“Always carry cash!”
The Crowdstrike fiasco is a lesson in the importance of building resilience — on a societal and individual level, Glenn Reynolds says.
On social media I see people stranded in Paris with no working credit cards and dead ATMs, and that leads to another important lesson: Always carry cash! When traveling, I generally carry enough cash to get me through at least a couple of days (often more) and even at home I keep some cash in case things don’t work right.
Back in the 2003 New York blackout, Amy Langfield wrote about the value of keeping a stash of small bills that she could use at the bodegas when the credit/debit card machines were down. The cashless society depends on the flawless functioning of networks that aren’t really secure or reliable. Cash carries its own information with it – a $20 bill is worth $20 – and you don’t need to know more to spend or accept it. That’s resilient. Likewise making sure you have plenty of cushion with regard to supplies of medication, food at home, and the like.
I think about preppers sometimes. They have a reputation as kooks. But natural disasters happen. Utility grids fail. It’s a good idea to have a few weeks’ supply of shelf-stable food, drinking water and meds on hand, as well as the means to bug out if you need to.
On Reddit: “My 3rd Great Grandpa, sometime in the late 1800s…. His name was Jeremiah Barnes, born 1841 in Pennsylvania. His style is cool to this day.”
I moved my Mastodon followers from @mitchw@micro.blog to @mitchw@mastodon.social, and disabled @mitchw@micro.blog. This is because of a longstanding Micro.blog ActivityPub bug.
At first, I thought I would make this a temporary move until the bug is resolved, but now I think I don’t need two outposts in the fediverse. So maybe this move will be permanent.
More changes to come.
The supermarket is playing XM Radio Worst of the 80s. Pat Benatar. Foreigner. Can Flock of Seagulls be far behind?
I am feeling very good about the presidential election and the direction of the US today.
The Democrats just have to not fuck this up now. Which is admittedly a bar that is usually too high for them to clear.
I’d like to live in precedented times for a while.
I’d like a few decades about which future history teachers say, “We’re not even going to talk about that period. It was boring.”
The 90s were like that. It was lovely. The big news was about a married guy who cheated on his wife with an intern.