Onward.
First: apologies if you've written to us and haven't heard back. We've been wrestling with the task of getting the pre-March 2008 part of Making Light back online. For a bit there, it looked like we might have lost the whole thing, not just March and April. That was exciting. Fortunately, Patrick found his alternate backup of the MySQL database that's the difference between losing two months and losing seven years. As Erik Olson said at that point,
Good. We're now at "this really sucks."Thanks to many people who shall receive fulsome thanks once this settles down, we've reconstituted all the front-page entries, plus Sidelights and Particles. What we don't have all of are the comments.
Not "well, fuck, Maude, better sell the cattle."
THIS IS IMPORTANT: collect your own comments NOW from Google or other search engines, then help collect others. Do it as soon as you can, because Google has already overwritten some caches with versions that end at 01 March. If you find this has happened to the Google cache of your own comments--for instance, Xopher, Niall McAuley, CHip, and NC Hanger have already gotten nailed--try the caches at Yahoo, MSN Live Search, or other search engines.
If you've been reading the comments at Making Light via RSS feed, please check and see what you have cached. It's possible you have the only surviving version of some of our missing comments. We're particularly on the prowl for new comments that got posted to old threads. We know to look for complete runs of comments from (f.i.) "All come singing" or "The rather difficult font game"; what's far less obvious is the need to collect recent runs of comments in old threads like "Introduction to New Magics".
Abi's chart of what we do and don't have isn't up to date. That's because Abi went to sleep (she's six time zones east of Plymouth Rock), and Patrick and I are still figuring out exactly what we have on hand. She'll be gone all day tomorrow, but we figure we'll have the chart updated by tomorrow morning EST. If you're doing intensive work salvaging comments and need more up-to-date information, send us your email address and we'll try to reset the permissions so you can see our working spreadsheet in Google docs.
I've finally gotten in touch with Jim Macdonald. He'd been away most of today, and had no idea what was going on. The bits of Making Light's database we have least hope of recovering are unfinished articles the editors had saved as draft posts in Movable Type. We've all lost some, but Jim had been working on the big final post in his Trauma and You series. He took the news very calmly, though it's possible he was simply too tired to get upset. He says he'll just have to rewrite the article from memory:
I'd gotten through traumatic amputations, degloving, and avulsions, and was about to start on incisions and lacerations.When last seen, Jim was running searches on other people's names. His suggested search string is "Comments posted to Making Light by [name of poster]". If that doesn't work, try something else. If that works, come back and tell us what it was.
(UPDATE: Jim has done as much comment-salvaging as he can do tonight. In the comment thread for this entry you'll find his list of people he knows to have posted comments during the lost months, but whose body of comments he hasn't salvaged. If you have time, please consider running some of those searches. If you know of other names, post a list of your own--Jim's list is by no means complete. While you may wind up duplicating someone else's efforts, you may also save the comments of people who haven't gotten the word in time to do it themselves. Also, read the whole thread. There's useful information in it. End of update: tnh, 0300 EDT.)
Salvaging the data is only the first part of the project. Once we've collected it, it'll have to be reprocessed into proper MySQL format and grafted back onto the main database. We've had several offers of help, but if you want to add to them, please feel free.
...
In the midst of all this effort to salvage the missing months, we're feeling awed and humble about the amount of help we're getting. We've said all along that its readers are the best thing about Making Light, but that's never seemed more true than it does right now.
("Hey, look! It's a dinosaur!")
The exact search string to use at Google is:
"Comments posted to Making Light by [name]"
where [name] is the poster's exact name. Please note the quote marks.
You may find several hits. Look for the most recent one. Then, hit the cache link.
Okay, I was able to get all my recent comments off of Google. Where do I send them to?
pnh@panix.com will do
This isn't the right time for this,
but being an annoying pedant, I can't let it slide.
"Fulsome" is properly used to mean "offensively exaggerated", with flavors of insincerity, dishonesty, and a faint hint of ordure.
It is not a complimentary adjective.
You guys write and edit. You should know this.
joel hanes,
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fulsome
Also means abundant/copious. And I've seen it oft used that way.
quote:
Today, both fulsome and fulsomely are also used in senses closer to the original one: The sparse language of the new Prayer Book contrasts with the fulsome language of Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer. Later they discussed the topic more fulsomely. These uses are often criticized on the grounds that fulsome must always retain its connotations of �excessive� or �offensive.� The common phrase fulsome praise is thus sometimes ambiguous in modern use.
