He doesn't move while people are watching, but apparently he isn't always aware of security cameras:
Showing posts with label Security. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Security. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Fighting the Gorn
In a classic episode of the original Star Trek series, Captain Kirk has to fight the captain of the Gorn ship in one-on-one combat using only what he can find on a deserted planet. The Gorn, while slower than humans, were much stronger, so Kirk had no hope of defeating him hand-to-claw. What he did was build a cannon. Mythbusters did a show that proved that it wasn't possible using the ingredients shown. But that is not the last word! Using an ingredient that they would not have shown on television in the 1960s, these guys show that it is possible:
This isn't really about an almost 50 year old TV episode, though. The key point here is that just a tiny bit of knowledge can mean the difference between success and failure.
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Dome Sweet Dome
Michael Matthews is offering plans for what he calls the "Ultimate Survival Fortress". I haven't bought it (yet), but it seems to be a fairly standard earth-bag type of dome home. That said, the price he is asking seems quite reasonable for the knowledge he seems to be providing (and I am not an affiliate, so I am not getting any commissions). While $1 a square foot is literally a dirt-cheap price for living space, I certainly would not want to make a mistake after putting in dozens or maybe hundreds of hours of heavy labor.
Friday, June 19, 2015
A Pen is Mightier than A Sword...
Especially when it is a gun....
Survivopedia has instructions for turning pens into guns: either spring-loaded BB guns or rubber-band dart guns.
Now, I don't think they're legal where I live, but it's nice to have the knowledge if I ever end up somewhere the police aren't around for protection.
Survivopedia has instructions for turning pens into guns: either spring-loaded BB guns or rubber-band dart guns.
Now, I don't think they're legal where I live, but it's nice to have the knowledge if I ever end up somewhere the police aren't around for protection.
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Tales of an Exiled Citizen #9: Light My Fire
Beginning of story
Previous part
No Outsider will ever be able to fully understand just how much terror Fire puts into the heart of a Citizen. Only Exile invokes more fear, because that necessarily is faced alone -- indeed, if they have several people to Exile, they will wait a couple weeks in between each just to ensure that. At the most basic level, certainly, everyone can understand not wanting to get burned, it's a universally unpleasant experience. It is much more than that, though. People living in closely-built villages have some idea of the existential threat, that a fire in one building can catch on to the next until nothing is left. Even with that, though, they do not have the same experience as a Citizen, for they at least have the reassurance that they can rebuild their village. Were the City to be destroyed, it would be virtually impossible to rebuild. Citizens know enough to maintain it, but they depend on the systems already being in place to do so. If they had to start over from scratch, they would have no idea where to begin.
Even the fear of catastrophic fires is something that most Outsiders can relate to, if not fully. What few can ever grasp, is that even the routine use of fire represents a danger to Citizens. With the Dome sealing them off from the outside world, burning too much consumes the air and makes it hard to breathe. One way they make sure that doesn't happen is only burning what was produced within the Dome, in the process of being grown it restores the air. They do monitor carefully to make sure that the balance is maintained and neither too much nor too little is burned.
This fear of Fire is deeply designed in to the City. Unlike many Outside buildings, flammable materials like wood are rarely used for construction, and they're avoided for most other uses unless truly necessary. If they can avoid using a flame for anything, they do, and if they can't, they do their best to keep it contained. While things like candles are a luxury on the Outside, they are absolutely forbidden in the City; had I tried to sell candles instead of Beans, I would have been reported by the first person I offered it to and immediately exiled.
There was an interesting consequence to fire being so tightly controlled in the City: whenever a Citizen did need it, it was available at the touch of a button. As hard as it is for an Outsider, who has learned to make fires from childhood, to comprehend, a Citizen has no clue how to make a fire other than by pressing a button. Now back in the Crazy Age, it was a little different. They did have push-button devices for creating fires they called "lighters", but they produced an open flame that would have scared the pants off a Citizen. They also had miniature fire sticks like an Outsider might use, but these (which they called "matches") had an almost magical coating whereby you only had to rub them once lightly and they burst into flames.
