Solar storm coming! Backup your data.

[Charles Pegge]

Warning from NASA

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20100615/twl-increasing-solar-activity-could-wrea-41f21e0.html

[danbaron]

[font=courier new][size=8pt]But what should we do about cosmic rays from the Sun and beyond, "bit-flipping" the data on our drives?

How deep beneath the Earth's surface do we need to store our data?

What is the safe thickness for lead encasement?

:( :x :twisted:

http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/~distler/blog/archives/001305.html

http://www.srl.caltech.edu/personnel/dick/cos_encyc.html

[kryton9]

I guess I should buy a sketch pad and some colored pencils, like the old days before I had computers to pass the time.

[danbaron]

[font=courier new][size=7pt]I like watercolors.

I've only made a few paintings.

First, I use a graphite pencil.

Then, when I get what I want, I go over it with a black rolling ball pen.

Finally, I paint. It's easy, almost like a coloring book.

:P

[LanceGary]

A friend responded to this story as follows:




Yea, a nice scare story, safely in the future.

Canada did have massive losses of power a few years back but proper
management of grids should prevent that in future. Also, our
electromagnetic output has decreased substantially in recent years as
we've started to use lower power, more intelligent communications that
are also, coincidentally, less prone ton disruption by EMP or other
massive sources of interference.


Power cables should be buried anyway, for aesthetic reasons.
Furthermore, over the next few years, we should, if we're sensible, be
using far more local mini-nukes and using far fewer long-distance
transmission lines and complex, fault-prone, grids.


This is really an argument for mini-nukes, buries cables and more
error correcting, low power communication systems - a nudge in the
direction we're going already.



If we are going to return to traditional media then I would recommend coloured pencils. There are so many types these days - ranging from wax through water colour to pastel and charcoal pencils.
And your fingers don't get messy!

Lance

[kryton9]

The problem is we won't have forums like thinBasic to talk about such things :(