support thread for people trying to download freebies from dailyish email

After many corrupt files via Firefox I switched to Chrome and got a working pdf the first try.

You can disregard my last post. for some reason all the previous posts about fixing the problem didnt show up when i looked and then wrote it. finally after 5th download and reading about the fixes above, i had success. Thanks Cassie Your Awesome!!!

Still corrupted for me, too. Tried twice this morning and once this afternoon, 12 hours apart.

I finally got a copy. Patience rules.

Can someone confirm that if my two files are:
1. Chapter 4 Operation and Maintenance at 32 pgs and
2. Annex 6" diameter at 12 pgs,
I've still not got the current, correct file which is described as:
"rocket mass heater manual for free! AKA 20 pages of assistance on building
the rocket mass heater of your energy-efficient dreams"

The richsoil site claims there aren't any cookies there, but maybe the cookies are in my email site. In my humble "computer dinosaur" opinion, it's *acting* like there are cookies somewhere in the system!

Thanks all of you, especially Cassie, for trying to help us Luddites!
J.

Jay; I believe that you got it all, at least thats what I got.

Alright, given what others have said and my own experience just now, for whatever reason, the system simply refuses to properly download when using Firefox. Switching to Chrome or Explorer seems to instantly work without delays.

Tried 5 times to download the Rocket Mass Heater Manual. First time had a busy server. Next 4 times had a corrupt file. I guess I'll just wait for the Kickstarter.

It looks like people who just keep trying eventually get the download. As more people succeed, less people will be trying, and more people will succeed because there won't be so many people trying at once.

For the future, might I recommend hosting with a company such as Amazon... There's even a free tier! (http://aws.amazon.com/s3/pricing/)

I'm still getting a corrupt file. Will keep trying. GOT IT.

Yeah mine wasn't working on chrome so I switched to firefox and it worked immediately! So maybe try switching browsers up a few times?

No problems downloading this time, thank you!

Well, after many, many tries since yesterday, and after receive many complete but corrupted .PDFs, I now (just few moments ago) have got the file perfect.

I'm using Firefox browser. Follows what I have done:
1º - I cleaned the cookies as Cassie has suggested;
2º - I clicked again on the link received by email from Cassie (Paul Wheaton daily-ish), so I needed to inform again my email account as requested
3º - Also as suggested by another person here (sorry, I forgot who he/she was), I renamed the file before download it. Have done this at the moment to inform where should firefox save the file in my computer.
4º - I have noticed that at this time the download speed is much much better/higher than before, probably because of the hour, should have much less people trying to download the file.

Hope this information may help someone. So Permies don't give up! Keep trying and all of you will get the candy!
Thank you very much Cassie to inform me about this support thread in response to my email message this afternoon. And also thank you for this candy, very very sweet! Wonderful information. Thanks Erica and Ernie too!

Greetings from a southern Brazilian Permie to you all!

Finally, after at least a dozen attempts, I have DLed a complete and uncorrupted copy. Thank you Cassie, and thank you permies.com! Reading through the entire manual, it is a great resource that I value having. I have previously purchased all of Ernie & Erica's blueprints, which have plenty of info contained within, but this is new info to be sure. Will definitely have to find their larger book, from which this chapter was taken.

Some notes on the download:

1. All of my unssuccessful prior attempts were on a Windows 7 machine via Google Chrome.
2. My current successful attempt was on the SAME machine via the SAME browser.
3. My current successful attempt DLed very quickly, unlike many of the prior attempts.
4. I did NOT have to clear my cookies (I occasionally closed the richsoil.com download tab and re-opened it from the original email link when needed to avoid getting directed to the Annex6 plans, re-entering my email as needed each time).
5. I did change the filename for my successful attempt, but had also done so previously.

My conclusions: there does not appear to be some magic combination of "tricks" necessary get you the file successfully on your first attempt. Rather, the problem would seem to be on the richsoil.com side of the equation, no doubt simply too much traffic trying to DL at the same time. Be patient and persistent.

FINALLY! Took me about twenty attempts, but I got it in the end...

4:40am and I got it!

Got it! on the third try this morning..clearing cookies each time and re entering the url. thanks!

