[DECtalk] History of the DECtalk Archive

Thu Jul 12 10:11:58 EDT 2012

Hi,

Awesome little lesson there. I was a latecomer to this list, first
stumbling upon DECtalk in 2006, but all I could find was the terrible
4.61 version that everyone seemed to dislike, and didn't sound like
any of the demos I found online made by Patrick and others. Sad times.

Two years later, I was running across old list results in Google, and
I found someone mention speak43. I knew that was what I was going for,
DECtalk 4.3. I did some digging, and eventually found the Speak43 and
its associated data. I then seriously began learning DECtalk phonemes
in late 2008 with the aid of some demos and text files, and plenty of
soft drinks. :)

I pulled down a copy of the Archive in 2010 for my own local use so as
not to suck up any more bandwidth and have most of the DECtalk
versions. I'm only missing the 5.0 speak window. If anyone's got it, I
want it. Badly. It'll round out my collection nicely.

Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane, Jayson. That was awesome.
Alex

On 7/11/12, Blake Roberts <beroberts at hughes.net> wrote:
> That was a very interesting lesson. Although I first joined this list in
> late 2004 or early 2005, I had forgotten some of the history due to the
> passage of time. Jayson, it has been my experience during the past 7 years
> that you are an excellent list moderator. You are both helpful and fair,
> which are both great leadership qualities. It is my hope that you will
> continue hosting this listserv on BlueGrassPals for a long time yet. I
> consider this Dectalk listserv to be an invaluable resource.
> Blake
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: dectalk-bounces at bluegrasspals.com
> [mailto:dectalk-bounces at bluegrasspals.com] On Behalf Of Jayson Smith
> Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2012 8:30 PM
> To: DECtalk Discussions
> Subject: [DECtalk] History of the DECtalk Archive
>
> Okay, class, get back in your seats and pay attention, since I'm going to
> teach a little history lesson. There will be a pop quiz on this material
> sometime next week. Hehe, just fooling around here, but this is gonna get a
> bit long.
>
> So when I first came in contact with the DECtalk archive it was being
> hosted
> by Andre Louis. This was in October of 2003. Over time Andre started to get
> more and more annoyed at the bandwidth burden the DECtalk archive had
> become. He eventually started asking for donations, and put a password on
> the archive for a little while. Around this same time, I, Jayson Smith,
> proud owner of my very own Linux server, was looking for ways I could use
> that server to give to the community. One of my early ideas was to
> establish
> a mirror of the DECtalk archive. So I ran my mirror, Andre got more and
> more
> annoyed/annoying, the less of which said the better, until finally on
> August
> 18, 2005, he pulled the plug permanently. Here's the Email I sent out to
> this very list when I discovered this fact.
>
> Hello,
> Having attempted to access the official archive at Andre's site less than
> an
> hour ago, it appears that he has silently pulled the plug, finally.  As far
> as I am concerned, this leaves me as the de facto archive maintainer.  As
> such, here are a few things I want everybody to know.
> 1.  The Red Dwarf files are staying.  I know this is a bit risky given US
> copyright law, but I don't see lawyers banging on my door right now, so
> don't think it's a real huge deal.  If it ever becomes one, the files will
> be removed and someone in the UK can host them, but hopefully that won't be
> necessary.  I have set up an ftp account exclusively for those involved
> with
> the uploading of Red Dwarf files, and a script which moves these files to
> the red_dwarf directory once an hour.  If you are involved in the upload
> process, please write me off-list at ratguy at bellsouth.net and I will
> provide
> the username and password.  To prevent abuse, this account is only
> available
> to people who upload Red Dwarf episodes and not to anybody else, and it
> will
> be removed after dt8-8 has been uploaded.
> 2.  All other files are staying.  If Tony took over the archive, he had
> already stated that some files would be removed.  I don't want to do that,
> because then I'm being the judge of what is and is not acceptable.  If
> things get out of hand I may have to implement some rules, but for now,
> everything stays.
> 3.  File upload is currently unavailable.  I am looking for a secure
> mechanism to make this happen.  It must be secure against people
> downloading
> from the upload area, people deleting uploaded files, and people
