SETI@Home Install Leads To School Tech Supervisor's Resignat

[Ivoshiee]

http://science.slashdot.org/story/09/12 ... ?art_pos=7

[toTOW]

"We support educational research and certainly would have supported cancer research," said Higley superintendent Denise Birdwell. "However, as an educational institution we do not support the search for E.T."

He might not have been in such a trouble if he had chosen a more "terrestrial" project ... like FAH ?

[mephistopheles]

I guess it serves as a reminder to ask permission if you want to install clients on somebody else's computers

Looks like the guy may even be facing criminal charges...: http://www.kpho.com/news/21778774/detail.html

[chrisretusn]

It may have also helped if he had gotten permission in writing. Not sure I buy the story of the previous administration giving permission. If they did, I doubt it would have been for 5000 computers. One million dollars in added cost is a bit high too I think.

[toTOW]

Indeed ... don't forget to obtain written permission if you're planning to install the client on machine you don't own ...

[P5-133XL]

Well at 5000 computers for 10 years it could easily have reached 1M just in power. 10 years x 12 months x 5000 computers x $10/month/computer = $6M. $10 per month per computer is less than I spend on folding.

[mdk777]

They didn't even bother to list his SETI ranking.

Well at least not on the article on COMCAST.
And the local Newspaper.

It would have made the news more interesting.

[Beberg]

This happened a couple times to people back in my distributed.net days, not to mention a couple phone calls in the middle of the night with people thinking they had a virus since I was on the DNS entry.

When we tell you NOT to put something on work/friends machines without permission, we mean it. That goes double for Storage@home.

[tear]

 
-- I did this at my brothers company too. I thought that the program "ran on minimal resources" while the computers were being used.
 But shortly after installing them on a dozen programs,everyone was complaining about how slow their computers were, so I had to
 covertly remove them to hide the true reason why they were slow. Lesson learned. At least it didn't cost me my job.
 Correction: I did this with FOLDING@home, not SETI. I think SETI isn't as useful.
-- The aliens have already done all of that protein folding nonsense. Once we make contact they'll share their technology, making your
 silly Folding@home obsolete.


what's not to love about /. ha ha


tear

[extrasalty]

The real story:
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... s1202.html

[mephistopheles]

Stealing 18 computers from the workplace is obviously a crime. Although the power-and-wear costs of running a DC client on 5000 computers over 10 years is likely to be a much bigger financial loss for the school district...

[chrisretusn]

The plot thickens.

[7im]

They allege several computer processors would burn out sooner than expected...

Processors are always the last to go. Muggles.

[7up1n3]

Always get permission first, and don't let it interfere w/ your primary role: doing your freaking job. Oh, and work hardware belongs at work, not at home. What a goon ... reminds me of the snake attack that took down How???.

[7im]

I apologize for the topic necromancy, but I recently received a PM asking if I knew what happened to Brad Niesluchowski? and wanted to share a little info.

Actually, it seems he was fired for being a bad IT Admin more than for running unapproved software. Misuse of the school property was just the easy excuse to show "cause" for firing on the paperwork according to this article. http://www.zdnet.com/article/admin-fire ... en-search/

Brad also has online social accounts showing constant employment since the original event, and is still working as an IT Admin at a spa. I didn't dig any deeper to see if he was convicted of a crime, fined, probation, just fired, or whatever. I'm sure the unwanted attention and life-long infamy was more than enough IMO.

And as noted above, please ALWAYS get permission to run Folding@home on hardware that you do not own, using electricity you do not pay for, and in writing most preferably. Management changes could leave you jobless, or worse. Please follow the Folding EULA as well.