ANNOUNCEMENT - Revised access to Mike Walsh's Google Drive : PLEASE READ

[mikewalsh]

Afternoon, gang.

This is to inform everyone that access to anything hosted on my Google Drive UP TO THIS POINT will have to be accomplished differently from now on.

EXPLAINER:-

I went to access the Drive yesterday.....and had a nasty shock. For whatever reason, instead of my nicely-organized system, every single file had been pulled out of their respective folders and just left like that. Result? Well over 600 individual files and a whole collection of empty folders, many dating back several years and labelled in ways that must have made sense to me AT THE TIME (but which are now completely meaningless).

Almost as though someone ( or someTHING) had extracted everything to look at the contents.....and then lost interest.

Google tech help had never heard of this happening.....or if they HAD, they weren't admitting it. All they could suggest was to re-build /re-upload everything. This is basically what I've been busy doing the last 24 hrs or so. Everything was still there, but it all needed re-organising again. (I suspect the bots. More to the point, I suspect Google's own AI 'scraper' bots have got in there. The last 6 months or so, I've been getting 'requests' - on a daily basis - for access to my Drive WITH 'editor' permissions.....so anything & everything can be modified and/or changed. And every single one is a GMail address!!!)

I've got everything back where I (think) it should be. However; none of the Drive 'links' will work now......and I am NOT going to try and modify over 9 years-worth of posts to point everything back there again. I'm not that daft.

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So; if a Google Drive download link is indicated in a thread, please use the "Google Drive" link in my signature.....and then you will simply have to navigate to it yourselves. I can only apologise, but this is beyond MY control; we'll have to make the best of a bad job, I'm afraid.

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ANYTHING POSTED FROM NOW ON THAT HAS A DOWNLOAD LINK TO THE DRIVE WILL OF COURSE HAVE THE USUAL 'PROPER' LINKS AGAIN. I will probably edit some of the commonly-accessed threads - like the PaleMoon-portable thread - almost immediately.

Sorry to be awkward, guys... I'm going to make this a 'sticky' so it doesn't get buried.

Mike.

[mikeslr]

Hi Guys,

Updating links to a decade's work is an onerous task. Let's all pitch in.

The first place I look for additional software is Mike's post here, 'The Complete List, viewtopic.php?p=48734#p48734. Thankfully many of his builds are on mediafire.com and MEGA.nz, But not all. If you're trying to download one which isn't, you'll have to hunt thru his google-drive. When you find it take a couple minutes to post a direct link such as I've done here for some of his most populat, the various firefoxes, viewtopic.php?p=146244#p146244

[wizard]

@mikewalsh

Well that sucks Thanks for the effort to fix it.

wizard's rule #8 "A web link will always die"

wizard

[mikewalsh]

As @mikeslr has pointed out, MOST of the 'portables' are over at MEGA.nz. It's pretty much what that a/c was opened FOR.

However, since I've been on Google 'One' for a few months - a paid subscription; GBP £1.59/month for a guaranteed 100 GB storage.....primarily FOR Puppy community stuff - things will be migrating back here as time passes.

I don't blame Google themselves. Out of the 3 main cloud-storage a/cs I have, the Drive has, to date, been the most stable & rock-solid of all. It's even possible I accidentally gave someone permission without intending to ( ), though permissions have all been revoked, with the exception of one person I KNOW I can trust not to abuse their position.

I don't honestly know what happened. I just know I'll need to keep an eagle eye on the Drive for the next few months, and be very zealous with regard to refusing all the 'editor' requests I keep getting.

Mike.

[Clarity]

A most unusual occurrence.

Never, in my years, have I ever heard of such happening with any location, person, or company-corp where files were extracted to a root level leaving files and original folders.

One of the most "odd" of things ever witnessed.

Thanks @mikewalsh for all of your efforts

[bigpup]

Google is always watching us, but I guess they never watch Google drive!

Do they even backup what is on their drive

Sorry this happened!

If I come across any bad links to your software.
I will be sure to correct them as you say they may need.
.

2ey82h-608053034.jpg (65.61 KiB) Viewed 639 times

[mikewalsh]

Hm. Interesting....

Unlike most cloud sharing sites - whether for files, photos, whatever - it appears that Google do NOT generate links to a specific directory ("container") or file. Rather, it appears that they generate links to a directory or file's name.....NOT the data itself.

On several occasions during the re-build it got so that it was quicker & simpler to delete an old empty directory, then re-create it afresh. IF I changed the name of the new directory in ANY way, then the link - as expected - is 'dead'. If, however, I ensure that the new directory is named exactly the same as the old, deleted one.....then the original link still works.

Since I've been at pains to retain the old naming schemes ( as much for my own benefit as anyone else's), 'twould seem that there may not be as many broken links as I'd feared.

Example; the Firefox-portable thread. As mikeslr offered to do, he's posted at the end with a link to the relevant section of the drive. Just out of curiosity, I clicked on the existing link in post #1, simply to see if I got the expected "404 : Not found".

Instead, the downloads appeared.....

Neat!!

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However; the Drive HAS had a good 'spring-clean'. There were no end of files on there which hadn't been even been accessed, let alone downloaded, for 8 or 9 years. It'll mean a lot of broken links on the old archived Forum from my early years with the community.....but many of these were 32-bit only packages, built for very elderly Puppies (think Precise & Lupu backwards). Nobody in their right mind would even attempt to use these nowadays, but.......anyroad, these are now history. I'm STILL paying for the storage, even if it's ancient stuff there's no interest in any longer.

It's just good "house-keeping" from my point of view. You've GOT to set a "cut-off" point somewhere.

Mike.