#on external drives NOT just online backups

[eskawrites]

word randomly deciding to fuck with my files and screw up the saving process is going to give me a fucking heart attack

[apocalypticdemon]

i love it when i get possessed by the urge to do something and i feel like i must do it right away Or Else

[thirtyknives]

Back Up Often, Back Up Local.

Hey kids, it's your local elder millenial coming at you live to remind you that anything on a cloud server or a social media network (including this one) is not to be considered secure. If you have artwork or writing you value, back up often, and back up local. Storage space is cheap, get yourself some USB sticks or an external drive and store that shit, or god forbid, if you're lucky enough to have access to an optical drive every so often burn a disc of archived works. There is no promise that an online server you post to will be there tomorrow. I've just learned that ello shuttered overnight and took down all the artwork stored there. It's no big one to me because I store local, but there's a lot of people who are hurting due to the loss, and I've been there kids. I did heaps of really interesting writing and artwork that I published on servers that don't even exist anymore. Even well maintained, well loved servers reach the end of their lifespan and are switched off, decommissioned, and or compromised. Power outages, natural disaster, the works - keep it in your own hands, and you know exactly where it is and what state it's in.

If you have questionable living arrangements or dangerous people around you that make your art or writing insecure at home, the next best thing is to email to a trusted friend and get them to download and store local.

Storing across multiple platforms is better than nothing, I guess, if you don't have that option - so Google Drive and Protondrive, multiple different email addresses (mail them back and forth) and private posts on networks on which you don't usually publish (Dreamwidth is still going strong and is actively involved in fighting restrictive social media laws - they deserve your attention).

If you write in Google docs, for the love of pterry back it up or post it privately somewhere else once it's done.

No one tells the young people, so I am going to - back up often, and back up local. If you live through your art, keep it in your own hands. Do not trust corporations to keep your shit safe for you, and remember - you can never have too many backups.

[solradguy]

I saw your post about the Internet Archive and Archiving GG stuff for future Generations and i wanted to ask some stuff regarding the Archiving, i hope thats ok

Probably the dumber question but do you know if Daisuke has ever been involved in the Archiving of his series? I know the series started as a Passion project for him but Idk how active he would be with helping archive or fill in missing pieces, especially in the english world.

Just as a General question, are current online archiving groups mostly relying on being connected to one another in some way to reestablish fallen sources? Since very little of the internet if any is as stable as we like to believe and any service storing data may shut down somehow any day like Drive, when one host site does go down do the archivists rally together and find a new spot or do you kinda have to hope people can find the new host?

Also are there any larger scale Archivist groups someone with less ability to physically help could donate to to help preserve our online histories?

thank you and apologies if you dont like questions

Hello! Questions are fine ^^ Sometimes it takes me a million years to reply, but I don't mind them.

My answer to this got kinda long. Excuse the readmore.

We don't have any strong evidence either way what the condition of the official Arc System Works library of Guilty Gear media is like, but there have been a few times where the images they've used for things have been worse than the images us rogue archivists have. This ML illustration is definitely one they either no longer have the physical/original piece for, or they might not have a way to rescan it, because the file they use when they reproduce it is pathetically tiny. Example from the Steam release of Strive's bonus Digital Artbook:

Compared to other illustrations in the same book (two pages here):

This Ky from the website for the 20th Anniversary Pack release of Missing Link for the Switch was taken from the Guilty Gear Bible:

We know this because... He's on page 12 in the Bible and...

...they didn't erase the page number off his shoe.

So, at the very least, some Missing Link era works are likely gone/lost/destroyed/etc. It's possible some GGX thru GGXX artworks are lost too, but we don't have a concrete catalog of XX works because they never released a complete artbook for XX. It's also rumored that Keep The Flag Flying's original master file is lost but I've never been able to find a source for that. Daisuke has never reached out to any of us about our image archives and we've never offered.

Archiving is very much a western concept and it's a common thought in Japan that saving copies of another person's works is extremely bad; I've been chewed out and blocked by Japanese fans for it. It's just a cultural difference, I don't take it personally. If ASW contacts us about it though we'll definitely give them our files or take down anything they request of us. We don't want to poke the bear and risk the entire archive if we can. They seem to be turning a blind eye to our archives though, as long as it's not an upload of something extremely recent (I got DMCA'd for the Strive Artworks Archive scans).

The core of the Guilty Gear archive group works on the new GG wiki and/or are admins of the new wiki, so we're in pretty close contact with each other. Most of the archive is in my hands and, unfortunately, my hands alone. With the announcement of the Internet Archive v Hachette ruling, we've been planning on making copies of my GG archive hard drive and sending it out to the other archivists in our circle. I don't have a PO box, I can't do this for people outside the group because I don't want my physical home address to be that accessible.

