Bootgod down?

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BlockOutGuy
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Joined: Wed Jan 06, 2016 8:23 am

Bootgod down?

Post by BlockOutGuy »

Don't drink and drive, kids!
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tehcloud
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Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2013 5:25 pm

Re: Bootgod down?

Post by tehcloud »

It is down and has been for days now.

I am working on a site that duplicates much of the functionality and contains most of the data on bootgod's site right now. It will be hosted in a way that is much more reliable.

I used bootgod's XML file and ran it through an XSLT processor with my custom XSLT stylesheets. Here is a proof of concept for what I want to achieve:
https://nesdir.github.io/

I decided to do it through generation of static files so it could easily be hosted on github or Amazon S3, eliminating the need for costly solutions, and making it easy to just modify the XML and regenerate the site. I am going to release the XSLT stylesheets and instructions for how to generate the site once I have finished tweaking them.
BlockOutGuy
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Re: Bootgod down?

Post by BlockOutGuy »

works again
Don't drink and drive, kids!
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Fisher
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Re: Bootgod down?

Post by Fisher »

Could someone please do a mirror of bootgod's site?
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tehcloud
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Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2013 5:25 pm

Re: Bootgod down?

Post by tehcloud »

That's what I am attempting to do. His XML file does not contain everything on his site unfortunately, nor images.

You can't make a mirror of the actual site, because he hides all his images behind a PHP script, so scraping is not really a good option, and might take his server down. I'm also not sure I want to cross the ethical boundary of just straight up ripping off his site. But on the other hand, the community obviously finds this information useful (I use it all the time), and we need to ensure it is preserved beyond the life of bootgod's server, or his interest in maintaining this site, or god forbid, his lifespan.

In 2017 it is dangerous to host anything on your home server, and there are many free cloud services that offer redundancy with zero effort. I also believe it should be in the hands of the community rather than one person, who is a single point of failure. I am going to hand my work over to the community shortly, and maybe that can be the base of something more resilient.
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Fisher
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Re: Bootgod down?

Post by Fisher »

Maybe you can try to contact Bootgod directly.
I don't think he would have any objection into someone mirroring his site and that would make very easy to get all the needed data.
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tehcloud
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Re: Bootgod down?

Post by tehcloud »

People may be tempted to try and make backups of the site, I ask that you please do not attempt this simply because it is very taxing on the server, not just bandwidth, but CPU-wise because spiders aren't really "smart" enough to deal with script-based sites like this. Plus, there are measures in place to detect bots and block them, so if you try it you might end up getting auto-blocked.
That's from his front page.

I don't know how to contact him, the details don't seem to be easily available on his site.
lidnariq
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Re: Bootgod down?

Post by lidnariq »

Most of the pictures are already present in the Internet Archive, too.
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Fisher
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Re: Bootgod down?

Post by Fisher »

tehcloud wrote: I don't know how to contact him, the details don't seem to be easily available on his site.
I'll try to PM him and see what happens...
BootGod
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Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2005 3:14 pm

Re: Bootgod down?

Post by BootGod »

...and it's down once again :/ sorry guys, more ancient hardware troubles. No data loss or anything like that though. It's probably going to be a few days before I have the time to mess with it unfortunately. I know people are getting fed up with the downtime and this really does need to go to a real host with more than one admin. But it's not as easy as it may sound, there is a lot that needs to be done under-the-hood before it'll work. I'll post a follow up soon.
tepples
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Re: Bootgod down?

Post by tepples »

Discuss the latest downtime in #16325
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