Information Technology Preppers?

[smurf hunter]

I have a significant amount of experience with disaster recovery solutions for database, in particular Oracle and MySQL.   It's what I do for a living.  I second the thoughts to those here discussing the "2 is 1" mindset.

Of course, in my line of work we are really only considering geographical impacts...such as a hurricane, blizzard, power outage, civil unrest, etc.   We replicate, in their entirety all critical production systems across the country in another datacenter.

Reading this thread now has me wondering about the "off the grid" type solutions.   I'm behind the curve with the capability of HAM as an internet gateway.  Could these HAM repeater stations also serve as replication points for the data you are proposing to keep?   A "HAM Cloud"?   

I've now got something else to read up on!    This is a GREAT thread!

As a jack of all trades software developer, I'm a big fan of mysql for quick and dirty DB work.  Especially running from the linux shell where you can quickly pipe data in and out in a pinch.  Lends itself well to automation and other crafty things.

[endurance]

I printed out a book once awhile back and it took up so much ink / paper I assume the "free" book ended up costing me $50 in ink/paper by the time it was done!

Just my $.02 there.

A laser printer is much, much, cheaper per-page — but the last time I ever had to buy a toner cartridge it cost much more than an inkjet printer AND spare ink cartridges would (about $200+). However, you get THOUSANDS of prints per cartridge vs. "hundreds" in a typical inkjet cartridge.

He said save it to a file, not print it.  That way it remains searchable, too.

[smurf hunter]

Want redundancy, or a cheap way to distribute digital material across a group?

USB drives are so small, cheap and easy to use, it's almost a crime if you neglected them.  Keep one in your blackout kit, bugout bag, give a couple to family members, etc.

http://www.amazon.com/Centon-DSP2GB10PK%C2%A010-Multi-pack-Flash-Drive/dp/B001N0RJQO/ref=sr_1_6?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1352999102&sr=1-6&keywords=usb+drive+pack

While small sized @ 2GB, for ~$6.00/ea. that's a pretty economical way to add a lot of capability.

Shop more, I just pasted the first link I found.

[XtraBright]

There are some local groups building "open" internets over W-LAN and hacked Linksys WRT54G Routers running Linux.

So called "Freifunk" Initiative.

Hardware runs on 12V straight and is tough and there is a ton of modifications (from extreme hardware overhauls to simple toilet-paper-roll-range extenders) and can cover quite some distance out in the open.

They can be bridged, switched, .... and the hardware is ap. 50 bucks.

http://www.amazon.de/Linksys-WRT54GL-DE-Wireless-G-Broadband-Router/dp/B000EHIA06

Basically everybody with an device that has W-LAN can join the group, the routers last long on any car battery and some energy saving NetBook could actually provide the basic entry point and run some basic mail, file and text-services.

You can add DNS servers, proxies according to your wishes our run the network private based on allowed MAC-adresses.

I would consider such a basic network in the local area a mayor boost to morale in an crisis !

[smurf hunter]

haha - I run a WRT54G with the "tomato" linux distro for our home wifi network.  I almost never log into it, but initially set it up so I could manage the kids' access to netflix on the nintendo wii, among other things.  At the time I was worried about bandwidth limits from my ISP and wanted better reporting on which MAC consumed the most (was it movies, browsing, etc.?)

While most people would consider me a geek, it really wasn't a complex process to change the installed software.