That said, there are redundant digital copies of a lot of files and I have a backup hard drive of the main GG archive drive; the main drive is a relatively new 2tb Western Digital My Passport external drive and the backup is a 1tb WD My Passport that's a little older. A lot of people have downloaded copies of the files currently online (via my masterpost) and can reupload something if it goes down even if I'm not around to do it. We rely on Archive.org a lot but aren't against using Dropbox, Google Drive, mega.nz, Neocities, file.garden, or, if we absolutely must, Discord. I do not like relying on Discord and Discord files are generally extremely temporary.

The files that aren't in the archive include software or game asset rips, image files, music, and random bits and bobs. I'm working on getting the images up on the wiki but everything else is kind of in a weird zone where I don't really know what to do with it.

As for donating to support broader archivism: We use Archive.org (and their Wayback Machine) the most, so donating to them would benefit both the GG archive as well as hundreds of thousands of music, literature, research, and art groups too. Their donate page can be found here: https://archive.org/donate?origin=iawww-TopNavDonateButton

Supporting your local libraries, museums, and conservatories also supports archivism. Most of these places accept public donations of any amount and could probably direct you to other local archiving groups/associations.

Donating to Wikipedia also supports broader archivism to a lesser extent. They write about events as they happen, with sources/citations, and older versions of this information is permanently available on every article and file without having to rely on things like Wayback Machine. Their donation page is here: https://donate.wikimedia.org

I also have a donation page via Ko-fi and any money donated with a note about it being for Guilty Gear will go back into Guilty Gear (via book/magazine purchases for scanning, usually). Donating to one of the above groups would be better for archiving as a whole though. My page can be found here: https://ko-fi.com/somnivagrious

Hope this answers your questions!!

[wilteddreamsofbaldursgate]

2. Writing Set Up: Where to Write Your Draft

Before you even start writing, you’ll need to find a writing program/medium you feel comfortable working with. 

I promise you—from start to finish—you’ll look at your draft for a couple of hours at minimum, so I suggest you choose a program/medium that aligns with your individual needs. Now it’s time for you to identify what those needs might be. 

Here are some options:

Creativity strikes while you’re cuddled up in bed or on your commute to work? 

Try writing on your phone/tablet (unless you’re the one driving, of course!)—you can use pre-installed apps like Pages (iOS) or your Notes/Memo app. You can also download free writing applications like Google Docs. Google Docs works on and offline on basically any mobile device, which is great for when you’re on the go! 

You prefer writing/typing on a computer? 

There are many desktop writing programs like LibreOffice (free for Windows, Mac and Linux), MS Word (needs to be purchased/subscription-based), countless online text editors or the browser version of Google Docs. 

You need to physically feel the words flowing through your body? 

Well, imagine you’re a classic author and write them down by hand on generously perfumed paper (preferably with royal blue ink)! Of course, you can also use Post-it notes or that coffee-stained notebook from 2013. Regular paper will do, too, though it’s obviously not as cool. 

Of course, there are many more options to choose from, but since you’re just starting out, I suggest you try free and more readily available programs first. Everything has its pros and cons, but digital writing is generally pretty clean-cut and saves you the trouble of digitising hand-written drafts (which you’ll need to do if you want to share your writing online! Unless you want to share scans of your beautiful handwritten writing, of course!). 

But before you settle for one (or more!) program/media of your choice, you might want to consider a few things: 

Is your writing easily accessible to you? → Can you add to your draft whenever and wherever creativity strikes? 

Does your writing program save your progress automatically? → You don’t want to lose hours upon hours of work because you forgot to save your progress! 

Is your writing secure? → Is your writing uploaded to a cloud? Will you still be able to access your writing if your computer crashes or you lose your login data/ phone/notebook? Can you easily create external backups of your files?

It really doesn’t matter what you need to write down at this early point. Be it an idea, rough outline, dialogue, stream of consciousness, mind map or a finished draft—you just want your entire writing process to happen in a secure, accessible location that you feel confident working in. There is no perfect writing program; whatever program works best for you is the best program for you! 

For example: 

I almost exclusively write on Google Docs since it meets all my personal writing needs: It’s a free cloud service that syncs my files all across my devices (phone, laptop, tablet) regardless of where I am. It has an intuitive interface with all the basic writing/formatting tools I need. 

Once a month, I download my most recent drafts as “.docx”-files and back them up on an external hard drive—so even if I can’t, for whatever reason, access my Google Docs account, my files are still secured in a different location. 

Sometimes, I make use of handwritten notes, too—though I keep losing them or can’t decipher my handwriting…This seems minuscule or even funny, but it’s hard to come back to an idea when you’ve literally lost the physical manifestation of it! 

