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Records, communication, and security are all important parts of prepping. A robust computer network can work of all of those things. We’ve talked about the other sections of the prepping pyramid, but haven’t spent a lot of time on how we can use information technology to strengthen the other sections of the pyramid.

You may or may not remember that I changed my home network to an Omada system back in February. The Wifi coverage is excellent, but now there are other issues that I would like to take care of.

• I wasn’t happy with how crowded and sloppy the onQ panel that contains everything is. It looks like a bowl of spaghetti and even though I have the largest panel made, it’s still crowded.
• I am using Ring Cameras for surveillance, but I am not happy with them, for reasons that will be covered in a future post.
• I have a Terramaster NAS with four 4TB NvMe SSDs in it, but I can’t get those SSDs any more because they now cost 5 times more than they once did.
• There is a second setup in the bedroom I use as an office. It has an Omada switch, and it runs my office equipment. The issue is the UPS there just died, and I want everything consolidated, so I am moving that into the main server.

So I have decided to make a few changes. We are keeping the Omada system, but I am making a few upgrades.

• I am mounting a 12U server cabinet on the wall of the utility closet in the house. This will make things cleaner and easier to manage.
• I will be putting an 8 bay HDD rack in the cabinet. It will be used as both a NDVR and as a NAS device.
• Three rooms in the house are device dense: the living room, the master bedroom, and the office. I am going to clean up the architecture a bit to make things faster and more resilient.

So how are we doing this? Well, in the racks, there will be:

• A rackmount UPS. I just need enough storage to ridge the second or two it takes my powerwalls to take over when the power fails.
• Power distribution
• An Omada controller
• An Omada gateway
• A 24 port keystone patch panel
• An Omada 16 port managed POE switch
• an 8 bay rackmount HDD rack.
• A shelf where the modem will be, along with my current NAS (until the HDD rack is installed)
• There will be 4 remaining U for future additions

Records

Records are important. Having copies of things like financial records, professional licenses, certifications, and other important documents will allow you to rebuild your life in the aftermath of a large disaster. Ask the residents whose lives were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina how important those records were in doing that. Having a robust set of electronic records with copies of every important document, all in a RAID, is a great step towards that goal. I am thinking of at least 12TB of RAID storage space for important files. I need it, because I scan every document, bill, and receipt that comes into this house.

Security

One or two of the HDD bays will be reserved for surveillance hard drives. I am looking at 20TB or more of storage space for the camera system. Once the weather gets cooler, I am planning on running Ethernet cables in the attic for a PTZ camera, two outdoor wide view cameras, a doorbell camera, and one or two covering other areas of the property, all in 4k. So, a total of 5-6 cameras that will record 24/7. That takes up more storage space than my documents and files.

That’s the hardware. I will also have it organized into several VLANs for network security. There will be a VLAN for:

• One for infrastructure. This will allow APs to be on their own VLAN, as well as controllers and those sorts of things.
• IOT devices, so I can limit how much they will spy on the rest of the house. They will only access each other and the Internet.
• Entertainment devices like televisions and SONOS speakers. Internet only
• A Guest VLAN that will only have access to a printer and the Internet
• Then phones belonging to my wife and I that will have full access.

I will decide more on rules later, but that is the idea in my head for now.

Implementation

First step is to get all of the hardware installed and move the network that already exists into the server cabinet. Then I will setup VLANs. After that, we will install the HDD rack and move the NAS files there. I have another HDD based NAS that I can use as a backup file server.

This is where the Libertarian Party is now.

Remember when MAGA hated campus ‘free speech zones’❓

Tyranny looks different when your team’s in charge https://t.co/gxWL3WTpN0

— Libertarian Party (@LPNational) May 31, 2026

If you don’t support rioting to protect illegal immigrants, you’re a tyrant, according to the Libertarian Party.

The term is peaceably assemble and petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Rioting, blocking others from traveling, committing violent acts and arson, are not peaceable or a petition.

I just can’t be a libertarian. I like classical liberal or perhaps Lockean liberal better.

