Saved images from old V site

One of the back ups, the unpacked size 356,933,954 bytes on images, so far they all seem to be bikes.
I don't have the time to go through all of them, so I'll try and locate a volunteer to help.
They seem to all be in separate folders, some names I recognize like tech bike. I was going to list all the names of the folders, but there are too many to list.

Maybe we could upload them all to an image-host like photobucket and let the community add comments to them... self-sorting so-to-speak.

Whaddyya think?

TylerDurden said:

Maybe we could upload them all to an image-host like photobucket and let the community add comments to them... self-sorting so-to-speak.

Whaddyya think?

Click to expand...

Tyler,
Your talking about a lot on images. I can't even open the largest back up, it's so large my machine is too small, so I'm sending them to Chas who has a very large system.
On the small one, it only covers the time after we left, until the site went down. All the index pages are there, but I haven't located any post yet. I'm told they are also there. They will all be infected if IE is used to open them.
The folders seem to contain images that were uploaded by individual users, and most are all thumbnails. There are some large ones of some nice looking bikes, but ne reference to who they belong to
I just don't currently have the time to go through all of them,and sort them out. I'm currently looking for volunteers who might do it latter.
Of the three back ups I have, this is the smallest, and some pages were damaged and need repair.
Plans include doing a "Lost and Found" as soon as they are retrieved, which right now I can't even find a way to copy them, just view them.
My main priority right now is getting the visforvoltage.net domain turned over to the V is for Voltage Community as I initially promised, so I can get on with the normal life I had before I just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and tried to help out.

Yeah,

no doubt there are a few files.

One thing you could consider, is to put the backup files on the .net server and let people download the files via FTP .

FWIW, There is a simple windows unix editor called Textpad (shareware) that can delete all the bad code from the saved pages. (find and replace across documents)

TylerDurden said:

Yeah,

no doubt there are a few files.

One thing you could consider, is to put the backup files on the .net server and let people download the files via FTP .

FWIW, There is a simple windows unix editor called Textpad (shareware) that can delete all the bad code from the saved pages. (find and replace across documents)

Click to expand...

Tyler,

Thanks, I believe that was the plan that's been suggested as far as converting it to text. Problem right now is finding all the time needed to do it.
What's really needed is a program written to remove the malware, it can be done, but there are cost involved.
Currently they all add up to about 700 MB of zipped data, by three different programs. There is one in Germany I need to download again, it's about 150MB compressed.
Then there is a copyright issue, Ken seems to have posted on the site, after the data was retrieved.
All user comments are the opinions of the respective posters.
All logos and trademarks are the property of the respective owners.
All site content copyright © 2005 by Ken Trough

I think you'd need written permission from Ken to re-post the material.

Then there is a copyright issue, Ken seems to have posted on the site, after the data was retrieved.

Click to expand...

I consented to no agreement relinquishing copyright to Trough or anyone else, and doubt any other members there did either. A copyright notice doesn't cut it, especially when it was posted after the fact. Only Congress gets to unilaterally alter contracts with retroactive clauses. Aren't these postings to open public forums generally considered by law public domain anyway?

xyster said:

Then there is a copyright issue, Ken seems to have posted on the site, after the data was retrieved.

Click to expand...

I consented to no agreement relinquishing copyright to Trough or anyone else, and doubt any other members there did either. A copyright notice doesn't cut it, especially when it was posted after the fact. Only Congress gets to unilaterally alter contracts with retroactive clauses. Aren't these postings to open public forums generally considered by law public domain anyway?

Click to expand...

Yes, you own all your own stuff. So if you have a picture or posting there, it's yours. But what he owns is the "space" it lived on so if he deletes it or leaves it up for the public is his decision. You can't copyright other people's pictures or posting, just decide if you want to leave it up to the public or not. So if the pictures or posting are made available, you can post it anywhere that you choose and there is nothing legal anyone can take against you, because it's your material.

Unless you "signed" something that says otherwise, you are protected.

fechter said:

I think you'd need written permission from Ken to re-post the material.

