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.

    • PhobosAnomaly@feddit.uk
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      4 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.