The Knowledge Box

[AMaleWhale]

As you may know, a few months ago Wikipedia released a downloadable archive of all the articles on wikipedia at that point. The files can be run with some HTML stuff a hardware guy like me doesn't understand, or they can be opened with programs like Aard Dictionary. So my plan is to make a storage box of sorts, where I will have all these files on a HDD array of some sorts. It will be kindof like a NAS, but it won't have any processing power alone, to avoid data corruption, failure, or other errors. I won't be always on, and the only things I will ever put on the drives are the Wikipedia files, and anything that is required to open them. 

 

Planned parts and more (open for suggestions):

 

• 2x WD RE 500gb Drives (think it's enough space, have not fully downloaded the files yet, so i don't know how large they are uncompressed, on the page they are warning you a lot about it)
• Double waterproofed out ports, one for each drive (will make these myself with some cables and connectors and stuff)
• Waterproof acrylic/other plastic inner box
• Skeleton armor around acrylic box (made from carbon fibre or some other solid material)
• Some kind of reliant small power supply (really need suggestions here, I know nothing about PSU's)

I will in some way put the wikipedia logo on the window to the drives, preferably by ethcing them into the acrylic, but I don't have any equipment for that. Then there will be a compartment on the back with paper printed instructions, telling anyone who may ever find this how to use it. There will be text in atleast 10 languages, and pictures demonstrating how to connect all the things, as well as showing how to use the software in different operating systems. This is supposed to be a treasure chest of knowledge, to show the future what we knew at this point in time, or to re teach our future selves after a point of apocalypse, world war, or just after everyone has become dumb and everything is run by computers. This knowledge is to valuable to be lost, and I think storing it offline will be the best way to protect it. I know there are probably other people storing this data as well, but the more people that do it, the more likely it is to live forever. And ofcourse I want to make mine special, thats why i don't just slap the data on a drive and hide it in my closet. This will be a treasure, something extremely valuable to me. I will have it as a trophy, a backup and as a way to show others how important it is to do backups of everything

 

So what do you think? any suggestions? As soon as I get materials together, and the massive files has finished downloading, I will begin building this. This will probably be in about a month or so, so make sure to keep your eyes on the build log section by then .

 

/xxX_wikipedialover_Xxx

[DoubleY]

Oooh I want the Wikipedia thing. Any idea where I can find it? 

[megadarkwood]

I believe its only 45gb for all the pages, 500gb is overkill.

[megadarkwood]

Oooh I want the Wikipedia thing. Any idea where I can find it? 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database_download

[AMaleWhale]

the uncompressed file is 46,3 gb, but I want it uncompressed to so it can be actually used. In the future i'm also going to update it when they release new dumps, So i need the extra space. Might go with 250gb drives though, we'll see how it all plays out. I might just keep a few dumps on there. planning to fill this baby up ;D

[Bartelsh]

why would you want to have the wikipedia pages at home, you can just visit the site if you need'em right?

[AMaleWhale]

why would you want to have the wikipedia pages at home, you can just visit the site if you need'em right?

they are a backup for the world. I don't think you read the whole post? it's all in there why im doing it

[Stefan Becker]

Just so you know, your sig is not allowed to fill more than three lines according to the CoC

 

Anyway, I'd love to see a build like this

[AMaleWhale]

Just so you know, your sig is not allowed to fill more than three lines according to the CoC

 

Anyway, I'd love to see a build like this

Well, it's technically only 3 lines, but I guess you are thinking 3 standard lines I'll have to update it when i'm on my PC next time, on my phone atm. And I won't be taking the comic sans out But yeah I think this will turn out really cool, if I get the stuff together. Might have to go budget on materials unfortunately

[AMaleWhale]

Update #1 here:

 

Decided to go with 2x Western Digital Red WD7500BFCX 16MB 750GB drives. This is because they are a lot cheaper than RE drives, and are still reliable drives. I need to keep the drive price down if im going to make a cool looking case for it. I also find a good power supply in my favorite hardware store, and its a silverstone 300 watt power supply. It's nice and small, and will fit in some kind of enclouse. Something I have though about though, is having an external power brick, like a laptop would. I saw a few kits to do that, so that might be a project on it's own. But I would still ove if anyone else had some kind of suggestion for what I need to do, some things I am very unsure about, for example the power supply.