{"id":264,"date":"2010-06-01T09:13:29","date_gmt":"2010-06-01T15:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.muckleroy.com\/?p=264"},"modified":"2010-06-01T09:13:29","modified_gmt":"2010-06-01T15:13:29","slug":"technology-will-save-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/muckleroy.com\/?p=264","title":{"rendered":"Technology Will Save You"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hurricane\"
Hurricane<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I live on the gulf coast.\u00a0 We are in danger (during the hurricane season) of being affected by tropical storm systems.\u00a0 Keep in mind that a tropical storm, or depression can be more devastating than a hurricane depending on it’s make up.\u00a0 Hurricanes bring winds, storm surge and flooding, but a good tropical storm can dump as much or more rain per hour than a hurricane.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is only one type of disaster.\u00a0 There are Earth quakes, blizzards, fire, and of course flooding can occur in many parts of the country (United States).\u00a0 We rely on our technology to inform us of impending trouble, when possible, and certainly to gather information that might save our lives.\u00a0 Other facets of our technology allow us to communicate with loved one’s and the outside world, outside of shouting distance that is.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Our technology makes our daily lives easier, at least for those who master it.\u00a0 Take for example a 40+ year old technology that most of us have used, or still use.\u00a0 Speed Dial.\u00a0 Speed dial allows you to assign a phone number to a button on your phone and instead of dialing the seven or thirteen digit number you just press a couple of buttons and presto!\u00a0\u00a0 The person you wanted to speak with is on the line!\u00a0 Well only if you don’t get the dreaded voice mail.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Have you ever been in the situation where you have to call that same person’s number, from a phone that doesn’t have your beloved Speed Dial?\u00a0 Yep, you are kind of screwed aren’t you?\u00a0 Naturally these days most everyone has a cellular phone and the speed dial is on this handy little modern miracle that you carry everywhere you go.\u00a0 Well have you even ran out of power on your cellular phone?\u00a0 For many years I have refused to use speed dial because I didn’t want to forget the phone number.\u00a0 I didn’t want to be in a situation where I had to add yet another layer of necessary technology before I could communicate with the person I wanted to.\u00a0 There are alternatives.\u00a0 Phone book, if you can find one.\u00a0 411 and ask for the number, unless of course it is a cell phone number.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As our technology grows in complexity so CAN it’s ability to fail.\u00a0 I think many of you understand, and certainly those of you that have experienced it first hand, that cellular phones are useless for anything but a third rate flashlight or a fun way to speed you’re time playing a game while you are waiting for service to be restored.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Cellular
Cellular Tower<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Power outages due to natural or man made disasters, wind, fire, or flooding can decimate cellular phone sites.\u00a0 The term “CELLULAR” refers to the many CELLS that populate the landscape that consist of radio transceivers with thousands of frequencies at their disposal.\u00a0 These cellular sites communicate with your cellular phone and they arbitrate what frequencies you will send and receive on to the cellular site.\u00a0 These cellular sites are close to you, that is why your phone can be so small and run for days on a small battery.\u00a0 The power output is a fraction of the power output of a simple Citizen Band radio.\u00a0 There is no direct communication between cellular phones.\u00a0 All communications must pass through a cellular phone site.\u00a0 As you move around, say in a fast moving car, you leave one cellular site you are handed off to the next cellular site that has the best signal for your phone.\u00a0 These cellular sites are tied into the old land line system so you can call not only other cellular users on that cellular service (T-Mobile, AT&T, Verision, etc…) but also Grandma or anyone else that doesn’t have a cellular phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now with that, less than brief description, can you see several choke points where the technology can fail?\u00a0 Even the old land line system can fail due to the same problems listed before, wind, fire, flooding.\u00a0 Over the air television, cable, satellite, or the new IP video delivery system (AT&T UVerse) are susceptible as well.\u00a0 One thing you may choose to do is to flee the disaster stricken area.\u00a0 I mean just driving down the road a couple of miles may connect your cellular phone to a working cellular site, right?\u00a0 This is true, but your are betting on yet another level of technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Our transit system.