The Red Cross has quite a bit of information regarding disaster prep. Many people on social media also have their recommendations. For example, RoseRed Homestead has quite an extensive collection of off grid prep information on yt. The yt bot will direct you to more, obviously. Choose what suits your needs, focus on your weakest link first. The frustration with the current situation (combined with the threat of ever present and ever changing climate related disasters) is this is essentially new territory for most of us. It's hard to plan without knowing exactly what problems will come up, and for how long. All part of their tactics, obviously. Being prepared is good way to defeat them. Having peace of mind that you are well prepared is a good defense tactic. Alas, we can no longer count on our traditional sources of disaster relief to come to our rescue. The more self-sufficient we are, the better. And joining with members of our immediate community goes hand-in-hand with that. Our recent pandemics have given us some practical training, too. We don't have the robust medical community to prevent and control disease outbreaks like we used to, but there is an "alt" community forming. Know where to find reliable information. It sure ain't the government anymore.
Thank you for alerting me to RoseRed Homestead, I will check them out.
Cyber defense is a new space for most so in that regard I am hoping to fill a knowledge gap.
I have a long post I'm going to publish this evening with follow up tactics on how to be an unreachable target for DOGE. Hope it helps others and maneuvers American households into a position to force a negotiation on terms for an SLA (service level agreement) with the new DOGE federal systems.
We also need to take steps preemptively to avoid outages caused by DOGE that have potential to explode downstream systems people rely on to keep their households operational.
We need critical mass in order to have that kind of leverage so the more households opting-out of DOGE compliance the better our chances.
Please consider a generator that is powered by solar energy or getting solar panels installed. A lot of these recommendations are also apt for climate disasters which will also becoming more frequent for all of us
Search state tourism departments for free paper maps of their state. I was able to receive free old school road maps for my state and its surrounding states by ordering them online.
I still have a AAA membership. I'm going to re-stock my paper maps of various states. I currently have paper maps of all lower 48 states but some of them are probably older. Those were our backups for road trips. Time to get the box out again. 🤔
One of the best maps is called an "atlas and gazetteer". It combines topo with political towns, highways and includes ownership(private/fed/state). They are published by state. If you can read lat+ long you're good to go. Literally.
Any chance you can make this post listenable? This feature on Substack has made my access to news and information massively more accessible as a neurodivergent/disabled person and I know others in my community would appreciate more newsletters ensuring that this accessible feature be activated. Additionally, it’s always disappointing when that feature is “for paid subscribers only” on free posts.
I have never done that before but I will try it tonight. I've been using the listenable feature on Substack and agree it is great to have that option. Thanks for the suggestion.
To your other point, I'm planning to keep all of my content free and accessible. I'm lucky to be employed in Big Tech and have enough money to keep my household running. If I get laid off with the next round of cuts I'll reconsider but for now I want this information to be as accessible as possible.
I've been told we won't have another layoff round for 6mos so until then this content will be free to all.
Loved your suggestion about downloading maps but a small map of my area (~40 sq miles) is 354M — ouch! Can't image how much space would be needed for an entire State map.
Am glad the suggestion worked for you! It is a large file, the state of GA is 3.06G. 😯 Last weekend I looked for a car GPS device to buy but they’re not sold in the stores around here. Alternatively if you have an old iPhone that could be used as a dedicated GPS maybe best to download there to save space on your primary phone.
I have a question about how to back up data. I currently use DropBox and would like your thoughts on it in the current environment. I have been advised that hard drives aren't that reliable and there is the issue of them being up to date. Thank you
Do both. It's sort of a belt-and-suspenders approach, but with current hard drive prices you probably won't take too big a financial hit. Then if your DropBox gets hacked or otherwise blinks out of existence (even temporarily) you'll still have a copy of the important stuff on a local drive.
I used to run my own web servers as a site host. I had separate backup drives for each day. On a certain day each week, one of those would be taken offline and to a remote location, and replaced with a different drive. And once a month one of the weekly drives would rotate out.
That way I could restore to any day in the past week; to any week in the past month; and to any month in the past year.
You probably won't need to go to that extreme, but having one or more older copies can be quite handy.
Also, wise to not keep your backup drive connected to your computer all the time unless you back up frequently. This protects your data in case there's a power surge that takes out your computer and the drives attached to it.
Eve_ interested in an answer, too... I have in the past used multiple hard drives, but not in recent years. Will do some research but I think duplicate drives is how I used to go, back in the day when I was working on large image files.
Not an expert by any means, but i spent the better part of January making a new critical data backup. I’ve had two SeaGates for years and they work well. You will just need software that can do the copies for you, many can even be programmed to back up on a schedule.
I just bought a new portable one this year for this latest backup. I’ve been seeing people stressing paper backups for everything and while there is value in that, paper is just one minor water leak away from being useless. Wondering what others think about this. To me, several HD backups are far better than any paper. What am I missing?
