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Date:      Mon, 7 Jul 2008 10:49:40 -0400
From:      Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@msu.edu>
To:        DAve <dave.list@pixelhammer.com>
Cc:        FreeBSD Mailing List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: OT: anyone been crazy enough to mirror wikipedia?
Message-ID:  <20080707144940.GA74244@gizmo.acns.msu.edu>
In-Reply-To: <487195BA.1090906@pixelhammer.com>
References:  <BMEDLGAENEKCJFGODFOCKEMJCFAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com> <487195BA.1090906@pixelhammer.com>

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On Mon, Jul 07, 2008 at 12:04:10AM -0400, DAve wrote:

> Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
> >
> >>-----Original Message-----
> >>From: owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org 
> >>[mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Chad Perrin
> >>Sent: Monday, June 30, 2008 10:05 PM
> >>To: FreeBSD Mailing List
> >>Subject: Re: OT: anyone been crazy enough to mirror wikipedia?
> >>
> >>
> >>On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 05:15:39PM -0400, DAve wrote:
> >>>Steve Franks wrote:
> >>>>So call me a sociopath, but times are a bit scary.  I'd like to do the
> >>>>2000's equivalent of the 1960's bomb shelter, and have my very own
> >>>>snapshot in case of major local/regional internet disruption, etc.
> >>>>
> >>>>What would be the best way to go about this.  I see with <1T words, it
> >>>>appears doable on current technology.  Maybe they should offer a
> >>>>snapshot on DVDs or disk as a fundraiser?  I'd drop $300 for some sort
> >>>>of officially licenced copy, I suspect there are other freaks that
> >>>>would too...
> >>>When the world gets that bad, Wikipedia is the least of my concerns, 
> >>>slightly ahead of who is winning American Idol. If it comes to 
> >>the point 
> >>>the internet goes down for a long period of time, that $300 is better 
> >>>spent on a garden.
> >>>
> >>>Just my thoughts.
> >>Actually . . . if things get that bad, you're going to need some
> >>firepower to protect your garden (and everything else you don't want
> >>taken from you by force).  To properly protect a garden, you'd need to
> >>make it a community farm, with community members who have and will use
> >>firearms to protect it (and your Wikipedia mirror).
> >>
> >>Of course, I greatly admire the impulse to protect the collected
> >>knowledge of Wikipedia from disaster.  It's also practical -- because it
> >>contains a lot of information that might be of use (including good
> >>subsistence gardening information, for those of us who don't have
> >>naturally green thumbs).
> >>
> >
> >If the crash comes and you don't have 4 - 5 years of experience
> >running a garden on your land, plus your own well, your gonna starve.
> >
> >Veggies are very particular as to the kind of soil they like, and the
> >light and water they get.  And it takes several years of trying different
> >ones to figure out the ones that do best in your soil.  And most modern
> >veggies are hybrids  and the seed is genetically engineered, and patented.
> >Many varieties are, in fact, sterile.  Many others require irrigation to
> >produce sizable yields.
> >
> >To put in a "heritage" garden that will produce given the normally
> >occurring rainfall in your area takes someone with many years of
> >experience in your area growing gardens.  By the time you would
> >be able to get one going from info in wikipedia, you would have
> >died of starvation.
> >
> >Ted
> 
> Some of us will have veggies/skills/water for trade. But what he says is 
> true. It ain't as easy as read a page, plant a row. If I have a question 
> on FreeBSD, Wikipedia is my last resort, after phone calls. While it is 
> useful I suppose to some, I would never base a decision on anything I 
> read there. It is useful for key words and topics to expand a search 
> through better sources, but not much else. If Wikipedia is killing 
> Encyclopedia sales, it is because people are willing to accept 
> mediocrity over accuracy if accuracy comes at a price and mediocrity is 
> free.
> 
> It has been my experience, maybe things have changed, that a hardbound 
> reference book is the equivalent of asking Bunny Watson for an answer, 
> and Wikipedia is like asking Cliffy on Cheers.


Now, if you think Print Encyclopedias and/or Wikipedia are incomplete
and inaccurate, try checking out textbooks for Middle school, High school
and even undergraduate college.

////jerry


> 
> DAve
> 
> 
> -- 
> Don't tell me I'm driving the cart!
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