That is why when I do the cooking for an outside get together of computer geeks, I light the fire without matches. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Silicon is my friend, be it in a flint knife, a fire striker, or a microprocessor.

I suppose it depends on what you mean by "long term". I don't think this site has a hard cut-off date of 3 days or anything. Although the area affected by Katrina is large, it's not the whole of America and the rest of America is going to step in and help. This is not "the end of the world as we know it". Civilisation remains. New Orleans survival demands are not long-term in the sense of a needing a new way of life that can be sustained indefinitely.

I'm a programmer by trade. I have only limited interest in preparing for a possible long-term future without computers.

Let's re-examine our terminology. No offense to anyone, we think in a pretty binary frame of mind here: short term, and long term. What do these mean? The lack of agreed definition and the narrowness of scope limits our thinking. Since some react to "long term" the way some people react to "heresy", so let's toss in a new word: "mid term".

I'll toss out my terms and thier meanings, and what kind of kit IMO is for it:

--Immediate term: <24hours, EDC and the ever popular PSK
--Short term: 5 days, with a BOB. BOB should get through 48 hours by himself, 3-5 days if you can get water from outside, even if you have to make potable yourself.
--Mid term: 5 to 30 days. BOB gets you to a location where you can hole up for that time, or you shelter in place. Most (99.9%) of us need external support.
--Long term: 30 to 365 days: Unless you are a very devote Mormon, super paranoid or Amish, you need external support, a temp job, temp housing, et al.
--TEOTWAWKI: 366+ days. If situation isn't stable in a year, the world won't go back normal. Period. The Black Death, the Great Depression, two World Wars, the ice ages, these are 366+ day problems that changed everyone and everything they touched. You have to adapt, or die, becuase there is no external support left at that point.

So I guess what I'm in support of is a Mid Term forum, with LT discussions allowed but rare. Topics of common interest would be: fuel storage, water storage, how to patch a tire (rather than simply replace it or stuff it with fixaflat- have no idea) or improvise other automotive parts, that kind of thing.

since we are talking like computer nerds now, I'll just say...

/agree

By the way... I'm on my way out of the IT industry. Good luck to all those on their way in.

In, and staying in. I'm just fermenting.

I'd be interested in a LTS section.

Threads wasn't banned. It was made in 1984, broadcast in 1985, then again in 1987.

You might be thinking of The War Game, which was made in 1965, but not broadcast until 1985.

I'd be interested in a LTS survival section, too.

Specially if it's going to be moderated so TEOTWAWKI scenarios don't pop up.

AMEN, brotha.

Troy

Cheers Pat, I realised that over the weekend, but for some reason I can only update my messages at work. Still damn good films for thier time.

Johno