Hello guys,
I now have the complete collection of Amstrad Action and Amstrad Computer User in my hands, thanks to RetroRevival. Assuming I'm going to get my 4Mbps line sometime within March (been waiting for it for more than two months, stupid telcos), I'll start uploading some time soon enough. But first:
How should this be done? In terms of serving pages I can think of three ways:
- Put entire issues online as archives. This is the easiest for someone who wants to download an entire issue. Downsides: strain on the server b/w, not practical for someone wanting to read a single page (but I think this is not so common)
- Page-by-page, a-la CPCOxygen. Will require some sort of mechanism to serve page after page, have no idea how to go about it.
- Upload single pages in a directory that will be accessible by anonymous ftp. This way someone could log on to the server and download either one page or an entire folder/issue. This will have to be outside the mediawiki mechanism, I think.
Any other ideas, practical and technical? I can use all the help I can get here! Also, anyone willing to upload?
Cheers
Gryzor
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My skills regarding web site are extremely low, but I think I could help you by uploading part of the magazines.
The point is, how big is the whole thing?
Ooh, er, well, both magz along with Amtix! came on two DVDs. Haven't checked them yet, but looking at the written surface I'd save they're about 7G total!
I may be wrong, but it's quite a bit anyway - I'd say AA is over 1.5GB. So it's gonna take a while, and be done in small steps... It doesn't matter, really. I was thinking of just leaving my PC to upload a few issues every night...
I'm happy to upload - as I said, I've got lots of issues of AA lying around in jpeg format (as I scanned lots of them for CPCO), and unmetered broadband.
I'm thinking people would prefer to be able to download an archive... but of course, they're not small and the possibility for data corruption in downloading means that you're right - server strain would likely be an issue with people trying to download and re-download issues.
I think having individual pages, while possibly not being as user friendly, would reduce problems with bandwidth as it would be more difficult for people to download massive amounts of data at once (though not impossible).
Thinking out-loud here... Perhaps, if bandwidth is going to be an issue, free registration should be required to access magazine downloads (which would be archives of an issue), and then a cap of one issue per user per day instated.
I thought about capping downloads, but I'll have to see how this can be done - I don't have any experience with IP capping and the rest, and certainly I'd not like people leeching like there's no tomorrow.
HOWEVER, I do realise the need to download the complete archives; that's what I did with CPCO anyway... So, I was thinking: maybe put them page by page, but this would require a script to serve individual files off the ftp server - again, no idea how to go about it. Maybe just grant access to the ftp server as anonymous, but then I don't think I can prevent someone from getting entire folders.
What's on the back of my mind, in order to save bandwidth costs, is to offer a DVD service. Just for the cost of it, I could send a couple of DVDs to those who request it - cheap, practical, easy. then I'd put a notice up to that effect, asking users not to leech the entire archive but ask me to send it to them for a couple of quid or so...
Cheers
Gryzor
PS server upgrade coming!