I am so tired of people telling me and asking me how AI is going to replace all of us in our jobs. These AI models get so much stuff wrong that I find myself arguing with the stupid computer. Here is a great example:

I was researching water flows for the drains in my rear concrete deck. Grok insisted that this narrow channel of 2 inches deep by 1.5 inches wide can move 240 gallons per minute of rainwater. We went back and forth repeatedly, so I used the formula for calculating water flow through a fire hose to explain my point. Here was what it said:

Why the Formula Doesn’t Fit Your Deco Drain

• Your drain operates under gravity/open channel flow, not high pressure.
• The “pressure” (head) is extremely low — usually just 0.1 to 0.5 inches of water depth over the slot or in the channel (a tiny fraction of a psi).
• Water enters gradually along the full 24 ft length, and the channel flows partially full with a free surface (not pressurized pipe flow).
• The end opening is the outlet, but flow is limited by the entire channel’s hydraulics, slope, and roughness — not a single orifice under tank pressure.

If you plugged tiny head values into the 29.7 formula, you’d get very low flow numbers, which is why it feels wrong compared to manufacturer-style ratings.

Bottom Line

Your intuition is good that the small channel limits things, and these narrow deco drains are not high-capacity systems. 100–150 GPM is a reasonable practical maximum for a well-installed 24 ft run — enough for normal pool deck runoff in most rains, but it can pond in heavy downpours or if clogged/poorly sloped.

The 29.7 formula overestimates or underestimates dramatically here because the conditions are completely different.

So I replied with: I still think 150 gallons per minute is far too high. A firehose is flowing those numbers, but the stream is under much more pressure and is moving much faster. I think you are incorrect here in insisting that this drain is moving as much water as a fire hose.

So this is the answer I got:

I appreciate you pushing back — you’re right, and I was too optimistic in my earlier estimates.

The firehose comparison highlights a key point: a firehose at 250 GPM is shooting a fast, pressurized jet (often 50+ psi). Your Deco Drain moves water slowly under gravity with almost no pressure (just inches of water head), through a narrow channel. That makes high numbers unrealistic.

Better Data on Narrow Deck Drains Like Deck-O-Drain

Deck-O-Drain (and similar PVC linear drains) has an internal channel roughly 1.5–1.75″ wide by ~2–2.5″ deep. Real manufacturer and product data for comparable narrow systems shows:

• Typical capacity: 4–10 GPM per linear foot at good slope (¼” per foot), depending on the exact model.
• For 24 feet: Roughly 100–180 GPM theoretical max under ideal lab conditions, but real-world practical capacity is lower — often 60–120 GPM total before ponding starts.

Many similar slim drains rate even lower:

• 1.25″ channel examples: ~4.2 GPM per foot → ~100 GPM for 24 ft.
• Stegmeier Frontier-style: Up to ~9.6 GPM/ft in some tests.
• Other 2″ class deck drains: Often max out in the 15–30 GPM range for short sections, scaling modestly with length.

The outlet pipe (usually 1.5″ PVC) frequently bottlenecks first at around 40–70 GPM under gravity.

It’s still wrong. There is a maximum amount of water that can move through a narrow channel, and making the channel longer doesn’t increase that. A mile long Deco drain isn’t going to move 52,000 gallons per minute. AI is nowhere near being ready to take any job that requires applying logic.

We went back and forth before the system began agreeing with everything I said. AI isn’t ready for this. This is why I no longer pay for AI access.

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In case you are wondering, the nozzle formula is:

Flow equals 29.7 times the square of the diameter times the square root of the pressure.

Q (GPM) ≈ 29.7 × d² × √P, where d is the diameter in inches and P is nozzle pressure in psi.

This is a formula that I know well from my firefighting days. That’s why flows of 200+ gallons per minute were seeming far too high.

Summer is defined as the warmest season of the year, occurring between spring and autumn. It features the longest daylight hours and the year’s highest temperatures. I also know that summer begins on the summer solstice (around June 21 in the Northern Hemisphere and December 21 in the Southern Hemisphere) and ends on the autumnal equinox. However, I don’t think most of us look at it that way.

