Hard-reaped nodes?

Bounced there from a link in a recent post, I stumbled across a very old node which happens to be a note but of which it is said:

in reply to
in thread DiBona is level 1... Why did he get a picture up?

For me, at least, the link expands to [no such node, ID 29663], which suggests me that the parent node has been completely deleted: given the early age of the node itself, probably the mechanisms of the Monastery as we now them now -especially for relative newbies like me- were not all in place yet. But for completeness and consistency it would be nice to restore the original content, if possible - or at least give an access to it, like the reaper does.

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Re: Hard-reaped nodes? by jdporter (Paladin) on Oct 16, 2007 at 16:51 UTC
Yes; there used to be a capability to completely delete a node from the database; it was used by the gods in extreme cases. While the function still exists, technically, it has been put "off limits", precisely because of the resulting ugliness in the database. Old database dumps exist, off line. If it was really necessary to get the content of an old deleted node, the gods could probably hook you up; but my guess is that it would require circumstances nearly as extreme as those under which the node was originally deleted. :-) Instead, monks are advised to get used to the holes in the nodebase, as just another characteristic quirk of the Monastery. A word spoken in Mind will reach its own level, in the objective world, by its own weight	[reply]
Re^2: Hard-reaped nodes? by blazar (Canon) on Oct 16, 2007 at 23:33 UTC
Old database dumps exist, off line. If it was really necessary to get the content of an old deleted node, the gods could probably hook you up; but my guess is that it would require circumstances nearly as extreme as those under which the node was originally deleted. :-) I fear that plain old curiosity wouldn't count as one such circumstance. Instead, monks are advised to get used to the holes in the nodebase, as just another characteristic quirk of the Monastery. I personally believe that this is the first time I encounter one. I'd be curious as to know how many are actually there...	[reply]
Re^3: Hard-reaped nodes? by Anonymous Monk on Oct 17, 2007 at 06:06 UTC
whats with the youtube spamming?	[reply]
Re^4: Hard-reaped nodes? by blazar (Canon) on Oct 17, 2007 at 18:17 UTC
Re: Hard-reaped nodes? by CountZero (Bishop) on Oct 16, 2007 at 16:25 UTC
Most probably that node is lost forever to the gods of disk-crashes and unreliable back-ups. I find it a little miracle that the majority of such old posts are still available. I myself have a stack of "old" (= about 5 to 6 years) ATARI-ST floppy disks which I cannot read anymore for (1) lack of an ATARI-ST and (b) lack of a floppy disk drive on present-day computers. CountZero A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James	[reply]
Re^2: Hard-reaped nodes? by blazar (Canon) on Oct 16, 2007 at 23:29 UTC
I find it a little miracle that the majority of such old posts are still available. I myself have a stack of "old" (= about 5 to 6 years) ATARI-ST floppy disks which I cannot read anymore for (1) lack of an ATARI-ST and (b) lack of a floppy disk drive on present-day computers. I personally believe that I have some floppy disks myself, dating back to my first MS-DOS times, and I have a floppy disk drive on my "main" pc, which incidentally is far from being the "main" one as of late. At one time I made a backup for historic reasons (I doubt I will really look at that stuff again) by copying their contents on a CD. Later on I realized that the Right™ way to do that would have been to fire up Linux and take an image of the disks by dd'ing the device. In some sense one day I think I'll do that, in fact I've been thinking of doing it for years now. Will they still be intact in this moment? ;)	[reply]