Cassie, et al @ Permies.com/RichSoil.com,
I'm not sure if this idea has been considered or if it could even be used due to your limited license to offer the download or due to some technical issue. However, have you guys considered using BitTorrent to distribute the files? This is a protocol (and program) that allows distributed hosting/downloading of files. Each computer that downloads the file can be used as a server to share the file with others. This reduces the load on the original server since there are now multiple servers. As permaculturists say, the problem is the solution. As more people download the file, there are more servers to host the file. Also, BitTorrent has checks built into the protocol to ensure each part of the file that has been downloaded was correctly downloaded. This would prevent the problem that people have been having of downloading a file that has been corrupted. Anyway, I thought I'd point it out to you guys just in case it could be an option in the future, maybe even for distributing the candy for the kickstarter. Please PM me, if you need some more information on this.

Good luck everybody and hang in there!
--matt

In the middle of my 7th download attempt this morning. All downloads "complete" but are corrupted and will not open. The file size for every "complete" download is different -- ranges from 16,891 KB to 16,935 KB. Also, download speeds are quite slow -- 20-60 KB/sec. I tried downloading over a dozen times yesterday afternoon, but gave up when the download kept freezing one-tenth of the way in. Keeping my fingers crossed, but I've got maple tree taps to attend to. I've using quick and dirty dry-stacked brick rocket stoves for the boil. Doesn't work too bad, but I'd like to build a proper insulated rocket for next spring. This manual would be a great help -- if I could just get it downloaded!! Also looking forward to the kickstarter goodies (hope we don't run into the same download problems).

Thanks Cassie, Paul and all the other Permies for their great work!

Finally succeeded... I think. It is not Erica Wisner's Rocket Mass Heater Manual, "20 pages of assistance on building the rocket mass heater". It is actually 32-page Chapter 4, Operation and Maintenance, of Erica's 2013 Rocket Mass Heater Builders Guide. Size is 16,936 KB. On first glance, it looks useful, once you've got your rocket built. Will have to wait for the kickstarter candy for detailed building info, I guess. Well, back to the maple sap! Cheers, everyone!!

Ed Zaborski wrote:Finally succeeded... I think. It is not Erica Wisner's Rocket Mass Heater Manual, "20 pages of assistance on building the rocket mass heater". It is actually 32-page Chapter 4, Operation and Maintenance, of Erica's 2013 Rocket Mass Heater Builders Guide. Size is 16,936 KB. On first glance, it looks useful, once you've got your rocket built. Will have to wait for the kickstarter candy for detailed building info, I guess. Well, back to the maple sap! Cheers, everyone!!

...yeah, ditto to that, after reading others posts i went on a mission this AM and after maybe 6 or 7 downloads i finally got a working copy and like you i got the file starting with Chapter 4.

peace, Rick

Ed Zaborski wrote:"20 pages of assistance on building the rocket mass heater".

That is totally my bad. I worded that a bit wrong. I should have left the word "build" out of there. I am sorry if you got your hopes up for this and it was a disappointment because I worded that wrong. I am really really sorry.

You're right, this is 32 pages (it used to be 20 pages - it still says 20 pages on erica's website) on how to operate and maintain your heater once it's been built. Again, sorry for the mis-wording. My bad.

I just now tried it and it seemed to be fine.

For those people that are still getting a corrupted file, what pdf reader are you using?

I'm having trouble downloading the MRH too. I've tried several times, one two different computers, and used Mozilla and Chrome, yet, when I try to open file, it says it's corrupted and can't be repaired...

using ADOBE

Juan Pedro Ortiz wrote:Hey guys is anyone else having problems trying to download the free rocket mass heat manual?
I've tried on two seperate computers and it says the file is corrupted?
Does anyone know how to fix this?

Thanks for your help
JPO

I tried on several computers and my phone. Says file is irrupted. Not sure what to do. I am using the MicrosSoft reader on my computers and Safari, Chrome and iBooks on my phone.

Same here.... corrupted file or failed to download. Tried several times on 3 different computers.

Hi Cassie, thanks for the tech help-I am a techno idiot who doesn't even know how to clear cookies so your detailed guide was much appreciated! I followed your instructions and it down loaded successfully, many thanks!

I tried downloading it again a few more times, including after clearing my cookies. Corrupted once, failed twice. Now it's directing me to the plans--an old giveaway which I'm super grateful for--rather than the manual, which I never managed to get. Any word on that?

Marvin Warren wrote:I tried downloading it again a few more times, including after clearing my cookies. Corrupted once, failed twice. Now it's directing me to the plans--an old giveaway which I'm super grateful for--rather than the manual, which I never managed to get. Any word on that?