Next: The Idea: Coming Up With and Developing Your Idea (with examples)

Masterlist

[psycheterminal]

Ask response:

"If you answer this ask (you don't have to), can you block my name? I'd rather be anonymous, but I wanted to ask if you know of any good places to host media like Discord? Or just place where you can leave and label the stuff? Because I have discord servers that contain my own story ideas and pictures to go alongside it, and while I can store it all on a USB, I'd rather have it all in one place where I can access. Sorry, I know I'm not really phrasing this well, but do you know of anywhere you can store ideas, text, pictures, links, etc, that are simple and easy to use? Like I can load it up, log in, or whatever place a picture I have for a certain story full HD, and it stays there forever until I delete it never looses its quality or the text I place can be edited and added to"

My apologies for the inconvenience of not having anon asks on, I got hazed by some people back in the Homestuck days and once was enough. Some people are cruel cowards and I won't subject myself to such harassment again.

There's several. I recommend using multiple sources:

Google Drive. Basic space is free, but it's Google. Storage is at least cheap, if you need more. I won't link this.

Dropbox. The OG online storage backup. Cheap.

OwnCloud. It's simple to get up and running. There's a cool markdown text app called qownnotes that can hook into this, too!

Github and its competitors. You can make a repository with all your stuff and folders, mark it private.

Use a wiki service. There's a few FOSS wiki solutions! DON'T USE FANDOM!!

Neocities. If you pay 5$ a month, you're doing a good deed and you can make your own funky website, too.

Archive Of Our Own, aka Ao3 for your text. You can set it to only you can see it! If you have hosting space, you can actually fork the software for it! It's an archive! It's what it's for! It has an original work section!

BACK UP YOUR STUFF LOCALLY! Big local storage has gotten way, way more affordable. You can get a 2 tera solid state external drive for under 120 dollars, a spinny disk external drive for under 70$. If you don't want to use Amazon, check out Best Buy or a local computer shop for options.

You're most likely gonna use money. I know money's really, really tight for a lot of people and the situation just plain sucks. I can't do much but offer options for people to ponder.

My recommendation is to back up your stuff to a physical location, and to rent online storage space with multiple vendors. If you don't mind using google for now, use both GDrive and Dropbox for simplicity. If you don't mind doing more and learning some things, use Dropbox with OwnCloud, and post your text to Ao3.

I do NOT recommend Imgur for photo backup.

I do NOT recommend Apple services unless you already have an iPhone/Mac device.

[false-kingdom]

I took a break from posting art online……and then lost all that art.

So I decided to take a big break from posting to social media a few months ago. I would occasionally but the majority was kept offline. I reached a stand still with my art and felt like I needed to just work through stuff without the worry of posting it anywhere. I wanted to experiment privately without any outside input to really focus of what I wanted to improve. I just drew to draw and drew what I wanted (so HOW stuff and my own comic stuff basically). And it was amazing for my mental health. I was pumping out concept art for my comic and really honing my style to reflect how I wanted it to. It was liberating to make art without sharing it anywhere besides a few friends.

And then I accidentally deleted Procreate.

Apple has a fun lil system where if you want to remove an app from your home screen, it has a window that pops up asking to delete the app or just remove from Home Screen (it should be noted that the delete completely option is the one at the top and highlighted red). I’ve always thought to myself how bad a system that is and it would be so easy to accidentally delete an app instead of just moving it if you weren’t really paying attention.

I went through the five stages of grief in about thirty minutes when I realized there was no safe way to get 6 months of work back. Six. Months. Normally, I backup to an external drive once every two-weeks to a month at the latest, and upload finished pieces to my drive. But because I wasn’t posting it anywhere, I didn’t feel the need to and just kept forgetting. And forgetting.

So I have no one to blame other than myself. I know I wanted a revamp but a hard restart isn’t really what I had in mind. Some stuff I was able to get WIP shots of and could save but most is gone.

One piece I did manage to get my hands on again was just a quick collage of face study’s for Bo and Vincent, in their 20’s. They did have color but this shot of the sketches were all I had sent. Them smiling makes me feel pretty okay with things. I’d say lesson learned but this was a lesson I already knew and slacked off on. Don’t slack off. Back up your digital work. Even if you’re not posting online. Back. It. Up.

[chronoscout-writ]

After recently losing my hard drive with 5 years worth of stuff (video games, Obsidian vaults of fanfic and original fic ideas, art) erased by an accidental reformat by PC repairers, this is my PSA to anyone reading this to please backup multiple copies of your important stuff onto multiple platforms like an external hard drive, CD, USB, online Cloud like Google Drive, or anything else other than just your PC/laptop hard drive.