I, however, had a unique problem. Once I learned that the Beans needed to be roasted to be fully effective, I had to figure out a way to make fire. The first thing I thought of was to try to use one of the City's systems, but those all used something called "electricity", which is kind of like a captured lightning bolt. I wasn't going to have that anywhere near the Shelter, so I needed another option. That's when I secretly researched all the different ways they made fire in the Crazy Age. Lighters and matches were long gone, of course, and even if I fully understood how to make to make them, finding the materials would have been next to impossible.
I did find a reference to something called a "fire piston". Apparently the way it works it that air heats up when it is compressed, and if you do it fast enough and hard enough, it will be hot enough to catch stuff on fire. Unfortunately, I didn't find any plans for one, so I start to tinker around with trying to make one, without much success. Then I finally found the perfect solution: using a magnifying glass. I had been a little concerned with the fire piston, how I would explain what it was for if anyone caught me with it. But for a Maintenance man, having a magnifying glass made perfect sense. Also, there was the danger if someone found the fire piston of accidentally setting it off, but using the magnifying glass took some effort, and was most effect Outside anyway. The one major drawback, that I could only use it when it was sunny, was not really an issue for roasting my Beans, I could just wait until conditions were right.
I didn't have that luxury for my second afternoon in Exile. It had been cloudy the first night so it hadn't gotten too cold, the sunny sky now would make for a cold, starry night, and I really wanted to have a fire to take the edge off.
While I was out looking to make the digging sticks earlier, I was also watching for anything that would make good kindling. I found some dead moss, some birch bark, and some tufts of dried grass that I stuffed my pockets full of (granted, they were rather small). The real jackpot was finding a dead pine branch which still had the dried needles and pine cones attached. I had carefully added that to the stack of firewood I was carrying back. When I had got back to the Shelter, I moved the big flat rock to where it would get the most sun, and laid the moss, bark, grass, and some of the needle out to dry out as fully as possible.
After finishing the fourth hole, I had a conundrum. I really wanted to build a proper fire pit, but I was afraid by the time I finished the sun would be too far down to start the fire. So, instead, I chose the hole I had cleared the largest area of weeds from and set the flat stone with the kindling on top of it. I then quickly shoved the dirt from the hole around it to make a little wall. I then made a little pile in the center, first pine needles, then dried grass, then birch bark, and finally the moss. I quickly broke off a couple handfuls of pine twigs and put them in alternate directions around the pile until I had like a little four-walled house. Finally I took out the magnifying glass and adjusted it until there was as bright a spot as I could get in the center of the pile.
Then I waited.
Thankfully I had done this many times before and realized how long it would take, so I patiently waited instead of panicking. I was rewarded soon enough with a whisper of smoke coming out of the pile, but I also knew enough to keep going until it actually burst into flames. I quickly added on a few of the pine cones, and then some of the smallest pieces of dried wood. Once those were burning well, I put on a few slightly larger pieces. At this point the rock was getting full, but I was confident I wouldn't lose the flame for a while.
Now it was time to get a little better fire pit going. I used my ceramic knives to cut away the weeds from about a three foot area, several feet away from my bed. I then used the trowel to dig down an inch or two and built up a wall all around the outside, with a trench about 6 inches deep. I didn't have the luxury of clearing out a full 10 feet of space around the pit and still be in the shelter, and I was too tired to dig a full foot down. I also didn't have enough rocks to line the pit. Night was approaching fast, and I wanted to get one more load of firewood before dark, so I left improvements for another day.
In the center of the pit I started building another four-wall structure, this time with sticks that were about an inch or two in diameter. In the center I put a layer of pine twigs, a layer of pine cones, and then a layer of small sticks. Then I took a fairly long stick over to the fire on the rock, which was already starting to die down into coals. I held the tip of that stick in that fire for a few minutes until it was burning solidly, then I walked it over to my fire pit. I carefully started sliding the stick into the center. A couple times I had to pull back as it threatened to go out. Once the fire got going in earnest, I took one of my digging sticks and walked back to the other fire, which was just glowing coals. I pushed back the stone with my digging stick until the hole was revealed, and then I tilted the stone so all the coals ran into the hole. Finally I nudged the stone back into place. Hopefully that would keep the coals hot until morning if the other one burned out.
