Emergency preparedness

So, there is this guy, Dave Markowitz, who is a member of The High Road. Dave also writes a survival and emergency preparedness blog, which I have listed in my links section. I generally like and agree with what Dave writes, and I appreciate that he doesn't come off as some sort of survivalist loony-toon. His stuff is generally pretty common-sense, which is good. In regular life, Dave is both a lawyer and a genuine computer expert, so it isn't like he is some guy sitting in a log cabin in his underwear waiting for the Red Menace.

Recently, Dave posted an article about using a thumb drive (or data key, or flash drive, or whatever you want to call it), and while it seems to be pretty obvious idea, I have to confess it isn't something that I really ever thought about. This despite the fact that in college I absolutely depended on my flash drive. That I lost one and about had a nervous breakdown because I thought I had lost the other has no bearing on the fact that they are a great little tool.

Anyway, here is a link to the article:

http://survivalpreps.blogspot.com/2008/02/usb-thumb-drive-for-emergencies.html

As Dave points out, flash drives are ridiculously cheap, so there isn't any compelling reason not to back up key files (and even not-so-key files, like photos) on one in the event of an emergency. Frankly, as much as I enjoy reading about wilderness survival techniques, and as much thought as I have put into surviving some sort of catastrophic breakdown of society, the fact is that I, and most of you, are many hundreds of times more likely to have to deal with things like fires, blackouts, and local weather emergencies. In all those cases, having easily transportable, reliable and relatively secure access to all my sweet, sweet data makes more sense than does arming myself with a rifle and a tomahawk and becoming Jim Bridger v.2008.

Anyway, it's a good post, and I thought y'all might enjoy reading it.