My PC’s Windows system got corrupted without warning and I was totally unprepared. Luckily, I was able to recover most of the fic ideas I lost from Google Docs Version History and art from Dropbox. So I ended up losing 7 months of work instead of 5 years, whew. But the fic and art ideas I only had stored in my Obsidian Vaults and Notepad++ on my PC are lost forever. 😢😭

[bright-eyed-sunshine]

Hi! Sorry to bother you, but I saw your add-on to the Discord post, and I appreciate it, but I wanted to send an ask to well ask do you know of any alternatives? Like I have a dicord channel solely dedicated to images and prompts and my own story ideas but now I'm worried and want to know if there is, that you know of, any alternatives websites/apps/etc that I can move all of my stuff over to and not loose stuff like the quality of my photos or I can edit the text. I've tried USB stick, but I just want to know what there is out there. I can use to preserve stuff and have easy access to and change when I like that doesn't lose quality. It's a lot to ask for, I know, but, there has to be something.

Hello! Not bothering, thank you for asking! There are plenty of places you can store data. Dropbox, Google Drive, etc are all online places you can store things "in the cloud", but of course, that's still relying on someone else to store your stuff.

Personally, I'm a computer person, so I built a home server to store terabytes of stuff on :)

This is Heliograph! She stores my movies and shows, as well as my discord backups. I wouldn't expect most people to go this hard.

USB sticks or external hard drives are the way to go for local storage for beginners -- simple to use, add a bunch of storage space to your computer, and no one can take it away from you.

Hope this is helpful!

[lia-life-lounge]

So I just took the LSAT today and to be completely honest… wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be. Somehow finished every section with time leftover to doublecheck my work! Feeling pretty good about it 🥰 even though I pulled an all-nighter before it and still haven’t slept… 🫠

Not intentionally, mind you—LSAC’s new online LSAT Proctor software isn’t compatible with the new MacOS Sonoma 14.0… so spent all night trying to learn how to downgrade my MacOS version in order to download the testing/proctoring software before my 7am exam.

Turns out, on silicon-chip Macs (M1+), you can’t just simply downgrade or restart/reboot your laptop to the software it originally came in. That’s apparently only an available option on Intel Macs.

Instead, if you have a silicon Mac, you have to go through the complicated process of:

1. Backing up your Mac using Time Machine on some other external hard drive or disk (since downgrading completely wipes your startup disk and erases all data)

2. Setting up a Bootable Installer—also on an external hard drive (separate)

3. Downloading the version software from Apple’s App Store (the easiest part of the entire process! Though, of course, you can’t even run it until you’ve done everything else first)

4. Using the Terminal app and running the specific (in my case, Ventura) command as found on Apple’s website and proceeding with the rest of the commands to get it working.

which… don’t get me started on figuring out how to set up a Bootable Installer. This was all completely foreign to me and honestly I was two “error” messages away from a complete mental breakdown.

At 5am, I gave up and woke up my poor friend to beg her to let me use her laptop for my LSAT.

If anyone can send me a crash course on using the Macbook’s Terminal app, it would be more than welcomed!

At this point, I gotta set up a Bootable Installer just for the spite of it. Never letting myself get blindsided like this again! Will always have a backup version. Learned my lesson lol

[all-about-cybercrime]

Cybercrime - Introduction down to Ways to Prevent It

We frequently read about Cybercrime in the news, but do we truly understand what it means? Cybercrime is a widespread issue that threatens our safety and privacy in the world of technology.

Technology advancement has led to an increase in crime, and criminals have evolved and learned to adapt. We must educate ourselves on the problem in order to protect ourselves and effectively prevent it because it is really concerning.

Cybercrime is any illegal activity or misconduct involving a computer, network, or interconnected device. Criminal acts include hacking, gathering private information, identity theft, disseminating malicious software, phishing scams, and other associated crimes.

According to the most recent Internet Organized Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA), cybercrimes are becoming more aggressive and confrontational. This can be seen across the various forms of cybercrime, including high tech crimes, and sexual extortion.

Reportedly, 323 972 online users fell for phishing scams in 2021. This indicates that roughly fifty percent of the users whose data was compromised fell victim to a phishing scam. During the pandemic's peak, phishing incidents increased by 220%.

1 in 5 internet users had nearly 1 billion emails exposed in 2021. This may help to partially account for the ongoing nature of phishing assaults.

Financial loss is one of cybercrime's main effects. Ransomware assaults, email and internet fraud, identity fraud, as well as attempts to steal financial account, credit card, or other payment card information, are just a few examples of the numerous profit-driven criminal activities that can be classified as cybercrime.

These three represent a few different categories of cybercrime.

