Thursday, April 12, 2012

Infographic: Healthcare Data Disaster Preparedness

I love infographics - here's a emergency disaster preparedness (healthcare data) related one for all our ApocHubbers (FYI that's what I call our readers) . Some food for thought.

Dell disaster recovery infographic


Source: Dell

Thanks for the tip, Nina!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Zombie Survival Map: Map of the Dead


All you zombie fanatics will dig this - Map of the Dead is a new site that uses the Google Maps API and color-coded keys to show you where you can get essential supplies in case the zombie apocalypse goes down.

Relax, it's all in the name of fun and entertainment folks - nobody really thinks a zombie outbreak will happen....Right?!

Cool, anyway...the map divides areas into danger and non-danger zones. (I'm basically SOL due to my location, practically everything around me is a danger zone).

It shows you where the gun stores are located as well as pharmacies, cemeteries, malls, outdoor stores, radio towers, among other things. Plus, it also allows you to print your map.

Go have a look for yourselves.

http://www.mapofthedead.com

Zombie Short Film: Too Late

I'm always on the lookout for zombie / apocalyptic feature films and short films so I just had to share this one to our readers.



Clever work, well done!

Monday, April 9, 2012

Discovery Channel's Out of the Wild: Venezuela - Get your Survivalist Fix

Out of the Wild: Venezuela - The Volunteers


The premise: 9 ordinary people dropped off in Venezuela's southern frontier with basic supplies. The goal is to travel 70 miles through a remote area and make there way back into civilization.

Here's what I liked about this series - while most survival reality tv shows have a handsome reward in the form of monetary gain at the end for those who completes the challenge, this particular show has none. Its reward is the experience in itself. The participants joined for self-exploration / self-improvement / the thrill of the adventure, etc. Not to mention the tremendous bragging rights.

The participants were put through a 3 day crash course on survival skills training. They were allowed to bring the items in the list provided:

1 Pair of good hiking boots
1 Pair of trainers (aka running shoes)
3-5 pairs of socks
1 rain jacket (Gore-Tex or rubber)
1 pair of rain pants (Gore-Tex or rubber)
1 fleece jacket or wool sweater for warmth
3 pairs of underwear (not cotton)
Malarial drugs
 2 pairs of long pants
2 long sleeve shirts
bandannas — suggested
Hat — Wide brimmed or baseball
2 T-shirts
2 pairs of shorts
Bathing Suit

Source: Discovery channel

In addition they were allowed to gather additional supplies near the drop-off point from a supply cache, keeping in mind that they would only be adding to the weight they'd have to haul along.

Supply cache:
2 small metal framed military backpacks
7 Pemon packs
4 bows with real barbed 1 and 2 point arrows
1 flint stone rock
1 spool of bailing wire
1 yucca strainer
1 big fish trap
10 fish hooks
9 GPS Beacon transmitters
1 small dutch oven-style metal pan
1 big dutch oven-style metal pan
1 skillet
1 spool of 1/2" twine approx. 50' in length
2 broad blade hunting knives with leather belt sheaths
1 Pemon big drop basket
4 small gourds
1 large gourd with cork
3 machetes (small Pemon-style)
3 Pemon baskets
1 big flashlight and 4 extra batteries
9 mosquito nets
2 candles
9 whistles
 1 magnifying glass
1 axe with handle
1 axe without handle
1 hatchet
2 military belt-mount canteens
7 round shoulder slung canteens
9 pairs rubber boots
9 hammocks
1 roll of 1/8" parachute cord-style twine
4 pairs of leather gloves
1 oversized metal cooking pot/wash basin
2 maps per leg
300 electrolyte tabs
3 tall baby food jars
2 boxes of tampons
1 compass
1 lb of Pemon ground grain
1 Block of local back salt beef
5 military fleece blankets
1 spool of spare slingshot cord
1 palm hook knife with no handle
1 roll of screen mosquito net
1 file for sharpening
1 small roll of duct tape 

Source: Discovery Channel

I sat down and pretty much watched the 8 episodes of the series in two days. It was an engaging show - interesting people with very different background stories, beautiful and dangerous terrain, of course some conflict (this is inevitable in a group setting, especially under these very stressful conditions). As the show progresses, you can see how much weight the members lose from caloric intake deficiency.

Each participant has a gps locator beacon system that they can use should they choose to leave at any time. All they have to do is press the button and the helicopter extracts them. No spoilers here, you'll have to find out who leaves and who stays.

It took the remaining volunteers twenty six days to reach civilization.

Hands down the best reality tv survival show I've seen so far. 5 out of 5 stars.

Currently available for Instant Play in Netflix (as of April 9, 2012) or you can watch the entire season 3 at Vimeo starting with Episode 1 right below:


Saturday, April 7, 2012

Dating Site for Survivalists and Preppers


Just when I think I've heard of everything...

Then someone sends me a link to a CNN article about a "Doomsday dating site."

Do you scare away potential partners when you bring them home and they see your stockpile stash?

Looking to share your bunker with that special someone?

Then this might just be the place for you -

It's called Surivalist Singles and so far it has a little over 2000 members.

Here's the CNN article about it.

and here's a screenshot of the actual site.



Monday, April 2, 2012

Asus Transformer TF101 Android Tablet First Impressions Review



This post is a little different than the usual. Technology is a big part of my life and
how I work as well as how I run my sites.

We've been on the market to get another tablet - this is my second one and I knew that I
wanted to stick with the Android OS. Nothing against Apple products, I actually own
several. We just needed more flexibility among other things.

As with any major purchase I always assess what its main function would be in our
household and how it would fit in our lifestyle. Based on that I do an extensive product
research.

The main reasons we went with this tablet:
Storage
- has option to expand storage via MicroSD
Optional Keyboard Dock - "Transforms" the Android tablet into a netbook-ish contraption.
It increases battery life as well as storage space.
Price - $349.00 (tablet only)

First impressions

The good:
Beautiful display, as expected with the IPS screen.
Decent sound from the speakers
Multitasking work horse
Easy transition to Ice Cream Sandwich Android OS
Cloud storage by ASUS
Splashtop remote desktop feature
Flash compatible
Battery life has been decent so far
front facing and rear cameras are decent for what I use it for

The bad:
Fingerprint magnet (minor detail, really. I just end up wiping the screen down after every
use just because I'm a neat freak)

File manager is a bit confusing

Apps 2 SD type applications don't automatically recognize the external storage so I'm
having to manually drag everything into the microSD card. (From my understanding this is
not an isolated issue and that it affects Honeycomb and ICS OS) Again it's not a deal
breaker but more of an inconvenience.


The ugly:
None


Overall: 5/5 stars so far for this device.  I'll be doing additional assessments of this tablet as I
get more use out of it and will post my thoughts on that as well as on the assortment of
apps that I like. Stay tuned.