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I celebrated World Backup Day by increasing the resiliency of data in my life.

Four encrypted 2TB hard drives, stored in a Pelican 1200, with Abloy Protec2 PL 321 padlocks as tamper-evident seals. Having everything that matters stored in git-annex makes projects like this simple: just clone the repositories, define the preferred content expressions, and watch the magic happen.

Cold Storage

I've been carrying the PHLster Flatpack Tourniquet Carrier for about a month.

It’s the first solution I’ve found that allows me to carry a SOFTT-W on-body, comfortably and unobtrusively. The Flatpack prevents the need to resort to a secondary tourniquet for first line carry, which makes it a valuable supplement to any EDC. BFE Labs offers an overview of the product in their first look.

PHLster Flatpack

Russia's latest spyplane is broadcasting its flight home from Syria.

The Aviationist pointed out that the plane had its ADS-B transponder on, allowing it to be tracked on Flightradar24. The Tu-214R also broadcast its deployment to Syria on the 15th.

LX9203 flight path

An older article on The Aviationist discusses the impact of ADS-B and MLAT tracking on military craft. Somewhat related is a recent Defense One article on using commercial satellite imagery to identify airstrip expansion.

I stopped worrying and embraced the security freeze.

A credit security freeze denies access to your credit file. I first learned about it last summer from Brian Krebs, but didn’t implement it until a couple months later. It took me about 45 minutes and $20 to activate the freeze with the five major credit bureaus. This goes a long way to reducing the threat of identify theft, with very little energy expenditure required. A proactive defense is superior to reactive monitoring services. If you need your credit pulled monthly or more frequently, constantly freezing and unfreezing your file would probably be an annoying inconvenience. For the rest of us, I’m not sure if there is any good reason not to enable the freeze.

I use BRouter for offline bicycle navigation.

BRouter is open source navigation software built on OpenStreetMap, intended primarily for bicycle routing. It offers both web and Android versions. The Android version calculates routes as GPX tracks, which are then fed into a mapping application. My preferred OpenStreetMap application, OsmAnd, supports BRouter as its navigation back-end. OsmAnd allows me to configure the frequency, repetition and units of instructions. I use Ivona TTS with the UK voice, which I think sounds more natural than either the Ivona US voice or Google’s TTS offerings. In sum, this gives me accurate, offline navigation, tuned to my method of travel, anywhere on the planet, with superior maps to traditional commercial offerings.

OsmAnd / BRouter

Carry a towel and don’t panic.

Currently reading A Song Called Youth by John Shirley

Shirley’s cyberpunk magnum opus tells the story of a private security company attempting to use the distraction of a third world war to impose fascism across the United States and Europe, and the guerrillas who resist them. Although first published in the 1980s, the omnibus edition was refreshed by the author for publication in 2012, which gives it the feel of taking place 20 minutes into the future.

I store batteries in a Pelican 1060 case.

The Pelican 1060 plus pre-cut foam from eBay makes for compact and environmentally secure battery storage. The foam I bought has 10 holes for AAA batteries and 40 holes for CR123 and AA batteries. This holds the CR123 batteries I keep on hand to feed devices and all of my spare AA/AAA Eneloops.

Battery Storage

Polyester sleeved Kevlar makes a good shoelace.

A diameter of 1.65 mm puts it in the same neighborhood as Type I Paracord, but with a little over twice the tensile strength. It fits through more eyelets than the typical Type III Paracord, making it appropriate for a wider range of footwear. It holds knots well, will pop through zip-ties in a jiffy, and the inner Kevlar can be broken down into three strands. I buy it from TwinLine.

Footwear