Digital Archives in Dead Reign

You are on your own. The Army is MIA and our government is gone! There are no communications of any kind. Cities and towns have gone dark, and zombies fill the streets. The dead have risen and it would seem to be the end of the world. Help me, Mommy!

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whassupman03
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Digital Archives in Dead Reign

Unread post by whassupman03 »

Hello…

One of the other things I have been thinking about lately is how to apply Information Technology (IT) to the world of Dead Reign. The Internet was able to stay operational up to a few weeks after the first zombies walked the Earth, so there must have been at least some semblance of IT infrastructure, at least for a little while (See Dead Reign, page 12). As a result, I among others came up with the belief that survivors with IT training and experience could somehow apply their trade to the post-Wave world (By the way, a good reference for inspiration would be the Kyoto, Japan segment in the “Around the World, and Above” chapter of the World War Z novel.).

My plan was this: When the Wave first hit, most people were watching their television sets, listening to their radios, and searching the Internet for any and all information that they could find to know how the world was doing. Notably, a few would realize that if things went further downhill, the media would cease to exist. Therefore, they would begin to download as much vital information as necessary (Preppers and survivalists would likely already have this information on their hard drives and in deadtree form. :-)), for the future. Such documents would take the form of maps, reports, studies, valuable eBooks and digital magazine issues, software, and other intangible IT paraphernalia. Essentially, they would download what they don’t have as soon as possible.

Specifically, a lot of valuable information is available for free, and some can be bought on digital publication websites like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, Zinio (A valuable place to get digital copies of magazines), and others. Useful publications include military manuals, reference guides, equipment manuals and diagrams, and others. The religious would also be downloading a lot of biblical information as well. Numerous copies would be made, whether on CD, flash drive, hard drive, and on smartphone memory cards. And they would be hidden away, waiting for the right time to use them.

But still, some of these people may target specific sections of the Internet, such as websites with valuable information, for future download in the event that it goes down.

Spoiler:
It would be like that scene in GoldenEye where James Bond's fellow companion Natalya sends the “spike” to their mutual antagonist Boris, in order to find the location of his server in Cuba.
Theoretically, one could trace the location of the target server and send a heavily-armed team with plenty of computer equipment to the site of the server post-Wave, hold it for a short time, download the information onto portable hard drives, and bring the information back to base. Each team would take with them a small portable generator and plenty of fuel to power the equipment needed to take whatever information they require until they have to leave.

NOTE: They would also take along a lot of extension cords - let's face it - you don't want to contract carbon monoxide poisoning inside your own server farm… :puke:

In addition, a well-equipped and well-trained organization could install the software and data onto large numbers of recovered laptops, smartphones, and the like. They would add portable solar, wall and car chargers, spare batteries, as well as lots of memory storage, laptop cases, portable mice and keyboards, and other accessories to make kits to give to the locals. Five months is not enough time to completely lose essential computer literacy, so they would at least know how to use them. Rebuilt mainframes could act as caches of valuable information, and with salvaged printing equipment (And plenty of ink, paper and binding supplies), libraries can be reestablished where others have burnt down. A modern civilization cannot survive without education and the infrastructure to keep it going, so this is where such a concept could come in handy.

So what do you think? Do you have anything to add? If so, feel free to add constructive criticism to my resourced concepts. Please take care; thanks a bunch, and have a good day. And have a Happy Valentine’s Day as well! :heart:

whassupman03 8)


P.S.: In no way did I try to infringe upon previous threads. Essentially, I tried to add my own ideas as well as other resources to the table. Thank you for understanding.
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CyCo
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Re: Digital Archives in Dead Reign

Unread post by CyCo »

In that case, don't forget batteries for the computer. You know, for your motherboard. Powers the CMOS. These days I believe they're actually soldered on, but they're still in a form of a battery holder. That battery dies, no computer.
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CarCrasher
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Re: Digital Archives in Dead Reign

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That would be a super fun adventure. Retrieving knowledge would be a vital piece of rebuilding humanity. I don't think I could add to the topic. I would however like to take the idea for my game.
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Re: Digital Archives in Dead Reign

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CyCo wrote:In that case, don't forget batteries for the computer. You know, for your motherboard. Powers the CMOS. These days I believe they're actually soldered on, but they're still in a form of a battery holder. That battery dies, no computer.