\u00a0 The one I am the most familiar with is city, county, state, and interstate road system.\u00a0 Trains and subways I have little knowledge of.\u00a0 As I drive to and from work I notice all the small fuel efficient vehicles.\u00a0 Since I drive a Jeep my gas mileage is ten to fifteen miles per gallon less than those vehicles.\u00a0 Conventional wisdom would say to get rid of the gas guzzler and get something that is more economical.\u00a0 I would say that 99 percent of the time a fuel efficient car will provide you with exactly the level of transportation you need.\u00a0 Automobiles are a robust technology that has been refined over one hundred years.\u00a0 They will work when logic, at times,\u00a0 dictate they shouldn’t.\u00a0 The standard design of the automobile has one flaw, roads.\u00a0 Most vehicles need some level of improved surface to drive on.\u00a0 Flooding, fire can cover or damage these improved surfaces.\u00a0 Even when the road is perfectly fine it can be blocked by tens of thousands of cars all trying to evacuate the area.\u00a0 Your choice then is to wait for traffic to inch forward, or go around it.\u00a0 Due to frustration or panic many will try to go “off road” and many will become stuck, making their situation more dire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ICOM
ICOM 706<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I have dealt with these two areas of potential technology break downs.\u00a0 First by putting a amateur radio in my Jeep.\u00a0\u00a0 This radio allows me to communicate a few miles or thousands of miles depending on the frequency I choose.\u00a0 It is simple enough to operate that I don’t need to be there, so if something should happen to me my wife or children could call for help.\u00a0 It has the ability to transmit on broadcast AM and FM frequencies.\u00a0 The FCC rules clearly state that you can legally transmit on ANY frequency in the time of an emergency.\u00a0 I’d have to look it up but I am sure it says something about doing so only when you need immediate help.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Jeep
Jeep Cherokee<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I have modified our Jeep.\u00a0 I have lifted it so I could put larger tires on it.\u00a0 This increases the distance between the lowest portions of the Jeep body and the ground.\u00a0 That increased distance means I can drive over larger obstacles.\u00a0 I have changed the gearing so that the same power that was applied to the stock tires are applied to these larger tires.\u00a0 Any time you go off a paved surface you run the risk of damage, or getting stuck, so I added two new bumpers that have recovery points.\u00a0 These recovery points can be easily connected to by another vehicle to pull the Jeep forward or backward and to get it unstuck.\u00a0 I have added a winch that is capable of lifting 9000 pounds.\u00a0 I can use this if the Jeep is stuck to pull it forward through or over an obstacle.\u00a0 I can also use it to free another vehicle, or rip the door off a damaged vehicle to rescue a trapped individual.\u00a0 Hell, I’ve even used the winch to pull up a dead shrub from the front of our house. \ud83d\ude00\u00a0<\/p>\n

I have never cared for people that preach doom and gloom.\u00a0 That disaster is right around the corner and you should buy my book so that you can be the few to survive.\u00a0 I am certainly not trying to promote that here.\u00a0 My main goal is to get you to think about what technology means to you in your daily life.\u00a0 When the media or government promotes a certain idea, going green, for example, the argument can be very logical and persuasive however think it through.\u00a0 How is following this technology going to affect you, and your family in time of disaster?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The choices that I have made to help protect my family, I feel they are the best for me.\u00a0 You may disagree, or you may think like I do, to each his own.\u00a0 Now that you are thinking about this, and hopefully you are, consider a few other portions of our technology and how it would affect your life if they were gone.\u00a0 The grocery store, namely food.\u00a0 Water!\u00a0 And worse!\u00a0 What would be worse?\u00a0 People that want to take your things so they can survive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As our technology grows in complexity so CAN it\u2019s ability to fail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/muckleroy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/muckleroy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/muckleroy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muckleroy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muckleroy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/muckleroy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/muckleroy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muckleroy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/muckleroy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}