I love it when a dictionary acknowledges extraneous pedantry in its etymology sections.
Wait. I do a search for my comments, but then what? Copy the whole thing into Word or something and then send it as an attached document to you, Patrick, or just send you the link to the search cache?
Be careful: I'm using that search string and getting a lot of links to suspicious advertising sites. Suspicious as in trying to persaude you to download a media codec to see a video.
A link to the search cache won't do. The next time Google runs that search, the cache won't have anything after the first of March.
So -- save the whole thing locally.
Here are the names of people who I have _NOT_ yet collected.
(Note: If your name _isn't_ on this list, that DOES NOT mean I got you.)
Ambitious folks can try to find caches that include comments dating after 01MAR08 for the following:
A. J. Luxton
A.R.Yngve
Adam Ek
Adrian Smith
ajay
Alter S. Reiss
Ame
Andrew Plotkin
Andrhia
Andy Brazil
Anna the Piper
Aquila
Arwel Parry
Ben Morris
beth meacham
bryan
Carol
Ccnsul
CHip
Chris
Clan
Connie H.
CosmicDog
DavidS
dcb
Debbie
Dena Shunra
Dirk
Doctor Science
don delny
Earl Cooley III
EClaire
Edward Oleander
eric
ethan
Evan Simpson
Farah
fidelio
Francis D
Garrett Fitzgerald
geekosaur
Glenn Hauman
Graydon
Greg London
harthad
individualfrog
Ingvar M
IWH
j h woodyatt
Jakob
Jason McIntosh
Jen Roth
Jennifer Barber
Jo Walton
Joe Eaton
Joel Polowin
John L
John Chu
John Thornton
Jp
Julie L.
Kate Nepveu
Kayjayoh
Ken Houghton
Ken MacLeod
Kevin Riggle
Kimberley Verburg
Kip W
Laina
Lawrence Watt-Evans
Leah Miller
Leva Cygnet
Linkmeister
Lizzy L
lorax
Madeline F
Marie Brennan
Mark D.
Marna Nightingale
Martin Wisse
mary
Mary Dell
Matt Austern
Matt McIrvin
Matt Stevens
Matthew Austern
Max Kaehn
Melody
Michael I
Michael Walsh
Michael Roberts
Michael Weholt
Michelle
Morry
Mycroft W
mythago
Nancy Lebovitz
Naomi Libicki
NC Hanger
Neil Willcox
Niall McAuley
Nick Caldeorn
Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little
pat greene
Paul A.
Paul
Pedantic Peasant
Per Chr. J.
R. M. Koske
Ralph Giles
Randolph Fritz
Richard Klin
Rikibeth
rm
Rob Hansen
RobW
Ronit
Rozasharn
Russell Letson
Sarah
Scott Taylor
Scott H
Scott Janssens
Scraps
sherrold
Sica
sm
Soon Lee
Stephen Frug
Steve Taylor
Steve Buchheit
Suin
Summer Storms
Susan Kitchens
Susan
Sylvia
Tazistan Jen
Tim O'Brien
TomB
Tony Zbaraschuk
Velma
VictorS
will shetterly
Xopher
Jim, done and done. I have my comments in a straight text file and also in an Open Office .odt file. What do you want me to do now?
Don't save salvaged material as MSWord unless that's your only option.
Most browsers give you the option of saving a webpage in its entirety, source code and pictures and all. For instance, in the File menu for Firefox the command you want is "Save page as," and the format you want to choose is "Web page, complete."
Now save someone else's comments, if you have the time.
G'night, all.
I've now saved (as a webpage using Firefox) comments for Jo Walton, Nicole Boeuf-Little, Victor S and Linkmeister. There are two files for each name: one with two style sheet files and one with the actual comments.
To whom should I send them, and do you need both files for each person?
Use File|Save_As to save a copy of the file to your hard drive. The default filename will be "search.htm" but I saved mine as "search_Dave_Bell.htm"
Send that file to Patrick as an attachment.
Thanks, Dave. I sent four attachments (all in one message; probably would have been smarter to break it up into four) to Patrick at the address he posted above.
Got my own and JESR, plus a fragment of the dust jacket thread. Off to make breakfast now...
The comment caches at MSN are more extensive than at Google. I've saved 900+ comments for Open Threads 104 and 105. Don't want to spam Patrick anymore, so I'll wait for your updated table to see whether you''ve discovered these or any other more complete comment threads that I stumble across.
