Category: SurvivalBlog

Survivors (Patriots Sequel) Book Bomb Day — October 4th

A reader wrote to mention that my upcoming novel “Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse”  is already available for pre-order on Amazon.com. Please wait to order until the planned Book Bomb Day, October 4th, 2011. Please mark your calendars. By concentrating most of the initial orders on that day, we are hoping to drive the novel’s sales ranks up into the Top Ten, and thereby generate extra publicity. (That approach worked well with “Patriots”.) Many Thanks!


Letter Re: IP Address Finding Software

Dear Mr. Rawles: Gibson Research Corporation offers a free [PC] utility called ID Serve that will quickly tell the user the IP address of any web site, as well as some other info.  It can also look up the domain name using the IP address.  This is useful to help SurvivalBlog readers find the numerical IP for their favorite web sites in case of domain name mischief at the hands of government or private hackers.  IP Serve can be downloaded here free of charge. (As a bonus, it is tiny–just 26 kbytes–and fast. It is not “bloatware”). – Sincerely, D.V.B.


SurvivalBlog Writing Contest — Announcing the Round 33 Winners

We’ve completed the judging for Round 33 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest! First prize goes to K.M. for What is a Well-Stocked First Aid Kit?, which was posted on March 15, 2011. K.M. will receive: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and B.) Two cases of Alpine Aire freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $400 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from …


The 2005-2010 SurvivalBlog Archives Now Available on CD-ROM!

The five-year compendium archive of SurvivalBlog articles and letters on CD-ROM (in both HTML and PDF) is now available! This CD-ROM, optimized to laptops, is now orderable through Lulu.com, for $19.95. Even if the Internet goes down, you will still have all of SurvivalBlog’s archives at your fingertips, with all posts fully searchable. And if you are online while using the CD-ROM, the links to external web sites are fully functional. The blog’s archives are immense. (If you were to print out the entire PDF, it would take 5,504 sheets of paper!) Order your copy today!


Update on the SurvivalBlog Archive CD-ROM Project

We were planning to release the SurvivalBlog 2005-2010 Archives CD in late January but this was seriously delayed. Unfortunately, the production team at Cafe Press inadvertently produced blank CD-ROMs and mailed them them to the 27 beta testers. It took more than three weeks and countless phone calls for Cafe Press to admit their mistake and to issue refunds. We are now in the process of starting another beta test, using a different company for production order and fulfillment, Lulu.com. The production version (v.1.0) should be ready for ordering by late March. Many thanks for your patience! (In the meantime, …


Letter Re: The Coming Shortage of Nickels

James,   You will have soon received a flat rate Priority Mail box containing $150 in nickels (inside a thick cardboard reinforcement liner) that I sent you. I sent you those coins for two reasons: One: I should have been a [voluntary] Ten Cent Challenge subscriber, starting from back when I began reading SurvivalBlog in 2008. The nickels cover not only the past three years, but also pre-pay my subscription for the next year, too. Two: Last week my local bank finally cut me off (and other bank patrons, too), from buying more than one roll [of nickels] at a time. …


SurvivalBlog Receives the Stylish Blogger Award

I was tickled to see that SurvivalBlog was named as a recipient of a Stylish Blogger award by Judy of the Consent of the Governed blog. This is a great exercise in fun and mutual back-scratching. Of course, as with any of these blog awards, there are rules. The “rules” that come along with this award designation are (1) I must divulge seven things about myself, and then (2) pay the Stylish Blogger Award forward to fifteen other blogs. So here are seven things about me… 1.) I’m so secretive about the location of the Rawles Ranch that many of …