> overwriting
> other files by uploading new files with the same names.  Any suggestions
> are
> welcomed.  What I'd love to find is a web-based solution which would allow
> people to upload files, it Emails me saying there's a new upload, I look at
> the file then approve or reject it as appropriate.
> 4.  If there is enough demand, I will make a torrent of all or part of the
> archive from time to time.
> 5.  Although I hope to find a secure solution to the file upload problem,
> even if this archive remains forever static with the exception of Red
> Dwarf,
> I have no problem with hosting it for as long as anyone wants.
> 6.  I will write a new Readme file as soon as possible.
> 7.  I reserve the right to investigate possible mirroring options, and if
> bandwidth usage gets out of hand, I reserve the right to restrict
> downloading directly from me to mirror sites, install bandwidth limiting
> modules, or take other actions to eliminate the problem.  However, I will
> make every effort to investigate possible alternatives before I remove the
> archive or ask for donations.
> If you have any questions or comments about this announcement, feel free to
> write to the list, or to me personally at ratguy at bellsouth.net.
> Thanks.
> Jayson Smith
>
> From what I remember, I pretty much did what I said I'd do in that message.
>
> I did eventually find a way to allow file upload, and also set up a few
> directories for specific people to upload files. On December 23, 2005, I
> set
> up a mirror of the archive through Planetmirror. Less than a year later, an
> error on my end caused that mirror to be deleted. I did eventually have to
> put a bandwidth limit on the archive. Things went well until October 21,
> 2008, when Insight, our cable ISP, did a port scan and found open ports on
> our IP. They suspended our service until I closed all the ports. Obviously
> this meant my then over four-year-old Linux server had just become a lot
> less useful. So I got a VPS from a hosting company and moved everything to
> that server. Things were going okay, but the DECtalk archive was becoming a
> huge bandwidth concern. Finally, on March 15, 2009, I decided to pull the
> plug, with this message:
>
> Hello,
>
>      I'm sorry it has come to this... As some of you know, I was forced to
> switch from running my own server to using a hosting provider. This
> provider, openhosting.com, meters bandwidth. So far this month, I have had
> unusually high bandwidth utilization, and estimates are that my charges
> will
> exceed my commit rate by at least a few dollars. Looking at website
> statistics, it's clear to see that the DECtalk archive is accounting for an
> extremely high percentage of web traffic and/or bandwidth utilization. I
> always had my mind made up that I would host the DECtalk archive as long as
> it didn't actually cost anything. Now however, it might actually cost extra
> money to run the archive. For this reason, and in an attempt to keep the
> charges from going over my monthly commit rate, I have moved the archive to
> an area of my server inaccessible to the public either via FTP or HTTP,
> effective immediately. Please note, though, that nothing has been deleted
> from my server, only moved out of public access areas.
>      I have a feeling that some person or persons, probably outside this
> list, are running poorly written or misconfigured mirroring programs. They
> seem to be downloading the same files over and over and over again. I am
> willing to work with anybody who wishes to host the archive, and at this
> point, I would be willing to turn it over to somebody else full-time. If
> anybody is interested, please step forward and we'll work something out.
> It's been a great run, since I more or less took the archive over by
> default
> in August of 2005. However, I am no longer willing to support the humongous
> bandwidth hog the archive has become. Note however, that I will continue to
> run this mailing list for as long as anybody wants. This list is a very
> low-bandwidth affair as compared to the archive.
>      If anyone has any thoughts, please share them. I will not delete my
> copy of the archive, and will cooperate fully in making it available to
> anyone who wishes to take it over.
> Thanks for your understanding.
> Jayson
>
> That was pretty much the end of my involvement with the DECtalk archive.
> I'm
> pretty sure Tony Baechler hosted it for a while. Now Christopher Toth is
> hosting it I believe.
> Hope you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane!
> Jayson
>
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