NY Times releases military surplus gear data on GitHub

Re:NY Times releases military surplus gear data on GitHub by dredmorbius on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @08:29PM (#8200574)

Some years back I was in the position of managing a few systems for a nonprofit. It had been awarded equipment through a donation program. Some of this was usable. Some ... was not. One particular item turned out to be such a white elephant that it was literally more sensible to try to sell it and replace it with something more economical. Which other branches of the nonprofit were doing, though I never convinced the GM of ours to do.

Equipment that's not actually usable isn't an asset.

(And yes, I'm keeping this all pretty intentionally vague.)

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Re:NY Times releases military surplus gear data on GitHub by GabrielF00 on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @11:41PM (#8201002)

Yup. Nonprofits are not often not very sophisticated about technology and it often takes them a long time to learn that some donations are just not worth the trouble.

I once worked for a non-profit with a video production program for teenagers. They accepted some 1970s film editing consoles that were donated by a local college. The executive director did not realize just how impractical and cost-prohibitive it is to teach kids how to edit movies on 16mm film. I was pretty proud of myself when I found someone to take those editing consoles.

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Re:NY Times releases military surplus gear data on GitHub by lotsofmangos on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @08:48PM (#8200617)

Let me guess. Was it actually a white elephant?

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Re:NY Times releases military surplus gear data on GitHub by dredmorbius on Tuesday August 19, 2014 @11:40PM (#8200999)

Despite certain outward similarities, no.

A white elephant would have been more useful.

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