Click to expand...

The notice was another failed after thought by Ken, who btw unsubscribed from the V Refuge Monday, January 22, 2007 3:47 PM.
He was aware we had the backups, I told him how many and where they were, in case he needed them to repair the site. The only backup he found that was good at the time only went back to about June 2006. He also urged people to visit the temporary site until his site was repaired.
Currently we have about 700 MB of compressed data and images, and another 150 MB of compressed data we might need to re download from Germany. Together they should cover everything from Apr 2 2004, to the last day the site was up. The data before that is lost. Since all the pages are there, our only concern would be the few that have the statement on them.
There are now less than 30 of the original 60 days remaining, for the V is for Voltage Community to decide what they want to do with the domain and the backups, since they were the ones that initially requested both.

Posted: Apr 2 2004, 07:28 AM
Voltage Forum Admin
Group: Admin
Posts: 587
Member No.: 1
Joined: 2-April 04


We're back online! It's been a long week.
I guess we'll have to call this the Voltage Forum v1.1 or something now...

What happened to the site:
We experienced a very rare hardware failure that fatally corrupted not only the fault tolerant computer hard drive array, but also the onsite backup data. After failing to be able to restore the data in-house, We sent the drives out to data recovery specialists at considerable expense in order to try and salvage the site's datastructure and databases, but the data recovery guys were ultimately unable to recover any of our information. Because I had not fully debugged the system yet, I hadn't yet set up any offsite backups. So all our early data and all site infrastructure was completely lost. Our entire site needed to be recreated from absolute scratch. While the underlying server failure was out of my control, I am sincerely sorry that I did not take greater steps sooner to protect the first three weeks of site data. The lack of additional offsite backups was my failure as an administrator. It won't happen again.

Where we are now and what you need to do:
I have gotten the basic structure recreated and the forums are now back online. Not all functionality has been fully restored across the site, so things will continue to get refined for several weeks probably. All users will have to recreate their user accounts and can begin posting immediately. All moderators will need to email me directly with your moderation board preferences so that I can set you up with moderation status again in the appropriate places. All dealers will need to email me directly and I will put you into a special user group so that you can access the "dealers-only" forums. If anyone sees something that is missing or otherwise needs to be fixed, email me directly and I'll add it to the list.
admin@visforvoltage.com

How I prevent this from ever happening again:
This is what I have been working hard on for the past few days since the crash. First is a server upgrade. We are adding a second array controller and an additional array for some more fault tolerance within the server itself. We are also implementing a multi-layer backup strategy including:
a) improved onsite backup scripts and hardware in the data center in Toronto
b) nightly offsite backups to a server that I set up at a totally different ISP in Wisconsin
c) weekly hard copy backups onto CDROM at my local site in Washington

This multi-layered, geographically diverse approach affords us many site data snapshots, which in turn provide us with multiple fall back positions in case of catastrophic hardware failure like we saw in this case. This represents a significant expense in terms of both resources and bandwidth costs, but it is the only way I will be satisfied with the underlying safety of our forum data. All these measures are now in place and fully operational. We successfully ran a full backup test where we completely destroyed all site data including the databases and we then restored the entire site from a backup snapshot.

Why all this is expense and overkill is necessary:
Our site skyrocketed up over a million hits in the first three weeks of march with the Voltage Forums and V is for Voltage v3.0 site going online. We watched the traffic just build and build across the board with all the new and exciting community features. I am looking at this failure as a wake up call. This site is going to see some major growth and some SERIOUS traffic in the coming months. In the first three weeks alone, we served over 6GB of data with no video streams or large images. That's a large amount of bandwidth, and it's just gonna grow larger in the future. I had to make sure that our systems are ready for this kind of explosive growth.

