In light of the recent Crowdstrike crash revealing how weak points in IT infrastructure can have wide ranging effects, I figured this might be an interesting one.

The entirety of wikipedia is periodically uploaded here, along with many other useful wikis and How To websites (ex. iFixit tutorials and WikiHow): https://download.kiwix.org/zim

You select the archive you want, then the language and archive version (for example, you can get an archive with no pictures, to save on space). For the totality of the english wikipedia you’d select the “wikipedia_en_all_maxi_2024-01.zim”

The archives are packed as .zim files, which can be read with the Kiwix app completely offline.

I have several USBs I keep that have some of these archives along with the app installer. In the event of some major catastrophe I’d at least be able to access some potentially useful information. I have no stake in Kiwix, and don’t know if there are other alternative apps and schemes, just thought it was neat.

  • Em Adespoton
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    392 months ago

    Aside from the text clarification, this is also only the US version of Wikipedia.

    What worries me though is that most videos linked on Wikipedia are hosted on YouTube. That’s a pretty dangerous choke point.

    • aname
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      2 months ago

      You mean the English version? There is no US version, thank god.

      • PhobosAnomaly
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        172 months ago

        Ten year old me would beg to differ.

        Videos turned Encarta 95 from being an encyclopedia to the encyclopedia!

        I jest - a multimedia experience helps but I agree that the text knowledge is the big draw.

        • Greg Clarke
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          32 months ago

          I remember watching the hand of God goal in the library many times using Encarta 95

        • @[email protected]
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          32 months ago

          The real ones remember wandering around that damn maze answering questions while managing limited torches to see the map.

    • @AnUnusualRelic
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      142 months ago

      I never even noticed any videos on Wikipedia. Maybe for some cinema articles.