81–90 of 94 posts
I'm not a particularly good writer, but I've written about how I use the SingleFile extension to capture a perma web version of everything interesting that I read[0]. It's a great open source tool that aids in archiving (even if only at the personal level). I've been taking notes and blogging since the early 2000s and coming back so often to find the content that I'd linked to has disappeared. Archive.org and Archive…
I'm not a particularly good writer, but I've written about how I use the SingleFile extension to capture a perma web version of everything interesting that I read[0]. It's a great open source tool that aids in archiving (even if only at the personal level). I've been taking notes and blogging since the early 2000s and coming back so often to find the content that I'd linked to has disappeared. Archive.org and Archive…
How do you feel about this vs printing a pdf of the content?
The SingleFile download preserves more of the original format. For a long while I was using MarkDownload and capturing the content that way, but a bunch is lost that way.
I also use Zotero for downloading journal articles (etc), that also has the ability to snapshot, but then I found it was locked up in Zotero. Where my current setup is a Jekyll repo on Vercel that means that the content is almost immediately accessible after the github push and deploy. Something that happens automatically after I click the SingleFile download button (configured in the extension).
I need do no more than grab the web link and paste it into Obsidian, where linking to Zotero from Obsidian is a royal pain (not impossible).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wrote a book in 2010. It had a references section with links to about 100 websites. When I wrote the second edition only about five years later, 50% of those links no longer worked. What we're doing right now is borderline insane. We're putting all of this information on the web, but almost each individual bit of information is dependent on either a company or a human being keeping it online. It's inevitable that c…
> references section with links to about 100 websites. Books deserve a github repo with PDF web archives of referenced links, the same way that Wikipedia mirrors the content of cited links.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> references section with links to about 100 websites. Books deserve a github repo with PDF web archives of referenced links, the same way that Wikipedia mirrors the content of cited links.
But wouldn't that be a big waste if everyone who references the same thing is then keeping a copy of it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wrote a book in 2010. It had a references section with links to about 100 websites. When I wrote the second edition only about five years later, 50% of those links no longer worked. What we're doing right now is borderline insane. We're putting all of this information on the web, but almost each individual bit of information is dependent on either a company or a human being keeping it online. It's inevitable that c…
> so almost all of the information that is online right now will just disappear in the next 80 years. > And we essentially only have one single entity that tries to retain that information. Will future ages find ours a dark age, a gap in their records, a void ... ... up until the point - if ever - where a sufficiently advanced solution for permanence is found and comes online?
I think this is a very likely future, yes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> so almost all of the information that is online right now will just disappear in the next 80 years. > And we essentially only have one single entity that tries to retain that information. Will future ages find ours a dark age, a gap in their records, a void ... ... up until the point - if ever - where a sufficiently advanced solution for permanence is found and comes online?
> Will future ages find ours a dark age, a gap in their records, a void I think this is a very likely future, yes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> so almost all of the information that is online right now will just disappear in the next 80 years. > And we essentially only have one single entity that tries to retain that information. Will future ages find ours a dark age, a gap in their records, a void ... ... up until the point - if ever - where a sufficiently advanced solution for permanence is found and comes online?
> ... up until the point - if ever - where a sufficiently advanced solution for permanence is found and comes online? Like the laser printer? The cost of permanent, physical preservation is pennies. People just don't do it for most things. And it doesn't guarantee accessibility, which has hosting costs.
Sure. Whatever works.-
But I meant one that is systematically and systemically and widely used.-
If you or someone you know are looking to archive content from the Web, but don't know how, I'll be happy to help. My email is in my profile.