Due to increased number of connected devices and people, the threat of cybercrime is greater than ever. Bullying, copyright infringement, theft of personal information, and hacktivism are just a few examples of the many various ways that cybercrime can manifest.

Presented above is the law established regarding the cybercrime prevention in the Philippines. Being a student of criminology, it is crucial for me to understand cybercrime, its various forms, classifications, and methods of prevention especially the laws implemented in the country to do so.

Now, a large number of national security-related crimes, financially motivated offenses, crimes against individuals or property, and crimes that violate public morals are the primary targets of cybercrimes committed in the nation whether they are committed using technology or as the target of the crime itself.

It is essential that individuals and organizations take safety precautionary measures to protect themselves in order to prevent cybercrime.

Here are some of the useful tips that can help us maintain our safety and privacy:

We have the key to our safety, thus we must exercise vigilance.

Never provide personal information online, particularly banking information and OTPs. Watch out for the websites you visit and so on. Lastly, we must treat cybercrime seriously and alert authorities to any suspicious behaviors.

Additionally, there is a new two-factor authentication feature that requires a code from another device or login method to provide a higher level of security to your accounts. To guard against ransomware attacks and other data loss, regularly backup your data to an external hard drive or cloud storage.

Last but not least, educate yourself. Keep informed of the most recent developments in cybercrime and understand how to protect your devices and data. You can reduce your risk of falling victim to cybercrime and aid in the protection of your personal and financial information by complying to these rules.

-----

Group A - GE5 (Members' personal experiences of Cybercrime)

De Pedro, Wenn Heart C.

"Given that our world is now filled with technology and that almost everyone uses a variety of digital devices, it is important to be aware of many different types of crimes, especially cybercrime. We must defend ourselves against intruders who might abuse our privacy and security. I once watched a legal drama where the main character was seeing someone and someone had secretly installed a spy camera in her room without her knowledge. Throughout the entire relationship, her boyfriend had been watching everything through the spy camera. She found the hidden spy camera in her room after they broke up.

He only claimed that he did it to make sure she was safe when she confronted him. When things got heated up, he threatened to leak the contents of the spycam to the world if she didn't start seeing him again. She was struggling to decide what to do when the guy got into an accident and blamed her, threatening her once more that he would seriously spread the information around. She filed a case against him because she was worried about what might occur. Everything was made clear, and her case successfully won.

The lesson that I learned out of this particular incident and that show is to always be on guard. You need to be always aware of your surroundings in order to know whom to trust and regardless of whoever you trusted."

Paz, Darlen D.

"I don't have any experience but I saw and read a lot of people who are bullied in the internet because there is a wrong move or you say something, there so many hurtful words you will get. I already encountered online that you may receive a link and when you click it, your social media account will get hacked. As some online conduct is sneaky and illegal in character, it is our responsibility or to know as a criminology students to enlighten yourself on this new and developing field of study. As you can see via the internet, today's criminals have shifted to cybercrimes and commit a variety of frauds and unethical acts.

I can personally provide the following advice to people so they can learn how to stop cybercrime on their own:

Use different passwords for various platforms; never use the same one.

Avoid clicking on links with an unknown source.

Set up web browser filters to only access trustworthy websites."

Magdaraog, Joan

"I once received an email from a Facebook friend saying, "You are the one in the video." Since we are not close, I clicked on the link because I was intrigued to see what was in the video. As soon as the link requested my password, I realized it had been hacked. Therefore, because it is a subject we study and because there are several hackers active right now on social media, it is essential for us to comprehend cybercrime as criminology students.

My classmate was subjected to online harassment. He was severely impacted by it. There were times when he lacked the desire to communicate, eat, or be with anyone else. I don't know why some individuals bully because they don't know what will happen to them. Let's refrain from clicking on links or visiting untrusted websites to prevent cybercrime. Don't give out personal information; many of us are fast to do so, which makes us easy targets for scams or other forms of deception. Avoid doing this to prevent cybercrime."

Arranguez, Ariel E.

"Criminology students should learn about cybercrime because it is one of the fastest growing forms of crime in the world and it has significant implications for society as a whole. As criminals increasingly turn to technology to conduct their illegal activities, it is essential that criminologists understand the nature of these crimes, the motivations behind them, and the impact they have on society.

Studying cybercrime can also help criminology student develop the skills and knowledge needed to identify and investigate these crimes, and to develop effective strategies for preventing and combating them. Additionally, as cybercrime becomes more prevalent, it is likely that many criminology professionals will encounter cases involving cybercrime, making it essential that they have a solid understanding of the topic.