The Red Cross has quite a bit of information regarding disaster prep. Many people on social media also have their recommendations. For example, RoseRed Homestead has quite an extensive collection of off grid prep information on yt. The yt bot will direct you to more, obviously. Choose what suits your needs, focus on your weakest link first. The frustration with the current situation (combined with the threat of ever present and ever changing climate related disasters) is this is essentially new territory for most of us. It's hard to plan without knowing exactly what problems will come up, and for how long. All part of their tactics, obviously. Being prepared is good way to defeat them. Having peace of mind that you are well prepared is a good defense tactic. Alas, we can no longer count on our traditional sources of disaster relief to come to our rescue. The more self-sufficient we are, the better. And joining with members of our immediate community goes hand-in-hand with that. Our recent pandemics have given us some practical training, too. We don't have the robust medical community to prevent and control disease outbreaks like we used to, but there is an "alt" community forming. Know where to find reliable information. It sure ain't the government anymore.
Thank you for alerting me to RoseRed Homestead, I will check them out.
Cyber defense is a new space for most so in that regard I am hoping to fill a knowledge gap.
I have a long post I'm going to publish this evening with follow up tactics on how to be an unreachable target for DOGE. Hope it helps others and maneuvers American households into a position to force a negotiation on terms for an SLA (service level agreement) with the new DOGE federal systems.
We also need to take steps preemptively to avoid outages caused by DOGE that have potential to explode downstream systems people rely on to keep their households operational.
We need critical mass in order to have that kind of leverage so the more households opting-out of DOGE compliance the better our chances.
Thank you for helping get the word out!
Please consider a generator that is powered by solar energy or getting solar panels installed. A lot of these recommendations are also apt for climate disasters which will also becoming more frequent for all of us
Search state tourism departments for free paper maps of their state. I was able to receive free old school road maps for my state and its surrounding states by ordering them online.
I still have a AAA membership. I'm going to re-stock my paper maps of various states. I currently have paper maps of all lower 48 states but some of them are probably older. Those were our backups for road trips. Time to get the box out again. 🤔
This is an excellent tip, thank you!
One of the best maps is called an "atlas and gazetteer". It combines topo with political towns, highways and includes ownership(private/fed/state). They are published by state. If you can read lat+ long you're good to go. Literally.
Any chance you can make this post listenable? This feature on Substack has made my access to news and information massively more accessible as a neurodivergent/disabled person and I know others in my community would appreciate more newsletters ensuring that this accessible feature be activated. Additionally, it’s always disappointing when that feature is “for paid subscribers only” on free posts.
Hi Nova,
I have never done that before but I will try it tonight. I've been using the listenable feature on Substack and agree it is great to have that option. Thanks for the suggestion.
To your other point, I'm planning to keep all of my content free and accessible. I'm lucky to be employed in Big Tech and have enough money to keep my household running. If I get laid off with the next round of cuts I'll reconsider but for now I want this information to be as accessible as possible.
I've been told we won't have another layoff round for 6mos so until then this content will be free to all.
Thank you!
Thank you 🙏
Loved your suggestion about downloading maps but a small map of my area (~40 sq miles) is 354M — ouch! Can't image how much space would be needed for an entire State map.
Am glad the suggestion worked for you! It is a large file, the state of GA is 3.06G. 😯 Last weekend I looked for a car GPS device to buy but they’re not sold in the stores around here. Alternatively if you have an old iPhone that could be used as a dedicated GPS maybe best to download there to save space on your primary phone.
Thanks.
Hi Lexi, thank you so much for this advice! Is there an android map option for those who don't have iphones?
Magic Earth might be an option.
I have been looking into Android alternatives, and so far, I have found that OsmAnd best meets my needs.
State run rest stops on interstates usually have state maps.
animal food & supplies....
I have a question about how to back up data. I currently use DropBox and would like your thoughts on it in the current environment. I have been advised that hard drives aren't that reliable and there is the issue of them being up to date. Thank you
Do both. It's sort of a belt-and-suspenders approach, but with current hard drive prices you probably won't take too big a financial hit. Then if your DropBox gets hacked or otherwise blinks out of existence (even temporarily) you'll still have a copy of the important stuff on a local drive.
I used to run my own web servers as a site host. I had separate backup drives for each day. On a certain day each week, one of those would be taken offline and to a remote location, and replaced with a different drive. And once a month one of the weekly drives would rotate out.
That way I could restore to any day in the past week; to any week in the past month; and to any month in the past year.
You probably won't need to go to that extreme, but having one or more older copies can be quite handy.
Also, wise to not keep your backup drive connected to your computer all the time unless you back up frequently. This protects your data in case there's a power surge that takes out your computer and the drives attached to it.
Eve_ interested in an answer, too... I have in the past used multiple hard drives, but not in recent years. Will do some research but I think duplicate drives is how I used to go, back in the day when I was working on large image files.
Not an expert by any means, but i spent the better part of January making a new critical data backup. I’ve had two SeaGates for years and they work well. You will just need software that can do the copies for you, many can even be programmed to back up on a schedule.
I just bought a new portable one this year for this latest backup. I’ve been seeing people stressing paper backups for everything and while there is value in that, paper is just one minor water leak away from being useless. Wondering what others think about this. To me, several HD backups are far better than any paper. What am I missing?
If you have a back-up generator, that could be a good solution.
Thanks for the tip about offline maps with Apple!!! Didn't know that. 💙🩵💙