Burying the past: It's their code

Some programs have had funerals; others had to be killed.
DAYTON (AP) -- Among the tiny graves on Blocker Hill, the wind echoes with the tortured cries of computer programmers.
Beneath the eight grave markers, and perhaps in a rumored unmarked grave nearby, lie reams of paper printouts of code for software that has left this mortal operating system.
The cemetery is a quirky tradition among the programmers at LexisNexis, which provides online legal and business information. Rather than simply delete programs that are retired or replaced, they print them out for a proper send-off -- not always with fond regards.
"The code wakes us up in the middle of the night," said Doug Perseghetti, who recalls the many times his fellow systems engineers and technical support workers are called in the middle of the night to fix system problems.
The name "Blocker Hill" was picked because the outdated equipment and code represented roadblocks to the company's future.
"Some things die gracefully and other things we've had to kill," Perseghetti said. He said workers had to "drive a stake" through the heart of a poorly performing program named CCI, which received an ignominious burial beneath an emblem of a pig.
Other programs get a more honorable goodbye, complete with wake.
Went all out for it
In 1992, up to 50 mourners followed pallbearers carrying a wooden coffin with a printout of the former Database Update Control System as a trumpeter played "Taps," project consultant Alice Kaltenmark said. Eulogies were said and chocolate cake served.
"As the company grows and the technology evolves, it's part of the life cycle," Kaltenmark said.
Even though they exist only as a series of digits in a computer, the programs seem to take on personalities of their own, she said.
The tradition started early in the last decade as the company began retiring older systems for new technology.
LexisNexis developed the Electronic Data Gathering And Retrieval -- or EDGAR -- system that allows computer users to retrieve documents that businesses file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The grave marker for the original code features a symbol meaning "no bull."
The cemetery also has a bit of hardware, including a machine named Urbana RT that was used just six years. Its marker is a metal panel that covered its air vents.