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From Archive.org, Free Multimedia Hosting for Life

powerline22 writes "From the people who gave you the Internet Archive comes Ourmedia, a place for grassroots media to flourish. Upload anything, maybe a video, some pictures, your custom applescript, and it gets hosted for free, for life. Drupal is hosting the site, and the Internet Archive is providing hosting and bandwidth for the files."

223 of 327 comments (clear)

  1. even copyrighted material? by bdigit · · Score: 4, Funny

    AWESOME! Screw bittorrent now I can just download everything I need from this site. Porn, music, pirated software. Thanks archive.org!

    1. Re:even copyrighted material? by elrous0 · · Score: 1

      >>Screw bittorrent now I can just download everything I need from this site. Porn, music, pirated software Yeah, and all my friends can download my huge video files. And all at once!

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  2. Best usage by stupidfoo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Porn

    Let's be honest here. Your own private permanent porn collection. What could be better?

    1. Re:Best usage by EvilTwinSkippy · · Score: 4, Funny
      The problem I run into with a porn stash is that cracking the website and pulling the goods is the fun part.

      Once I have the pile of images and videos, they are really kinda boring. Well, boring after they are filed by sexual position, cup size, and security exploit.

      --
      "Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
      --Dr.W.Edwards Deming
    2. Re:Best usage by Carthag · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hehe, amen. The day I figured out how to use http://curl.haxx.se/, porn became somewhat boring. It's just too easy to obtain.

    3. Re:Best usage by LocoMan · · Score: 3, Informative
      From the users FAQ:

      No porn, you say?

      No porn. Go away.

      Suposedly it's on the site rules too, but can't get on them because of the slashdotting.. :)

    4. Re:Best usage by grolschie · · Score: 2, Funny

      Let's be honest here. Your own private permanent porn collection. What could be better?

      A clean conscience perhaps?

    5. Re:Best usage by ottothecow · · Score: 1

      do tell how that works

      --
      Bottles.
    6. Re:Best usage by Neoncow · · Score: 2, Funny
      When you click the link, a little known IE vulnerability allows the site to scan your harddrive for porn site passwords.

      All of the information is sent to Carthag's email account.

    7. Re:Best usage by grolschie · · Score: 1

      Modded Funny? uhh... I was actually being serious. What could be better than a clean conscience?

    8. Re:Best usage by Joe+Random · · Score: 1
      I was actually being serious. What could be better than a clean conscience?
      I agree. After viewing my own private porn collection, my conscience is always left discolored and slightly sticky. It could definitely use a good cleaning. But what do you recommend? Bleach is too harsh, and the Catholic Church won't sell me any indulgences, so I'm at a total loss.
    9. Re:Best usage by Master+of+Transhuman · · Score: 2, Funny

      "What could be better than a clean conscience?"

      A BIG porn collection?

      --
      Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
    10. Re:Best usage by some+guy+I+know · · Score: 1
      What could be better than a clean conscience?
      Money.
      Lots and lots of money.
      --
      Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
    11. Re:Best usage by Carthag · · Score: 1

      Neoncow's comment is not true, just for the record.

  3. They did this before by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful


    with their caching idea (like coralcache) but 6months later they stopped it, whats to say the same wont happen here ? when people do hosting they want reliability not bandwidth

    1. Re:They did this before by womullan · · Score: 1

      yep - looks like its gone already ...

    2. Re:They did this before by WebHostingGuy · · Score: 2, Insightful
      "when people do hosting they want reliability not bandwidth"

      Not necessarily. Hosting like everything else is split among different needs and wants. There are some who will never pay more than $.99 per year for unlimited everything. Then there are those who will pay $100.00 per month for redundant reliable connections. To each their own.

      I have no doubt the service will be around for a while and if they need cash then enter the advertisers. Ads everywhere and then the selling of your personal data. They could then move to a 1&1 promo--credit card needed for free service then charge after a year after you have long forgotten them.

      If they are hosted with Server Beach the bandwidth is pretty cheap but you may or may not have problems as others have had in the past with them. But you will get the quality you pay for which in this case is $0.00.

      --
      Quality Hosting e3 Servers
    3. Re:They did this before by akb · · Score: 1

      Contrary to what this writeup is saying archive.org has been providing free hosting forever for free for quite a number of years now. I suppose there is no guarentee that anything is forever but they have definitely put their money where their mouth is.

      The freecache project that you refer to was an experiment. It didn't work out, as is often the case with experiments.

    4. Re:They did this before by Thundersnatch · · Score: 1
      Then there are those who will pay $100.00 per month for redundant reliable connections.

      Truly reliable hosting costs a lot more than that. We pay $5K per month for a full rack of dedicated servers plus 10 Mbps of bandwidth with a tier-1 hosting provider. The most significant portion of the bill is the 24-hour management of the servers. Management service is cheaper than putting our own staff on 24x7 call, but not exactly cheap at more than $3K per month.

  4. Yeah baby... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I mean, what's the better way to stress-test their servers than announce it on slashdot.org?

    1. Re:Yeah baby... by 80sCartoons.net · · Score: 1

      Ouch. Already down. I was hoping I could host my collection of 80's cartoon intros there. Would take a little of the load off my site.

    2. Re:Yeah baby... by Jozer99 · · Score: 1

      And they failed, sadly. I can't get to their site anymore.

  5. How Long? by bleckywelcky · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How long can this really last? Bandwidth costs money. Servers cost money. Power costs money. Admins need to eat. I think it's a good idea, but just wondering where the funds are going to come from.

    1. Re:How Long? by Xzzy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Even so, to some extent it does need to be done.

      I'm not saying everything (or even a measurable portion) that appears on the internet is worth keeping forever, but the worth of any of it is not something those in the present are qualified to judge on.

      In a thousand years, provided humanity hasn't wiped itself out by then, the internet archive (and by extension, ourmedia.org) will be what archaeologists use to learn about us.

    2. Re:How Long? by Deagol · · Score: 3, Insightful

      archive.org has been around for quite some time, and they offer no small service. They've obviously secured funding from somewhere.

    3. Re:How Long? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Admins need to eat.

      Huh?

    4. Re:How Long? by ArcticFlood · · Score: 5, Informative

      This page tells how archive.org obtains its funding.

      --
      This is here so you don't ignore the last two lines of my posts.
    5. Re:How Long? by eln · · Score: 5, Funny

      the internet archive (and by extension, ourmedia.org) will be what archaeologists use to learn about us.

      Good God, I hope not.

    6. Re:How Long? by DrinkingIllini · · Score: 1

      I don't think this site (or even the hardrives it is storing this crap on) will still be around in a hundred years, let alone a thousand.

    7. Re:How Long? by doormat · · Score: 4, Funny

      In a thousand years, provided humanity hasn't wiped itself out by then, the internet archive (and by extension, ourmedia.org) will be what archaeologists use to learn about us.

      Yes, because thats what I want to be remembered by, porn, All Your Base..., the star wars kid and NumaNuma. Yea... right...

      --
      The Doormat

      If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
    8. Re:How Long? by pyrrhonist · · Score: 2, Funny
      Admins need to eat.

      WHAT!?!!? Oh crap, I left them in the glass room for a month with no food!

      Oh Ghod! The UNIX admins tried to eat the MCSA's brain and starved to death.

      Oh the horror! THE HORROR!!!

      --
      Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
    9. Re:How Long? by justforaday · · Score: 3, Funny

      I won't tell you who their funders are, but I'll give you a hint. Their initials are F, B, and I, and C, I, and A. : p

      --
      I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
    10. Re:How Long? by radiumhahn · · Score: 1

      It a play on google's model... If you get enough indexed content you can sell ads.

    11. Re:How Long? by Thud457 · · Score: 2, Funny
      That's why I contend that when the noosphere does become sentinent, it's going to be bat-shit crazy.

      (Just like humanity.)

      --

      the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    12. Re:How Long? by Swamii · · Score: 1

      How long can this really last? Bandwidth costs money. Servers cost money. Power costs money. Admins need to eat. I think it's a good idea, but just wondering where the funds are going to come from.

      How long can open source software really last? Software dev tools cost money. Dev machines cost money. Offices cost money. Developers need to eat. I think it's a good idea, but just wondering where the funds are going to come from.

      --
      Tech, life, family, faith: Give me a visit
    13. Re:How Long? by nacturation · · Score: 1

      I won't tell you who their funders are, but I'll give you a hint. Their initials are F, B, and I, and C, I, and A. : p

      Fibica? Sounds like a drug company. ;-)

      --
      Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
    14. Re:How Long? by glamslam · · Score: 1
      How long can open source software really last? Software dev tools cost money. Dev machines cost money. Offices cost money. Developers need to eat. I think it's a good idea, but just wondering where the funds are going to come from.

