Back that Thang Up

Conventional Wisdom: Back up files early and often. Save your work in multiple locations. Why? You know why. And so do the people of Alaska's Department of Revenue. From CNN:

Nine months worth of information concerning the yearly payout from the Alaska Permanent Fund was gone: some 800,000 electronic images that had been painstakingly scanned into the system months earlier, the 2006 paper applications that people had either mailed in or filed over the counter, and supporting documentation such as birth certificates and proof of residence.

And the only backup was the paperwork itself -- stored in more than 300 cardboard boxes.