Final thoughts:
I very much regret that this whole incident happened, but I honestly believe that we are now in a much safer position because of the improvements we've made in our systems in response to this crash. This kind of total data loss should not be able to happen again. As much as the members may feel cheated due to the loss of data, let me assure you that I am personally feeling it harder than anyone. Life goes on, you rebuild with a positive attitude, and you try to make sure it never happens again. That's what I am doing.

I welcome your thoughts and comments.

--------------------
- KT Roughneck
Outlaw Turbologist
206.339.8658 - vmail/FAX
ktrough - mobile AIM/YM
ken@visforvoltage.com
V is for Voltage Magazine

Hacker-Nitition Posted: Apr 3 2004, 01:15 PM

Voltage Forum Admin

Group: Admin
Posts: 587
Member No.: 1
Joined: 2-April 04

Regarding room for growth:
Our first three weeks netted over a million hits and about 6GB of total forum traffic.
We now have backup servers, a multiple offsite backup methodology, and a bandwidth overhead allowance of 60GB per month. I anticipate that this will serve our needs for at least 6 months, and if we need to beef up our back end some more, we have a scalable upgrade path at this point which can be implemented with almost no notice.

I think we are sitting really good at this point. I remain committed to the success and growth of this community. I also remain committed to keeping this forum free to end users. We certainly accept donations, but will never require $$ for access. The entire V is for Voltage site is dedicated first and foremost to being a global free library resource.
--------------------
- KT Roughneck
Outlaw Turbologist
206.339.8658 - vmail/FAX
ktrough - mobile AIM/YM
ken@visforvoltage.com
V is for Voltage Magazine

Copyright — The Constitution’s copyright clause and the First Amendment foster creativity and freedom of expression. Ideally, these two parts of the Constitution work hand in hand to ensure greater artistic, technological and scientific advancement. But oftentimes, particularly in the age of the Internet, copyright and the First Amendment collide.

The copyright clause: Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the Constitution reads: "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."

The First Amendment, the first 45 words of the Bill of Rights, provides that "Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech." The question becomes how to balance these two sometimes-competing principles.

Some inherent degree of tension exists between the First Amendment and copyright. Copyright allows creators of expressive conduct to control the flow of certain information and expression, while the First Amendment ensures the free flow of information and expression.

One purpose of copyright law is to provide protection for the creator of an expressive work. The main purpose of the First Amendment is to ensure public access to information. Copyright protection reduces access to some information by limiting the extent to which it can be copied by others. "By allowing the removal of certain speech from the marketplace of ideas, however, copyright appears to fly in the face of the goals of the First Amendment," legal scholar Stephen Fraser has written. Georgetown law professor Julie Cohen explains that "intellectual property protection, and particularly copyright protection, is a form of censorship."

Copyright creates property rights for the creators of certain works. This is why copyright, along with patent and trademark law, is labeled under the rubric of intellectual property. If a person copies another's work without permission, that person has trespassed on the creator's property, or copyrighted expression. This is called copyright infringement. If a person directly copies another's expression, that person has committed direct copyright infringement. If a person or company enables others to commit copyright infringement, they have committed contributory or vicarious infringement.

Registration of a work with the U.S. Copyright Office is prima facie evidence of a valid right to a work in question; however, even without registration an author may own certain rights in his work, as determined by common law. However, without a valid registration, an author cannot institute an infringement action, nor can she recover certain remedies, including attorneys’ fees.

Copyright exists to increase knowledge. It does so by providing creators with an economic incentive to produce work. Copyright protects "original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression." It protects books, artwork, sculptures, paintings, musical compositions and many other forms. The U.S. Supreme Court has written: "It should not be forgotten that the Framers intended copyright itself to be an engine of free expression" (Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. v. Nation Enterprises, 1985).

The theory is that if people could freely copy anyone else's work without paying for it, there would be no incentive for the creation of new material. Why take your time to create a product if you will receive no reward?

However, the law also recognizes that if copyright law is too rigid, then there will be a dramatic reduction in the public's access to information. Copyright law attempts to resolve this dilemma to a degree by distinguishing between expression and ideas.

Unless you "signed" something that says otherwise, you are protected.

