News

March 04, 2025

Pete noticed the young, attractive figure in a relatively short skirt and top that looked like it could pop off at any minute, frustratedly trying to gain access to the turnstile.  She would scan her badge over the reader, but nothing would happen. Not once did he look at the badge she carried. He said follow me, scanned his badge, and both passed through the turnstile. Pete pointed her towards the corridor where security could address the access badge issue, and then he walked away.  She ended up sitting at a ‘hotel desk’ and while appearing to be working like...

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February 25, 2025

Producing your own food is a necessary skill for survival. In today’s world, we can have groceries delivered to your door by the touch of a button. This can cause us to feel overly secure about the availability of food. But, as we have seen from the Avian Flu Outbreak of 2025, where egg prices soared, we have little control over our food supplies and how much they cost from the stores.  While I can’t teach you how to raise chickens, I can teach you a bit about gardening to produce an abundant harvest of fruits, vegetables, and legumes to...

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February 10, 2025

Have you ever wondered how a pouch of dried stroganoff in your emergency kit can last decades? While many associate freeze-dried food with NASA's space program, the first widely commercial freeze-dried product wasn’t a meal—it was coffee. In the 1930s, Nestlé started experimenting with instant coffee using freeze-drying techniques to preserve excess beans, leading to the launch of Nescafé instant coffee in 1938. During WWII, freeze-drying became a critical industrial process for preserving blood plasma and penicillin, ensuring they remained viable for transport to field hospitals for wounded soldiers without refrigeration. This wartime application significantly expanded the use of freeze-drying beyond food and...

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February 04, 2025

There is a saying, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” Nothing could be more accurate when planning to disaster-proof your business! My customer had a ‘bad player’ (hacker) in their systems for about 2 months. They slowly went through their network and started making configuration changes. One of the changes was duplicating the root admin account for their backups. When they initiated the encryption of their systems and demanded a ransom, the response team ignored it and started to recover their data. At the time, I suggested they perform an audit of all their...

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January 28, 2025

It had only been a month since the move. Sarah drummed her fingers on the steering wheel, watching the dark clouds roll in and the temperatures dropping fast on her car dash. After twenty years in Florida, the weather alert for an incoming blizzard felt very surreal. Scrambling to brace for several days of forecasted blizzard conditions, their carefully planned hurricane emergency kit and evacuation plans now seemed inadequate. The warnings of white-out conditions and ice storms along with her daughter's concerns on winter driving made Sarah realize their family's preparedness plan needed a serious update for their new life...

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