I stuck a couple of the largest sticks I had on the fire and then started to head out. The sun had not quite set yet, so I had a little under an hour before it got too dark. I headed out to a spot nearby where I had seen a couple downed trees, and soon my arms were carrying as much wood as they could. Hopefully it would he enough to keep me warm through the night.
Part 10: Dream Roast
Previous part
No Outsider will ever be able to fully understand just how much terror Fire puts into the heart of a Citizen. Only Exile invokes more fear, because that necessarily is faced alone -- indeed, if they have several people to Exile, they will wait a couple weeks in between each just to ensure that. At the most basic level, certainly, everyone can understand not wanting to get burned, it's a universally unpleasant experience. It is much more than that, though. People living in closely-built villages have some idea of the existential threat, that a fire in one building can catch on to the next until nothing is left. Even with that, though, they do not have the same experience as a Citizen, for they at least have the reassurance that they can rebuild their village. Were the City to be destroyed, it would be virtually impossible to rebuild. Citizens know enough to maintain it, but they depend on the systems already being in place to do so. If they had to start over from scratch, they would have no idea where to begin.
Even the fear of catastrophic fires is something that most Outsiders can relate to, if not fully. What few can ever grasp, is that even the routine use of fire represents a danger to Citizens. With the Dome sealing them off from the outside world, burning too much consumes the air and makes it hard to breathe. One way they make sure that doesn't happen is only burning what was produced within the Dome, in the process of being grown it restores the air. They do monitor carefully to make sure that the balance is maintained and neither too much nor too little is burned.
This fear of Fire is deeply designed in to the City. Unlike many Outside buildings, flammable materials like wood are rarely used for construction, and they're avoided for most other uses unless truly necessary. If they can avoid using a flame for anything, they do, and if they can't, they do their best to keep it contained. While things like candles are a luxury on the Outside, they are absolutely forbidden in the City; had I tried to sell candles instead of Beans, I would have been reported by the first person I offered it to and immediately exiled.
There was an interesting consequence to fire being so tightly controlled in the City: whenever a Citizen did need it, it was available at the touch of a button. As hard as it is for an Outsider, who has learned to make fires from childhood, to comprehend, a Citizen has no clue how to make a fire other than by pressing a button. Now back in the Crazy Age, it was a little different. They did have push-button devices for creating fires they called "lighters", but they produced an open flame that would have scared the pants off a Citizen. They also had miniature fire sticks like an Outsider might use, but these (which they called "matches") had an almost magical coating whereby you only had to rub them once lightly and they burst into flames.
I, however, had a unique problem. Once I learned that the Beans needed to be roasted to be fully effective, I had to figure out a way to make fire. The first thing I thought of was to try to use one of the City's systems, but those all used something called "electricity", which is kind of like a captured lightning bolt. I wasn't going to have that anywhere near the Shelter, so I needed another option. That's when I secretly researched all the different ways they made fire in the Crazy Age. Lighters and matches were long gone, of course, and even if I fully understood how to make to make them, finding the materials would have been next to impossible.
I did find a reference to something called a "fire piston". Apparently the way it works it that air heats up when it is compressed, and if you do it fast enough and hard enough, it will be hot enough to catch stuff on fire. Unfortunately, I didn't find any plans for one, so I start to tinker around with trying to make one, without much success. Then I finally found the perfect solution: using a magnifying glass. I had been a little concerned with the fire piston, how I would explain what it was for if anyone caught me with it. But for a Maintenance man, having a magnifying glass made perfect sense. Also, there was the danger if someone found the fire piston of accidentally setting it off, but using the magnifying glass took some effort, and was most effect Outside anyway. The one major drawback, that I could only use it when it was sunny, was not really an issue for roasting my Beans, I could just wait until conditions were right.
I didn't have that luxury for my second afternoon in Exile. It had been cloudy the first night so it hadn't gotten too cold, the sunny sky now would make for a cold, starry night, and I really wanted to have a fire to take the edge off.
