5 ms·

Internet Archive's S.F. office damaged in fire

83 points by louhong 13y ago

ToastyMallows 13y ago
> The fire is not believed to have caused major disruption to the website. No data were stored at the San Francisco site. Yay! EDIT: Also glad no one was injured.
- gojomo 13y ago
  That "no data were stored at the San Francisco site" wording is a bit misleading. There's tons of data at the Archive's SF headquarters - but the dedicated storage systems are in the building adjacent to where the fire was contained, from the photos I've seen. It could have been much, much worse.
drtse4 13y ago
Didn't knew where the central office was until a few weeks ago, here is a nicely done documentary that shows what's inside the former church that now hosts the internet archive: http://vimeo.com/groups/17441/videos/59207751 http://vimeo.com/groups/17441/videos/59207751
- gojomo 13y ago
  FYI, the scanning/'reading room' areas shown in that video from about 8m25s to 8m50s are in the building that appears totally lost to last night's fire. The blinky servers at the back of the large 'church hall', shown at the beginning (~0m45s-on) with concrete walls around them, are about as far from the fire area as is possible on the lot. The other green-walled server room, shown starting at 5m01s, is in a non-concrete office-like room closer to where the fire was.
sp332 13y ago
Here's a picture of what's left of the office: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BYZUtBdCUAAW6ey.jpg:large https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BYZUtBdCUAAW6ey.jpg:large and another https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BYZzCHYCAAA-WGA.jpg:large https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BYZzCHYCAAA-WGA.jpg:large These are apparently from @hollyquan of KCBS News. Edit: originally said "building" but it was just one of the offices in the building.
- britta 13y ago
  That's not the main part of the building - here are pictures with more context: http://richmondsfblog.com/2013/11/06/part-of-internet-archive-building-badly-burned-in-early-morning-fire/ http://richmondsfblog.com/2013/11/06/part-of-internet-archiv...
_delirium 13y ago
More detailed story, with some photos and video: http://richmondsfblog.com/2013/11/06/part-of-internet-archive-building-badly-burned-in-early-morning-fire/ http://richmondsfblog.com/2013/11/06/part-of-internet-archiv...
- _delirium 13y ago
  They now have a post themselves: http://blog.archive.org/2013/11/06/scanning-center-fire-please-help-rebuild/ http://blog.archive.org/2013/11/06/scanning-center-fire-plea...
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
sillysaurus2 13y ago
Let me second this sentiment: YAY! My stomach dropped when I heard the news. I was so relieved to see that archive.org still loads, and to hear that there was no data loss. It's become a ridiculously irreplaceable tool in my daily workflow. You found an interesting tutorial/article/paper written in 1995 but it fails to load when you follow the URL? Internet archive that shiz. An author has edited his webpage, and you're curious what it used to look like? Internet archive that shiz. Have a PDF link, but it's not loading? Check the archive. More often than not, it will load. If I remember correctly, I once recovered a ~1MB zip file from there as well. The zip file had disappeared from the normal web, but thankfully archive had snagged it. Maybe it was a PDF though. It seems impossible for the internet archive to persist forever... But it also seems about as valuable as the Library of Alexandria was in its day. Or rather, future historians will find it as valuable. So I hope we can get triple redundancy for it.
- zz1 13y ago
  Let me second this sentiment: NO! Just like you, when I first read about it, I was worried, but then I hoped something serious had happened. Why? Well, I like the Internet Archive like any other of us here does, but I am worried about his model: centralization. This time nothing happend, fine, but something actually can happen, someday. I just think that the "Better shut it down, NOW!" theory[0] also applies to the Internet Archive, and I hope I that one day I'll see a new one, federative and distributed. [0]: https://torrentfreak.com/shut-down-the-pirate-bay-founder-says-130708/ https://torrentfreak.com/shut-down-the-pirate-bay-founder-sa...
  - sillysaurus2 13y ago
    ... would you say the same about the Library of Alexandria? What would you have suggested they do? Not kept a library? You should play some poker. It'll give a healthy respect for how much odds can affect outcomes. Shocking situations will happen, but half the time you'll be the one doing the shocking. Often you can win with just a pair of 8's. Based on your attitude, it seems like you'd always choose to fold if you were only holding 8 8, but in reality it's sometimes worth it to call. Your expected value by not playing at all, though, is zero. Meaning you won't lose, but you won't win either. This only makes sense when you're satisfied with your environment as it exists today. I wouldn't be satisfied without the internet archive. It serves a vital function. They may be gambling against natural disasters, but you know what? They're still winning. And by choosing to play, they've improved our world a bit. We should be grateful, not scornful.
losethos 13y ago
Don't worry. God is witness. Yer fucked. God says... C:\TAD\Text\HUCKFINN.TXT nd says: "I've hunted high and I've hunted low, and it does beat all what HAS become of your other shirt." My heart fell down amongst my lungs and livers and things, and a hard piece of corn-crust started down my throat after it and got met on the road with a cough, and was shot across the table, and took one of the children in the eye and curled him up like a fishing-worm, and let a cry out of him the size of a warwhoop, and Tom he turned kinder blue around the gills, and it all amounted to a
IvyMike 13y ago
If you've ever considered donating, today would be a good day. https://archive.org/donate/ https://archive.org/donate/ I just did for the first time. Edit: The site appears to be overloaded, so if you have trouble donating, please try again later.
schenecstasy 13y ago
They don't have a backup office?
- MrZongle2 13y ago
  They've got quite a few snapshots of one, but they're missing a few of the back rooms.

