Neither Rain, Nor Snow, Nor Dark of Night... 278
Digital_Quartz writes "This week's I, Cringely discusses possible plans for ensuring your data survives Hurricane Frances. I've always though remote backups would be the best solution to a problem like this. Maybe even something as simple as hiding a DVD-R under your desk at work, with all your worldly data on it. How do you secure your precious data against earthquakes, hurricanes, and swarms of locusts?" Reader pillageplunder writes "CNN is reporting: 'Scientists say more storms like Frances -- both very intense and very large -- are likely.' They theorize that warming oceans natural cycles are setting the stage. Some interesting facts throughout the article... Forecasting has gotten better, with a 3 day forecast now having a margin of error or 'only' 200 miles." And an anonymous reader writes "For those peer-2-peer geeks stuck in hurricane Frances, you can now listen to Central Florida Indymedia's coverage of the hurricane. In addition to giving updates about the hurricane, they are playing music, interviews, and relaying other radio stations. Possibly more interesting than the content to Slashdot readers will be the fact that it is being done via peer-2-peer. The java program p2p-radio from p2p-radio.sourceforge.net is being used in conjunction with shoutcast to deliver the content. Details on how to connect are available here on Tampa Indymedia's Website."
Simply unplug those HDDs, and... (Score:5, Insightful)
Your harddrives. In a nice, heavy, watertight safe. It's not going anywhere.
mail it (Score:5, Insightful)
DVD-R (Score:4, Insightful)
Also, if something happens that is severe enough to destroy the disk, it will probably also kill you, so you won't be needing that data backup anymore.
Re:Indymedia is Insane. (Score:2, Insightful)
The neat thing about indymedia is that generally (there are some minor checks and balances), anyone can post anything. You get nutty posts like the first one, and everything else in between.
From reading your other posts, I get the feeling you're the sort of person who equates criticism of the Israeli government with anti-semetism, so I won't even address the second link you posted.
Seriously, come on now (Score:3, Insightful)
So what CNN is basically saying is that we'll continue to have seasonal storms just like we have for all of human history.
They really needed "scientists" to tell them that?
LK
Re:HAARP? (Score:2, Insightful)
KFG
Certain Slashdot posters are MORE dense... (Score:2, Insightful)
I have some news for you, Mister AC
1) you need an apostrophe inserted in "its", above.
2) we are all going to die, no matter what the global climate does.
2) a) the coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave man dies but once.
3) What I think is funny NOW, is the shortsighted and selfish behavior of so many people who call themselves intelligent.
Now THAT is hilarious ( and disgusting ).
4) Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those
who think.
I'm still laughing, and I will be laughing until I die, at the way technology has advanced, but human foresight is still as bad as
it was ten thousand years ago.
And by the way, fresh water is LESS dense than salt water. Fresh water of an equal temperature will "float" above a layer of salt water.
( I got a minor in oceanography in undergrad school, where did you get your knowledge ? Cereal boxes ? )
Once again, I find myself wondering WHY I even bother reading this website...
Re:Indymedia is Insane. (Score:2, Insightful)
I certainly won't, and I hope you won't either. What do you think happened when an Israeli F16 shoots missiles into an apartment building in one of the most densely populated places on Earth? Innocents get turned into "legitimate military targets." Is the inevitable civilian carnage and misery, and the bus-bombers it creates, worth a couple dead possible Hamas supporters?
The leaders of the PA have to keep their population upset with Israli because they do not want their people to know how much money they have taken from them. With as much aid as the PA gets from the EU, USA and the UN it should be a much better place to live.
Dude, Yasser Arafat doesn't need to make the Palestinian people hate Israel. The Israeli bulldozers, tanks, and snipers probably do a good enough job of that.
I'm certainly no supporter of the current Palestinian government. But really, they're pretty irrelevant. For me, the real issue is the immense suffering visited on an occupied people by an occupying army - that's made possible by my tax dollars. (30 or 40 billion a year!)
And, don't you think that Israel would stop counter attacking if the PA would put a stop to the suicide bomb attacks against Israel?
No, I really don't. Aggressive settlement (in any other situation, we'd call it colonization) of the occupied lands has been a stated aim of the Israeli givernment for decades. Why would Israel stop building settlements if the occupied population suddenly became complacent? It would just make things easier. The settlements are just one example, but my argument applies more generally.
On the other hand, if the occupation was less brutal, if people's houses stopped being demolished, if soldiers stopped humiliating and murdering people for sport**, I think Hamas wouldn't be able to find a single recruit, and the violence would stop.
**I went to college with a guy who just finished a tour in Gaza. He told some pretty gruesome stories.
Re:Move to California, of course! (Score:2, Insightful)
No, I'm afraid you haven't. A thunderstorm maybe, which can be really nasty in the midwest, but they aren't hurricanes and lack the most destructive part of the hurricane. The ocean.
Live in Florida? Have a nice big cement dome built, with bullet-proof plexiglass windows/skylights.
This works until it gets hit by a ship or the ground underneath it simply ceases to exist. Florida's bedrock is saturated limestone and not to be trusted either. The plexiglass better be cannon proof. There are places where it's vaguely possible to build a "hurricane proof" (for sufficiently low values of "proof") house. Florida's coastal areas aren't one of them.
Live in flood territory? Have your home built on 6 foot-tall columns, anchored in cement. Then, when the area floods, your deck and stairs may be washed away, but your house will remain in good shape.
In my area our trout streams that you can wade across in 30 seconds without getting more than your ankles wet in July wash away major steel highway bridges in March. One good four ton chunk of ice traveling downstream at 60 mph will clean away your house, six foot tall concrete columns and all.
We are small and puny and can be squashed like bugs on a windshield, as can the sturdiest of our structures under the right conditions.
It's best to run away if you have the chance.
KFG
Re:Why don't they start building better houses? (Score:2, Insightful)
1. Let the insurance companies raise the homeowners premiums to astronomical amounts or flat out deny coverage
2. Deny _any_ federal disaster assistance
to property/homeowners that own/build in high risk areas and don't build/upgrade to withstand a major storm with only minimal damage.
The idea of living on the beach is nice and all, but those who fail to remember that Mother Nature is in charge should get what they deserve. If you want to build your $2,000,000 house on a beach, three feet above sea level in an area known to be overrun by storm surge, go ahead, if you have the money to repair/replace everything you lose time and time again... You can't afford to fix it? Tough luck buster, YOU made the choice.
Why should those who live in safer areas (by choice or necessity) have to subsidize the rebuilding of property in areas that should never have been developed in the first place? For that matter, why should Joe Taxpayer have to subsidize the clueless/greedy?
IANASE, but concrete building California is done all the time, just have to double/triple the amount of rebar used...
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)