      Amazing! One of the worst analogies I've ever read! And I've read a lot of bad analogies as a Slashdot regular. Why waste sarcasm in this manner???

      (If I have to explain why, then you shouldn't reproduce.)

    15. Re:How Long? by HeliumHigh · · Score: 1

      I was laughing about this when I realized that I had just missed breakfast. And lunch. And.. dinner... crap. I've been awake a little while too long... (I guess admins don't need to sleep either)

    16. Re:How Long? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Aren't these gaps in various news sources on Internet Archive just before 9.11 2001 just a bit strange?

    17. Re:How Long? by temojen · · Score: 1

      In five years time, I want people to still be able to get accounts of the Genoa Social Forum raid (July 22, 2001) and other events that are likely to turn out to be historical, but may be covered up in history books.

    18. Re:How Long? by e2d2 · · Score: 1

      What I don't understand is why free? I mean I understand why it's better for me, but why not just charge a small fee to keep my data stored for life? I'd certainly pay for it.

    19. Re:How Long? by IronChef · · Score: 1

      Then our descendants, or their alien conquerors, will know us to be a race of wealthy, sexually potent individuals with easy access to drugs and attractive watches.

      We rule!

    20. Re:How Long? by Swamii · · Score: 1

      Nonsense. It's a perfectly valid analogy. The OSS utopian idea that small businesses can make money by giving their software away for free is the biggest myth since Pets.com's revenue plan.

      (If I have to explain why, then you need to sacrifice a goat to your god of choice, severe your genitalia, and eat chilled monkey brain for dessert.)

      --
      Tech, life, family, faith: Give me a visit
    21. Re:How Long? by aaronsorkin · · Score: 1
      We're already talking with foundations about receiving grant monies, and we'll be exploring sponsorship possibilities (while remain true to our grassroots, not-for-profit selves -- we ain't sellin' out). But you won't see banner ads, and you won't see us charging for storage or bandwidth.

      Can this scale exponentially for the next decade? Who knows? But for as far as we can see, the Archive tells us they can handle what we throw at them. They've got the resources and Peta-boxes to spare. If it weren't for the Archive, this couldn't happen. -- jd

    22. Re:How Long? by cuteseal · · Score: 1

      Caching html from websites is one thing, but hosting large multimedia files for life is orders of magnitude more costly, and a totally different ballgame.

    23. Re:How Long? by Mettra · · Score: 1
      It does seem incredibly ambitious to offer FREE hosting basically 'forever' for practically anything. Just imagine a year from now if this site had really caught on as a media nexus, and say there were a few millions users (possibly even more). Most of these users probably will not host large files (.iso's, long videos etc.), but some inevitably will.

      Even using Bittorrent to offset some bandwidth for very popular content, I'd say they'd be spending a VERY pretty penny on bandwidth alone. Who knows how much data could be stored on their servers at that time. And it's not unreasonable to assume that it can only grow larger as time passes. So where is the money coming from? Or has someone in clueless land become head of a committee somewhere?

      Besides all that, how are they going to regulate potentially huge amounts of files? How are they keeping everything legal? Is someone reviewing uploaded files for copyright/patent infringements? Just some things to consider...

    24. Re:How Long? by Zanthrox · · Score: 1

      The same could be said about libraries. (You know, the places with those papery things in them..) Real estate certainly costs money, and I'm fairly sure librarians don't work for free. Where's that money come from? Why couldn't this money come from a similar place?

    25. Re:How Long? by Deagol · · Score: 1
      Strange indeed! I verified the gaps for latimes.com myself.

      Does archive.org have an official response with regard to these missing days?

    26. Re:How Long? by aminorex · · Score: 1

      As I recall, their revenue plan was: Sell stuff.

      It works for a lot of people.

      --
      -I like my women like I like my tea: green-
    27. Re:How Long? by netcrusher88 · · Score: 1
      Maybe it'll wind up as a sort of information clearing house thing, like the Library (CIC) of Stephenson's Snow Crash .

      I wish. And maybe someone will invent the metaverse and get me a fiberoptic connection, too.

      --
      There's an old saying that says pretty much whatever you want it to.
    28. Re:How Long? by danila · · Score: 1

      There won't be archaeologists. In a thousand years all information from Ourmedia and IA will be instantly available in a well-structured form to any of the posthumans anywhere in the inhabited part of our Galaxy. Every posthuman will be able to instantly "recall" everything he needs to know about 2005, about copyright climate at that time, about Slashdot or about creative artists around the world.

      Ourmedia does not exist for archaeologists - it exists for you and me.

      --
      Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
  6. In the end, lots of homemade stuff by suso · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Cool, sounds like the perfect place to store Rooftop Warrior [warning, bad quality homemade ninja movie]

    1. Re:In the end, lots of homemade stuff by biglig2 · · Score: 4, Funny

      My dear boy, "bad quality homemade ninja movie" isn't a warning around here, it's a compliment.

      --
      ~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
  7. Uh huh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "For life".

    Think they're going to hold to that?

    And I don't just mean in the case of the 90% of content which will be posted there illegally, or even the 80% of the leftover content which will be highly pornographic. What if I post an MPEG there and it gets linked on fark and winds up eating terrabytes of the site's bandwidth? How long you think it will remain there?

    1. Re:Uh huh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      "For life"....

      ..."OF OUR COMPANY!!!." Oh shit, I said the quite part loud and the loud part quiet.

    2. Re:Uh huh by alexo · · Score: 1


      > "For life"

      Customer: Um, the computer I gought from you died.

      Sales Dude: What kind of warranty did it come with?

      Customer: Lifetime.

      Sales Dude: Well, since it died, the warranty has expired.

  8. Ummm, by Locdonan · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Wow, that was really diviod of info. How much space, what limits? P0rn? Copyrighted items?

    Can /. use this as a mirror with no consequence?

    How bout some REAL info on stuff that matters?

    --
    If I wrote something witty, you would say I stole it from somewhere.
    1. Re:Ummm, by joeljkp · · Score: 4, Informative

      The rules: fair use

      --
      WeRelate.org - wiki-based genealogy
    2. Re:Ummm, by LocoMan · · Score: 2, Informative

      Also it says "no porn"... I just posted about it on a previous thread with a link, it's up there somewhere.. :)

    3. Re:Ummm, by Ohreally_factor · · Score: 1

      No porn, but what about"erotica", "art films" and "Human Sexuality Instruction Videos"? "Amateur Gynecologist Home Movies"? Wedding (night) videos?

      --
      It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
  9. Damn thats sweet! by PopeAlien · · Score: 1

    wow - thats the one drag and limit to working with video online - bandwidth. this could really open up possibilities for video clips and shows for the people by the people..

    the 'permenant for life' thing seems a little wishful, but we'll see.

    1. Re:Damn thats sweet! by Ktistec+Machine · · Score: 5, Funny
      the 'permenant for life' thing seems a little wishful, but we'll see

      Easy: When they run out of space, they start killing the users. No problem.

    2. Re:Damn thats sweet! by EvilTwinSkippy · · Score: 1

      They'll never run out of space. They simply send users off to the carosel once they turn 30.

      --
      "Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
      --Dr.W.Edwards Deming
    3. Re:Damn thats sweet! by aaronsorkin · · Score: 1
      When they run out of space, they start killing the users. No problem.

      Only as a last resort.

      - jd

  10. I bet there isn't a catch! by 93,000 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Things are never too good to be true, especially in the computer world.

  11. Three comments and all about porn! by dapyx · · Score: 1

    Three comments and all about porn. What's wrong with you, slashdot people ?

    --
    I'm sorry, the number you have dialed is an imaginary number. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and dial again.
    1. Re:Three comments and all about porn! by evenprime · · Score: 4, Funny
      Three comments and all about porn. What's wrong with you, slashdot people ?



      You are new here, aren't you?



      Just be happy that they weren't advocating porn that includes grits anymore.....

      --

      "Weapons should be hardy rather than decorative" - Miyamoto Musashi
      I think that goes for OS's too
    2. Re:Three comments and all about porn! by Loco3KGT · · Score: 1

      What's wrong with you, extraneous, comma, user person? :-)

      --
      Blessed be he who reads this post, Cursed be he who tells my boss.
    3. Re:Three comments and all about porn! by DustMagnet · · Score: 1
      Three comments and all about porn. What's wrong with you, slashdot people ?

      You tell us. You just made another porn comment. So, what's wrong with you?

      --
      'SBEMAIL!' is better than a goat!!
  12. obl. privacy concern. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    all is well and good, until they get bought by someone else. what happens to the data then? what happens if they go bankrupt, and their hard drives wind up on ebay?