Although I haven't personally been the victim of bullying, I am aware of it, and watching how others were affected by it on social media made me feel horrible for those people because they received many undeserved nasty remarks. Seeing them how cybercrime destroy their confident, mind and to the point that their physical is also affected they hurt themselves, lose weight and etc. make me feel sad in our generation. Because they called technology as “growing technology” but in fact people used it in a wrong way. That’s why my perspective in technology is half good and half bad because if we can talk about technology it was really helpful and good to human but people using technology is make it bad."

[msbarrows]

So yesterday @genginger tagged me in a “three things that you’re proud of in 2023″ thing, and I had to think a lot to come up with things - being long-term unemployed means my days (and weeks, and months) tend to be very sameness-of-a-same.

One thing I got done at the end of the year (but have yet to deploy) is putting together a skills-based resume. Sooooo much anxiety over finally tackling it, as I’ve been unemployed for over a decade now and haven’t job searched in years. Thankfully some online friends did supportive hand-holding while I tackled it. Now I just... need to figure out some applications. Write some cover letters (UGH!!!). Probably make some more versions of the resume, to cover skill sets relevant to specific jobs (DOUBLE UGH!!!).

Been working my way through the big box of old family photos from the basement, plus my personal large file box of photos, and scanning all of them. Have the former finished but am still working through the latter. At some point I need to burn a bunch of them to DVD to send around to my brother and sister’s households (all the family ones, plus some of my personal ones).

One of the biggest projects I tackled in late summer of last year was to finally put together an emergency go-bag for myself (see photo above), inspired in part by katy-l-wood’s Evacuation Prep chart having crossed my dash earlier in the year, plus us here in northern Ontario having had several bad fire summers recently, including the fire by the old ski hill in 2020. Thankfully small, thankfully put out rapidly, but it came right down to the yards of the houses along the base of the ridge. We were on edge for a few hours on whether or not things might go bad and force us to evacuate (not to mention we’ve had bigger fires only a little further away that took 2-3 days to put out), and I’d found myself thinking several times since about what I’d grab if we got that sudden automated phone call or banging on the door. More about the go-bag contents under the cut (it’s long).

Anyone else interested in posting their three things, consider yourself tagged :)

So... go-bag contents! This is still a WIP, I plan to add additional food items to it for one, but at present, from left to right this includes:

couple of foldable water containers. It there’s enough warning before having to leave, those would be filled from the tap and go out to the truck separately, otherwise will be filled at whatever first stop with potable water we* reach.

box of assorted Cliff bars, to be replaced every 6-8 months. I also plan to add a box of assorted fruit bars and/or nut bars and/or sesame snaps. Stable foods with some nutrition and a good energy hit, basically.

the opened out red bag is a first aid molle pouch, it includes EMT shears, bandaids, adhesive mesh, polysporin, and a ton of assorted gauze pads and packing gauze leftover from when I was have a large cyst treated a year or two ago (yay for daily nurse visits to inspect and repack the wound).

the yellow drawstring bag contains a large rain poncho

mess kit, normally stored in the round purse with the raffia flamingo on it (protects it, plus doesn’t hurt to have an extra bag in my bag)

the large black duffle bag that everything fits inside

to the right of that is a dark green electronics storage bag, in front of which are what it normally holds - a solar power bank, my old 7″ android tablet, my old android cell phone (the sim card for which is in my new phone, but it’s still usable for emergency calls and means I have a backup handy if I accidentally break the new phone), red external backup drive, my original bluetooth speaker in its lime green carry case - all of these get their batteries topped up at the start of each month, plus updated (OS, apps, backup files). Also a couple of USB charging bases and cables.

stainless steel thermos

LifeStraw personal water filter (in case the only water source is questionable)

folding umbrella

from in front of that over to right is all small things I store inside a purse organizer, which I have tucked inside a clear vinyl storage bag that some sheets came in, so its protected from collecting dust or lint, plus if anything escapes the organizer it’ll remain in the bag. Contents include: small coin purse holding a small roll of bills, can opener, makeup mirror (as a mirror and for flash signalling), tums, safety razor, comb, hair elastics, USB rechargeable flashlight, soap, tooth floss, toothpaste, toothbrush, ibuprofen, packet of tissues.

the lumpy blue things at back right are compression packing cubes full of tshirts, socks, underwear, a pair of jeans, flannel shirt, light hoodie, plus hiding between them and the clear vinyl bag are a drawstring cloth bag holding pyjamas (so it’s easy to grab just sleepwear), and a zippered pouch of more socks and more underwear. Figure I’ll remove, wash, and repack the clothes on the same 6-8 month rotation as replacing the food in the bag.

Basically it’s aimed mostly at getting to and remaining at an evacuation centre or motel for a couple days sort of goal, but I have also put a bit of consideration into what if we’re unable to reach such a place and end up stuck temporarily outside somewhere, so things like how the poncho can double as a small shelter (which reminds me I should add some paracord or light rope), the LifeStraw can be used to more safely drink from untreated water sources, and I have at least a few days worth of food on hand. Also there’s a sleeping bag stored in the same closet as this kit, so close to hand. And a second, much larger duffle to stuff as many clothes into as possible.

