Compiling a Personal Offline Information Library for when there's no more internet - any suggestion

Originally posted by sgrrsh26
good thread, i was just thinking about this.
I have found this en.wikipedia.org...
Somehwere it sais its 5g compressed 20g uncompressed.

Apparently the 2008 xml file uncompresses to 2.8 TeraBytes. That's a big file to work with!

I'll pass on that particular idea.

reply to post by RogerT


Downloading the whole of wikipedia is a crazy idea, not only would it take a decade it would also be pointless. Do you really need to know about Belsen, The Boston Tea Party, Synaptic Nerves?

Not only that but the inherent flaw with wiki is that any member can edit its pages thus leading to a large amount of inaccuracies.

Better in my opinion to download or print off 100% valid sources and laminate them. You can then still also store them on electronic medium but a physical hard copy is best...

It seems like they put all the most valuable web info in the form of .pdf ebooks.

They have all the classics of literature, every manual or textbook you can think of. Just do a search for whatever with "ebook" after it, or browse through ebook sites for some inspiration as to what you may be able to find.

reply to post by RogerT


Yep - they're protection against EMP or other electrical/static hazards.

There are some excellent choices in tough-as-hell laptops right now - shop around and you might even find one that is fully submersible, bullet-proof, and can withstand the airburst from high explosives in a confined space.

(seriously)

I'd suggest getting all the 'encyclopedias' you can on CD ROM or if you can find them free on the net, and put all the info you can onto either or CD/DVD rom or memory sticks, label them under their subgroups.
Keep them in a safe place, in a metal waterproof container.
But there is so much information out there about practically everything, start with the basics, human pysiology, psychology , religeon, then start with engineering and science.
Downloading books or information regarding us as a species is always a goot place to start as we consider ourselves the center or everything in our arrogance. so why not start with us?
The you can gather info on why we hated ourselves so much with religeon, politics and music.
Then get to the engineering stages or you can simply start with our history.
Good luck with it, as I have thought about it as well , getting a library together of Humanity.

A few things i would get for a community collection / compile myself, they might be obvious, but obvious things sometimes get overlooked:

1. comprehensive guide to homeopathy / natural remedies
2. food preservation
3. a guide to making basic weapons
4. animal husbandry
5. a guide to home-made disinfectants, etc
6. solar energy guide - how to set up (providing the reader has or can get access to solar panels) and store electricity for an special projects (like welding or something)
7. comprehensive guide to first aid
8. a book with stories of survival and beating the odds (for morale)
9. a guide to essential vitamins, minerals, and what wild foods (or cultivated foods if you're able to obtain or grow them) to find them in. (the last thing you want is to survive the initial craziness and then die from scurvy )
10. books from the 1800's - 1900's about life, science and technology. We have things easy these days, everything easily bought, but to see how people did things then would be helpful, such as homemade farm equipment, food preparation, etc.
11. water-wise gardening. There will possibly be little to no running water and you want to conserve as much as possible. The last thing you want is to be sacrificing litres of valuable drinking water on plants (if growing your own crops) when there are more efficient ways to go about it.

edited to add:
I would also probably look at printing hard copies of as many of these as possible before SHTF because we may not have electricity to view these on a computer. The worst thing would be knowing you had these resources and not being able to access them.



[edit on 6-10-2009 by SerialLurker]

I would get some important physical books like...

A good first aid guide.
Where there is no doctor/dentist.
Back to basics or Encyclopedia of country living.
US Army survival manual.
maybe 1 or 2 more


I also have a 8 gig usb drive and a netbook that I packed with 100's of pdf's. Everything from survival manuals to science textbooks. I just need to get a solar charger for it. I tried to include anything I thought might be useful.

Medical books.. Everything from basic first aid to surgical procedures, diagnostics and pharmacology.
Science books. Biology, physics, electrical theory, astronomy, mathematics and formulas, chemistry, etc...
Engineering and construction manuals.
Alternative energy, gardening, military manuals, herbal/natural medicine, survival manuals, simple living books, etc..

Other miscellaneous things like soap making, knot tying, repair manuals...

There are so many things, once you start gathering you will think of others and there will always be 'just one more' you want to find.

reply to post by Primordial


Would you be willing to share your compilation?
The question goes out to all those in a similar position.

As storage is so inexpensive, and torrent files and downloadable packages make it so easy to share, the hardest part is compiling a comprehensive list of information.

