Lost job due to installing SETI software... Dave???

[Vette73]

Man loses job after searching too hard for aliens
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10406588-76.html


Now the school system is saying he did over 1 million in damage by installing this software.
I thought SETI ran only when the system is not being used? So how could it slow down/damage systems when they were being used in class?

Yea he was not in the right persay, but to say he did over a million in damage seems a little over the top.

 

[totalnoob]

That sucks.. I'm installing SETI now just to show my solidarity with him.

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/

I wish I had access to a bunch of computers like that.. It's amazing to think of the power put out by by 100 Core 2 Duos..

 

[MichaelD]

Even in this day and age, people apparently still don't understand:

- you didn't pay for the equipment
- you didn't pay for the software
- you don't pay for the electricity
- you are only an administrator

And they continue to use private/corporate networks/resources as their own personal laboratory/sandbox. If you don't have it in writing from the top that it's OK to do so, then it's not.

That said "Over $1M in damages" is complete crap. Assuming the PCs don't shutdown after working hours (group policy, etc) they'd have to calculate idle power draw vs. full power draw x number of PCs x blahblah.

 

[JimmiG]

Even in this day and age, people apparently still don't understand:

- you didn't pay for the equipment
- you didn't pay for the software
- you don't pay for the electricity
- you are only an administrator

And they continue to use private/corporate networks/resources as their own personal laboratory/sandbox. If you don't have it in writing from the top that it's OK to do so, then it's not.

Yeah, that's where they get their "damages" from.

Sometimes being an administrator can be boring, especially if everything is operating smoothly. Well, at least bring your own laptop to mess around with at those time, and use your own wireless broadband...

 

[MichaelD]

Yeah, that's where they get their "damages" from.

Sometimes being an administrator can be boring, especially if everything is operating smoothly. Well, at least bring your own laptop to mess around with at those time, and use your own wireless broadband...

I agree with you 100% about the "can be boring" part. I will admit that I have exempted my PC from certain Websense categories...like "Public Forums/Internet Chat Rooms" so technically, I'm not a total angel. But I'd never install Seti or F@H on the 1K+ PCs that I manage...not to mention 50+ multicore-multiCPU servers.

 

[totalnoob]

I agree with you 100% about the "can be boring" part. I will admit that I have exempted my PC from certain Websense categories...like "Public Forums/Internet Chat Rooms" so technically, I'm not a total angel. But I'd never install Seti or F@H on the 1K+ PCs that I manage...not to mention 50+ multicore-multiCPU servers.

Dude, you could single handedly discover aliens if you decided to do it.

 

[ballmode]

The truth is out there

 

[0roo0roo]

he should have been setting the power saving features to on. so many aren't.
wasting electricity is stupid. esp on school computers, many old inefficient...seriously not worth the data crunched per amount of power used.

 

[Ausm]

a million dollars worth of damage?? HAHAHAHAHAHA

 

[Red Dawn]

I wonder if getting fired is going to send this guy over the deep end like Dave.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I haven't really read any of the articles in depth, but I believe they're saying he stole equipment and did other things. The spokeslady for the school was being a bitchy moron and went on a tirade over SETI or something.

 

[Kirby]

I wonder if getting fired is going to send this guy over the deep end like Dave.

I hope he doesn't find AT. I don't think we could handle two of them.

 

[rudder]

I hope he doesn't find AT. I don't think we could handle two of them.

Could be a good thing... maybe they would cancel each other out.... or not.

 

[FelixDeCat]

This is outrageous! All computers should be searching for extraterrestrials.

 

[Leros]

He probably wasted a few hundred bucks of electricity. Maybe a few thousand dollars max.

 

[Bateluer]

Read up on this a little. S@H was the least of his problems, and Director Birdwell is a jackass. 'Nez' was taking home district owned PCs and using them to download porno.

 

[Meghan54]

Well, apparently he was doing a bit more than just running SETI.....he was downloading porn, stole 18 computers from the district, was previously told to take the SETI program off the district computers and didn't, failed to fulfill several areas of his job responsibility which included firewall installation.......

So there was a LOT more than just the SETI program involved; it just seems the SETI program gives a catchier and flashier headline to get the reader to read/click on the article, esp. for "tech" oriented news sites.

I think SETI was just the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak, for a worker that wasn't performing up to expectations....not to mention being a thief.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Well, apparently he was doing a bit more than just running SETI.....he was downloading porn, stole 18 computers from the district, was previously told to take the SETI program off the district computers and didn't, failed to fulfill several areas of his job responsibility which included firewall installation.......

So there was a LOT more than just the SETI program involved; it just seems the SETI program gives a catchier and flashier headline to get the reader to read/click on the article, esp. for "tech" oriented news sites.

I think SETI was just the straw that broke the camel's back, so to speak, for a worker that wasn't performing up to expectations....not to mention being a thief.

Stealing computers and downloading porn at work is irrelevant. This is all about our right to free speach by using all available resources to search for the truth that the government is trying to cover up, by persecuting this man unnecessarily. Dont you want to know whats "out there"? And if he has to steal computers and download porn at work to satisfy his other needs, how is this wrong?

 

[MrMatt]

a million dollars worth of damage?? HAHAHAHAHAHA

Just imagine...with all of us running that at home we're doing TRILLIONS in damage to...something. D:

 

[SpatiallyAware]

When you read the details it was totally justified. It sounds like that school system has other MAJOR issues, but if you compute the cost of power for running seti it was ~$700,000. His seti points or whatever perfectly coincide with the school system opening new schools.

Like seti or not like seti, don't install it at work. Especially if its a public school system. Especially if you're told to remove it.

 

[dmcowen674]

Man loses job after searching too hard for aliens
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10406588-76.html


Now the school system is saying he did over 1 million in damage by installing this software.
I thought SETI ran only when the system is not being used? So how could it slow down/damage systems when they were being used in class?

Yea he was not in the right persay, but to say he did over a million in damage seems a little over the top.

I already posted over in Distributed Computing on this.

FreeMcOwen.com is still up.

I kept it up in the hopes no one would ever go through this shit again.

Of course they still spew garbage too.

"The district was forced to replace an estimated 2,300 computer processors because of the 24-hour use of the computers."

Does Intel and AMD know that their CPU's cannot run 24 hrs?

 

[LittleNemoNES]

porn + anything even remotely related to work = putting your job on the line.
If you want to eat shit @ work, use your smartphone or "portable apps"

 

[Vette73]

I already posted over in Distributed Computing on this.

FreeMcOwen.com is still up.

I kept it up in the hopes no one would ever go through this shit again.

Of course they still spew garbage too.

"The district was forced to replace an estimated 2,300 computer processors because of the 24-hour use of the computers."

Does Intel and AMD know that their CPU's cannot run 24 hrs?

Yea that was the biggest WTF when they said SETI was killing CPUs.
I have never had a CPU fail and I overclock all of them I have ever owned.

 

[Genx87]

District may have a hard time proving damages. Electricity and cleanup costs are the easiest to calculate. Failures and slowness will be impossible.

 

[Genx87]

He probably wasted a few hundred bucks of electricity. Maybe a few thousand dollars max.

Really depends on how many machines it was installed on. As an organization one can eat through thousands of dollars oe electricty per month.