I have been working with people all day to try to figure this out. I have no good answer besides keep trying because people who have kept trying it eventually works for.

still not working, as of 8.30 eastern time on Friday march 27

Cassie Langstraat wrote:I've had a few people report that the PDF gets downloaded as corrupted.. anyone else have this problem?

anyone downloading it successfully?

Downloaded several times. With different browsers, and with Foxit PDF Reader, always giving corrupt message. Then I tried SumatraPDF, which opened it.
May I suggest checking your PDF editor settings (or PDF printer). SumatraPDF is somehow able to open unfinished PDFs. It seems that your host/server is cutting off the download, as all downloads are slightly different size. Tried many times, will try next day (or after).


Cheers, and tnx for the materials and for the effort.

After several tries unsuccessfully, I tried the instructions for clearing the cookie cache on Chrome (OSX). The downloaded file size changed, but still could not open the pdf due to corruption. I switched to the stock OSX browser Safari and it downloaded an uncorrupted pdf the first time. Yea!

Not sure why that worked, but thought I would share my experiences for others. Thank you Cassie for all you efforts!!!
AL

(EDIT: spelling )

Yeah, I downloaded it too. On the same browser, after many tries.
My take is that the host/server is cutting off the downloads, for some reason. OS/browser unrelated.

Tnx.

Stojko Stojkovski wrote:
Yeah, I downloaded it too. On the same browser, after many tries.
My take is that the host/server is cutting off the downloads, for some reason. OS/browser unrelated.

Tnx.

Sounds about right. Didn't work on Chrome for me, but finally got FireFox to work.

Thanks for sharing your experiences everyone. I really do apologize for this being such a mess. It looks like most people have successfully downloaded it though so that makes me happy. I talked to our server support people and apparently it had nothing to do with their end of things so it is still quite a mystery.

My guess is that the file is getting downloaded just fine.

My file is 17,341,647 bytes. It opens fine. For all of the people that are having problems, is this the size you have? I suspect it is.

I am speculating that the file is perfect in every way. And that when erica loads the file, it loads just fine on her stuff. And, I suspect that the file loads poorly on many other platforms and pdf readers. So the file will load perfectly for a whole bunch of people and not load for a bunch of others. If this guess is true, then I think the solution is to load the file into an application that can read it, and the application can WRITE the file back out in a format that anything/everything can read.

To figure out if my guess is right, the first thing we need is to hear back from folks that their file size matches mine.

Hate to disappoint you Paul. Here's a file listing of the 3 files that I was able to download. The first one is the good version. The next two are the corrupted versions that I was able to download. As you can see from the file sizes, they are smaller than the good one.

-rw-rw-r-- 1 mgoto mgoto 17341647 Mar 26 04:46 rocket-mass-heater-manual-ch04-operation-and-maintenance.pdf
mgoto@mgoto-ThinkPad-T510:~/m/environment/rocket-mass-heaters$ ls -l rocket-mass-heater-manual-corrupt-01.pdf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mgoto mgoto 17284372 Mar 25 21:06 rocket-mass-heater-manual-corrupt-01.pdf
mgoto@mgoto-ThinkPad-T510:~/m/environment/rocket-mass-heaters$ ls -l rocket-mass-heater-manual-corrupt-02.pdf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 mgoto mgoto 17279992 Mar 25 21:18 rocket-mass-heater-manual-corrupt-02.pdf

This corresponds with what I can tell from using tail (a program that lists the last few lines of a file). The good version ends like other pdf files

<<
/Size 3138
/Root 1 0 R
/Info 2 0 R
/ID [<2E44508332D07E9213DC506EFCFD2F83><2E44508332D07E9213DC506EFCFD2F83>]
>>
startxref
17278726
%%EOF

The corrupted ones look similar to this:

0001617763 00000 n
0001617869 00000 n
0001618052 00000 n
0001618123 00000 n
0001618229 00000 n
0001618412 00000 n
0001618483 00000 n
0001618589 00000 n
0001618772 00000 n

It seems to me as if the download is getting cut off prematurely. This could be a server problem, a problem with the client that is downloading, or some problem with some part in the middle (maybe a part of the internet caching a corrupted version?). Your suggestion could potentially work though. If there is some pdf reader that could read a corrupted version of the file and then write it out again, that might solve the problem since it would probably write it out with the proper ending. However, it might not since some of the data that is missing might actually be needed to properly read the file.

Of course, having more data from others having problems would be helpful, but I'm guessing that this is what is happening with others as well.

--matt goto

Adrien made a small change that someone over at coderanch suggested. Are people still having troubles?