    1. Re:obl. privacy concern. by Max_Abernethy · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That would suck, but not for privacy reasons. When you put your stuff up there, it's for everyone to see, anyway - doesn't get any less private than that.

    2. Re:obl. privacy concern. by MushMouth · · Score: 1

      The Internet Archive is a 503b Non-Profit, I don't think they can be sold.

    3. Re:obl. privacy concern. by Rolan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Privacy? Who said anything about privacy? You put your stuff up on the internet, don't expect it to be private, ever.

      --
      - AMW
    4. Re:obl. privacy concern. by Lev13than · · Score: 1

      The Internet Archive is a 503b Non-Profit, I don't think they can be sold.

      Am I the only one who glanced at that comment and tried to translate it?
      Soeb Non-Profit? Sober Non-Profit? Boob Non-Profit? Bloody hell - the Internet's gone and destroyed my brain.

      --
      When you have nothing left to burn you must set yourself on fire
    5. Re:obl. privacy concern. by akb · · Score: 1

      This is insightful? Archive.org generates no revenue yet spends money. Not a very good acquisition for a for profit business to make.

      Please think before you speak.

    6. Re:obl. privacy concern. by xmedar · · Score: 1

      If you look at the technology they use, which they call Petabox you'll find it is their own distributed filesystem which runs to about 100TB/rack, so if the drives end up on EBay it wont matter, unless someone is going to figure out what drives fit in what boxes in what order in the rack and can figure out how to read it all once they have reassembled it, so actually a single drive from the system is as useful as the XOR data drive in a RAID5 array.

      --
      Any sufficiently advanced man is indistinguishable from God
    7. Re:obl. privacy concern. by Thing+1 · · Score: 1

      No, you aren't. I regularly read license plates in 1337. Some very amusing, and one was in French: "80W K00". ;-)

      --
      I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
  13. French Lawsuit in 3... 2... by Bonker · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "I'm sorry. You can't run this site since it hosts material deemed illegal by our hate-speech laws."

    Free speech ain't always pretty.

    --
    The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
  14. World's Youngest Video Blogger by filmmaker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The segment about the "World's Youngest Video Blogger" is amazing. The time to media was a matter of a couple weeks and she goes from her first iMovie lesson from her father to being on ABC's "People of the Year" show.

    It then hit me: she's a "bigger" star online than on the television. Just watching that piece inadvertantly acts as a portent for a time when television is more or less culturally irrelevant, or more to the point, indistinguishable from "web" media.

  15. For Life by LittleGuernica · · Score: 1

    For Life (as in Michael jackson soon)? Until the service goes bankrupt? or you have to start paying for the subscription... call me tinfoiled, but there is nu such guerantee and besides, who wants to keep his apple script for life?

    On the bright side, it is a nice service and it is free..

    1. Re:For Life by Ohreally_factor · · Score: 1

      Whose life wasn't specified.

      --
      It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
  16. Slashdotted already by grahamsz · · Score: 1

    I can't say I have high hopes for how this will be doing in a few months if it's dead already.

  17. Which life? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hopefully "for life" didn't mean the life of their websever, because that was shortened to about 5 minutes after the story was posted. :)

  18. Heh by FiReaNGeL · · Score: 2, Funny

    The site can't even handle being slashdotted... free video hosting, for life, for everyone?

    Yeah.

    Right.

    1. Re:Heh by CarlinWithers · · Score: 1

      I was just thinking the same thing.

    2. Re:Heh by MrScience · · Score: 1

      No, see... that's how they manage their costs. They only have a dialup connection for outgoing packets, and an OC3 for uploads. ;-)

      --

      You quitting proves that the karma kap worked. The most annoying of the whores shut up. --CmdrTaco

    3. Re:Heh by Juggle · · Score: 1

      This site is responding slow...but it is still responding. And oddly enough the video files are still coming across just fine.

      Reading their FAQ it sounds like the website may be hosted through one service but all the video (and most of the bandwith then) is being hosted by the Internet Archive and they've certinaly got the space and bandwith which explains why the video files still play just fine even though the site is crawling right now.

      --
      --- Juggle juggle@hitesman.com
  19. And it failed the test by objekt · · Score: 2, Funny

    Slashdotted already. Thanks for playing

    --
    -- Boycott Shell
    1. Re:And it failed the test by johnlittledotorg · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'm guessing that they haven't enabled Drupal's throttle feature. The feature allows you to weight blocks of content/features and switch them off at predetermined load levels. Drupal, with a decent host of course, is perfectly capable of handling slashdot levels of traffic if traffic throttling is implemented properly.

    2. Re:And it failed the test by johnlittledotorg · · Score: 1

      Drupal does feature caching. You can read up on it at their site

  20. Mirror by mcguyver · · Score: 4, Funny

    In case of a slashdotting, here's a mirror of OurMedia on the wayback machine:
    http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.ourmedia.o rg

    /ironic

    1. Re:Mirror by multisync · · Score: 1
      In case of a slashdotting, here's a mirror of OurMedia on the wayback machine:
      http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www. ourmedia.o rg


      No kidding. I hope they're not hosting this on the same server.

      --
      I don't care why you're posting AC
  21. free as in by mbrewthx · · Score: 1

    Okay is it free as in beer or free as in get your free i-pod? Sounds great for now.

    --
    __________ Leave me alone I'm compiling a RPG II program on my S/36...Thanks to metamucil I'm a Regular Meta Moderator
  22. Already been using it for 9 months by Radix37 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    At my website... it wouldn't exist at the size it is now without archive.

    --
    Speed Demos Archive - Lots of speed runs!
  23. Slashdotted already... by techstar25 · · Score: 1, Funny

    apparently that isn't going to be enough bandwidth. There's one question answered.

  24. Re:What is Drupal? by Skraut · · Score: 1

    a PHP based content management/blog system. I used it for about a year on our companies website, but it just seems to fall too much toward blogging for our needs.
    It felt like I was swimming upstream trying to make a commercial site with occasional news with it, becaues everything came out looking like I copied slashdot.

    --
    Introducing Microsoft Vacuum 1.0 The first Microsoft product that doesn't suck.
  25. GREAT for independent musicians by Trolling4Columbine · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Now they don't have to buy storage and bandwidth to host their music.

    Not sure what hosting costs your average indy band, but anything that saves them even a few bucks is a boon.

    --
    Socialism: A feeling of discontent and resentment caused by a desire for the possessions or qualities of another.
    1. Re:GREAT for independent musicians by aaronsorkin · · Score: 2, Informative

      ... and podcasters, and videobloggers, and animators.

      I know of podcasters who've been socked with $500/month bills because of bandwidth use. This solves their problem (they can point to their video or audio file on our servers from their own site).

      BTW, we host all the media files on archive.org and all the accompanying pages on Drupal, and the performance problems you're seeing today is because of a too-small server on Drupal. They're working on that tonight.

      jd

  26. same as the old boss... by Thud457 · · Score: 1
    Multivac demands tribute!

    FEED IT DATA!

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  27. Depends on the economics. by PxM · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The ideal hope would be that the bandwith costs involved becomes cheaper at a rate equal to or greater than the bandwith usage. That is, the net cost remains constant or less than the influx of money from public and private sources. Given that bandwith usage by clients will rise as bandwith costs for them drop, this might be too optimistic, but economics is always a hard thing to predict when it is so technologically dependent. They could also try to get people like Google to back this project as part of their new library initative.

    --
    Want a free iPod?
    Or try a free Nintendo DS, GC, PS2, Xbox. (you only need 4 referrals)
    Wired article as proof

  28. Re:Porn collection by JohnPerkins · · Score: 1

    Let me see...1.3tb at 5kb per sec...

    I'd say a little over 8 years.

  29. Whoops. by bigtallmofo · · Score: 1

    The server appears to be hosed. It looks like:

    ourmedia.org resolves to 69.44.153.99.
    69.44.153.99 is part of ServerBeach's netblock

    I guess our only hope is that server isn't a shared one, taking down several other sites with it.

    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.
  30. To be fair by objekt · · Score: 1

    archive.org is still going strong.

    --
    -- Boycott Shell
  31. Re:Porn collection by telstar · · Score: 4, Funny
    "How long will it be before someone uploads his porn collection?"
    • What's everybody else using Ofoto for?


  32. TANSTAAFL by ChipMonk · · Score: 1

    Need I say more?

    1. Re:TANSTAAFL by carcajou · · Score: 1

      I first saw this in Robert A. Heinlein's work...guess he was using it in the 1950's...First book of his I remember seeing it in was "Friday"...don't know if he originated it, or just used it...

    2. Re:TANSTAAFL by De+Lemming · · Score: 1

      Yes, he originated it, but the term appeared first in "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" (1966). "Friday" was published in 1982. More info on Robert Anson Heinlein.