It’s the warmth that makes a summer, and in Florida our summers are long, hot, and feature afternoon thunderstorms. For those reasons, I have my own definition of the beginning of summer. Here is Sector Ocho, summer is the first day of the year where the temperature doesn’t go below 75 degrees Fahrenheit (that’s 24c to those of you in countries using the metric system).

I have a personal weather station in my backyard that I use as my official measuring station because I don’t believe Florida’s numbers. My weather station is one of these. It’s located in my backyard in the middle of a clearing with the nearest block to wind (a tree) being at least 50 feet away.

Anyway, the first day of summer has arrived, and it was yesterday, May 25. Our low temperature for the day was 75.6 degF. Summer started this year a full 12 days later than it did last year. Our dewpoint right now is 75.8 degF.

The reason for this, is that the low temperature can’t go any lower than the dew point. At that point, any further energy lost from the atmosphere is spent condensing water vapor, not reducing the temperature. When the dewpoint is at that point, the air starts becoming thick and the afternoon rains begin. If you have ever been in Central Florida during the summer, you know that it rains virtually every afternoon. That’s where we are now. Summer is here.

The dew point temperature is the temperature at which the air can no longer hold all of its water vapor, and some of the water vapor must condense into liquid water. At 100% relative humidity, the dew point temperature and the air temperature are the same, and clouds or fog can begin to form. While relative humidity is a relative measure of how humid it is, the dew point temperature is an absolute measure of how much water vapor is in the air (how humid it is). In very warm, humid conditions, the dew point temperature can reach 75 to 77 degrees F, but rarely exceeds 80 degrees.

Dew point is the best indicator of comfort in a hot climate. Once the dew point of the air exceeds 66 degrees Fahrenheit or so, the air begins to feel hot and uncomfortably stuffy. The reason for this is that your perspiration cannot evaporate to cool you off.

The dewpoint here will remain high from now until summer breaks in late September.

Here in Florida, there are 4 seasons:

Hot: March through May
F’ing Hot (Also known as Hurricane season, and in Orlando, tourist season): June through mid September
Still Hot: Mid September through Mid November
Snow Bird: Mid November through February

The people who live here know that anything needing to be done outside between May and September is best done before 11 am, when the thermometer typically breaks 90 degF. That’s why Floridians usually mow the grass starting at 8am. The combination of heat and the inability to shed heat through evaporation is a deadly combination. Beginning today, you get your outside work done in the morning then stay in the air conditioning until at least 4:30 in the afternoon when the afternoon thunderstorms come calling. That is what we do from the first day of summer until about the middle of September.

That’s why having a pool is such a great idea. My pool is a nice 84 degF throughout the summer, and it’s the only way to be outside while the “feels like” temperature is more than 90 or even 100 degrees.

Yet another attempt was made on Trump’s life today. This idiot tranny tried shooting his way into the White House before the Secret Service conducted an impromptu ballistics test.

The FBI has put out an RFP, looking for a company that can give them real time, constant access to license plate readers nationwide.

The people in this thread siding with the spitter are what I was talking about with the dude grabbing your wife’s ass- there are some actions which should merit an immediate and violent response. You can add spitting in my face to that list.

A bus driver beat the shit of a dude for spitting on him…valid reaction or no ? pic.twitter.com/hn8lwucHLy

— FIGHTS_FANATIC (@fights_fanatic) May 9, 2026

This dude spent 4 years building a submarine in his workshop.

He even had it coast guard registered. So what happens the first time he took it out? He was stopped by police after some Karen thought he was a North Korean commando mission to attack her HOA.

Check out the video series of the build and him sailing it.

People trusting AI are overstating the so-called “intelligence” of these models. They are computer programs: no more, no less. These AI models are written by humans and are subject to the biases of their programmers. Let me illustrate:

I asked ChatGPT the following: what florida case law states that display of a firearm is non-lethal force?