83 points by louhong 13y ago

> The fire is not believed to have caused major disruption to the website. No data were stored at the San Francisco site. Yay! EDIT: Also glad no one was injured.

gojomo 13y ago
That "no data were stored at the San Francisco site" wording is a bit misleading. There's tons of data at the Archive's SF headquarters - but the dedicated storage systems are in the building adjacent to where the fire was contained, from the photos I've seen. It could have been much, much worse.

drtse4 13y ago

Didn't knew where the central office was until a few weeks ago, here is a nicely done documentary that shows what's inside the former church that now hosts the internet archive: http://vimeo.com/groups/17441/videos/59207751 http://vimeo.com/groups/17441/videos/59207751

gojomo 13y ago
FYI, the scanning/'reading room' areas shown in that video from about 8m25s to 8m50s are in the building that appears totally lost to last night's fire. The blinky servers at the back of the large 'church hall', shown at the beginning (~0m45s-on) with concrete walls around them, are about as far from the fire area as is possible on the lot. The other green-walled server room, shown starting at 5m01s, is in a non-concrete office-like room closer to where the fire was.

sp332 13y ago

Here's a picture of what's left of the office: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BYZUtBdCUAAW6ey.jpg:large https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BYZUtBdCUAAW6ey.jpg:large and another https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BYZzCHYCAAA-WGA.jpg:large https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BYZzCHYCAAA-WGA.jpg:large These are apparently from @hollyquan of KCBS News. Edit: originally said "building" but it was just one of the offices in the building.

britta 13y ago
That's not the main part of the building - here are pictures with more context: http://richmondsfblog.com/2013/11/06/part-of-internet-archive-building-badly-burned-in-early-morning-fire/ http://richmondsfblog.com/2013/11/06/part-of-internet-archiv...

_delirium 13y ago

More detailed story, with some photos and video: http://richmondsfblog.com/2013/11/06/part-of-internet-archive-building-badly-burned-in-early-morning-fire/ http://richmondsfblog.com/2013/11/06/part-of-internet-archiv...

_delirium 13y ago
They now have a post themselves: http://blog.archive.org/2013/11/06/scanning-center-fire-please-help-rebuild/ http://blog.archive.org/2013/11/06/scanning-center-fire-plea...

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

sillysaurus2 13y ago

Let me second this sentiment: YAY! My stomach dropped when I heard the news. I was so relieved to see that archive.org still loads, and to hear that there was no data loss. It's become a ridiculously irreplaceable tool in my daily workflow. You found an interesting tutorial/article/paper written in 1995 but it fails to load when you follow the URL? Internet archive that shiz. An author has edited his webpage, and you're curious what it used to look like? Internet archive that shiz. Have a PDF link, but it's not loading? Check the archive. More often than not, it will load. If I remember correctly, I once recovered a ~1MB zip file from there as well. The zip file had disappeared from the normal web, but thankfully archive had snagged it. Maybe it was a PDF though. It seems impossible for the internet archive to persist forever... But it also seems about as valuable as the Library of Alexandria was in its day. Or rather, future historians will find it as valuable. So I hope we can get triple redundancy for it.

zz1 13y ago
Let me second this sentiment: NO! Just like you, when I first read about it, I was worried, but then I hoped something serious had happened. Why? Well, I like the Internet Archive like any other of us here does, but I am worried about his model: centralization. This time nothing happend, fine, but something actually can happen, someday. I just think that the "Better shut it down, NOW!" theory[0] also applies to the Internet Archive, and I hope I that one day I'll see a new one, federative and distributed. [0]: https://torrentfreak.com/shut-down-the-pirate-bay-founder-says-130708/ https://torrentfreak.com/shut-down-the-pirate-bay-founder-sa...
- sillysaurus2 13y ago
  ... would you say the same about the Library of Alexandria? What would you have suggested they do? Not kept a library? You should play some poker. It'll give a healthy respect for how much odds can affect outcomes. Shocking situations will happen, but half the time you'll be the one doing the shocking. Often you can win with just a pair of 8's. Based on your attitude, it seems like you'd always choose to fold if you were only holding 8 8, but in reality it's sometimes worth it to call. Your expected value by not playing at all, though, is zero. Meaning you won't lose, but you won't win either. This only makes sense when you're satisfied with your environment as it exists today. I wouldn't be satisfied without the internet archive. It serves a vital function. They may be gambling against natural disasters, but you know what? They're still winning. And by choosing to play, they've improved our world a bit. We should be grateful, not scornful.

losethos 13y ago

Don't worry. God is witness. Yer fucked. God says... C:\TAD\Text\HUCKFINN.TXT nd says: "I've hunted high and I've hunted low, and it does beat all what HAS become of your other shirt." My heart fell down amongst my lungs and livers and things, and a hard piece of corn-crust started down my throat after it and got met on the road with a cough, and was shot across the table, and took one of the children in the eye and curled him up like a fishing-worm, and let a cry out of him the size of a warwhoop, and Tom he turned kinder blue around the gills, and it all amounted to a

IvyMike 13y ago

If you've ever considered donating, today would be a good day. https://archive.org/donate/ https://archive.org/donate/ I just did for the first time. Edit: The site appears to be overloaded, so if you have trouble donating, please try again later.

schenecstasy 13y ago

They don't have a backup office?

MrZongle2 13y ago
They've got quite a few snapshots of one, but they're missing a few of the back rooms.