Knowledge Storage

A lot of prepper blogs out there talk about storing information in such a fashion that you can access it easily during an emergency.  One aspect of this is by printing out information from websites, blogs, etc. and keeping it in a binder.  I have been doing that myself, and I discovered a wonderful browser application that helps me save the meat of a website, and eliminate the useless chaff (advertising).

Check out PrintFriendly.  I find that it works for about 95% of the pages I want to be able to save.  It creates a printable PDF of the page with the option to remove items.  The one thing I don't care for is that on blog pages, it doesn't capture comments.

In any case, with this app I have PDF's on my computer.  When I have enough articles on a particular topic to be worth printing out, I collate information into a Word document so that I can eliminate duplication, and reduce the size of the print to save space.  Two sided printing also helps me save space.

My topics?

1.  Clothing, and textiles (including laundry)
2.  Communications
3.  Food: Finding Food (foraging, hunting), Growing Food, Preserving Food, Storing Food, Preparing Food
4.  Hazards, and security (include defense)
5.  Health (including sanitation)
6.  Heat, Fuel, Power
7.  Income, Skills and Home Industry
8.  Shelter (including bugging in)
9.  Travel, Transportation (including bugging out)
10.  Water

Where do I draw information from?  Aside from the many blogs and information sites available out there, I also use the Internet Archive's Text Section to find information on how it used to be done.  Currently, the archive houses digital copies of books published up to the early 50s. Another source of info is Scribd.  There are a few uploaders who have collated a lot of useful information and posted it there, as well as posting the cream of the crop from the Internet Archive. I also visit thrift stores, and second-hand book stores and find treasures in print, and have scanned many of my own books so that if I can't take the paper copy with me, I still can have my library with me.

What You Can Learn from Playing Video Games

I had an interesting conversation with a fellow at work yesterday about what you can learn from video games.  Now, I've always thought video games are great for teaching eye-hand coordination.  It worked well with my youngest who had real problems in that area.  But apparently, there is more that you can learn.

One thing my young friend mentioned is that you learn not to panic.  Suddenly, a raptor jumps you from out of nowhere; what do you do!  Apparently, long time gamers learn to not panic.  Another skill is to anticipate possible scenarios and plan for them, or planning strategies.  Thirdly, another skill is to learn to deal with tedium as in "grinding out rep", and "farming".  So, my friend thinks that all that time spent playing World of Warcraft is good survival training.

I can see the value in learning to not panic, but strategic thinking is best developed in handling real world events.  In real life, your strategy cannot include running through your opponent, and rezzing if things don't go as planned.  Indeed, if your main skills are game related, and you are a computer potato, you are not going to be physically prepared.

It's possible that in a bad situation where you need to direct younger folk who are clueless about real life, drawing upon gaming analogies can at least help them understand the situation, and why you need them to follow a certain strategy.  For example, you can tell them it's like doing a boss raid where you have to do everything just right, or the raid will wipe.  And if they complain that you don't trust them, let them know that all the tedious little jobs you are giving them to do is "grinding rep" with your faction, or they are "farming" for mats.

If you have kids that spend all their leisure time in the cyber world, you may need to offer them a "quest" and help them apply their "skills" in the real world.

Are You A Tech-Junkie?

I think most of us are highly dependent on our electronic and electrical gadgets, and it's astonishing how many of the "simplest" devices now have chips in them to control them.  Modern Stronghold has an chilling piece about what the consequences could be if all those chips were taken out, not by an EMP, but a virus.  The virus he's referring to in his piece is stuxnet, and it's designed to be able to hijack the code in the device it has infiltrated, and customized to sabotage or steal code and/or data.

Imagine then, if you will, a world where electricity was no longer readily available because a virus targetted the control systems at all power plants using certain PLC's, or where driving a car that contains a computer is taking your life in your hands because viral code had been introduced during the manufacturing process.  Maybe your air conditioner develops the habit of dropping temperatures to the freezing point and you live in someplace where it can get brutally hot.  Using air conditioning becomes an exercise in extremes, assuming you have electricity to start with.  Sounds like the beginnings of a great sci-fi novel. 

It's a weird world we live in.  Think I'll jump in my computer-controlled car and go to work, where I sit in front of a computer, in a building where access is controlled by a computer...