In addition to the comments I got for the four people named above (Walton, Boeuf-Little, Linkmeister, and Victor S) I have saved and sent along to Patrick comments for:
Clifton Royston
Sylvia
Tazistan Jen
Tony Z
Velma
MSN also seems to have more up-to-date results for Jim's search by individual commenter. I just saved a file that goes up to 4/26/08 for Michael Weholt
I found my own cache through April 18 (which only misses two or three posts of mine, I think) but since my Internet is so slow right now that none of my email boxes are accessible, I'll send it to you all tomorrow.
Very best of luck with the repairs.
I'll post this here too in case you don't see it at the bottom of the techie thread: http://frances.vorpus.org/~shweta/
March/April archives with (almost all) comments. And the rest of them... Um, other people on the techie thread got 'em all, I think.
I thought I was going to bed, but I couldn't stand leaving the unsalvaged list so long. I've salvaged Adrian Smith, ajay, Andrew Plotkin up through 3-21-08, beth meacham, bryan, Connie H., Edward Oleander, ethan, fidelio, Glenn Hauman, Graydon, Greg London, Jakob, Jo Walton, Joel Polowin, John Chu, Kate Nepveu, Ken Houghton, Ken MacLeod, Kip W, Madeline Robins, Martin Wisse, Mary Dell, Michael Weholt, Nicole J. LeBoeuf-Little, pat greene, Randolph Fritz, Richard Klin, Rikibeth, rm, Rob Hansen, Sarah, Scraps, Steve Taylor, and Velma.
And now to bed. This time for sure.
Lenny, well done. See if it has some of the ones I couldn't get.
I'm finding MSN cached pages that date up through the last week or so: they peter out anywhere between 4/27 and 5/2. I started with the letter R in Jim's list and went to the end, and ended up saving pages for:
R. M. Koske
Ralph Giles
Randolph Fritz
Richard Klin
Rikibeth
rm
Rozasharn
Scott Janssens
Scraps
sherrold
Sica
Soon Lee
Steve Buchheit
Steve Taylor
Summer Storms
Susan Kitchens
Susan
Tazistan Jen
TomB
Tony Zbaraschuk
Velma
VictorS
I also did my own. Anyone in Jim's list but not included here didn't show entries post 3/1 in their MSN-cached "show all by" page; but such a thing could be cached elsewhere.
On finding names from Google's cache:
I was doing one search that ended up with Google thinking I was a bot--Google stopped returning those results.
So, I started doing this search:
"comments posted to making light" 04.01.08
WHERE I keep changing the dates, and expand to "repeat the search omitted" (rather than just the 2 results). For each date, it'd result in about 5 to 20 results.
using this method, it seems like I'm able to get anyone's total comments if they commented on at least one date in that range.
I've done From 03.29.08--04.20.08 and 04.27.08 through 05.02.08 using this method. It resulted in approximately 175 names (including a few cases where a person used 2 names and 1 email address or vice versa)
Comments from Google's cache as described above were sent to our hosts.
I did not create a spreadsheet of these names, and it is quite late. If a name was only a first name, then the parenthesis = part of the email address.
so, typed very quickly:
adam ek, adamsj, ajay, alan bostick, alan braggins, alan yee, albatross, alex cohen, andrhia, anna feruglio, aquila, bill higgins, bob rossney, bogdan bivolaru, bruce cohen, cajunfj40, dandle, carol (carol.csquare), carrie s, charles dodgson, chris quinones, christopher turkel, chris turkel, chris (zizban), cliff s, clifton royston, connie h, daniel martin, dave bell, dave hutchinson, dave kuzminski, davel, dave mb, david goldfarb, david ahrmon, david mb, dena shunra, diatryma, early cooley, eclaire, edward oleander, elise, elizabeth (eliz hubnet), emily cartier, eric 9eric-light), eric (herewiss13), erik nelson, erik v olson, ethan, evan (ethanol),
faren miller, fidelio, ginger (neivet2), graydon, greg london, kursky, harthad, heresiarch, individualfrog, jakob (whitfield), sason mcintosh, jc (kentuckywriter) jeffrey smith, jen b, jennie zinerella, jennifer barber, jen roth, jeremy osner, jeremy preacher, jesr, jim (jimsama), jkrichard, joann (jzimm), john a arkansawyer, john L (jLnsford), josh jasper, jo walton, joxn costello, julie L (wombat),
kathleen (kathleen.jennings), kayjay (kayjay13), kevin andrew murphy, kip w, laurie 9thensheappeared), leah miller, lee (stardreamer), lila (lilandmark), linkmeister, lis riba, lizzy l, madeline ferwerda, madeline f, madison guy, magenta griffith, maggie (maggiejoh2005), malthus (mithrandir25) marilee, mary dell, mary dell sees spammish, mary (mary.hallat), matt austern, matt stevens, max kaehn, mcmartin, michael martin, michael weholt, mjfgates, moe99, niel willcox, niall mcauley, nomie (onthebound),
paula helm murrey, paula lieberman, paul duncanson, apul hood, paul lalonde, pericat, pete darby, p j evans, randolph fritz, rea (reaatmor), richard anderson, rich mcallister, rikibeth, rm (terchomp), robert hutchinson, robert west, rob hansen, rob hoffmann, rob rusick, robt, sajia kabir, sam kelly, sarah (aspech), sean o'hara, serge, seth gordon, shadowsong, shannon (storiteller), stefan jones, stephen frug, susan, sylvia (fearoflanding)
tangurena, tavella, the modesto kid, tomb (twb), tw (crankycrone) ursala L, velma (des...), velma (velma at des...), vlad (fake.com), zed (apricot).
