks like it always did. I'd say that screenshot is from the hosting environment suggesting that you could put your 'cool thing' here.

Do you know how many times I've thought about offering Miles my expertise to make his site look a lot more modern. In the end though, he probably uses some sort of website creation tool. The code looks like it came from such a tool (ie a bit of a mess).

Now, let's see what I can do to mirror this site for next time it goes down.

I have the site mirrored. I am not happy with the folder structure and will see if I can fix that, but at least the papers are there and usable.

You can find it at: http://www.nevyns-lab.com/mathis/mirror

It might go up and down as I play with options and rebuild it.

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Nevyn, you made it sound so quick and easy. What a relief, or is it? Do we need to worry for your safety too?  
.

It was rather easy. I had to find the right set of configuration options to get it the way I wanted it, but once I had those (well, I'm still playing with it), it is just a matter of time for it to download everything (about 80MB, but it is lots of small files so it isn't like downloading a single 80MB file).

I might have put myself in danger, but I doubt it is worth coming all the way over to the other side of the globe to deal with me. I also put my web site onto a server that is not in the US. However, it is run by a US company, so that might not save it. Let's face it, if the US wants something done, they get it done. Legalities be damned. And Australia is the US's little bitch, so they'd only have to ask my own government to handle me, if they wanted. I don't think it is that dire though. If they take my site down, then that is just evidence to me that they are scared and we are on the right track. I can get it back up again pretty quickly. I might keep an eye out for black SUVs, though, just to be sure. I drive a Chevy V8 though, so I'll give them a run for their money!

If they take my site down, then that is just evidence to me that they are scared and we are on the right track. I can get it back up again pretty quickly. I might keep an eye out for black SUVs, though, just to be sure. I drive a Chevy V8 though, so I'll give them a run for their money!

Well, what's an action movie without a car chase?

I just need reassurance that we are the protagonists in this story.

Please?

Someone?

Nevyn wrote:Well, what's an action movie without a car chase?

I just need reassurance that we are the protagonists in this story.

Please?

Someone?

Miles is the kind of guy that makes this world a better place. We are doing what is right and good IMHO.
I actually worry that Mathis'/our theorizing actually eventually leads to some novel real world device based on the Charge Field...at that time I'll be pulling down the blinds and using binoculars even when Grandma visits.  

Everyone thinks I dodged a bullet, but I think I shot the gun!

My server can't reach Miles site anymore! It times-out every time it tries to access a page even through other apps. I am assuming at this point that Miles or his hosting provider have blocked my IP address. It may have looked like my site was attacking Miles site so they blocked it. I have contacted Miles to see if he can get it unblocked but am waiting to hear back.

It was slow for me today but it eventually came back up.

My server times out even after waiting for 2 minutes for a single page. Miles got back to me this morning and it looks like it was his new hosting provider that has blocked me, assuming that is what has happened. I have asked Miles to contact his support team and see what can be done. I also ran a check of my IP against a list of blacklists and it all came back clean. It could be a private blacklist though.

Give Tor a try. It should get around any IP blocks:

https://www.torproject.org/

I don't really want my server to turn into a Tor node. Never know what might flow through it. Not to mention the unwanted attention it might bring. I've never set one up though, and only know the basic idea of how it works, so it might not be as bad as I think it is. I'll try the legit channels first and look into other options when they don't pan out. Thanks for the suggestion though.

My server seems to be updating the mirror again. I'm not sure if Miles did something or if some updates I applied this week fixed the problem. Part of me is just happy it is working again, but part of me wants to know why it wasn't.