The precarious state of classic software and hardware preservation

[John Herron]

I can speak for state government but not fed (this was 20 years ago). It
was an annoying buzz kill that we had to destroy old equipment, and deface
documentation and software so it would be unusable from dumpster divers.
Some pallets of hardware would get "recycled" by department of corrections
(prisoners) but there wasn't any thought of archiving. Especially once
bills came out to enable requesting of data. That resulted in policies to
purge data older than x years and email after 1.

On Wed, Nov 24, 2021, 8:11 AM Stefan Skoglund via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

> tis 2021-11-23 klockan 18:06 -0800 skrev s shumaker via cctalk:
> > In fact, it's standard language in most DOD contracts that ALL
> > materials
> > related to a contract must be destroyed at contract closure unless
> > the
> > contractor receives specific permission from the gov't  to retain it
> > -
> > usually for some specific reason such as a projected follow-on
> > contract.  When major contracts close, there is often a great
> > cleaning
> > out of file cabinet and storage areas, done as quickly as possible
> > because it's all on company time rather than paid by uncle.
> >
> > Steve
>
> Hmmm, good for the company employees/managers and the DoE.
>
> If not, FBI could have had better material from the examinations of
> Rocky Flats 'cleanup operations' ....
>
> who said it was ok burning plutonium infested material ?
>
> And other misbehaviours : ie tri plumes in different parts of the US.
>
>