While I was out looking to make the digging sticks earlier, I was also watching for anything that would make good kindling. I found some dead moss, some birch bark, and some tufts of dried grass that I stuffed my pockets full of (granted, they were rather small). The real jackpot was finding a dead pine branch which still had the dried needles and pine cones attached. I had carefully added that to the stack of firewood I was carrying back. When I had got back to the Shelter, I moved the big flat rock to where it would get the most sun, and laid the moss, bark, grass, and some of the needle out to dry out as fully as possible.
After finishing the fourth hole, I had a conundrum. I really wanted to build a proper fire pit, but I was afraid by the time I finished the sun would be too far down to start the fire. So, instead, I chose the hole I had cleared the largest area of weeds from and set the flat stone with the kindling on top of it. I then quickly shoved the dirt from the hole around it to make a little wall. I then made a little pile in the center, first pine needles, then dried grass, then birch bark, and finally the moss. I quickly broke off a couple handfuls of pine twigs and put them in alternate directions around the pile until I had like a little four-walled house. Finally I took out the magnifying glass and adjusted it until there was as bright a spot as I could get in the center of the pile.
Then I waited.
Thankfully I had done this many times before and realized how long it would take, so I patiently waited instead of panicking. I was rewarded soon enough with a whisper of smoke coming out of the pile, but I also knew enough to keep going until it actually burst into flames. I quickly added on a few of the pine cones, and then some of the smallest pieces of dried wood. Once those were burning well, I put on a few slightly larger pieces. At this point the rock was getting full, but I was confident I wouldn't lose the flame for a while.
Now it was time to get a little better fire pit going. I used my ceramic knives to cut away the weeds from about a three foot area, several feet away from my bed. I then used the trowel to dig down an inch or two and built up a wall all around the outside, with a trench about 6 inches deep. I didn't have the luxury of clearing out a full 10 feet of space around the pit and still be in the shelter, and I was too tired to dig a full foot down. I also didn't have enough rocks to line the pit. Night was approaching fast, and I wanted to get one more load of firewood before dark, so I left improvements for another day.
In the center of the pit I started building another four-wall structure, this time with sticks that were about an inch or two in diameter. In the center I put a layer of pine twigs, a layer of pine cones, and then a layer of small sticks. Then I took a fairly long stick over to the fire on the rock, which was already starting to die down into coals. I held the tip of that stick in that fire for a few minutes until it was burning solidly, then I walked it over to my fire pit. I carefully started sliding the stick into the center. A couple times I had to pull back as it threatened to go out. Once the fire got going in earnest, I took one of my digging sticks and walked back to the other fire, which was just glowing coals. I pushed back the stone with my digging stick until the hole was revealed, and then I tilted the stone so all the coals ran into the hole. Finally I nudged the stone back into place. Hopefully that would keep the coals hot until morning if the other one burned out.
I stuck a couple of the largest sticks I had on the fire and then started to head out. The sun had not quite set yet, so I had a little under an hour before it got too dark. I headed out to a spot nearby where I had seen a couple downed trees, and soon my arms were carrying as much wood as they could. Hopefully it would he enough to keep me warm through the night.
Part 10: Dream Roast
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Monday, October 27, 2014
Evil French Clowns
People who are afraid of clowns have even more reason to, now. Teenagers in France are dressing up as clowns and terrorizing people. It's not a joke!
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Tales of an Exiled Citizen #7: Buried Treasure
Beginning of story
Previous part
I was sad, of course, to see my saplings had been cut down that first night, but it was no surprise whatsoever once I knew that they had discovered the Shelter. I was actually also relieved. My worst fear had been that they had dug them up, or at least completely obliterated them. But there was a tiny stump left revealing where they had been -- not enough to grow back from, mind you, but enough for what I needed them for that next day.
Someone watching me set to work might have thought I had actually expected and prepared for being exiled. They would soon learn how unprepared I really was, but it would be quite a bit later before I let them know just how much it had caught me by surprise. In my youthful arrogance, I believed I would never be caught. But I was arrogant, not naive. I was well aware of the danger of being found out, I just thought I would always be able to outsmart them.
