I unplugged my Alexa and smart bulbs last Monday in Dallas just to see what happened, and honestly not having voice control made me realize how much I rely on the cloud for basic stuff like turning on lights. Anybody else feel like we're one bad server crash away from living in the dark ages?
Last year I had everything on Google Drive and felt invincible. Then I read about the 1859 Carrington Event and realized a big solar storm could kill satellites for weeks. I lost access to a bunch of irreplaceable family photos when a smaller outage hit for 2 days. Now I keep a hard copy external drive in a fireproof safe in my basement. Anyone else keep offline backups just in case the grid goes down?
I bought one of those $30 Faraday pouches to protect against EMPs or whatever. Put my phone in it for 2 hours and couldn't find it because I forgot where I left the pouch. Learned that if you lose your phone in a Faraday bag, you basically lose your phone. Has anyone else had trouble keeping track of these things?
Back around 2015 my old Galaxy S3 would freeze up constantly. Pop the back off, yank the battery for 10 seconds, good as new. Now my Pixel 6 locks up and I'm just stuck staring at a black screen for 5 minutes till it decides to reboot on its own. Anyone else miss being able to hard reset without waiting?
Waiting in line last month, this older dude saw me panicking about my battery at 8%. He pulled out a tiny foldable solar panel from his backpack, said he keeps it for "when the grid goes down." Plugged my phone into it for 15 minutes and got 40% charge back. Has anyone else tested those panels for real emergencies?
We lost power for 18 hours during a bad storm here in Ohio back in March. I had a little Honda EU2200i generator sitting in my garage that I regretted buying for 600 bucks. Hooked it up to my fridge, a couple lights, and my router so I could still work. Anyone else had a big purchase like that that finally proved its worth in an emergency?
I compared my old USB drives to my Google Drive after a storm knocked out internet for 3 days, and the drives I had in my nightstand were way more reliable. Anyone else realize they've been overestimating cloud stuff for actual emergencies?
I was hauling a load of lumber through a dead zone near the mountains and my phone was useless. Tuned into channel 19 and a driver 3 miles ahead warned me about a jackknifed semi before I could even see it. Has anyone else dusted off their ham gear or analog tech after years of relying on smartphones?
I had to program the thing manually with the wall panel like a caveman, and that made me realize how fast we forget how to do basic things when the tech breaks, has anyone else had a moment where a simple gadget failure made you rethink how much you depend on the cloud?
I live in central Florida where the power grid is shaky during hurricane season, so I figured it was worth the gamble on a Jackery 240. It kept my fridge running and my phone charged while the whole neighborhood was sitting in the dark. Has anyone else had those mid-tier backup units hold up better than expected or did I just get lucky?
I still think about that Tuesday in October 2017 when AWS went down in Virginia for like 4 hours. I was working from home and suddenly couldn't access our ticketing system, my email, or even my music streaming. It was so quiet in my apartment, just me staring at error messages... made me realize how much we hand over to one company. Has anyone else had a random outage that stuck with you for years?
Three years ago my external drive died with about 12 years of photos on it. I lost a ton of stuff from trips and family stuff because I never backed it up anywhere else. These days I just pick maybe 20 photos a year and get them printed at Walgreens for a few bucks. Has anyone else gone back to physical copies after getting burned by digital storage?
Got a used 12V battery from a junkyard for $20, hooked it up to my modem with a cheap inverter, and within 30 minutes the insulation on the negative cable was bubbling smoke, so now I know you need a real deep-cycle battery and a fuse for any off-grid tech setup, anyone else have a similar scare messing with backup power?
Was at home in Austin last Tuesday when suddenly every smart device in my house just stopped working. The thermostat locked up, my fridge started beeping, and even the smart lock on my front door wouldnt respond. Turns out the city wide smart grid had a glitch that took down thousands of homes for almost 4 hours. Has anyone else had their house turn into a brick during one of these outages?
Got the Renogy 100W panel and a cheap battery box off Amazon, and during that 3-day outage in July it kept my food cold while my neighbors were tossing theirs, anyone else found a solid emergency power setup that didn't cost a fortune?
Last month I downloaded maps from OpenStreetMap onto paper just in case cell towers go down, and I discovered three old logging roads near my cabin that aren't on Google Maps at all. Has anyone else found useful routes by going old school with paper maps?