    3. Re:TANSTAAFL by carcajou · · Score: 1

      Thank you! Always good to have my facts straight! I always read the three H's (Herbert, Heinlein, and Hubbard) SciFi as philosophy rather than as SciFi...

  33. Smells like a cheap ploy by Ced_Ex · · Score: 4, Funny

    Given that the site is slashdotted by you hordes, I'm basing from the article posting it seems to me that this could be an easy way to obtain copyrighted material without getting any **AA involvement.

    Here's the plan:

    1. Claim to host multimedia for life.
    2. Open access for users to *upload*
    3. ???
    4. Shut down because of bad business plan.
    5. Reap the rewards!

    Technically you didn't download any files, and by the time *AA comes by, you've shut down and stopped hosting files. (But really we all know you've made those backup copies offline.)

    Am I right, or am I right?

    --
    Live forever, or die trying.
    1. Re:Smells like a cheap ploy by HyperChicken · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Considering (according to the Slashdot story, which doesn't mean much) Internet Archive is behind it, I would assume it's legit. That's what Archive.org does; Store stuff.

      --
      Free of Flash! Free of Flash!
  34. For life? by mr_snarf · · Score: 1

    Ok, now I'm worried. If they hold up their end of their bargain and start running out of money, they might start killing people!

    --
    printf("Goodbye cruel world!\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b");
  35. Wikipedia by pHatidic · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I see that they are partnered with wikipedia, what exactly is the relationship of this partnership?

    1. Re:Wikipedia by daeley · · Score: 3, Funny

      what exactly is the relationship of this partnership?

      Fellowship? Kinship? Scholarship? Readership? Worship? ;)

      --
      I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
    2. Re:Wikipedia by aaronsorkin · · Score: 1
      We're kissin' cousins.

      One of the Wikimedia Foundation board members (the only at-large elected member) serves on our Advisory Board: http://www.open-media.org/credits4.html

      We're referencing a lot of Wikipedia articles throughout our site (Help pages, how-to articles).

      And we'll be sharing our multimedia content (that's licensed under Creative Commons or is in the public domain) with Wikipedia -- and with anyone else who wants to host it.

      -- jd

  36. Silly me... by EvilTwinSkippy · · Score: 1
    I just manage my own servers with a vanity domain.

    What? Doesn't everybody?

    --
    "Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
    --Dr.W.Edwards Deming
  37. Wonderful!! by Chyeld · · Score: 1

    This will go with that free email account that I signed up for four years ago that was suppose to be free for a lifetime....

    Well, it would if the email company hadn't decided to switch to "pay or you lose your address" model a year later.

  38. And for the songwriters? by tepples · · Score: 1

    Even if independent recording artists go along with posting their recordings for free on a site like this, what makes you think the songwriters will too?

    1. Re:And for the songwriters? by tepples · · Score: 1

      What makes you thinks [the songwriter and performer] can't be the same persons?

      Say you have an independent band whose members write the band's songs. How can they prove in a court of law that the songs they wrote are in fact original musical works?

    2. Re:And for the songwriters? by tepples · · Score: 1

      Why should they need to?

      If you wrote a song, recorded it, sold copies, and then got sued by an incumbent music publisher who claimed that you had copied one of the works it controls, what would you do?

  39. Re:/.'d? by EvilTwinSkippy · · Score: 1
    If it can't handle being /.'d, how is it going to handle millions of users?

    Badly.

    --
    "Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
    --Dr.W.Edwards Deming
  40. Live Music Archive at archive.org by igorthefiend · · Score: 1

    I'm surprised at the cynicism. This is a place that can host *thousands* of losslessly encoded live music shows with the permission of the artist with very little downtime that I've seen. Cost to the user = zero.

    1. Re:Live Music Archive at archive.org by MushMouth · · Score: 1

      If google did the same thing people here would be calling for page and brinn to be canonized (not the way flanders was on the simpsons though)

  41. "for life.", huh....lol. by cryptocom · · Score: 1

    looks like that should have read "for the life of our servers, which will be 5 ms after our link gets posted on /."

    --
    It takes just a moment and an action to destroy. It takes some time and thought to create.
  42. Re:Are they going to delete stuff like on 9/11? by ZonaldRumzfeld · · Score: 1

    Sure thing,
    http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cn n.com
    http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://reuters .com
    http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://news.bbc .co.uk /

  43. Re:/.'d? by Quasar1999 · · Score: 1

    Okay... think about this... millions of cars use the roads in a major city... can the roads handle millions of cars on it all at the exact same time? Hell no...

    Millions of users doesn't mean millions of users at the exact same time... It's highly unlikely that everyone will want to access their personal data at the exact same time from this site... that's probably built into the design.

    --

    ---
    Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
  44. Isn't he... by schon · · Score: 1, Funny
  45. Re:Oh god I hope not! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    All the better reason to destroy internet archives NOW. They will judge us from all of those terrible fetish-hentai-furry-goth-and-much-much-more sites out there.

  46. If they can be slashdotted less than 30 minutes... by windowpain · · Score: 1

    ...after the story appears on Slashdot, how are they going to handle hosting all of those multimedia files?

    --
    Insert witty sig here.
  47. hehe. by say__10 · · Score: 1

    So how many people you think are going to store and preserve copies of Goatse for future generations?

    --
    Home of the midwest loser - www.say-10.net
  48. Re:Here's some more evidence of this: by ZonaldRumzfeld · · Score: 1

    http://www.geocities.com/jtd514/stuff/InternetArch iveGaps.gif

  49. Repeat after me kids.... by mabu · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ..THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "FREE".

    Somebody pays, always. If not you directly, then you pay indirectly; if not now, then later, but you get nothing for free.

    Perhaps the biggest infection within our society is this notion that you can get something for nothing, and how otherwise seemingly intelligent people turn into brain dead drooling baboons at the thought of getting a freebie.

    1. Re:Repeat after me kids.... by Anita+Coney · · Score: 1

      It's strange that since "free" is an impossiblity, that such a word would even exist. I wonder where we got such notion?

      I move to have "free" stricken from all dictionaries. Who's with me?!

      --
      If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
    2. Re:Repeat after me kids.... by nicky_d · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ..THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "FREE".

      That's a mantra for C21st America if ever I heard one. Of course there's such a thing as 'free'. Yeah, someone pays, but if it ain't me, then it's free. If I end up with two copies of a book and I give one away, I've paid for both but the surplus copy is entirely free to whoever I give it to. If I help a friend out with their PC, I pay with my time, but the service is free to them. Things are sometimes done in kindness, or in the service of a better world, even in this day and age. Don't let 'them' convince you otherwise.

      Of course, free iPod schemes are a different matter, and I'd imagine this kind of cynical appeal to the frugally covetous is what you're talking about. But I don't equate archive.org with the architects of those kind of schemes. It IS still possible to get something good and decent for free, and that's something to be thankful for.

    3. Re:Repeat after me kids.... by McLusky · · Score: 1
      I haven't paid a cent for Slashdot.

      Hmmm... I suppose the guilt of getting all this free content weighs on my soul... so in a way it's not free.

      Dude, you just blew my mind.

    4. Re:Repeat after me kids.... by node+3 · · Score: 1

      ..THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "FREE".

      Sure there is.

      Somebody pays, always. If not you directly, then you pay indirectly; if not now, then later, but you get nothing for free.

      That's not what 'free' means. 'Free' is something that has a specific context--in the case at hand, the context is monetary payment, of which the service is provided for 'free' (as is Google, slashdot, etc).

      You're talking about causality--specifically that for every effect (say, you get a free hotdog at the mall), there must be a cause. That doesn't make the hotdog any less free, as long as you understand the context.

    5. Re:Repeat after me kids.... by mabu · · Score: 1

      free (fre) adj. 1. not under the control or power of another, ... 9. with no charge or cost.

      I guess it all depends upon how flexible you are with defining the terms, but therein lies the problem with the whole notion of something being "free."

      Buy one, get one FREE!

      FREE! (after $20 mail-in rebate)

      There is no such thing as "FREE" really, unless you change the definition of free to relate to a marketing technique designed to convince people that the value of what they exchange for the object product is of such inconsequential quantification that it suggests something for nothing [sic].

      Furthermore, the whole notion of a product or service's value to an individual is dependent upon the perceived value of the product. If something is "free", it has exponentially less value in the first place (i.e. if you earn something out of hard work, it has more value).

      The whole "dot com boom" (and subsequent bust) was based around this illusionary business model where one would give away products and services (FREE!) and in turn at some point in the future (after garnering market share via whoring themselves out) spontaneously profit. It didn't work that way. It still doesn't work that way, but this doesn't stop, as I said before, people acting like brain dead, drooling baboons at the premise that they can get something for free, which is never, EVER, truly free.

