I’m interested to know how others are preserving websites. Due to incomplete snapshots, broken links and spam companies taking over expired domains, it’s often difficult to browse or get a complete image of a website using the Wayback machine. So lately I’ve been using tools like Wayback Machine Downloader to grab as much as I can, then fix up the archive (using relative links, removing unnecessary Javascript, etc.) and finally republish everything as a Github repo using gh-pages. There must be a better way?
Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline
41–50 of 221 posts
Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline
#42I’ll try to figure this out today
I'm happy to make a contribution towards the preservation of his site. If there is a Venmo to which I may contribute, please let me know. Also, I'm not sure how it is presently configured, but if the site is presently a dynamic CMS, it might be worthwhile to export the static assets and host the site on S3/GCS/IPFS. And to publish a tar.gz copy along with a signature checksum.
I have archived Aaron's site into a WARC file if someone wants to host it. Also in cold storage in the event there are any gaps in what the Internet Archive has.
Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is a good source of information? By that I mean: - not about daily information (which are usually as fast as possible and don’t take the time to really understand the situation) - not biased - not about juicy news, but world topics that are ~objectively important I feel like there should be a subreddit for that.
Every source of information will be biased, and you have to take that into account by being critical. I found that the best source for me is The Economist: once per week, written by smart people, with good summaries of anything that is important. Delivered digitally (with an excellent audio version, too). It is "biased" in the sense that the editors hold a set of opinions and you have to be aware of it. I do not agre…
I went from The Economist to Foreign Affairs few years ago when Eco became unbearably filled with an agenda. You might want to check FA out.
Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline
#44His post "I hate the news" (0) was(is) very influential for me personally. It was seminal in what become a rather significant change in my habits and view of the world. I am now very conscious that news are entertainment, purely and simply. With the goods and bads of any other entertainment form. From time to time, while explaining my position to others (often seen as kind of radical), I refer this post. I hope it co…
I used to think the same a few years ago.
But nowadays, with the state of politics, the spread of fake news and false narrative on social media... this is what we have.
"they could have read an entire book about most subjects covered and thereby learned about it with far more detail and far more impact than the daily doses they get dribbled out by the paper"
This is not what people do. This is applicable to 1% of the population.
Trump got elected and keeps supporters with dozens of 140-character messages everyday. There is no details, no analysis, lots of lies and inflammatory comments. But this is what works.
Whether you agree with him or not, this is the winning method to gain influence. This is also because escaping news on social media and TV is harder and harder, and the more susceptible to get trapped are not the one that would make the better choices for everyone.
So you need to use the same tactics to fight him or support him or support something in general. Or you virtually don't exist.
And the opinion and vote of the people is more important than we realized just ten years ago when he wrote that. Would Swarz stay silent and disconnected in the Trump era?
Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline
#45His post "I hate the news" (0) was(is) very influential for me personally. It was seminal in what become a rather significant change in my habits and view of the world. I am now very conscious that news are entertainment, purely and simply. With the goods and bads of any other entertainment form. From time to time, while explaining my position to others (often seen as kind of radical), I refer this post. I hope it co…
What is a good source of information? By that I mean: - not about daily information (which are usually as fast as possible and don’t take the time to really understand the situation) - not biased - not about juicy news, but world topics that are ~objectively important I feel like there should be a subreddit for that.
I can tell you what I do:
1. I don't consume any news from televised sources,
2. I read Foreign Policy, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Economist and Foreign Affairs,
3. I'm generally skeptical of everything I read and I try to assume every article's author has many unknown unknowns in their reporting (to counter Gelman Amnesia),
4. Every so often (once a week or so), I read something from a news source I actively distrust just to see what else a nontrivial portion of the population believes about the world.
This isn't perfect, but if you have the free time to do that much reading I think it gets you pretty close to well-rounded. I think the only major way to improve upon this would be to add another major news source from another country for additional foreign perspective (this is why I like The Economist and Financial Times).
Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline
#46His post "I hate the news" (0) was(is) very influential for me personally. It was seminal in what become a rather significant change in my habits and view of the world. I am now very conscious that news are entertainment, purely and simply. With the goods and bads of any other entertainment form. From time to time, while explaining my position to others (often seen as kind of radical), I refer this post. I hope it co…
What is a good source of information? By that I mean: - not about daily information (which are usually as fast as possible and don’t take the time to really understand the situation) - not biased - not about juicy news, but world topics that are ~objectively important I feel like there should be a subreddit for that.
Here's my secret stash:
- https://www.quantamagazine.org - science-y
- https://thebrowser.com - sometimes too intellectual or focused on literature
- https://waitbutwhy.com - sometimes too simple
- https://www.project-syndicate.org - sometimes written by people that are "talkers/politicians" not "doers"
- https://www.gwern.net - The monthly newsletter is great
- https://chinai.substack.com - Chinese Papers and AI news translated
- https://www.ribbonfarm.com - great long form essays
I also got asked a couple of times about starting my own monthly mailing list with the most interesting things I find.
If you'd be interested in receiving it email me at hi[at]ferrucc[dot]io
Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline
#47His post "I hate the news" (0) was(is) very influential for me personally. It was seminal in what become a rather significant change in my habits and view of the world. I am now very conscious that news are entertainment, purely and simply. With the goods and bads of any other entertainment form. From time to time, while explaining my position to others (often seen as kind of radical), I refer this post. I hope it co…
Thank you for sharing this! Excellently argued article, and has aged surprisingly well.
Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline
#48Good example of "suicide sucks" rule.
Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline
#49His post "I hate the news" (0) was(is) very influential for me personally. It was seminal in what become a rather significant change in my habits and view of the world. I am now very conscious that news are entertainment, purely and simply. With the goods and bads of any other entertainment form. From time to time, while explaining my position to others (often seen as kind of radical), I refer this post. I hope it co…
I used to think the same a few years ago. But nowadays, with the state of politics, the spread of fake news and false narrative on social media... this is what we have. "they could have read an entire book about most subjects covered and thereby learned about it with far more detail and far more impact than the daily doses they get dribbled out by the paper" This is not what people do. This is applicable to 1% of the…
You are talking about some different. Aaron was talking about reading news to learn about the world. You are talking about political activism.
For your activism goals, reading Twitter might help (although your time is likely better spent with algorithmic summarization than with reading garbage tweets one at a time)
Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline
#50His post "I hate the news" (0) was(is) very influential for me personally. It was seminal in what become a rather significant change in my habits and view of the world. I am now very conscious that news are entertainment, purely and simply. With the goods and bads of any other entertainment form. From time to time, while explaining my position to others (often seen as kind of radical), I refer this post. I hope it co…
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