As I said before, I am happy to contribute some server space and bandwidth if there is enough interest.

I've heard good things about this little school in Massachusetts...

They've got 1900 free online courses.

Little school called MIT.

ocw.mit.edu...

That will pretty much tell you... well a lot.
If you're looking for a bunch of amazing information its all there. I guess though if you;re just looking for survival information there are better options but this is good if you want to pass on some of our basic and advanced knowledge.

reply to post by justthatoneguy


Great link, I wasn't aware that this information was freely available.

I passed it onto a friend who was interested in some of the subjects that they happen to offer (we live in Australia) and she was most grateful for the information.

Which brings me to the point: Don't leave this stuff to the last minute to learn, learn as much as possible before the possibility of SHTF!!

Have a second computer. Wire the power supply in reverse and never power it on. Thats right . Wire the Negative as positive and the positive as negative.....

This is after you have all your data on it that you want.

I say this because if the pole shift theory is correct the worst thing that would happen... for us as a civilization would be all our positive leads and negative leads would be reversed.... Hence why we have records of our older civilizations making it to such technological heights and then crumbling....

Do as I suggest.... Grab another PC... Load onto it what you will.... Reverse the leads.... Then never power it on... not till afterwards...


YOu might just have a super repository....

Also Keep a printer near by with the same reverse leads...

AND LOTS AND LOTS OF INK...

As much ink as you can.....

Paper is important in a tech dead world.....

Understand...

Just my thoughts...

Maybe I am a Parinoid ATS nut...

But that is my SitX thought.

reply to post by titorite


That's a really good idea.

My partner and I both packed away our desktop PCs after we decided to get laptops due to lack of space... I might just do this to my old PC.

Originally posted by titorite
for us as a civilization would be all our positive leads and negative leads would be reversed....

Huh?

This makes no sense to me.

What difference does it make when AC power generation uses magnets, true enough, but DC is not dependent on magnets? It converts the AC into DC, and it doesn't care, it uses what are called transformers, rectifiers, regulators and filters to make DC.

The transformer or generator coils don't care about the polarity of the magnets or the north and south poles for that matter. Voltage is a difference in polarities, not the polarities themselves.

But if you can prove your case I will freely admit my error. Good luck with that.

Edit to add: Just to make it clearer, you aren't getting power from earths magnetic field, but from a magnets magnetic field.


[edit on 25/10/09 by PSUSA]

There's a wiki how to with different categories according to your tastes. Download the ones you want.

wiki how to

Hi Guys for those interested I have posted a tutorial on how to download wikipedia to your computer, and which software to use to view/search the information offline. It's not such a crazy idea, it takes 2 days to download the torrent and it's useful I find. Here is the thread I started:

www.belowtopsecret.com...

I also use a program called HTTrack that can download any website for offline use. For your information (someone mentioned wikiHow), the complete website is a bit over 7GB with images and takes a few days to download. I am not affiliated with any of these programs/sites, just helping out. Here is the link to that program, if you need help setting it up U2U me.

www.httrack.com...

I've arrived at the conclusion this week that there may be nothing really out of the ordinary coming up, but equally, there might.

If you look through some of the brilliant ideas that are already listed here, a great deal of them are good things to know regardless. Now, not later, is our opportunity to learn and gain skills that will prove life saving IF the infrastructure were to collapse, for whatever reason. Right now, we have the internet, electricity, hardware stores, local evening classes, all fantastic ways of learning skills that will stay with you the rest of your life and will enrich your life and your understanding of how to live off the land, rather than queue in a shop for everything.

Resource maps were mentioned on another thread - knowing what foods grow wild in your area is good to know anyway, because that's good healthy food that hasn't been tampered with or filled with chemicals. It would also be a good idea to know where you can find fresh water streams, where are the good fishing spots, where is there clay suitable for making pots and cups, etc.

Forewarned is forearmed. If we spend the next 3 years sat infront of a computer worrying about whether or not the S is going to HTF, we'll be no better off than anybody else if it does, other than being able to say "I told you so". Smugness will not keep you alive. Neither will that beer belly.

Hopefully, nothing's coming. Hopefully, this whole 2012 panic is a very clever viral marketing campaign for the movie. However, if it isn't, I want to know what to do, where to go, and know that I've got everything I need to find, prepare and cook food, keep warm, have fresh drinking water, and a body fit enough to do the work required and a brain that understands what I'm doing.