      I challenge ANYONE to show me ANYTHING that is "free". Everything has a price. Foolish people who don't value esoteric aspects of their world might claim something is "free" but it's not -- it's just them devaluing their time or other non-traditional forms of payment or trade.

      Take Gmail. It's NOT "free". It never was. In return for your "free e-mail account" you enter into a contract with Google to provide value to them. You might not consider the content of your e-mail or the people you acknowledge you communicate with to be an item to barter with, but Google does, and therefore you're naive if you think you're getting something for nothing.

    6. Re:Repeat after me kids.... by mabu · · Score: 1

      That's a mantra for C21st America if ever I heard one. Of course there's such a thing as 'free'. Yeah, someone pays, but if it ain't me, then it's free. If I end up with two copies of a book and I give one away, I've paid for both but the surplus copy is entirely free to whoever I give it to. If I help a friend out with their PC, I pay with my time, but the service is free to them. Things are sometimes done in kindness, or in the service of a better world, even in this day and age. Don't let 'them' convince you otherwise.

      Fair enough example, but you're talking about "Free for YOU", not "free" in general. And there is a difference. Today's marketers promote products that seem to have no liability, obligation or burden to anyone whatsoever. This free web space debacle is a good example. It might be "free" for you, but then again it may not be, but one things for sure, it's not "free" in general because someone pays, and because it's not truly "free", you can NEVER count on having this freebie "for life". So as I said before, nothing is free... nothing. Least of all this dumbass "free web space for life" scam.

    7. Re:Repeat after me kids.... by iammaxus · · Score: 1

      I think what the parent was saying is that there is always an exchange. It can be argued that in the cases you described, the receiver is not paying with money/services/goods/etc, but he or she will be accruing a sort of social debt to you. You may claim that you are giving these things entirely without strings attached, but can you imagine any sort of relationship where one party is continuously giving and the other not returning anything at all? It just doesn't happen. I see it almost as a mathematical neccesity; there must always be an exchange

    8. Re:Repeat after me kids.... by Twinbee · · Score: 1

      And then there's simply the case where technology and bandwidth becomes so cheap and efficient that it may as well be free. Especially if it's just one group of people which can make a noticable difference to the world at a relatively small cost.

      --
      Why OpalCalc is the best Windows calc
    9. Re:Repeat after me kids.... by aaronsorkin · · Score: 1

      Somebody get this guy a library card!

    10. Re:Repeat after me kids.... by mqduck · · Score: 1

      Forgive me for trolling and not adding anything to the conversation, but I think I love you. That's about the most intelligent thing I've ever read on Slashdot, especially when compared to the usual sentiments on the matter.

      Personally, I think the problem is the 80s attitude somewhat dominant among geeks still.

      --
      Property is theft.
    11. Re:Repeat after me kids.... by ESqVIP · · Score: 1

      Yeah, "there is no such thing as 'free'" is just being pedantic. It is quite obvious that, in a real world, if you gain something there needs to be a loss somewhere else. No need to keep saying that. It is also quite obvious that a company, looking for profit, won't offer something for free without a plan of return of investment (like free advertising when people see you using their product). Again, is it so important and insightful to state the obvious? Say what the company actually wants rather than just saying a generic sentence over and over again.

      Maybe we should rename the Free Software movement.

    12. Re:Repeat after me kids.... by mabu · · Score: 1

      Taxpayer money funds the library dude. I know most people don't have the attention span to see the cause-and-effect relationship there, but it is there. Somebody pays for all those books and services that you get for "free", and it's you, or your parents.

    13. Re:Repeat after me kids.... by nicky_d · · Score: 1

      I challenge ANYONE to show me ANYTHING that is "free".

      Zen master holds up a mirror. When does this offer expire?

  50. Re:Porn collection by turtled · · Score: 1

    1.3TB of porn?! Wow, not that's a lot..!

    --
    "I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection." -- Sigmund Freud
  51. Scam or Naivete by buckhead_buddy · · Score: 1
    ChipMonk wrote:
    TANSTAAFL. Need I say more?
    Expanding the acronym to it's full length might help (There Aint No Such Thing As A Free Lunch).

    Unlike most acronyms posted on slashdot, this one actually seems to have been coined as a fad and hip bit of slang well before the personal computer. (My origins don't go back much further than that so I can't comment on it's real coinage).

    Of course, this type of language research in the past has been helped by the need for people to write things down in physical form. If this isn't a scam where the poster waves their copyright or something (which is very possible), I suspect that these motives to monitor evolution of thought and language might be their noble (but naive) purpose for offering this service.

  52. Re:Are they going to delete stuff like on 9/11? by Leo+McGarry · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is regular tin foil okay, or should I be using the heavy-duty kind?

  53. Re:What is Drupal? by bertboerland · · Score: 1

    drupal is more than a php based blog, I have been using it since 4 years and I like to think of it as an application framework than can act as a blogserver as myblog is. Drupal was described as community plumbing but now "simpley" is an
    " ...open source content management platform.

    Out of the box it can do a lot, has clean code, a really cool development and support community and lots of high profile (read: often slashdotted) sites are hosted on drupal such as kerneltrap and spreadfirefox

    Drupal is on the forfront of technology. It was one of the first to use real taxanomy, clean URL's and distributed authentication.
    The name drupal? That is another story

    --
    -- for undocumented cisco commands, take a peek @ dotu
  54. Re:Are they going to delete stuff like on 9/11? by ZonaldRumzfeld · · Score: 1

    I get modded troll for this? Go figure. Why don't you guys look for your damn self?

  55. Server Meltdown by Jensaarai · · Score: 1

    I can't access it.

    Well, it was a good idea while it lasted. Lifetime storage, but nobody can get to it!

  56. How Long Until... by CaptMattman · · Score: 1

    How Long Until the idgets post copyrighted stuff and the cops come out and impound the web servers?

    --
    -Mattman
    http://OneBillion.blogspot.com
  57. Re:Are they going to delete stuff like on 9/11? by daveschroeder · · Score: 1

    No. Prove that it was there before, dumbass.

    But I doubt you can. If it makes you feel better to think that everything is a Bush/neocon conspiracy, go for it!

  58. nice ! by sla291 · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's nice to see that free services like that are flourishing...

    jamendo does it too, for CC music albums, and they use bittorrent.

  59. Re:Perhaps... by omahajim · · Score: 1
    All sites that are linked to by /. should be hosted here...

    Here's why not. One of the more frequent user arguments for mirroring on slashdot itself, is the issue of depriving advertisers on quoted sites from eyeballs, but there's plenty of other mirror sites so /. doesn't need to get involved.

  60. Hmmm . . . by d-e-w · · Score: 1

    Their rules and policies aren't very clear. Much of the media being created for and posted to the web falls into the "gray" areas of copyright--media whose copyright status hasn't been tested in court because the RIAA/MPAA/big media companies are afraid to lose, although they might just win. I wonder if they want that media or not.

  61. Interesting Funding by r00td43m0n · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The about page on archive.org states they received funding from 'Alexa Internet' http://www.alexa.com/. Is this the same Alexa that is known for spyware applications?

    1. Re:Interesting Funding by d-e-w · · Score: 1

      The Alexa that's referred to there is the predecessor to the Internet Archive (the company that did the web-crawling and content collection from 1995-1999). I think it was also associated with one of the big portal companies that went belly-up around 2000-2001?

      I thought that Alexa was defunct, although I could be wrong.

    2. Re:Interesting Funding by DeathPenguin · · Score: 1

      Yep, and the same one owned by Amazon now if I'm not mistaken.

  62. Another one bites the dust. by tulare · · Score: 1

    Honestly, sometimes I think people post their websites to slashdot just to do load-testing.

    --
    political_news.c: warning: comparison is always true due to limited range of data type
  63. I think you are incorrect by AtariAmarok · · Score: 1
    "..THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS "FREE". Somebody pays, always. If not you directly, then you pay indirectly; if not now, then later, but you get nothing for free."

    I think you are incorrect. There are just too many examples of getting things free and you never have to pay. The term "gift" comes to mind: gifts typically involve this.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
    1. Re:I think you are incorrect by d1v1d3byz3r0 · · Score: 1

      the point is that *someone* pays. not necessarily you, but the equation has to balance out. if you feel you have *gained* some capital, then some loss must have occurred somewhere to facilitate that gain.

  64. He may have a point by AtariAmarok · · Score: 1
    "Nonsense! Only a baboon would question mabu's wisdom! A baboon!"