One problem criminals have had since time immemorial is what to do with their ill-gotten gains. In the Crazy Age they would actually wash their money to hide its origin. In the City it wasn't so easy. My Beans provided a method for other criminals to accumulate wealth in an easy to hide manner. For me though it made little sense; I could pretty much always get more. You can only spend so many Beans on "personal services" when you only have 7 Free Hours a week. While I had figured out how to free up more time for myself, no one else could join me during the times I was supposed to be be working. With the periodic but random health and cleanliness inspection of everyone's personal living space, it was difficult for anyone to accumulate any kind of luxury goods. So, for the most part I ended up getting practical stuff with my Beans, stuff that wouldn't draw any attention if someone happened to get an extra one.
I didn't just want some form of wealth other than Beans, however. I couldn't afford to draw any attention to myself by getting the equipment necessary to process the Beans myself. I had to start with basic tools and raw materials and build everything I needed myself. It was really rough at first, when my tools were simple and my end product was crude. It took a long time to get everything set up to run smoothly, with a lot of careful trading. Like I said, I was not naive; I was aware of the possibility of getting caught, and I did not want to have to start from scratch again.
So, using the Bean tree seedlings as markers, I followed the example of the pirates and buried my treasure.
Part 8: A Hard Day's Work
Previous part
I was sad, of course, to see my saplings had been cut down that first night, but it was no surprise whatsoever once I knew that they had discovered the Shelter. I was actually also relieved. My worst fear had been that they had dug them up, or at least completely obliterated them. But there was a tiny stump left revealing where they had been -- not enough to grow back from, mind you, but enough for what I needed them for that next day.
Someone watching me set to work might have thought I had actually expected and prepared for being exiled. They would soon learn how unprepared I really was, but it would be quite a bit later before I let them know just how much it had caught me by surprise. In my youthful arrogance, I believed I would never be caught. But I was arrogant, not naive. I was well aware of the danger of being found out, I just thought I would always be able to outsmart them.
One problem criminals have had since time immemorial is what to do with their ill-gotten gains. In the Crazy Age they would actually wash their money to hide its origin. In the City it wasn't so easy. My Beans provided a method for other criminals to accumulate wealth in an easy to hide manner. For me though it made little sense; I could pretty much always get more. You can only spend so many Beans on "personal services" when you only have 7 Free Hours a week. While I had figured out how to free up more time for myself, no one else could join me during the times I was supposed to be be working. With the periodic but random health and cleanliness inspection of everyone's personal living space, it was difficult for anyone to accumulate any kind of luxury goods. So, for the most part I ended up getting practical stuff with my Beans, stuff that wouldn't draw any attention if someone happened to get an extra one.
I didn't just want some form of wealth other than Beans, however. I couldn't afford to draw any attention to myself by getting the equipment necessary to process the Beans myself. I had to start with basic tools and raw materials and build everything I needed myself. It was really rough at first, when my tools were simple and my end product was crude. It took a long time to get everything set up to run smoothly, with a lot of careful trading. Like I said, I was not naive; I was aware of the possibility of getting caught, and I did not want to have to start from scratch again.
So, using the Bean tree seedlings as markers, I followed the example of the pirates and buried my treasure.
Part 8: A Hard Day's Work
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Tales of an Exiled Citizen #5: A Life of Crime
Beginning of story
Previous Part
They had a saying in the Crazy Age: "Crime doesn't pay." I realize most of you will just have to take my word for it. Not many people know a lot about the Crazy Age, other than what has been passed down in whispers. The main reason I do is because while most kids in the City would spend their Free Hour playing lazer tag or exploring the latest VR world, I would head to the Library. That's what I truly miss about the City. Thousands of books, lined up on shelves, filling an entire room. I know, it probably boggles your mind. And some of these books had hundreds of pages yet could still fit in your pocket. Many of the old ones were locked up because the pages threatened to crumble at one touch. I doubt I could have read them all in an entire lifetime.
Anyway, it was kind of ironic that they said that crime doesn't pay in the Crazy Age, because back then, it frequently did. Indeed, towards the end, making money and committing crimes became almost synonymous. They even were afraid to prosecute some of the biggest criminals for fear of collapsing the economy.
In the City, though, it is a completely different story. They monitor everything you buy or sell, or even throw away -- and you are supposed to report every gift you give or receive. If you throw something away that you are recorded as having bought and haven't reported as receiving as a gift, you are automatically suspected of a crime. Similarly, if you bought an unusually large amount of something and didn't give it away, that was considered suspicious, too.