Click to expand...

Also, if it weren't offering these words and pics into the public domain already, we'd need the author's permission when we quote each other!

I'd suggesting posting any and all material from the old V, including pics, that was not specifically authored by Ken, and remove any material belonging to any author who specifically requests it be removed, or not be re-posted.

So if you have a picture or posting there, it's yours. But what he owns is the "space" it lived on

Click to expand...

Same as private medical records in the U.S. You own the records, the hospital/private practice etc owns the paper, and must allow you to copy or take your records, including pictures (Xrays, etc) upon request. This even though the healthcare providers authored the text and took the pics. Which is good, else switching docs or addressing a problem would be much more difficult than it already is.

I wouldn't sweat the copyright stuff.

Copyrights serve a vital role in society. But like patents, they do have limitations.

Usually, a BB will have TOS that state "use of this service constitutes agreement w the TOS... blah blah". That does not necessarily mean that a participant surrenders all rights to materials and information submitted.

Also, most BBs fail to enforce restrictions on the use of copyrighted materials... so there is plenty of protected info and images on most BBs; to the effect that claiming copyright to a BB that contains unlicensed material get a bit sticky. ("hey... somebody stole my stolen stuff")

BB participants post with the understanding that their material will be shared (duh). That does not exclude them from sharing the same materials anywhere else. So.... if somebody retrieves what they posted on BB "X" and posts it on BB "Y", the owner of BB "X" has the weakest of claims to the material.

TylerDurden said:

I wouldn't sweat the copyright stuff.

Copyrights serve a vital role in society. But like patents, they do have limitations.

Usually, a BB will have TOS that state "use of this service constitutes agreement w the TOS... blah blah". That does not necessarily mean that a participant surrenders all rights to materials and information submitted.

Also, most BBs fail to enforce restrictions on the use of copyrighted materials... so there is plenty of protected info and images on most BBs; to the effect that claiming copyright to a BB that contains unlicensed material get a bit sticky. ("hey... somebody stole my stolen stuff")

BB participants post with the understanding that their material will be shared (duh). That does not exclude them from sharing the same materials anywhere else. So.... if somebody retrieves what they posted on BB "X" and posts it on BB "Y", the owner of BB "X" has the weakest of claims to the material.

Click to expand...

Tyler,
Your correct, there was nothing there. We actually used the same basic TOS on the new site, as well as the Guidelines we use. Which seems strange, the same documentation was ok all this time on the old site, but now they are not. The only difference is we allowed community input, and Ken didn't.

Voltage Forum Terms of Service
Please remember that we are not responsible for any messages posted. We do not vouch for or warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message, and are not responsible for the contents of any message. The messages express the views of the author of the message, not necessarily the views of the Voltage Forum. Any user who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to contact us immediately by email. We have the ability to remove objectionable messages and we will make every effort to do so, within a reasonable time frame, if we determine that removal is necessary. You agree, through your use of this service, that you will not use the Voltage Forum to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise violative of any law. You agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by you or by the Voltage Forum.

Since you were there, and actually initiated the back up idea, and requested others to help, that's now completed. It's up to the V is for Voltage Community what they now what to do with them.
If something is not done by 02/23/2007 when the name reservation with the SOS expires, I will have no choice but to pursue other avenues.

Tyler,
These folders are located on one of the small backups:
aebike.com
build.fishersportscars.co.uk
dvrl.com
e-ride.ca
home.pacbell.net
hometown.aol.com
agnimotors.com
cnnewline.com
electricmotorcycles.net
home.austin.rr.com
homepages.nildram.co.uk
hts-cache
bioage.typepad.com
content.costco.com
electricmotorsport.com
home.comcast.net
homepages.nildram.co.uk
mes sites web.zip

Several of the names I recognize, the others I don't. These will be the first of the lost and found when we begin to post them.
These are from the France backup which I was having problems downloading, so they weren't compressed yet. All the others are compressed, and will take some time to uncompress them.