Most of the other small things I’d want to grab, such as ID, keys, and more cash, are in my purse, which is an arm’s length away from where I sit at my computer.

* - I say ‘we’ because I don’t drive, so if there’s an evacuation I’d be going with my brother or waving down a neighbour’s vehicle.

[sovvannight]

Here's what's in my "Key Information" document that goes in my dad's fireproof box along with my will:

Financial accounts - where do I have bank and retirement accounts and what kind at each

Life insurance

Bills - a section with stuff that has to be actively paid and a section with stuff that's autodrafted (so they know what has to be cancelled)

Stuff - where's my checkbook? jewelry? SS card and birth certificate? external backup drive? Also stuff that would need to be returned to work and stuff of mine that's at work.

key computer files - stuff like my password spreadsheet, spreadsheet with my bank balances, where the family pictures are stored, etc. (also login info for my computer and phone)

Bequests - if you want a particular person to get a particular thing (you'd think this would actually go in your will, but no)

Messages - yes, I've left instructions for my family to let Tumblr know I died, among other places.

I'm also working on a separate document for my cousin on what fics still need to be posted, just in case something happens to me anytime soon, so I won't leave my readers hanging since I'm in the middle of a long fic series.

Also, FYI, if you have life insurance at work, then you may have access to a free/cheap online will generator through that insurance provider - ask if there's an Employee Assistance Program and then contact the EAP to check. (US-specific, obviously)

literally how am i supposed to react to this email my mom sent my entire family

[bills-bible-basics]

Are You Experiencing a Slow BBB Connection? Dear friends, I just wanted to remind you that four times daily, I back up the entire internal hard drive of my web server machine to an external hard drive. This is automatically done at 4:00 AM, 10:00 AM, 4:00 PM and 10:00 PM, my local time. To give you a point of reference, we are GMT+10 here, which means that it will be 14 or 15 hours earlier than my local time on the U.S. East Coast. Each backup at those four hours of the day usually completes within an hour's time. Please note that when these automated backups occur, the web server machine becomes sluggish, and this will more than likely affect your ability to connect to any portion of the Bill's Bible Basics website and the BBB Blog, As a result, if during any of these four time frames you click or tap on any of the BBB article links, poetry links, KJV Bible Verse List links, or blog links which you find on Facebook, or on any other social network where I participate, you may not be able to successfully connect to the BBB website or to the BBB Blog until the backup has completed. Either that, or you may possibly be able to connect, but the web pages may stall and load very slowly in your web browser. Also, you need to consider how far away you may be from me. For those of you who live on the far U.S. East Coast, you are close to 7,000 miles away from me. That is A LOT of server hops, and I know for a fact that with the data travelling such a great distance, Internet congestion and other issues can weaken your connection to my web server and make it unreliable. The same thing occurs when I reach out to the U.S. East Coast from here. The minute I pass the U.S. West Coast and head east, things begin to become troublesome, and I may have trouble connecting to a site, and loading a web page. The bottom line is this, if for some reason you cannot connect to my web server, then just wait a while until you are outside of the above four time ranges, and try again. If you are trying at a different time of day, and still have problems connecting to my server, it may possibly be due to Internet congestion, or some other issue beyond both your and my control. Also, as I have mentioned before, please be aware of the fact that we do have unexpected power outages here. When these occur, BBB links on Facebook and other social networks to the BBB website and BBB Blog will be totally dead in the water, until power is restored here, and I can get the web server back online again. I hope this information helps some of you. Thanks for your patience. https://www.billkochman.com/Blog/index.php/are-you-experiencing-a-slow-bbb-connection/?feed_id=257154&Are%20You%20Experiencing%20a%20Slow%20BBB%20Connection%3F

[kitauthor]

Why You Need To Backup Your Writing Beyond The Cloud

When it comes to making a backup of your writing, it's easy these days to default to saving it in the cloud. Services like OneDrive or Google Drive make it easy to keep copies, but with companies selling your data to train AI, increasing threats from political regimes, and companies cracking down on what's stored on their servers, making a backup of your writing needs to think beyond the cloud. When you backup your writing, it's important to think about the ramifications of where you're backing up, as well as how you're backing up. I recently experienced this when a hard drive on the computer I use as a file server got corrupted. All of a sudden, I almost "lost" the outline and paper I was working on for college. And there, I used OneDrive as a redundant way to keep a copy of my work while I restored my file server. But before that I used my pc backup solution, Backblaze, to grab a copy of the outline to save locally. Without Backblaze, I would have lost a day's worth of work, and while that doesn't sound like much, it was pretty vital work to my paper.