This seriously limited what kind of profit could be made from a criminal enterprise. Anything durable would show up when it was put into the disposal units for recycling. Anything too large would be hard to hide from the monitoring. Anything that required a lot of raw materials to make would show up in the buying records. About the only thing that was left was stuff like food and "personal services", neither of which could you really accumulate much of.
Until I found the Bean tree, that is.
Ultimately, the Beans were consumable, so they didn't show up in the disposal units. However, their potency lasted for years, so they didn't spoil like food. They were small enough and valuable enough that you could have a fortune in your pocket. And since I got them from Outside, they didn't show up on any buying records.
In the end, that is what got me Exiled. Being a drug dealer was bad, but for a brief while, I actually made crime profitable in the City. That was my crime for which I got the ultimate punishment.
Part 6: In Morning
Previous Part
They had a saying in the Crazy Age: "Crime doesn't pay." I realize most of you will just have to take my word for it. Not many people know a lot about the Crazy Age, other than what has been passed down in whispers. The main reason I do is because while most kids in the City would spend their Free Hour playing lazer tag or exploring the latest VR world, I would head to the Library. That's what I truly miss about the City. Thousands of books, lined up on shelves, filling an entire room. I know, it probably boggles your mind. And some of these books had hundreds of pages yet could still fit in your pocket. Many of the old ones were locked up because the pages threatened to crumble at one touch. I doubt I could have read them all in an entire lifetime.
Anyway, it was kind of ironic that they said that crime doesn't pay in the Crazy Age, because back then, it frequently did. Indeed, towards the end, making money and committing crimes became almost synonymous. They even were afraid to prosecute some of the biggest criminals for fear of collapsing the economy.
In the City, though, it is a completely different story. They monitor everything you buy or sell, or even throw away -- and you are supposed to report every gift you give or receive. If you throw something away that you are recorded as having bought and haven't reported as receiving as a gift, you are automatically suspected of a crime. Similarly, if you bought an unusually large amount of something and didn't give it away, that was considered suspicious, too.
This seriously limited what kind of profit could be made from a criminal enterprise. Anything durable would show up when it was put into the disposal units for recycling. Anything too large would be hard to hide from the monitoring. Anything that required a lot of raw materials to make would show up in the buying records. About the only thing that was left was stuff like food and "personal services", neither of which could you really accumulate much of.
Until I found the Bean tree, that is.
Ultimately, the Beans were consumable, so they didn't show up in the disposal units. However, their potency lasted for years, so they didn't spoil like food. They were small enough and valuable enough that you could have a fortune in your pocket. And since I got them from Outside, they didn't show up on any buying records.
In the end, that is what got me Exiled. Being a drug dealer was bad, but for a brief while, I actually made crime profitable in the City. That was my crime for which I got the ultimate punishment.
Part 6: In Morning
Friday, September 6, 2013
The Bug-Out Movie
I've read the book, at some point I want to watch the movie:
Joel Skousen's Strategic Relocation
I still say, this late in the game, you should either stay where you are, or go home. But if where you are is not home, or there are several places you feel at home, I think the book can help you decide. Even if you're staying in place, he does a fine job of threat analysis for every area in these united States of America, so it can be useful for figuring out what to prepare for.
Joel Skousen's Strategic Relocation
I still say, this late in the game, you should either stay where you are, or go home. But if where you are is not home, or there are several places you feel at home, I think the book can help you decide. Even if you're staying in place, he does a fine job of threat analysis for every area in these united States of America, so it can be useful for figuring out what to prepare for.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
NWO Handbook
There isn't a conspiracy for global governance. It's all out in the open. Here's one of their handbooks:
Our Global Neighborhood : The Report of the Commission on Global Governance
Our Global Neighborhood : The Report of the Commission on Global Governance
Sunday, December 9, 2012
A New Threat: Ransomware
The New York Times posted an article by Nicole Perlroth recently entitled, "For PC Virus Victims, Pay or Else". This new threat locks up your computer, frequently masquerading as a law-efforcement agency, and demands you pay a fine. The preferred method is a prepaid debit card, so it is untraceable and irrevocable.
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