Digital Archives in Dead Reign
Posted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 12:46 am
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.
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…
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!
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.
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:
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…
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!
whassupman03 
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.
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]