Depends on the motherboard. I've used computers with dead batteries on the board. The hardware clock would reset every time you killed the power, but they worked fine otherwise.

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Re: Digital Archives in Dead Reign

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flatline wrote:
CyCo wrote:In that case, don't forget batteries for the computer. You know, for your motherboard. Powers the CMOS. These days I believe they're actually soldered on, but they're still in a form of a battery holder. That battery dies, no computer.


Depends on the motherboard. I've used computers with dead batteries on the board. The hardware clock would reset every time you killed the power, but they worked fine otherwise.

--flatline


Fair enough. I admit I haven't had any issues with the computer battery in years, as I tend to get a new computer every 4 years or so. But I have had two computers who had simply seemed to die, but all it took was the battery. On an older computer, it was a rectangular thing about the size of a lip-stick container which attached to the mother board with a small cable and a plug, and the other used one of the larger 'button' style batteries that just popped in & out.
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Re: Digital Archives in Dead Reign

Unread post by whassupman03 »

Hello...

CyCo wrote:In that case, don't forget batteries for the computer. You know, for your motherboard. Powers the CMOS. These days I believe they're actually soldered on, but they're still in a form of a battery holder. That battery dies, no computer.

flatline wrote:Depends on the motherboard. I've used computers with dead batteries on the board. The hardware clock would reset every time you killed the power, but they worked fine otherwise,

D'oh! :shock: I forgot about the CMOS batteries. Personally, I do have to agree with Flatline though - I did take a lot of computer classes in grade school and college, and I noted that when no CMOS power was presented via battery, all that could happen is that the clock will reset. From my experience, I really didn't have too many problems with CMOS-deficient computers, but your mileage may vary. However, every part of the computer relies on the clock, most importantly the BIOS, so it will also affect boot orders, wake-up features, etc.[sup]1[/sup] Such CMOS-deficient laptops will boot very slowly and have hardware detection problems so it will still be troublesome, and having CMOS batteries available will be necessary.[sup]2[/sup]

CarCrasher wrote:That would be a super fun adventure. Retrieving knowledge would be a vital piece of rebuilding humanity. I don't think I could add to the topic. I would however like to take the idea for my game.

Feel free to do so! It's good to see that my ideas have merit. Thank you for the kind words CarCrasher, I appreciate it. Anyway, I have to go, so please take care; thanks a bunch, and have a good day.

whassupman03


[1]: Source: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081113100111AAz8Z19
[2]: Source: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-performance/cmos-battery-failure/ccb71dad-39e2-4f4e-9cd8-e4408759e4c3?msgId=63a3b358-909b-4ef5-bdea-d95eacd75a04
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whassupman03
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Re: Digital Archives in Dead Reign

Unread post by whassupman03 »

Hello...

Ash: Klaatu Barada N... Necktie... Neckturn... Nickel... It's an "N" word, it's definitely an "N" word! Klaatu... Barada... N...
[coughs]
Ash: [pause] Okay then... that's it!

I have recently been toying with a lot of new technology these days, and I'm wanted to see if anyone would like to discuss the topic you see before you. Anyway, I once read that in prepper/survivalist circles, one could definitely stockpile spare parts and supplies for their computer equipment, especially if it comes from places such as California or anywhere overseas, where earthquakes and the inability to fulfill international shipping needs would affect the supply of parts and equipment. While the prepared would be expecting anything from as simple as a shortage to as devastating as an electromagnetic pulse, they would prepare accordingly, not knowing that it would be zombies that lead to the fall of civilization. Even so, the prepared would not only attempt to store as much information as possible, but they would likely do it before anything ever happens. But still, feel free to comment when you can. :-) Please take care; thanks a bunch, and have a good day.

whassupman03 :mrgreen:
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