    Mabu may have a point. If someone gives you a free baboon, you end up paying dear.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  65. Just Curious... by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 1

    >it gets hosted for free, for life

    How will they know I'm dead so they can take it down. Or, can I upload myself and become a Stored Mind, as in The Boy Who Would Live Forever?
    --
    Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
  66. Payment doesn't have to be monetary, however... by Dr.Dubious+DDQ · · Score: 1

    In this case, one "pays" by providing media to the metaphorical media bank if you're using their hosting service, and you "pay" by giving attention to the media posted there (and therefore directly or indirectly attention to the creator(s) of the media) thus encouraging people who want their media distributed to continue providing more if you are simply downloading media from them.

    Still, I agree with your sentiment. In the USA, we USED to have this thing called "The American Dream", which referred to the idea that anyone could come to the country, and if they worked hard, they'd be "successful" (which meant having a home and a reasonable selection of minor luxuries e.g. a car, television, etc.). We STILL have something called "The American Dream", but it's not the same one, now it just means "getting a pile of money for little or no work", such as through winning the lottery or profitable lawsuits. The part of the equation that related the amount of success to the amount of work one did has somehow been removed from the concept, and it really bothers me...

    1. Re:Payment doesn't have to be monetary, however... by d1v1d3byz3r0 · · Score: 1

      the people who pays are the donors that keep the site up and running. the donors are compelled by the cultural value of the site, which you contribute to by hosting your media there. the idea is that the donors are donating based on future cultural value (the potential), and future cultural value will always, in theory, be greater than present cultural value. essentially, it's an intellectual form of credit capital.

  67. Re:If it sounds too good to be true ... by TTK+Ciar · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Internet Archive has been around since 1996. We're funded by webcrawls-by-contract and by the Brewster Kahle Foundation. The Archive is a non-profit organization. We have no creditors. So relax.

    It is in our charter to perpetuate our archives forever, and it's a charge we take seriously. As our hard drives go bad (and oh do they ever!) they are replaced by new ones, and we are protected from data loss by mirroring our archives across machines, and across data centers in different countries.

    -- TTK

  68. TISTAAFL by AtariAmarok · · Score: 1

    There is such thing as a free lunch. I've seen it in countless forms, including as an actual free lunch. One relevant example was a guy in Europe who provided free web hosting. No ads, no problems. You could even seamlessly connect your domain name there. Great support and everything. There is such thing as a free lunch.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  69. what free for life means on the Internet by frovingslosh · · Score: 1
    Wow, free for life, right in a slashdot healine. I sill have my e-mail from USA.NET when I joined their e-mail service. I was an early supporter, so early I was able to snag foo@usa.net as my e-mail address. Their promotion and my e-mail from them said it was my account, free for life. That was, of course, before I gave it out widely to all of my friends and contacts, as well as encouraging many of my friends to get their usa.net free for life accounts. Then they announced that it would no longer be free for life. Not intending to do business with a company who deals with their early adopters this way, I no longer have the account. There may still be people who occasionally try to reach me that way, but I never get the mail.

    Think this is an isolated cae? I can tell you a similar story about a company who promoted their free e-mail accounts with the phrase "Bigfoot for Life". Now since I don't cough up a monthly fee they cut my mail off after a small number of e-mails each day. The spammers use up that capacity, so I seldom get anything useful to my Bigfoot account, although on a rare occasion e-mail for an old friend I had lost contact with does still sneak through (the only reason I still bother to sort through the sapm).

    In the Internet world free for life seems to mean free until you get dependent on the account and have your address passed out to all your friends, then we start charging you. It's a shame to see Slashdot involved in this type of marketing hype.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    1. Re:what free for life means on the Internet by RedOregon · · Score: 1

      Same with mail.com - I signed up for an address at mindless.com (one of their holdings), beta testing and reporting problems, based on the promise of that email address for life.

      Until they sent me an email saying I could have a mail.com address for life, but the mindless.com one would cost me money now.

      Now that we've used you to fix all our problems.

      Fuck you very much, thank you.

      --
      Skivvy Niner? Email me!
      HEY! Look left just ONE MORE TIME!
  70. Not that by AtariAmarok · · Score: 1
    "In a thousand years, provided humanity hasn't wiped itself out by then, the internet archive (and by extension, ourmedia.org) will be what archaeologists use to learn about us"

    Nah. I think that the first thing visting aliens will see will be the 400 km wide three-dimensional Goatse carved into the Tibetan plateau when some scriptkid hacks a spaceborne combat laser array sometime around 2070.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
    1. Re:Not that by geminidomino · · Score: 1

      Nah, the array is going to do it by itself when it achieves sentience and gets bored and lonely, until a small, hyperactive, gender-confused hacker befriends it.

  71. Cool! by Devil · · Score: 1

    Hey, great! Of course, it'll only take twenty minutes for OurMedia to get it OUT from a requesting page to the user's browser.

  72. It's all about marketing. by StreetFire.net · · Score: 1

    You know a year ago, on StreetFire.net we launched a "hard drive for life" with 1GB webmail, calendars, user groups, 2GB file storage, sharing (share with user, group, domain or web).

    Guess what? We only had 100 people sign up and half of them didn't use the system.

    So we:
    • Disabled webmail
    • Disabled contacts
    • Disabled calendars
    • Disabled All uploaded file types with the exception of video formats
    • Disabled all share levels and made everything shared with Web.

    Then we renamed the service http://videos.streetfire.net/

    Guess what? now it's a run away success, with 50% traffic growth and we're up to 44,000 unique visitors in 3 weeks and will have half a million videos served in our first month.

    So the moral of the story is, it isn't the service it's how it's marketed.

    -Adam

  73. For Life? by DrewCapu · · Score: 1

    I'm still not quite sure what the exact question is, but I think the answer is 42.

  74. Copyrights by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

    "Please don't post material that you don't have the right to publish or violate any copyright or other proprietary rights in your posts."

    That's all they say. It's good enough for me: I bought this CD; just putting it up on a Webdrive, and listening to it myself from wherever, is fair use of the copyrighted material. But for how many microseconds will a record company exec pause before deciding that someone else, somewhere, might listen to some music on which they have the copyright, without paying the record company extra? And pounce with every harassment, especially legal, to stop me from fairly using it myself, though I do no abuse?

    --

    --
    make install -not war

    1. Re:Copyrights by aaronsorkin · · Score: 1
      Buying the CD doesn't mean you own the music on it. It means you can listen to it, share it with *a few* friends, etc. -- but not publish it for the masses to hear.

      We all know that by now, don't we?

      But if you're the music's creator, you can publish it on Ourmedia (or hell, just the song lyrics, if you don't want to upload the music).

      For the record: Our partners the Internet Archive, founded in the mid-'90s, host thousands of songs and concerts on their servers.

      # of cease and desist orders they've received in their history? Zero.

      -- jd, ourmedia co-founder

    2. Re:Copyrights by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      Yes, we know all that - that's what I wrote in my post. The music hosted on the IA is all cleared by its copyright owners for exactly that kind of sharing. This offer is new ground. Because it seems like the record companies will demand more than that succinct, fair requirement for copyright control. Much more - which they don't expect to get, rather they expect to control the process, and stop it whenever they can. So, when you step on their toes, what's your defense strategy? I'm on your side, so I hope the strategy is better than "that won't happen".

      --

      --
      make install -not war

  75. Re:If it sounds too good to be true ... by TTK+Ciar · · Score: 1

    Correction: Kahle-Austin Foundation, not "Brewster Kahle Foundation" :-P my mistrake

    -- TTK

  76. Pr0n by sabat · · Score: 1

    Is it just me, or does it seem likely that the primary use of this nice offer will be for pr0n hosting?

    --
    I, for one, welcome our new Antichrist overlord.
  77. Re:If it sounds too good to be true ... by hachete · · Score: 1

    So I guess you already *know* that yr server is burning slowly in the background..

    but, smartarseness aside, I saw BK speak at NotCon last year and he is *great*. IIRC, he was hawking a job for technical director of the european center and it's to my everlasting regret that I didn't put myself forward for it because the whole deal that you guys do is frigging *fantastic*: an archive to surpass the Library of Alexandria is how I understand it. Awesome. I do hope you achieve it.

    --
    Patriotism is a virtue of the vicious
  78. Re:If it sounds too good to be true ... by TTK+Ciar · · Score: 2, Informative

    What I posted was only half the story .. in full, the Archive gets its funding the same way that traditional libraries do, through grants from foundations, donations from private entities, and in-kind donations from corporations. The K/A Foundation and crawls-by-contract are just the sources of income with which I am most familiar (I'm just a dumb-ass programmer, so that part of the business isn't very visible to me, thus the oversight).

