Wednesday, December 31, 2008

The Bucket List

The Apocalypse is Coming: What You Need to Pack [More]
Interesting. But it looks like the techno-weenies forgot a thing or two...

[Via fimvit]
Posted by David Codrea at 12/31/2008 12:07:00 PM

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I suspect if your complaint is a list of "essential survival items" which includes "Electricity" and "iPod" (out of a total of 5 items), I think you're taking the joke a bit too seriously :P (so says a "tecno-weenie").

However, many of the commentors did point out the need for a quality boomstick.

12/31/2008 12:39 PM
Anonymous said...

Both the linked article and the list of 12 are a joke--but I don't think that was the intention behind the longer list. Not completely, anyway. Here's my take on the lists, just from the standpoint of usability, under any conditions.

* Multi-tool - Yup, they're handy

* Self-powered radio - Good idea, if the one you pick isn't chintzy

* XO Laptop - Overly-complex, inefficient waste of money that would probably break after a few minutes in New England weather; read some amateur radio books if you're interested in portable or emergency communication

* GSM-Based Cellphone - See above

* HDTV Antenna - There's probably $20 worth of usable scrap in one, and a nice Yagi might be handy for your improvised, portable transceiver; as far as HDTV is concerned, it's an irrelevant government mandate--what, you don't get all your movies and TV shows off the Internet?!

* Voltaic Backpack - Solar cells can be handy, but get one that's not sewn into a backpack; you might want to shield it inside a backpack, since the cells drop in efficiency so quickly

* USB Thumb Drive - Handy or worthless, depending on your access to a working computer with liberal user permissions

* Pocket Camcorder - Worthless

* Multi-Fuel Camp Stove - Excellent idea

* Water Filter Bottle - Very useful

* Bicycle - Invest in good boots, instead; not everyone can take a mountain bike up a rocky trail, but everyone can walk, and it's harder to steal someone's boots

* Portable Musical Instrument - Worthless, bulky and prone to breakage; a better idea would be to learn the mechanics behind building one--I trust we all remember what happened to Sir Robin's Minstrels?


Honestly, if these are the basics for being alone, then the authors are definitely urban.

12/31/2008 1:24 PM
Anonymous said...

The good news, plenty of ipods will be littering the streets, along with rotting corpses of fools, so no need to buy one.

12/31/2008 5:50 PM
Anonymous said...

Beer, ammo, and toilet paper.

12/31/2008 6:48 PM
Anonymous said...

Cigarettes are always a valuable barter item.

12/31/2008 11:33 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)