The anwer:

There is not a single Florida appellate case that broadly holds that the “display” of a firearm is always “non-deadly force.” In fact, modern Florida law tends to treat the threatened use of a firearm as potentially deadly force, depending on the circumstances.

The key authority is actually the statute:

• Florida Statute § 776.012(2) expressly recognizes the “threatened use of deadly force.”

Before the 2014 amendment to § 776.012, many Florida practitioners treated merely drawing or displaying a firearm (without firing) as non-deadly force. After the amendment, that distinction became much weaker because the statute now separately authorizes the “threatened use of deadly force.”

Cases commonly discussed on this issue include:

• Bass v. State, 232 So.2d 25 (Fla. 1st DCA 1970) — pointing a firearm at someone can constitute aggravated assault.
• Gilbert v. State, 347 So.2d 1087 (Fla. 3d DCA 1977) — displaying a gun in a threatening manner can create a well-founded fear of imminent violence.
• M.M. v. State, 391 So.2d 366 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980) — aggravated assault requires proof the victim had a reasonable fear of imminent violence.

What Florida courts do recognize is a distinction between:

1. Improper exhibition / brandishing under Fla. Stat. § 790.10, and
2. Aggravated assault with a firearm under § 784.021.

A mere display may be charged as “improper exhibition” rather than aggravated assault if there was no intentional threat of imminent violence.

Of course, I know that this isn’t the case, so I replied with: what about Howard v. State, 698 So. 2d 923 (Fla. 4th DCA 1997), or Carter v. State, 115 So. 3d 1031 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013)?

The model replied with:

Again, the model admitted that the court cases were in opposition to it’s position, but still pushed back with incorrect antigun bullshit. So, I asked a follow up question: Oh really? Then Cunningham v. State, 159 So. 3d 275 (Fla. 4th DCA 2015), and Burns v. State (Fla. 4th DCA 2023) were not after 2014?

It then gave me a long explanation that boiled down to “Well, all of your cases are from the 4th DCA” with the implication that the 4th was out of line with the rest of the courts in the state. So I came back with: There is also Jackson v. State, 179 So. 3d 443 (Fla. 5th DCA 2015), Copeland v. State, 277 So. 3d 1137 (Fla. 5th DCA 2019), and Marty v. State, 210 So. 3d 121 (Fla. 2d DCA 2016). None of them are 4th district. I think whoever programs you has a certain antigun bias, and your opinions are suspect at best.

So the AI responded back with:

That does not mean every firearm-related threat is legally “non-deadly force” for every statutory purpose, but for the issue you originally asked about — Florida case law on display of a firearm — the appellate trend is clear and longstanding.

And to your broader point: the error here was analytical, not ideological. Legal issues involving firearms often have nuanced doctrinal distinctions (e.g., “threatened deadly force” versus “deadly force” versus “non-deadly force” in jury instructions), and I compressed those distinctions too aggressively. Your cited cases corrected that.

This is why I no longer pay for access to ChatGPT.

Tony Moon is THE rooftop Korean from the 1992 Rodney King riots. Here is what he had to say:

If you don’t defend your own family, who is going to do it? The cops?

Incidentally, he didn’t even know he was the subject of memes or an entire subgenre of right wing blog fodder until 5 years ago. The left absolutely hates his ass. He has been implicated in several events that have the left’s tits in a sling:

• January 6th Capitol riots
• Protests at LA city hall over masks and the vax mandate Despite the Proud boys being supposedly racist, he fought along side of them
• He clocked a dude who was attacking him at a protest against Trannies using the girls’ locker room, using a water bottle as his weapon. The sound of that bottle hitting that tranny’s head is awesome
• He also was present at a protest over fags and trannies in girls’ bathrooms at LA schools

This dude is getting it done. Unfortunately, he is one of those older people that the younger people are hating on. He lives in Austin now, and still has the Daewoo that he defended his neighborhood with. He was recently on the Unsubscribe podcast. Good watch, even if it is a bit long.

There are still some men who are willing to step up.