    -- TTK

  79. A little known media archive .. by Eloquence · · Score: 2, Informative
    .. that everyone will start talking about soon is the Wikimedia Commons, which already hosts about 40,000 files (mostly images). All of the content on the Commons is under a free license. What is it? It's the media archive used by the Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia and Wikinews. It's been created in September last year and has been growing at a rapid pace ever since.

    If you own content that might be useful to Wikipedia or the other Wikimedia projects, such as holidy photos from a far-away country, please upload it to the Commons. If you don't want to learn the ways of the wiki, you can use the newly created (free) file upload service, where Wikimedia volunteers will tag and upload your files for you. The only condition is that you put them under a free license or in the public domain.

    Remember, all the Wikimedia projects are run by a non-profit organization that depends on donations from people like you.

    1. Re:A little known media archive .. by Kris_J · · Score: 1

      Excellent. I wonder if Ourmedia or Wikimedia Commons will be a suitable replacement for Flickr.

    2. Re:A little known media archive .. by aaronsorkin · · Score: 1
      We're not looking to replace Flikr. We love Flickr. They do a lot of things better than we do -- certainly for photos, they have more functionalities today.

      It's true that at a certain level of storage or uploads, Flickr charges and Ourmedia doesn't. But they offer other things of value.

      Flickr's founder, in fact, is a member of the Ourmedia wiki.

      Down the road, who knows? Maybe us nonprofits and for-profit outfits like Flickr will be able to find ways to collaborate ... to everyone's benefit.

      -- jd

    3. Re:A little known media archive .. by Kris_J · · Score: 1

      But I am looking to replace Flickr. I liked it so much I bought a Pro account at the beginning of the year. Now I hear that it's been bought by Yahoo. So I'm in the market for a new place to host my photos.

  80. Re:Are they going to delete stuff like on 9/11? by bluprint · · Score: 1

    That's the first time I've seen that. It's an awful big coincidence don't you think?

    --
    A modern day witchhunt.
  81. Nope, TSANSTAAFL by ChipMonk · · Score: 1

    There Still Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Those "freebies" you got still cost somebody something. Just because they didn't cost you anything (directly) doesn't mean they were without cost.

  82. And the nyud.net mirror is hosed too. by jbn-o · · Score: 1

    "Warning: mysql_pconnect(): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2) in /home/ourmedia/htdocs/includes/database.mysql.inc on line 31
    Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2)"

    I'm getting a mirrored copy of a MySQL error from ourmedia.org; in other words, Coral Cache is working fine, it's the ourmedia.org hosting service that is apparently still not quite ready for the popularity.

  83. No porn or pirated works, but anything else works by aaronsorkin · · Score: 2, Informative

    So the deal is: Yeah, you can post pretty much anything here, for free. No porn or pirated works, though. Sorry 'bout that -- we'd like to remain open, thank you very much.

    As far as "only copyrighted works" -- not quite. We'll host any materials: public domain texts and movies, GNU General License software, works that fall within well-accepted fair use standards. And, of course, the stuff you create yourself.

    We're trying to help enable remix culture, so that people will be able to find works they can freely build upon, remix and recirculate. Without getting a call from your friendly RIAA/MPAA legal team.

    -- jd, one of the founders

  84. Please deposit your slashdot fee right away... by rbarreira · · Score: 1

    OK. Please deposit your slashdot fee right away...

    --

    The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
  85. Re:Are they going to delete stuff like on 9/11? by MushMouth · · Score: 1

    They didn't delete anything before 9-11, they just weren't crawling news sites all that much (at most once a month), then when 9-11 happened news sites became a much bigger deal so they bumped up to crawl them (a select group) hourly

  86. Re:Are they going to delete stuff like on 9/11? by ZonaldRumzfeld · · Score: 1

    Uhh, did you even look? They were crawling websites quite a bit before 9/11, daily, then all of the sudden 2-3 months end up missing.

  87. Re:Are they going to delete stuff like on 9/11? by MushMouth · · Score: 1

    No it's not, NEWS happened on 9/11, the archive responded by collecting more data than they had been. If you look at the general internet wide traffic for these sites, you would see a huge jump on the same day. August was an anomoly for that year, but but they DID NOT delete anything. (I know people quite well wh did the crawl for the archive). If you look at 2000 they generally only hit a site once a month, 2001 they ramped it up, but people complained, after 9/11 the Library of Congress got involved so the complaints were ignored.

  88. Re:Are they going to delete stuff like on 9/11? by MushMouth · · Score: 1

    look at 2000. they ramped up in 2001, but sites weren't all that happy about it. After 9/11 it didn't matter.

    Dude, I'm sorry this is just a rumor without any truth behind it.

  89. Re:Are they going to delete stuff like on 9/11? by MushMouth · · Score: 1

    looks like microsoft had the same tail off in july

    http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://microsoft.co m

  90. Getting our performance up to snuff by aaronsorkin · · Score: 1
    Just so ya know, we're doing all we can to enhance performance. Didn't get to get slammed like this right out of the box.

    We're got a first-rate team of Drupal coders on the case. Throttle is being turned on (so blocks won't appear, but site will still function), unused modules are being removed (even unused ones contribute to load as code gets parsed) etc. etc.

    There is also a *lot* of php code and mysql tables that need to be vetted. there is a ton of custom code that has been volunteer written for ourmedia - so part of the task too is assessing some of this as we move along.

    one side note: as for the serving of the actual media - it all happens from archive.org which does give us some short delays here and there. but nothing unsolvable.

    Remember, folks, we're an all-volunteer open-source project. People have put in hundreds of hours -- and we ain't gettin' paid for this!

    So please be patient and be gentle (right!) as we work out the kinks. As the site says in bright lettering, we're in Alpha mode!

    - jd, schmoozer in chief and co-founder

  91. Re:Are they going to delete stuff like on 9/11? by ZonaldRumzfeld · · Score: 1

    Indeed, try news sites, you'll notice they are cut off at least a month or two, while other sites (non-news) seemed to have no problem doing daily updates. Some of the news sites were being archived at least 4 times a day, then just happened to be cut off. Then just happened to start right back on 9/11. Just a coincidence? heh

  92. "For Life" - whose? by nixman99 · · Score: 1

    Yours, or the life of yet another .com?

  93. Re:Are they going to delete stuff like on 9/11? by MushMouth · · Score: 1

    Believe what you will (although I know for a fact you are wrong). If you look at a random sample of sites, classifying those that are news as news, and those that are not news as not news you will find the same distribution across them for july, august and the first week of september. BTW that is how research is done, you look at data, and come up with theories, not create a theory and come up with the anecdotes to support it later. Also if your "theory" was based on fact then no news sites will have data in august....

    yet sfgate.com (a newspaper site) has 4000 pages crawled
    http://web.archive.org/web/20010801-20010 910*/http ://sfgate.com/*
    cnn.com has loads of pages there as well from that time period
    http://web.archive.org/web/20010801000000- 20010910 235959*sr_211nr_30/http://cnn.com/*

    there are plenty of others, but you have your idea and irrefutable evidence will unlikely change your mind.(nor probably would Brewster)

  94. Re:If it sounds too good to be true ... by TTK+Ciar · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well, the UI (the page linked to by slashdot here) isn't hosted at The Archive, for better or for worse.

    The non-waybackmachine web servers (ten, at present) at archive.org proper are load-balanced via keepalived, and should stand up okay before a slashdotting. We learned things about the limitations of our webfarm from hosting the tsunami videos in the wake of that disaster, and beefed them up significantly.

    Non-waybackmachine web traffic usually hovers around 40 to 60 hits per second, here, and we should be able to handle four or six times that before we start dropping anyone's connections.

    -- TTK

  95. Re:No porn or pirated works, but anything else wor by MushMouth · · Score: 1

    Brewster (the big cheese archiver) generally plays it safe, removing content that has been shown to be questionable. While the archive has people like Larry Lesig on their side, they do have a finite amount of resources.

  96. Re:Archive of an archive of an archive of an archi by Short+Circuit · · Score: 1

    It's logically trivial if you don't present your archive in the same communications medium as the one you're archiving.

    Like archiving Internet2, and presenting it on the internet. Or (not AND) vice versa.

  97. Coders needed for open source project by aaronsorkin · · Score: 5, Informative
    I was wondering whether to post this to /. or not.

    What the hell -- we're a free, not-for-profit, open-source media project. It doesn't get more Slashdotty than that.

    We're looking for coders to help out on Ourmedia -- to make it a Slashdotter's multimedia wet dream.

    The Ourmedia Project is relying on open-source developers to build new functionalities for the site -- such as media ratings, new RSS features, playlists, social networking, license searches, improved taxonomies -- and to help build a global registry connecting a network of grassroots media sites.

    That means six months from now we don't want to be just a destination website -- we want open-source schemas that will let any site hook into a global network of freely accessible grassroots media.

