Get Info: #internetarchive

PSA: Internet Archive “glitch” deletes years of user data & accounts

by Matt Sephton — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 17:16:00 +0000

Recently at Internet Archive a “glitch” (their choice of word) deleted a great many accounts, including my account that had been at archive.org/details/@gingerbeardman since 2015.

Somewhat surprisingly, they are not reaching out to affected users but rather waiting for them to create new accounts and silently relinking their old uploads only if the new account has same email as the old account. Otherwise, all profile metadata, favourites, lists, reviews, posts, collections, web archives, and the original username are not being relinked. For me that’s a decade of data…gone.

The main impact of this massive data loss, that happened around mid-July, is that there are now dead links to old profiles and various old pages all across the internet, plus the additional impact of lost data that is not being recovered. It’s a real blow to the broader preservation effort to know that the one place where data is supposed to be safe forever has had a massive data loss and the organisation responsible are not taking proactive steps to address the issue fully. I can appreciate addressing it will require a certain amount of time, energy, staff and that’s likely the reason why it’s not being.

The extent of the data loss and how many accounts were affected is currently unknown. And because they’re not really talking about it, it’s quite difficult to find any concrete information as to the extent or cause of the data loss. You can find more info at the Internet Archive forums, the /r/internetarchive subreddit, or your choice of social media where Internet Archive have a presence (Twitter: ref1, ref2).

This story is still developing, and the press have been notified.

Status

Here’s a summary of the current status of the pages related to my deleted account:

Relinked

archive.org/details/@gingerbeardman/uploads

Restored (see update below)

Lost

archive.org/details/@gingerbeardman/loans
archive.org/details/@gingerbeardman/lists
archive.org/details/@gingerbeardman/posts
archive.org/details/@gingerbeardman/reviews
archive.org/details/@gingerbeardman/collections
archive.org/details/@gingerbeardman/web-archive

Support, up to a point

My support experience with Internet Archive was frustrating and ultimately futile. They did not adequately address my queries and requests. Instead they made changes to my account that I did not request, and in the end were pretty clear that they were not going to help me any further. This is such a disappointing stance to take with users who are simply trying to recover their data as a result of loss caused by Internet Archive itself.

Update, about turn

After the second submission of this post by somebody else hit the Hacker News homepage I received an email say that they had “figured a workaround” (their choice of word) and restored my username, which in turn relinked my old favorites. This miracle contradicts the message shown above there they are pretty clear that it was not possible.

So this means there’s still a bunch of data missing, as detailed above. I suspect this was a one off workaround and that they’re not doing it for everybody affected. YMMV. It wasn’t my intention to try and force action by publicising this event, but it does seem to have had that effect.

Elsewhere

Hacker News
Hacker News submitted by somebody else (“flagged” for some reason)
~~Lobste.rs~~ (deleted by moderator at the request of Internet Archive)
Tildes
Two Stop Bits

The Blue Nile “A Walk Across The Rooftops” (5.1)

by Matt Sephton — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 22:00:00 +0000

1984

In early 1984 Scottish band The Blue Nile released their debut album “A Walk Across The Rooftops” including the single Tinseltown in the Rain. After 40 years the album is still regarded as a classic, and in all that time the band have released only three other albums.

2010

A user called XTC343 uploaded some files to a USENET newsgroup: a fan-made multi-channel version of The Blue Nile’s “A Walk Across The Rooftops” album. The .nfo file said only:

This is an upmix from stereo to 5.1
Done in Plogue.

I was so excited to listen to one of my favourite albums in a new way. I burned the DTS format 5.1 .wav and .cue pair to a CD and played it in a Sony Blu-Ray player. It was awesome! The album sounded more like a live session, with instruments and noises positioned all around.

2023

Anyway, lots of time passed, and one day in September 2023 I rediscovered these files in my archives. A quick Google showed that they had been forgotten about and did not exist anywhere else, so I thought I’d upload them to Internet Archive. I didn’t give it any further thought.

2024

It’s now February 2024 and I realise that I have a whole bunch of devices capable of playing multi-channel audio: my iPhone, iPad, MacBook, and AirPods Pro headphones! Time to revisit those files.

Wrangling

Immediately it was easy to confirm playback using the original DTS format .wav and VLC app on macOS. But how to get the audio into the Music app so I can listen on my device of choice?

XLD and the .cue sheet to split the single DTS format .wav into multiple files
FFMPEG to convert the DTS format .wav files into AC3 format .m4a files

Using a video container for audio content is a trick normally reserved for podcasts, so they can have chapter markers, but here it enables us to get multi-channel content into Music app (aka iTunes).

Playback

You’ll need some multi-channel capable listening equipment.

For the DTS .wav you can either burn it to a CD and play it in a suitable CD/DVD/Blu-Ray/etc player, or play the file directly using software (VLC).

For the Apple .m4a files you can drop them onto the Music app or copy across your devices.

I’m sorry but I cannot help you with any of this.

Have fun listening!

Download

archive.org/details/the-blue-nile-a-walk-across-the-rooftops-dts-5.1

SkateBoarder Magazine

by Matt Sephton — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

SkateBoarder Magazine (1964–1980) scans at Internet Archive, these include pages missing from the official website.

Here’s a quick link to the famous Dogtown articles in these specific 9 issues: 2-2/5/6, 3-2/4/5/6, 4-1, 5-7

Verbum “The Journal of Personal Computer-Aesthetics”

by Matt Sephton — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Verbum “The Journal of Personal Computer-Aesthetics” (1986–1991) was an early computer lifestyle magazine focusing on interactive art and computer graphics.

All issues (well, except issue 4.3): archive.org/details/verbummagazine?&sort=date
Table of contents for all issues: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbum_(magazine)
Podcast interview with its creator Michael Gosney: www.drfutureshow.com/drfutureblog/interview-media-pioneer-michael-gosney-on-the-renaissance-of.html