Condensing Your Life on to a USB Flash Drive? 888
Fear the Clam asks: "My wife and I figure that if we plan for the worst, it'll never happen, so we've been putting together 'If public transportation bites it and we have two minutes to grab our stuff and start walking, never to return to NYC' getaway knapsacks. With luck they'll live in the closet forever.
Coincidently, this morning the New York Times has an article about what to take when you have to leave home in a big hurry [DNA verification required], and they suggest making a list of all of things like Social Security and credit card numbers, scanning birth certificates, marriage license and tax returns, and saving it all on a USB flash drive. Since this would be a complete identity kit, encryption is of utmost importance. What's the best solution? A flash drive that claims to encrypt or a platform-independent, self-extracting, encrypted file on a regular drive? Any suggestions for sturdy drives?" Of course, the choice of USB flash drive covers only a part of the problem. What other data would you put on this piece of "contingency hardware", and how would you protect the drive itself in case you did have to "swim for it"?
heh (Score:5, Funny)
Security (Score:5, Funny)
alternate plan (Score:5, Funny)
Depends on your priorities (Score:4, Funny)
If you are a man of questionable tolerance and determination, I suggest you use some kind of compression.
Oh - you mean like a "real real" drought or some other real natural disaster? Oh sorry.
(Goes back to work)
Linus Torvalds' Solution (Score:5, Funny)
Or.... (Score:5, Funny)
Brute forcing... (Score:5, Funny)
Just watch out for people trying to "brute force" your wife.
Re:Or.... (Score:4, Funny)
"Searching for food," if you're white.
Re:Living in the other target city (DC) (Score:5, Funny)
--
Evan
Re:The guy who grabs your USB key chain... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Global Secret Distribution (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Security (Score:5, Funny)
It really puts me into a crappy situation when I have to re-swallow it at work.
Re:They tend to be pretty tough (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Maybe it's just me, but (Score:5, Funny)
Re:heh (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I'd take a backup of my backup. (Score:3, Funny)
I got the power (Score:5, Funny)
Ah. Scientologists.
Re:alternate plan (Score:5, Funny)
That way he can call himself the keymaster and his wife the gatekeeper
Re:I'd take a backup of my backup. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What's the best solution? (Score:5, Funny)
Which you should put in something commonly refered to as a "Baggie."
KFG
Re:Brute forcing... (Score:5, Funny)
"More wine, dear?"
Re:Security (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Brute forcing... (Score:5, Funny)
Obligatory HHGG reference... (Score:2, Funny)
At the publishing headquarters building of the Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
"The building's being bombed!" -Roosta
"Wha....Who would want to bomb a publishing company?!?" -Zaphod
"Another publishing company." -Marvin the Paranoid Android
Re:alternate plan (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What's the best solution? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Living in the other target city (DC) (Score:5, Funny)
Oh come ON now! Society is having a tough enough time with gay marriage to even go there!
Re:Linus Torvalds' Solution (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What's the best solution? (Score:4, Funny)
FREND- I AM AWIATING ON NYOUR MOST EXPIDICSOUS REPLY TO MY LATEST LETTER. I NEED TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOU BY TELEFON AS SOON AS HUMANELY POSSIBLE. DO NOT DISAPOINT ME.
Re:Encryption (blowfish) (Score:3, Funny)
Re:What's the best solution? (Score:5, Funny)
I leave an encrypted backup DVD with my parents twice a year when I visit, making this whole issue moot.
Little did you know that your mother has been using those DVDs as drink coasters at coctail parties for years.
Better luck next time sucker.
Re:Living in the other target city (DC) (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Living in the other target city (DC) (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Brute forcing... (Score:2, Funny)
Faraday cage. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Living in the other target city (DC) (Score:5, Funny)
I'd take toilet paper. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I'd take a backup of my backup. (Score:5, Funny)
Ri-i-ight. "eat".
Re:My objection to the article: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Living in the other target city (DC) (Score:2, Funny)
Yet.
Re:What's the best solution? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I'd take a backup of my backup. (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Life Disk (Score:2, Funny)
Re:In case of emergency, scream... (Score:2, Funny)
a backpack packed with a dry pair of pants, fresh socks, two t-shirts, a sweatshirt, a bright orange-and-yellow 'RESCUE ME' vest, emergency self-inflating flotation device (rated to 225 lbs), 4L of drinking water, 6 MREs, a space-warmer blanket, air-activated hand-warmers, a flashlight, batteries, sweedish-firesteel, 600$ cash, a rescue strobe light, a leatherman, a wide-band two-way radio and scanner, a GPS reciever, a universal hand-crank charger, a map, a compass, pencil, paper, an emergency contact card, and the aforementioned USB keychain.
Buy it back (Score:2, Funny)
Cool Desert Island discs for survivalist geeks (Score:3, Funny)
If things are so bad that THEY cannot tell you what it is, you dont need it!
What you really need would be usefull reference texts, Grays Anatomy, How things work, 101 uses for a dead cat, 1001 chemical reactions from household waste. All hardcopy; and when I say hardcopy I don't mean paper, or even clay tablets I mean really hard copies like granite slabs, preferable formed into a shelter deep underground.
Re:I'd take a backup of my backup. (Score:4, Funny)
Forget the USB drive. Bring a Towel. (Score:1, Funny)
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.
Re:My objection to the article: (Score:1, Funny)
Re:What's the best solution? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What's the best solution? (Score:2, Funny)
Oh, hey. That's one I hadn't thought of. Go figure.
KFG
Re:Life Disk (Score:1, Funny)
"Jesus Christ, dude!!"
Re:Life Disk (Score:3, Funny)
DNA samples from you and all family members (hair samples in tiny individually labeled plastic bags would be good)