Major Setback: Tech-Pubs.net has been mishandled. - Printable Version
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Major Setback: Tech-Pubs.net has been mishandled. - Raion - 08-16-2025
I've been in contact with my host for the last week while they have been trying to restore the server that hosted tech-pubs.net and the wiki.
Unfortunately the prospect is not looking particularly great. I might have lost most of the data.
My backups haven't been in the last several weeks. Before you start judging me for being irresponsible, I've been working a soul-crushing job where I barely have been able to put food on the table. It's been quite painful for me. I'm still trying to climb out of that hole. Financially and mentally.
As a result I don't know what's going to happen but if it is in fact lost it's going to take a while before I'm able to rebuild. Most of the wiki is available on the Wayback Machine, I'll likely rebuild it from that worst case.
This has been a difficult year for me. A lot of hardships and a serious blow to my own mental health in many ways. All I can say is that things will improve eventually. I know not everyone can be satisfied with vague statements, but I have decided that considering the state of the community as a whole, not just IRIXNet, I don't think that there's really any room for people to truly complain. I'm trying to do what I can. Really I really wish I could focus on this stuff but a website about obsolete computers does not bring in nearly enough money to live off of.
RE: Major Setback: Tech-Pubs.net has been mishandled. - vishnu - 08-16-2025
Sheesh. Where I work, the IT department backs up everyone's $HOME once per hour during the workday, and then again at midnight. But basically, there are two types of computer users, those who have lost all their data and those who haven't lost all their data yet.
RE: Major Setback: Tech-Pubs.net has been mishandled. - weblacky - 08-16-2025
Well, none of those are the image archive nor the forums...so while it may seem a shame...we can live without them.
If you had to consider the priority of guarding what's truly unique and irreplaceable it's always the technical information that exists "no where else". And while the wiki was supposed to be the foundation of something, but it was still just the beginning and therefore while I know it constitutes a number of hours for you, there is nothing unique in it that we don't have at three or four other sites.
More importantly if you need to raise more funds through Patreon or other means do please let us know. I can definitely squeeze a few more dollars out on Patreon for you to keep this specific service going. If we had to dedicate funds to pay for reasonable time I don't mind doing that because this is the last place for SGIs, so I'd be willing to donate more. As long as I know that it's going to keeping this forum up and it's data and not toward extra projects.
If it's going to be a lean time for the foreseeable future then let's just say that I don't think anybody expects anything that we don't already have right here on the IrixNet forums.
As long as I can read and post to the forums, people can add images correctly and images come up correctly for viewing, as well as email messaging correctly goes out for both forum updates and PMs then I don't expect anything else or any other service. And if that has gotten more expensive for you, please do let us know and we'll see what we can do to keep this going!
RE: Major Setback: Tech-Pubs.net has been mishandled. - Raion - 08-17-2025
(08-16-2025, 10:34 PM)vishnu Wrote: Sheesh. Where I work, the IT department backs up everyone's $HOME once per hour during the workday, and then again at midnight. But basically, there are two types of computer users, those who have lost all their data and those who haven't lost all their data yet.
It's been difficult for me financially to keep anything running. My home server has been offline since February, for instance, primarily because potential hw failure.
I have been diligent about the forums and image gallery, but ancillary things end up by the wayside. I don't know how to explain that I don't have the physical or mental acumen at the end of an 8 hour work day to do much else.
RE: Major Setback: Tech-Pubs.net has been mishandled. - Raion - 08-17-2025
(08-16-2025, 10:53 PM)weblacky Wrote: And while the wiki was supposed to be the foundation of something, but it was still just the beginning and therefore while I know it constitutes a number of hours for you, there is nothing unique in it that we don't have at three or four other sites.
I can rebuild what's on there reasonably quickly when I have the time and ability to do so. Everything is on the way back machine, and I have the image archives. I am going to be checking over the next couple days if I have a database backup because that will save me a lot of time but ultimately, I'm not worried about anything irreplaceable being lost. Rebuilding everything there may take 2-3 weeks of work at most.
(08-16-2025, 10:53 PM)weblacky Wrote: More importantly if you need to raise more funds through Patreon or other means do please let us know. I can definitely squeeze a few more dollars out on Patreon for you to keep this specific service going. If we had to dedicate funds to pay for reasonable time I don't mind doing that because this is the last place for SGIs, so I'd be willing to donate more. As long as I know that it's going to keeping this forum up and it's data and not toward extra projects.
