Posted on 02/24/2019 11:14:37 PM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
I need someone, preferably who is on the Prepper thread list and has a bit of computer savvy, to help me test out a reference site I am putting together. Send me a private message on this site if you are interested in helping out.
Linux is your friend....
Not sure what that's supposed to mean. I've already set something up. I need to see if it works for anyone other than myself. Does Linux have some sort of magic self test feature I don't know about?
a simple database is all you need.
$10/month gets you a website. the database makes all your files accessible.
If you start with with your own site and database, you can add password security and other features easily.
Again, I have already set something up. I just need to see how it works for others.
> a simple database is all you need
That’s how they hook you. Just one table. But it’s never just one table.
Sure you say that now, but in a year from now it’ll be “...just...one...more...delimiter”.
Have you considered going to your local library and trying it on one of the computers there?
That way you can see for yourself how it looks on a not-yours computer.
Good idea but I live in Spain and it isn't as easy as it is in America.
OK, you promise it won’t be child porn, right?
OK...someone suggested Linux. Actually a good idea.
Linux is an open source operating system, similar to Windows. But faster, more stable and just as easy to use.
Several versions are available that will run on a CD. You pop in the CD, reboot and you’re running Linux, shut it down and reboot, back into Windows, and Windows is untouched. I’ve used it on this computer many times, posted stuff here on FR using this machine running on a Linux CD. I assure you it will not damage Windows in any way, I’ve used it too many times. (I’m also a computer repair technician, I’m the guy who had to repair the damage for 15 years, so I never recommend anything I don’t know will work.) I let it set up a save file so I can retain my desktop and other settings. It automatically asks first time you shut down. Tell it OK, set a size and give it a minute or two. Every time you use it you have the same desktop background, your same Wifi setting (in my case anyway) and so forth.
Puppy Linux is a popular Live CD version, operates quite similar to Windows, very stable, fast, reliable, and I don’t know of any hardware it doesn’t like except for the occasional laptop touch pad. My other laptop has a touchpad that operates only in fast and really really sensitive mode, I have to redo the settings every time, for some reason Slacko won’t save that particular setting. Only takes a couple of minutes, and not hard to do but it’s annoying...
The idea is, it’s a different computer you can use to check your work yourself. Pop in your Linux CD and you’re no longer using the cached information on your computer, it’s essentially a different computer. Set it so it does not create a “save file” of your session, it’s always a different computer that’s never seen the website before so it’s not reading your website from cache. It does have a good PDF reader, I don’t know about the other file types you listed, but chances are it will handle those too, Linux developers have always been good at keeping up with Windows and the various file types it handles. PDF was usable when XP was brand new.
That’s their main website, you should find the download and all the information you need to be able to get it running. Not hard to do or I wouldn’t recommend it. I made a Puppy CD for my sister, she had never seen anything but Windows, in 10 minutes she was comfortable with it and surfing around online. Even my mother could use it, 75 years old. They call it Slacko these days, because the newer versions are based on the Slackware Linux distro. Do not get the “Beta” version, it’s a trial version not proven stable yet. Only recommended for experts.
Several “distros” or distribution styles, have been available for years. Mandrake, which became Mandriva, Red Hat, Fedora, Slackware, Ubuntu, Debian and several others. In the Live CD format, a CD you can boot to, I’ve used Puppy, Feather, Damn Small Linux, Ubuntu, Knoppix and seems like another I can’t remember...
To give you an example how they run, a P-III 500 machine that would barely run Windows XP at all would just scream with the version of Mandrake 9 released 6 months after XP. I was absolutely amazed. I built 2 identical computers, P-III 1000Mhz. One XP, one Linux. Linux ran circles around XP and didn’t start running slower after a few months. I also left it up and running for over 3 years without a reboot, no problems. XP had to be rebooted at least every 6 months or so or it would just bog down, memory management was not anywhere near as good.
If you have an older computer or laptop sitting around not being used, perfect...the newer version of Slacko should run on a computer 5 years old or more with no problems at all. Well, mine are both over 5 years old...if it will run Windows 7 at all, it will work. It’ll probably work if it originally ran XP. Even one with a flaky hard drive might work. It doesn’t use the hard drive, except for a swap file for temporary memory. It can operate without that but it’s a bit slow because it has to read everything from the CD.
Another idea though, get an external hard drive. Copy anything to it you want, unplug and put it up, it’s a permanent backup, easily available, and not plugged in so it won’t be damaged in an emergency, like a lightning strike wipes out your computer. (don’t laugh, I’ve had to fix them. Usually it just wipes out the modem, but I saw a couple with fried power supplies, one with a fried motherboard due to lightning)
I use an external drive to backup my pictures, I have well over 250,000 pictures from 4 digital cameras on an external hard drive. It’s simply stored on a shelf, I plug it in a couple of times a year and transfer any new pictures. I just took a look a few weeks ago, you can get a good size external drive for about $50. A 500GB drive would hold thousands of books in electronic form. If you’re worried about it being physically damaged at your house, store it in a remote location or rented storage building if you have one. It just plugs into a USB port and works like another hard drive or USB thumb drive.
Come to think of it you can get USB Thumb drives now in sizes big enough to hold huge amounts of data, that might be an option. A 160GB drive will hold quite a bit of data. I don’t know what the upper size limit is these days, haven’t checked, but I know at least 160 GB is available.
The only reason I would want them stored online is if I wanted a number of different people to have access. In a prepper situation, it makes more sense to use an external hard drive. If anything serious happens, the internet might not be available at all. For that matter, you might not have electricity to run a computer at all, so books in paper form would actually be the best idea...but then you have to have a rather large ans safe storage area.
The two proper response to a computer thread are :
1) Get a Mac
2) Linux
Thanks for all of the email responses. I have enough people now to know if it works or not. Hopefully it will :)
That means he's a Linux pimp.
Since I don't know what that means, here's a cartoon.
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