Rachel is showing how the State Dept.'s "print and file" system for preserving emails would work.

[femmocrat]

It would involve warehouses full of boxes of paper -- that's right, paper-- print-outs. Rachel called it "alarming". It is the only approved method for saving data.

[SharonClark]

1. Such a waste of trees when CDs are available.

I large company I work for took away the file cabinets and we have one small drawer (mostly to store our purses and personal items). We are expected to keep everything electronically. They even have a Top 50 Tree-Killer list that reports how many pages we print each quarter.

It works well and most people are surprised how many documents they don't need to print to do their jobs.

[TwilightZone]

3. CDs have a shelf life. The consensus seems to be 20-100+ years, depending on disk type and storage

conditions. So, depending on their data retention requirements, it might not be an option.

Granted, it's still way, way better than burning through zillions of pages of paper, but it's not a semi-permanent solution if the intended storage period is really, really long. No idea what they do at State.

Of course, finding anything in the paper files sounds like it would be a complete nightmare, so it seems like a wasted step here.

[mercuryblues]

4. they are finding

that saving e files digitally is not working. Disks are getting corrupted and the programs used to save the info are obsolete they can't be opened.

[Historic NY]

5. Bingo....

happened to me all my databases wouldn't work when I was upgraded to 8.1 pro. The state bid computers don't take this into account. Our IT dept sent out my old hard drive for conversion and lots of stuff didn't work. I finally figured out a way to make them open and recently found Libre. which allows the old files to work but the datebases will require relabeling. I'm preserving records from 1747-1949 much of the info was converted to database format to make it useable in searching. I still have floppys and old old computer that works as a backup, I even microfilm the paper files, and some of the stuff on discs was reduced to a paper copy. Lately I been getting hit with stuff that supposedly was professionally on-line digitized 10+ yrs ago people can't find. It was just sheer luck using Google search engine I was able to find some of the files. The rest of 400+ terminals still use Win 7, because programs won't work.

[SharonClark]

6. Wow! Didn't think of that. I wonder what the backup of the backup is at my company.

[mercuryblues]

8. It has me worried

I have been using a digital camera for almost 20 years. I have photos on discs, hard drives and a back up hard drive. Now I am worried about being able to retrieve them all.

[LiberalFighter]

2. That was crazy. And she only showed what she had for 3 days.

[realmirage]

7. It's pretty sad that all the sanders people

have left is to pin their hopes on a right wing generated conspiracy on par with Vince foster and all the other made up controversies.