Update: Kindle SurvivalBlog 2005-2010 Archives

The SurvivalBlog.com Archives 2005-2010 for Kindle has just been updated to be more user friendly. New features include: Table of Contents 700+ broken links fixed Search Function (Tested thusfar on a Kindle 3 running v3.1 — not guaranteed to work with earlier Kindles) Note: Those of you who have already purchased the Blog Archives ebook, send an e-mail to: kdp-support@amazon.com with this info: “KDP Team, Please update this ebook on my account. [insert the e-mail address of your Amazon account here] ASIN: B004OL2XQ0” If the Search Function still doesn’t work after you’ve updated to the new version then try the …


Letter: When a Ten Cent Challenge is a Lifetime Subscription

Mr. Rawles: I will be 75 years old in July. The enclosed check for $200 should cover my [Ten Cent Challenge] 10 cents per day for almost 5-1/2 years [$200 divided by $36.50 = 5.479 years]. Thus, I ‘ve secured a lifetime membership to the age 80. If I do somehow live to age 80–unlikely due to my health condition–and the current Obama administration has not finalized the complete destruction of the United States and your SurvivalBlog still exists, then I will extend my lifetime membership. Regards, – Ralph T.


SurvivalBlog Writing Contest — Round 32 Winners

We’ve completed the judging for Round 32 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest! First prize goes to J.E. for: Preparing for the Aftermath–Lessons from the 1930s, which was posted on December 24, 2010. J.E. will receive: A.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and B.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees, in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $392 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from …


Letter Re: The Caliber of SurvivalBlog Advertisers

Sir: Just a short note to provide feedback on your advertisers. First, as a retired engineer who always dealt with verifiable data, I am always initially skeptical of product claims and hype. However, since I have, over the years, started buying materiel, I have found that your advertisers provide not only great products, but also outstanding service. I now have come to trust any company I see on SurvivalBlog. Looking back, I have spent approximate $14,000 in the last three years getting my family prepared. From your advertisers, I have purchased books, seeds, food, gear, water filters, barrels, grain mills, …


Letter Re: Grateful for SurvivalBlog in Australia

Dear James,   I read much of your blog site and started to get prepared two years ago when the financial crisis first hit.  Now, while staying dry enough, I am surrounded by flooded towns and washed out roads and bridges.  So much of what you have written is of value here right now.  I thought you would appreciate an on-the spot report.  Now my friends are scrambling and I don’t look like such a fool.      We in Jandowae have potable water but our nearest neighbouring town, Dalby was trucking in a million litres a day.  Even locally …


Letter Re: The Ten Cent Challenge

Dear JWR,   You have a great blog site. I must inform you that you may not receive a lot of the dimes sent the way that you described. I work for the USPS as a Maintenance Mechanic, Postal Equipment. In short, I work on the automated equipment that processes the incoming letter mail. I have seen the machines tear up large number of letters. The dimes will get vacuumed up during the course of preventive maintenance. Also, new machines heading our way will incorporate a metal detector before the letter is processed through the machine. I would hate to …


The SurvivalBlog Ten Cent Challenge — Annual Reminder and the Silver Dimes Option

I only post one reminder each year about Ten Cent Challenge subscriptions, and this is it. Unlike Jimmy Wales at Wikipedia and the whining leftist hand-wringers at PBS, I don’t do endless pledge drives. I depend on my readers to help pay the bills to keep SurvivalBlog up and running. Our web hosting on a dedicated server costs $650.00 per month, and our local ISP bill is $129.00 per month. We also have other expenses including liability insurance, phone bills, computer hardware, software, accounting, subscriptions, writing contest prizes, and so forth. My appeal is simple: If you feel that you …


SurvivalBlog’s IP Address — A Modest Insurance Policy

We post SurvivalBlog’s IP address (also referred to as a “dotted quad” or IPv4 address) as a sort of insurance policy. Recent events have proven that a government agency or a malicious hacker can fairly easily seize or hijack a domain name. This has already happened to at least 75 U.S. web sites without due process of law. Their DNS records were changed, essentially erasing them from the “phone books of the Internet.” To insure against this, we are distributing our IPv4 address. This can be pasted or typed into a web browser window in place of “survivalblog.com” What you …