Hi, I'm new here, and Iv'e been reading a lot.

a while back, there was a thread about what to put on a USB drive, but it mostly covered personal info.

If no one objects, I'd like to put together data that anyone can use.

Once it is compiled, I'd make it available asa zip file.

I plan on using a 1GB drive, and incuding portable apps to view/run anything on it.

Since I will be be distributing it, all the info should be free of copyright problems.

Off hand, knot tying, first aid, and plant identification come to mind.

Maybe recipes as well, for food or firestarters / chemicals.

how does this sound?

Keep it to 700MB which lets you easily distribute it on cd-rom, and leaves people with 300mb free for their own data if they transfer the cd to a 1gb usb key.

There are some good US military field manuals on survival linked from the ETS main site, if that helps.

Even that is a LOT of data.

Keep the data simple. HTML with GIFs and JPGs, using gifs whenever possible. Smaller files than PDF- anything that you might want to do as PDF, try it as a GIF and compare sizes.

If it is to be downloaded, even 64MB is a LOT. It is a lot on broadband, and lot of people here are still on dialup.

I think that sounds like a great idea. My only thought is that 1GB of data is a MASSIVE amount of data. I did a bit of number crunching, and came up with the following, just for fun <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

A 1,000,000 word text file is just under 5mb. That means that in 1gb, there will be about 200,000,000 words. The average human reads at 150wpm, so that means it will take the average person 1,333,333 minutes, or about 925 days to read 1gb of text files. Whem you take compression into consideration, you can pretty much double that 925 figure, taking you close to 2,000 days.

Maybe it might be a good idea to set your sights a little lower than 1GB? Even 128MB would probably be sufficient, and it will allow people with smaller USB drives or CD burners to make a copy as well. Plus a 1GB download will be kind of a pain, and will cost you a lot of money (bandwidth) if you end up hosting it yourself on a website.

Anyway though, I think that this is an excellent idea! Make sure to keep us updated on how it goes.

Actually if it's pure text, it will compress way more than 2x. In fact, the reason that manufacturers often advertise that number is that binary (executable) type files barely compress if at all, but together with the text files that compress at 10x they can get away with saying it's 2x if the average user has a LOT of data files.

Anyway, I agree with all the posts thus far... shrink it down. Even using a lot of images and maybe even a little video, 1GB is a lot of storage.

Nice idea... I look forward to your product. Make sure you put a nice legal statement clearing yourself of any liability for following your instructions and be sure to quote sources (bibliography) such as Red Cross, ETS, etc. and provide links to any content you include in this manner. You probably also want to review the different Open Source documentation release copyright(left) type of release - http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#DocumentationLicenses

So this is a backup of survival info? I think it's a good idea, but my first impression in reading this is that the intent is to use the information in a survival situation, in which case many survival situations will make using any kind of electronics impractical or impossible. It would do any good to have every survival guide you could ever want on a flash drive if you don't have anything to access it with.

Now if the intent is preservation of information and a way to have several survival tips in one place, then I'm all for it!

I'm not trying to be rude Bill, especially to someone new to the forum (welcome btw!), it's just that when I read the original post, it seemed that you might be intending it as a compact version of a bulkier guide.

You may want to solicit opinions from people here on the forum. For instance, one week post a request for opinions about methods of firemaking. Tips and tricks, favorite tools, improvised methods, what makes good natural tinder (in case we run out of Tinder Quik or Vaseline cotton balls!), etc. and compile those results. Then move on to opinions on what knots might be most useful ED and in survival situations. There are a lot of people with a lot of experience here, and I think they would be a great resource for this undertaking. I think that also helps with the copyright question, because people sharing there opinions on topics I believe falls under the "common knowledge" category and therefore is not copyrightable. (Note: I'm just a musician who's looked at copyright from that aspect, I'm not a copyright expert!) Here endeth the disclaimer <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Anyhew...let us know if we can help out, and again, welcome!

It dosen't have to be 1GB, I just didn't want to limit it to 8MB or something smaller.

If we keep it to simple formats, we could also run it on PDA's.

You want it to be little then, if you want it on PDAs. 8 megs is an amazing amount of space if you use it right. If it is just TXTs, that is a couple hundred pages of stuff. PDFs are pretty, but huge for what they are.

Don't code like Megel- I mean, Microsoft. Smaller is better.

Using HTML would seem to make the most sense, that way you do not need any additional software.

You could even have a wap version so you could put it on a card and use it on your phone.

I have started a Technique and Information Binder myself, so I can have the stuff I want with me, but also change and add to it. The 20 or so books I found myself carrying started to get on my nerves. This way, I can have as many plant id photos as I want, but only of Plants I want to id.

Yes, I know, 20 books sounds a lot but once you consider the 5 plant-ish Id books from collins gem and the survival books and the bushcraft books, it starts to get silly. That is not counting the Medical/Herbal books. The problem I found was the good herbal book has bad or no id pictures, and the good plant id books have little or no herbal information or preparetion information.

I really like this idea.

You know, I started thinking about this... why doesn't ETS start a open source documentation project for things like this? Nuclear fallout, Bio-weapons attacks, Natural disasters, Equipment and kits, Long term food storage, First Aid, Emergency Medical Procedures (for when you aren't going to get to a hospital), Marine survival, Home Defense, Disaster preparation, Field living, Natural remedies, Hunting, Edible/poison plant/animal identification, Desert/arctic/tropic survival... the list could go on.

The beauty is that multiple people could put in their expertise and the end result could be combined into a really nice living document all with cross referencing. Users could add/take what they want and it could be distributed in multiple formats: WML, HTML, XML, PDF, RTF, and any number of others. With good pictures (donated or taken specially for the project) and text, it could be really a great project.

I like the idea of having this available and I don't like thinking that all that work falls on one person... Really, this site is already very much the raw basis for such a project and a lot of that information is already available, though perhaps not as organized or cross referenced with a quick-lookup index. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Any thoughts on the viability of such a project?