There are a few issues to be aware of when using services like OneDrive or GDrive.

- These companies (Microsoft and Google) are known for using your data to train their AI models, infringing on your copyright. - Google has been known to remove erotic or adult backups from Drive or prevent people from sharing files like ARCs with multiple people because they see it as a violation of their Terms of Service - With concerns over censorship and cracking down on LGBTQIA+ and adult content due to the political environment, you can't trust these companies not to turn over data or other identifying pieces of information in an attempt to avoid repercussions.

So what options do authors have?

If you do sync to online cloud services, make sure you keep a backup somewhere else. For example, I have the local computer that I use as a file server. This computer is then backed up using Backblaze, so there's always a cloud copy. They also encrypt your data to keep it safe. (They're not the only computer backup service, just the one that I've found is best for price and needs.) Build in redundancy. Try to have one backup available to you, such as an external hard drive so you can keep files accessible without relying on the internet or an external service. Use a cloud backup service just in case something happens like a natural disaster with your physical location. And be smart about how you use services like OneDrive or Google Drive, knowing that they are most likely using your data to train AI and may take actions to remove things they deem are violations of their terms of service or in order to avoid goverment scrutiny. I admit I didn't think OneDrive had a use (other than as an annoyance) until I had an issue with my file server, but also, I think we need to think about where and how we're storing our data. Having a good backup strategy is part of that plan. Read the full article

[cpr-cellphonerepair]

Cybersecurity Awareness Month: Protect Your Devices and Your Data

October is not just about pumpkins and Halloween costumes—it’s also Cybersecurity Awareness Month. As our lives become more connected through smartphones, tablets, and computers, it's essential to stay aware of the potential cyber threats that lurk online. Whether you're using your phone for work, shopping, or social media, you’re at risk of falling victim to cyberattacks. In this blog post, we’ll explore how you can protect your devices and personal information with some simple but effective cybersecurity practices.

1. Use Strong, Unique Passwords One of the easiest ways for hackers to gain access to your data is through weak or reused passwords. Use a password manager to create and store strong, unique passwords for each of your accounts. Try to make each password a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Avoid using easily guessable information like birthdays or common words. Password managers like LastPass or Dashlane can help by generating complex passwords and storing them securely.

2. Enable Two-Factor Authentication Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds an extra layer of security to your online accounts. Even if a hacker gets ahold of your password, they would still need a second form of identification—usually a code sent to your phone or email—to access your account. Be sure to enable 2FA wherever possible, especially on important accounts like email, banking, and social media.

3. Update Your Devices Regularly Cybercriminals are constantly finding new ways to exploit vulnerabilities in outdated software. Regularly updating your devices ensures that you have the latest security patches and features. Most operating systems and apps will notify you when an update is available—don’t ignore these prompts. Set your devices to update automatically to ensure you're always protected.

4. Be Wary of Phishing Scams Phishing scams are one of the most common methods hackers use to gain access to personal information. These scams often come in the form of emails, texts, or social media messages that appear to be from a legitimate source. They may ask you to click a link or provide personal information. Always verify the sender’s email address and look out for suspicious URLs before clicking any links.

5. Secure Your Wi-Fi Network An unsecured Wi-Fi network can be a gateway for hackers to access your personal data. Make sure your home Wi-Fi network is secured with a strong password, and consider using WPA3 encryption for enhanced protection. Avoid using public Wi-Fi for sensitive activities like online banking, and use a virtual private network (VPN) if you need to access important information while on the go.

6. Backup Your Data Ransomware attacks are on the rise, where hackers lock you out of your files and demand payment to release them. Regularly backing up your data to a cloud service or an external hard drive can protect you from losing important files. If you're hit with ransomware, having a backup means you can restore your data without paying the ransom.

7. Install Antivirus and Anti-Malware Software Having up-to-date antivirus and anti-malware software on your devices can help prevent cyberattacks. These tools are designed to detect and remove malicious software that could compromise your data. Many modern antivirus programs also offer features like firewalls and browser protection, giving you an additional layer of security while you browse the web.

8. Educate Yourself and Your Family Cybersecurity is not just an individual responsibility—it’s a collective one. Make sure everyone in your household is aware of basic cybersecurity practices. Teach your kids about the dangers of sharing personal information online and how to recognize suspicious emails and messages.

Conclusion: Stay Safe in the Digital World Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a reminder of the importance of protecting yourself in today’s digital age. With cyber threats evolving every day, staying vigilant and implementing the best practices outlined above can keep your personal information and devices safe. Don’t wait until it’s too late—take action now to secure your digital life.