um. I was intending to go to bed, and just wanted to try a new search method.
I saved my own (and found the ones I did back in 2003 with the previous address I was using, which I'd forgotten, keen).
A Google search method that perhaps gets better results: search a name on the entire site, like { xopher site:nielsenhayden.com }. Seems certain to fish out that person's "View all by" in the first page or two, and also fishes out the "view all by"s of people who have named that person in their responing comments.
I also found a page of the last 1000 comments at some point on 4/30/08. Perhaps it will help find forgotten posters. I put it up at my domain, at this link: http://www.z-amber.com/4-30-08.htm
I saved the comments of the following, and mailed them to Patrick:
AJ Luxton
heresiarch
JESR
joann
Ledasmom
Madeline F
Madeline Kelly
Mary Aileen
Nomie
Pyre
Scott H
serge
Xopher
Jeez, by the time I read this thread I see at least two people have nailed my comments. Thanks.
P & T: I have experience with perl and so may be able to do some automated processing of files you might need. No great insight here, but if we can end up with all files in an identical format, then come up with a perl (or other) script to do the work, you can split the files-to-be-processed up b/w those who are able to run the "approved" perl script. Sort of a SETI@home type deal. So put me on the list of people willing to donate processing time.
It also occurs to me that if an ftp site could be set up, people could upload their work and -- if all files are named consistently -- people could log in and actually see what work has been done w/o need of updating spreadsheets, etc.
I have an old iBook I use as an ftp machine here at my house. If you want me to open up an ML account there, I can, then post the username/password for people to use. It's just a DSL connection, but it might be adequate. Or maybe somebody has a better connection?
In any case, let me know if any of that sounds good or useful. It's good to get things as quickly as possible, of course, in any available format, but it's also good to get the raw stuff in some sort of consistent format, if at all possible... which it won't be, of course, but still. The more work toward consistency that can be done by "the collectors", the better and sooner things will be fully recoverable.
I'll shut up now. Let me know what you want me to do.
Saved and sent two cached files of my comments to pnh (hope I did it correctly). One file contains my comments as of 4-10-08. The other file contains two comments where I apparently had a typo in my email address (the latest is dated 4-17-08).
(I did make a couple of comments after 4-17, but haven't located a cached file of them yet.)
OK. I've saved my own comments up to April 26th as a 'complete' .html file.
I didn't see 'Mez' (another Sydney gel) listed as done, and remembering that she's not too well & might not be around to check, I saved those as well (up to April 27th). Also Meg Thornton up to March 14th. I was thinking of doing others as well, specially us in Oz, but my tired mind canna keep up wi' the lists as given above. I did check the people who I remember noting as being Antipodeans, and so far they're either taken care of (thanx 4 ur work, Dave Bell) or haven't commented more recently, or I can't remember them (sorry 2u all lost in the synapses).
So I will send Patrick:
Epacris
Meg Thornton
Mez
Need hot dinner & a good rest now. Happy Hunting all.
I've just emailed the Google cache of "Comments posted to Making Light by Gag Halfrunt", along with the cache of "The photograph that terrorized London" from March 30 2008 with what appears to be the complete comment thread.
Another set. These all result from my search method above using April dates--nothing searched in March, yet.
I've sent these as tar.gz's to our hosts.