I have no problem affording keeping the forums up or anything. That's not the problem. The problem is that I can barely afford anything for myself right now. I don't have the disposable income I need for automated backups, I have no functioning home server at the moment so I'm hamstrung in regards to backing anything up that's not super important: where the hell am I expecting to put any of it? I don't have unlimited space on my appliance systems (a few RPI4/5s, my SGIs, my laptop and desktop). Asking for more money is not the answer because the amount I would need to pull myself out of my financial issues, is well, staggering for some. I am still paying off debts from 3-4 years ago.
(08-16-2025, 10:53 PM)weblacky Wrote: As long as I can read and post to the forums, people can add images correctly and images come up correctly for viewing, as well as email messaging correctly goes out for both forum updates and PMs then I don't expect anything else or any other service. And if that has gotten more expensive for you, please do let us know and we'll see what we can do to keep this going!
I'm going to say it again: don't rely on the forums to store images. I know it's a huge inconvenience and a potential area of archival issues where images go dead with external hosts, but I cannot be responsible for your images. This is why we limit the size and amount that people can post.
I don't necessarily have any good suggestions as far as areas to get image hosting from that aren't silicon image (which is held together with duct tape unfortunately, I don't know how long I'm going to be able to keep it running to be honest. That's why I was hoping that my developer was gonna work out but I fell out of touch with him and I can't afford to finish that project right now. ) point being I don't know or have all the answers you're looking for.
I'll be able to pull myself out of this situation given enough time and effort. I'm just not happy that I'm in it to begin with. Sadly I have expenses that have to take priority over my hobbies at the moment.
RE: Major Setback: Tech-Pubs.net has been mishandled. - vishnu - 08-17-2025
When I was running my website (I'm not anymore) I was running it from a computer in my house, with name service provided (for free) by opendns. I didn't have a static IP address, but opendns has a script that updates its nameserver every time your IP address changes. The point being, by using opendns you don't have to pay your upstream provider for a static IP address or for nameservice. Last time I checked, most ISPs were charging around 400 or 500 dollars (US) per month for that stuff.
RE: Major Setback: Tech-Pubs.net has been mishandled. - Raion - 08-18-2025
Running a home server isn't really in the cards except for small appliance systems really. There are numerous reasons but one of them is limited bandwidth. I have a 6Mbit upload speed on average. I previously did have a couple of small services running off of my home IP address but even one or two people downloading with saturate the uplink and make it slow as hell.
RE: Major Setback: Tech-Pubs.net has been mishandled. - jan-jaap - 08-18-2025
(08-17-2025, 08:09 PM)vishnu Wrote: When I was running my website (I'm not anymore) I was running it from a computer in my house, with name service provided (for free) by opendns. I didn't have a static IP address, but opendns has a script that updates its nameserver every time your IP address changes. The point being, by using opendns you don't have to pay your upstream provider for a static IP address or for nameservice. Last time I checked, most ISPs were charging around 400 or 500 dollars (US) per month for that stuff.
That's what I still do. techpubs.jurassic.nl has been coming to you from my utility cabinet for nearly a decade now, and I've been self-hosting for much longer. It used to run on a dedicated low-power Jetway server, but these days it's a VM on a NUC running ESXi. I've got gigabit FTTH, regular residential stuff with dynamic IP, and it's behind a free Cloudflare account in case someone decides to try something nasty.
I only host static sites which limits the attack surface and maintenance. I pay for the domain and the electricity and that's it.
RE: Major Setback: Tech-Pubs.net has been mishandled. - Raion - 09-09-2025
Rebuilding the HTML catalog now. It's gonna take a **bit** of time as nothing got archived, but it'll be, knock on wood, hopefully new and improved sooner or later.
I'm temporarily hosting it on the irixnet stuff, but I intend to restore its full independence soon.
RE: Major Setback: Tech-Pubs.net has been mishandled. - vishnu - 09-10-2025
Raion, how much access do you have with your provider? For example, mine offers full ssh access, with / (root) chrooted to everyone's $HOME, so it's possible to ssh in and make one's own backups from a fully functional shell prompt.