    But we can't pull that off unless more expert coders pitch in. (Here's our current project team and advisory board.) (Apologies, we're adding more servers tonight.)

    See our Volunteer page for details. Pass it along. Or ignore this, as you wish. :~) -- jd (email), co-founder

  98. Re:Are they going to delete stuff like on 9/11? by ZonaldRumzfeld · · Score: 1

    What a bunch of bullshit.
    http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://sfg ate.com

    Sites were being hit up EVERYDAY 4x's.

  99. Re:Are they going to delete stuff like on 9/11? by aaronsorkin · · Score: 1

    For the record, "they" are not us.

    We're using the Internet Archive's servers, but there's not a single Internet Archive employee on our Project staff list:

    http://ourmedia.org/about/team

    (that is, if our freaking creaking servers regain life later tonight)

    We'll be dealing with removal requests when they come in. But we won't be removing media just because someone doesn't like it.

  100. FAQ on OurMedia.org by XaviorPenguin · · Score: 2, Informative

    ?: I don't have any personal media to share. Can I still join?

    !: Yes, and we'll even give you a free blog.

    ?: Is there an Ourmedia community?

    !: Yes -- many communities. You can use Ourmedia for any legitimate purpose: as a social meeting space, a gathering spot to diss Big Media, a learning center for tips on how to create compelling video or photos, or for other reasons. It's up to you.

    ?: Hey, MP3s by David Byrne and the Beastie Boys are on Ourmedia. What are they doing here?

    !:Ourmedia is for amateurs, hobbyists and professionals. We don't discriminate against artists just because they're under contract with a music label. We try to help bands, DJs and solo musicians achieve greater visibility, so it wouldn't make sense to banish artists who have achieved commercial success. Ourmedia is about inclusiveness.

    ?: Many artists like Byrne, the Beasties, Le Tigre and others are letting you remix, re-create and recirculate their works -- for free -- under a Creative Commons license.

    !: I didn't upload my stuff, but I see it on Ourmedia anyway. Why?

    ?: If you assigned your work a Creative Commons license in the past, that means you agreed to share it with anyone. Ourmedia is about exposing and sharing works, so someone probably took the initiative to place your work on our servers for sharing. Please feel free to make changes to your work's media page; we'll make sure you have full access.

    !: If someone uploaded your material to Ourmedia and it does not have a Creative Commons license, that means the person violated our Site rules and we'll remove the material. See our Deletion and retraction policy.

    ?: Why can't I leave anonymous comments?

    !: This is a community. Only members may blog, post comments and participate in our Forums. Registering takes only a few moments.

    ?: Your site doesn't look complete.

    !: Ourmedia is in alpha, which means we're still in our early stages (next comes beta). Instead of spending years working on the site behind closed doors, we decided to ask other volunteers to join us in building out the site and adding new functionalities. We're an all-volunteer open-source effort. Not to brag, but we've already come farther than a lot of sites with a full-time paid staff. And here is what's on our drawing boards.

    ?: Dude, there's some pretty harsh stuff on Ourmedia!

    !: We can pretty much guarantee that you can find material on Ourmedia that you won't like. That's the price of visiting an open library and global town square. This isn't a watered-down, PG-rated, safe-for-the-FCC mass medium. Our Site rules explain that as a global repository, we draw the line at pornographic and infringing materials, but we are not in the business of censoring media we disagree with.

    ?: No porn, you say?

    !: No porn. Go away.

    --
    Friends help you move...
    REAL Friends help you move dead bodies... ^_^
  101. Nope, TISTAAFL by AtariAmarok · · Score: 1
    "Those "freebies" you got still cost somebody something"

    Did not take long to come up with another example: someone gets a nice new TV and they toss the perfectly good one out by the curb for anyone to take. It's a free lunch. I've seen it.

    Or, a church has a Thursday night dinner. They end up with some leftover, which goes to the homeless shelter. Another free lunch, literally.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
    1. Re:Nope, TISTAAFL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      The effort of raising the fork to your mouth?

      Running your digestion system takes energy. Even if someone injected you with glucose while you slept your heart would have to pump it around your body...

      Give me a long enough cynicism lever and a firm sense of despair, and I could move the World. Into the Sun.

  102. Hopefully archive.org works out for me too.. by inventric · · Score: 1

    It's been a coincidence that this came out today. I too have been needing a solution recently for hosting a new food network.

    Hopefully since archive.org works out for you, Radix, I have the same luck. We'll see. I started experimenting with torrents too.

    I found it a little tough for a newbie to start using torrents. I found and am using Blog Torrent. That's been a neat tool to get into torrents and trackers with the least effort possible.

  103. Re:Are they going to delete stuff like on 9/11? by MushMouth · · Score: 1

    August 2001 sfgate.com
    http://web.archive.org/web/200108*/http://sfgate.c om/*

    9553 unique pages. The front page they got less often, but they were still getting articles on all these site all along.


    CNN 2001/WORLD articles from 9/03/2001 I guess they forgot some, you can pick any date and get articles. They are there and were picked up. What more do you want?

  104. Re:Are they going to delete stuff like on 9/11? by MushMouth · · Score: 1

    the CNN world link is (I formatted it in a way slashdot ate) http://web.archive.org/web/20010903*/http://cnn.co m/2001/WORLD*

  105. Has anyone succeeded at uploading anything? by Animats · · Score: 1
    I tried to upload our DARPA Grand Challenge video. First, Ourmedia wants me to register. So I fill out the form, and it rejects the registration because I already have an Internet Archive account. Then it changes my password and mails it to me. So I log in with the Internet Archive account and the new password. Ourmedia says I'm logged in. But if I try to upload, it says I need an Internet Archive account, even though I'm logged in with one.

    And the relevant help page is a dead link.

    Good concept, needs work.

    1. Re:Has anyone succeeded at uploading anything? by aaronsorkin · · Score: 1
      Animats, if it still doesn't work for you today, let me know and I'll personally take care o' ya.

      As for uploads, we're getting some new servers Tuesday so that should help a lot.

      Dang, we need that DARPA Grand Challenge video on Ourmedia!

      jd, ourmedia support

    2. Re:Has anyone succeeded at uploading anything? by Animats · · Score: 1
      Tried again today. Clicking on the main Ourmedia page popped up an "enter password" dialog. No home page, just a password dialog. It wouldn't accept the password from yesterday. It just prompted for a password over and over. This looks like a broken web server.

      Tried again later. No response from the ourmedia.org server at all.

      Tried again later. Back to the "enter password" dialog.

      Good concept. Maybe someday it will work.

    3. Re:Has anyone succeeded at uploading anything? by Animats · · Score: 1
      Finished the process of submitting a still image. Never saw the image, though. So that works, sort of. So far, all I get is "Please be patient -- it should appear soon at this media page.

      You can watch new items come in on the Ourmedia main page, but you can't see them, because the update process is so slow. I submitted item #902, and half an hour later, the latest one is #907. So the load isn't high. Is the bottleneck a batch job, or does a real person have to look at this stuff before it goes up?

    4. Re:Has anyone succeeded at uploading anything? by Animats · · Score: 1
      Still waiting.

      I'm going to go out and wait with Vlad and Estragon for a while, then try later.

    5. Re:Has anyone succeeded at uploading anything? by Animats · · Score: 1
      It's still not up.

      Godot didn't show, either.

    6. Re:Has anyone succeeded at uploading anything? by aaronsorkin · · Score: 1

      We switched over to some beefy new servers this afternoon, finising up at 5 pm PT Tuesday.

      So, we're good to go now.

      Please don't jilt us! We're sorry! We'll be good from now on!!

      http://ourmedia.org

    7. Re:Has anyone succeeded at uploading anything? by Animats · · Score: 1
      Still not up.

      Vlad says Godot will show tomorrow.

  106. Umm, how are they gonna handle multi multi-media.. by J.+Random+Luser · · Score: 1

    when 11 hours after the post they're still /.ed from folks just doing a page lookup??

  107. Re:Porn collection by JohnPerkins · · Score: 1

    Not really that much. Entire collection of junk is 1.3tb, of which a relatively small portion is porn. Currently doing months-long cd to dvd conversion.

  108. Re:/.'d? by wcrowe · · Score: 1

    You've obviously never been stuck in rush hour traffic. The idea is not "highly unlikely" in the least.

    The fact is, if a (relatively) few slashdotters (thousands) can clog up the server by hitting it all at once, isn't it likely that out of the millions using the service, at any given time thousands will be hitting the server at once?

    It was wrong to mod me down for pointing out that if their service can't handle a few thousand slashdotters at once, they're not going to be able to handle a few million people at any time, because out of those few million, a few thousand will always be trying to gain access.

    --
    Proverbs 21:19