When there's a different name but same email address, for example, zheresiarch and heresiarch, Google is saving slightly different sets. One might have a few days more than the other.
As before, quickly typed, and probably with more typos.
--------------
adrian (turtle), a j luxton, alison scott, andrew willett, anne sheller, a r yngve, backpacking dad, benjamin bagley, beth meacham, bill blum, bruce adelsohn, bruce arthurs, caroline (snowmentality), carol kimell, "carrie s sees repetitive spam', casey (casey town...), cc rider, chip (cjhiNo), claude muncey, "cleanup alert spam again", clew (atteenhand), constance ash sublette,
Daniel boone, dawno, dcb (dbourne....), debbie (behl), dorothy (dorothy2583), dru (mldru), epacris, evan goer, flora postes, fungifromyuggoth, henry troup, jae walker, "joel polowin sees comment spam", john stanning, john h (jhendry), jon meltzer, julia e smith ruetz, julea (hmhm), julia junes, justin hinkle,
keith (kkisser), kevin riggle, larry brennan, laurence roberts, lauren uroff, leia organa, "linkmeister in hawaii", lis (osmondriba), lois fundis, lori coulson, lynne (datusacom), madeleine robins, martyn taylor, mary aileen, mary kay, melissa mead, melissa singer, mez (mezemail99), michael falcon, michael turyn, m turyn, mythago
"nancy c mittens sees weird messages", nelc (akizetafive), nikolai ivanovitch..., oliviacw, paul a (pandinac), peter erwin, professor coldheart, protected static, r emrys, r m koske, ronit (ronitadancis), ryan (rnalexander), "serge sees wolf hole spam", sisuile, syd (laurelmoons),
texanne, theophylact, tim walters, tracie (strongerthantea), vicky (vr), victorss, vito excalibur, william littlewood, zheresiarch.
Because I know I've just posted some 250+ names, if someone else wants to continue, my next steps (if I didn't need to sleep) would be to
* do these searches:
"comments posted to making light" 03.29.08
"comments posted to making light" 03.28.08
etc down to March 1,
* selecting the cache (easily done as a separate tab in Firefox) for any name not already done,
* save the cache.
If the person's name could be ambiguous ("Bob" vs "Bob the Mighty"), I'm saving its filename with the email info included ("bob bobatmightycom.html"). There are plenty of regulars and rarer visitors who use just first names.
also, my email address is kathryn.sunnyvale at yahoo dot com.
I don't seem to have any comments earlier than March.
I posted last night (UTC), but it doesn't seem to have gone through. I saved a large number of the comment feeds from the cache in Google Reader (which saves universally any feed that someone has watched). Only 6 of the threads were not watched. I don't know how complete it is, and it doesn't seem to be in order, but it may prove the most comprehensive post cache out there. I uploaded it to my site. Here's the link:
http://azureabstraction.com/temp/making_light.zip
I would think trying to directly munge them into the database would be risky and tedious. Why don't you script hack the data into the form of something Movable Type can import directly?
I have around eighty names that I removed from my lists before posting that above. I think I'll burn 'em to a CD and ship 'em.
Here are the names I got:
abi
albatross
Allan Beatty
Avram
B Durbin
Bill Higgins
Bob Rossney
Bruce Cohen
cajunfj40
CarolKimball
Cat Meadows
Charlie Stross
cherish
clew
Clifton Royston
Constance Ash
C. Wingate
Dave Bell
David Goldfarb
elise
Epacris
Faren Miller
Fragano Ledgister
Ginger
Gwen
Heresiarch
JESR
joann
Joe McMahon
Joe Morrison
John A Arkansawyer
John Houghton
John L
John Scalzi
John Stanning
Jon
Jon Baker
Jon H
Jon Meltzer
Jon R
Jon Sobel
Juliet
karen
Kathryn Cramer
Kathryn from Sunnyvale
Keir
Keir Dullea
Keith
Kelly McCullough
kouredios
Laurence
Lee
Lila
James D. Macdonald
Marilee
Marry James
Mary Aileen
Mez
Michael
Mitch Wagner
NC Hanger
NelC
Nix
Patrick Connors
Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Paula Helm Murray
Paul Duncanson
P J Evans
Rivka
R M Koske
Sajia Kabir
Serge
Stefan Jones
Teresa Nielsen Hayden
Terry Karney
Tim Kyger
Tim May
Tim Walters
Vlad
Oh -- one more thing that we learned from the Absolute Write rescue effort: Google uses multiple machines, and a search on a string may get any of them. Some will have different, more complete, or more recent caches than others. The same search repeated twice may get different results.
