Big Blue Huddle

Something we all take for granted is electricity...and when it's gone, it's agony. A tornado touched down a few miles from my home, hundreds of trees twisted like pretzels and stripped of leaves and bark. And to no surprise, power went out

So, it was out yesterday until 10:45 last night. So, I was fairly happy this morning able to make my coffee and throw together some breakfast when, "Bam!", lights out again. They just came back on (7PM)

I have a backup power system for my PC that lasts about an hour, but of course, there's no internet. Nothing works until the power is back up. I hear stories of people going without electricity for over a week and I think that would be as close to torture for me, as much as waterboarding, lol

Anyway, it's back, but I have no idea if it won't go out again because I still see trees over that are laying on electric lines. Oh well...got that off my chest   

Sorry to hear that, especially in this heat. Be grateful the tornado didn't land on your house. Now that would really suck.

Hope all is well Ric. We are in the Berkshires in Mass right now under a possible tornado warning till 8:00.

We get a lot of news from Albany over here and all we have heard is bad news, bad storms and terrible destruction.
Glad you are safe.

The tornado threat fizzled out but we had torrents of rain and a monstrous thunder storm.
Today it was simply gorgeous.

Good to hear Lenn. My electricity went off again today for a while, but not for hours and hours. I think they are cutting electricity while they remove branches and trees that are still leaning on the wires after the wind and storms the last few days

Quote from: Jolly Blue Giant on July 16, 2024, 07:19:16 PMSomething we all take for granted is electricity...and when it's gone, it's agony. A tornado touched down a few miles from my home, hundreds of trees twisted like pretzels and stripped of leaves and bark. And to no surprise, power went out

So, it was out yesterday until 10:45 last night. So, I was fairly happy this morning able to make my coffee and throw together some breakfast when, "Bam!", lights out again. They just came back on (7PM)

I have a backup power system for my PC that lasts about an hour, but of course, there's no internet. Nothing works until the power is back up. I hear stories of people going without electricity for over a week and I think that would be as close to torture for me, as much as waterboarding, lol

Anyway, it's back, but I have no idea if it won't go out again because I still see trees over that are laying on electric lines. Oh well...got that off my chest   

Jolly: I'm going to take this moment to make what some MIGHT feel is a political statement (but it's not).

I tell all young people who know me this... so they know and remember it even after I'm dead and gone.

NEVER EVER allow the GOVERNMENT to replace physical currency, no matter how fervently and often they tell you the system is or will be "safe." There is already talk of creating a digital currency, and, to be honest, there are good reasons to do so.  But it's a really really BAD idea.

Bob

PS. Private folks can do whatever they please. I have nothing against crypto-currency. Free country.

After today's major data crash from CrowdStrike (a cybersecurity firm in Texas), grounding planes, stopping banking transactions, stopping internet commerce, stores, and a slew of other things...digital money becomes worthless until the problem is fixed. Which apparently it is now.

A lot of people think, "money isn't worth the paper it's printed on"...which always makes me laugh because actual currency represents less than 10% of all the money we have. At least a paper bill is proof of one's wealth. If everyone went to the bank to take out our savings and empty our checking accounts - it would shut down everything because there isn't enough hard currency to back it up. 90% of our money is little more than numerical entries on a ledger on a computer

Not sure a tornado can wreak havoc on the digital currency system, but a system like CrowdStrike could, or some ingenious punk designing and releasing a killer software virus. If the world's computers were wiped by a virus - all hell would break out

Late edit: seems the scenario I painted is the thoughts going on after today's disaster https://nypost.com/2024/07/19/opinion/global-computer-collapse-is-a-chilling-look-at-whats-to-come/

Having lived in the "rural country" in the deep south of Alabama, and had a tornado take a good chunk of the roof of my home, in 2001, I received a "crash course" (excuse the pun) on disaster preparedness before the age of the internet took off and, in addition to internet choices (NOTE: which were limited where I lived), I also was forced into making changes to my banking methods when local ATMs went "offline" and accounts were "impacted" after power-on.

The lesson learned is clear. Have a disaster plan in place for you and your family pending any natural disaster, unplanned utility outage or other identifiable risk that could impact you, your family and your community over a span of time.

Peace!

Quote from: Jolly Blue Giant on July 19, 2024, 02:20:35 PMAfter today's major data crash from CrowdStrike (a cybersecurity firm in Texas), grounding planes, stopping banking transactions, stopping internet commerce, stores, and a slew of other things...digital money becomes worthless until the problem is fixed. Which apparently it is now.

A lot of people think, "money isn't worth the paper it's printed on"...which always makes me laugh because actual currency represents less than 10% of all the money we have. At least a paper bill is proof of one's wealth. If everyone went to the bank to take out our savings and empty our checking accounts - it would shut down everything because there isn't enough hard currency to back it up. 90% of our money is little more than numerical entries on a ledger on a computer

Not sure a tornado can wreak havoc on the digital currency system, but a system like CrowdStrike could, or some ingenious punk designing and releasing a killer software virus. If the world's computers were wiped by a virus - all hell would break out

Late edit: seems the scenario I painted is the thoughts going on after today's disaster https://nypost.com/2024/07/19/opinion/global-computer-collapse-is-a-chilling-look-at-whats-to-come/

It couldn't have happened at a better time to show why this topic DESERVES TO BE on the front burner. Bob

Quote from: Bob In PA on July 20, 2024, 11:40:44 AMIt couldn't have happened at a better time to show why this topic DESERVES TO BE on the front burner. Bob

Did you have something to do with that? Seems you needed to put a little 'punch' into your post.