Discussing this last night with my SO, she suggested that archive.org might have more of the missing threads. They have a six-month delay between crawling and making available, so it's not immediately useful unless someone knows someone helpful on the inside there, but if some stuff just can't be recovered, it might be good to make a note to check there in October.
Thanks to anyone who saved/mailed my comments; I sent the Google cache of them as of 4/30 before I checked the rest of the thread.
(Hi, lurker here.)
I've done the same thing Andrew Willett describes with the MSN cached "View All By"s, starting with A.J. Luxton and going through don delny. I also tried the names that were mentioned in the original post as being already overwritten in Google's cache. Names I wound up with saved data for (using "save as Web page, complete"):
A.J. Luxton
A.R.Yngve
Adam Ek
Adrian Smith
ajay
Alter S. Reiss
ame
Andrew Plotkin
Andrhia
Andy Brazil
Anna the Piper
Ben Morris
beth meacham
bryan
Carol Kimball
Carol Maltby
CHip
Chris (cbyler)
Chris (zizban)
Chris Gerrib
Chris J.
Chris K.
Chris (kasaubon)
Chris Lawson
Chris Quinones
Chris S.
Connie H.
dcb
Debbie (debbie)
Debbie (deborah_behle)
Debbie (kith)
Dena Shunra
Doctor Science
don delny
Niall McAuley
Xopher
Most (unfortunately not all) of these were cached within the last week.
I saved my comments list through 4/26/08 before I saw Jim's note that he had mine. Shall I send it along anyway?
I just did Kathryn from Sunnyvale's "comments posted to making light" search on Google cache for March and April, and have emailed the results to Teresa. Perhaps someone should try this with another search engine.
Andrew Willett, thank you!
And Teresa, thank you! (didn't see yur list on first scan here)
Followup to previous: I'm doing the same search on msn. The cache there seems to be better than Google's.
I usually read the threads through Google reader and since my parents were here this weekend I'm about two or three days behind, so those entries should still be available to me.
I can copy and paste or move the threads into my shared items folder whichever is easier.
I don't follow all the comment threads, so there may be some gaps (mostly in the political threads.
My current strategy, because I cannot remember names: I'm searching for first names, getting the omitted results, and saving everything. So I have Mary Aileen, Dell, Frances, &c. I know I'm getting duplicates.
Thank you, everyone, for helping put things back together.
Has Ginger been saved?
Yes, Gilligan.
More comments from MSN's cache. Still working from Jim's list of names at 7:45. I have tried every name from the beginning through Michelle, but I did not find caches for everyone, and some of the ones I did find are older (although I didn't save anything with a most recent comment before March). I'm afraid I have to stop now. More names I have:
Earl Cooley III
EClaire
Edward Oleander
eric (eric-light)
Eric (herewiss13)
Eric Chapman
ethan
Evan Simpson
Farah
fidelio
Francis D
Garrett Fitzgerald
Glenn Hauman
Graydon
Greg London
harthad
Ingvar M
Jakob
Jen Roth
Jennifer Barber
Jo Walton
Joel Polowin
John Chu
John L.
Julie L.
Kate Nepveu
Kayjayoh
Ken houghton
Ken MacLeod
Kevin Riggle
Kimberley Verburg
Kip W
Lawrence Watt-Evans
Leah Miller
Linkmeister
Lizzy L
Madeline F
Marie Brennan
Mark D.
Marna Nightingale
Martin Wisse
Mary Aileen Buss
Mary Dell
Mary Frances Zambreno
Mary Kay
Matt
Matt Austern
Matt McIrvin
Matt Stevens
Matthew Austern
Max Kaehn
Melody
Michael
Michael Falcon-Gates
Michael I
Michael Martin
Michael Phillips
Michael Turyn
Michael Walsh
Michael Weholt
Michelle
Okay, I just used Perl to strip all the comments and data out of the Google Reader XML that I posted a few hours ago. Here it is in SQL import form (exported with phpMyAdmin).
http://www.azureabstraction.com/temp/makinglight_comments.zip
PLEASE think about the security implications of just running this file, though. This is safe, but from someone else it might very well not be. Look at the simple SQL statements and convince yourself that I'm not trying to do something malicious.
Search on msn for "comments posted to making light" is now done from 03.01.08 to 03.31.08. I won't be able to do April.