Seti User Fired For Installing Program On School Computers

[RicheemxX]

The IT director at the school d/l'ed and ran seti on and unknown number of the school's PC. According to the report they believed the program "bogged down the district's system and interfered with technology use in classrooms." They now say it will cost more than $1mil to fix the issue -

Search for aliens costs school employee his job - Space- msnbc.com

A former school district employee is accused of using school computers in an experiment to find space aliens, costing the worker his job and the district more than $1 million.

[DoubleK]

The problem here is either the news is one sided and said IT professional did more than run SETI, ie remote mgmt or my personal theory which relates to more and more aspects of life and that is idiot's with Master's and Doctorate degrees who manage/control us that work.

@ $200.00 per pc to remove SETI I wish I were that new IT firm that gets the contract

[RicheemxX]

More details School: Employee Used Computer To Hunt Aliens - Education News Story - KPHO Phoenix

Officials said Niesluchowski downloaded the SETI@home program onto more than 5000 district computers.

"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."

Birdwell said the massive software slowed down educational programs in every classroom and cost the district more than $1 million in added utility fees and computer replacement parts.

Officials said the alien-seeking software had been running since Niesluchowski was hired nearly 10 years ago.

"Basically our processors were hooked up and running 24 hours a day, 12 months a year, every day of the school year," Birdwell said.

LMAO at "the massive software", I haven't run seti in awhile but its not massive software, and much like any other DC project is hardly noticeable when setup correctly.

[ShyguyXPC]

More details School: Employee Used Computer To Hunt Aliens - Education News Story - KPHO Phoenix

LMAO at "the massive software", I haven't run seti in awhile but its not massive software, and much like any other DC project is hardly noticeable when setup correctly.

exactly, and whats the bit about Replacement parts?

all you do is uninstall the damn thing and your done.

I can see the problem if it was left on as they said 24 hours a day 12 months a year with utility costs, but if the PC's were in fact running it only during hours that anyone is there, then wouldn't be any harm really.

[Taxmancometh]

I need a job removing DC apps!

[MegalosSkylaki]

The linked article says,

She said the software was authorized by a previous administration and her husband has better things to do to than look for aliens.

If this is true, wel at least there should be an investigation. Who knows? How did they find out and I note he admittted downloading the SW but says he did so at the behest of a previous adminstrator. err..request--or permission, not too clear.

Anyway, a tough economy for someone with 7 kids to be put out of work, especially in IT and with the publicity.

DOOG

[ShyguyXPC]

I need a job removing DC apps!

hell, I'd be happy splitting that 5000 PC's with ya 20/80 (20% for me) @ $200 a PC, pay my debts, pay for education and still have some money to spend on a car and down payment for house LOL.

[RicheemxX]

Well its unfortunate that the headlines are what they are but it sounds like the guy was doing more than just running seti.

Niesluchowski also is accused of taking at least 18 computers and other technology equipment to use in his home-based business, downloading pornography on school computers, and generally failing to do his job in the technology department, according to public records obtained by the East Valley Tribune.

The replacement costs come from an alleged 2300 pc's that need cpu's replaced due to and I quote "24-hour use of the computers" are these technophobes really that dumb? If the pc's were on the were on so what if seti was running.

This article goes more in-depth on it Higley: IT boss in trouble for alien search, porn | Gilbert Arizona News - Gilbert News - Gilbert, AZ news | eastvalleytribune.com

Funniest part is this:

The dollar amount to fix the issues, including man hours to remove the software, is unknown but estimated at $1.2 million to $1.6 million. Removing the software will take several months, and should be done by the holiday break, Birdwell said.
"It's not easy to remove it," Birdwell said. "You just can't hit an uninstall button."

[GroundZero3]

You would be surprised how much contracting out basic IT work cost still these days with companies. We have these registers that we need to upgrade the ram in them and if we do it ourselves we void the warranty. The company that is managing the registers want some insane amount of money to go and install ram on them with their techs.

Besides the silly cost being quoted in the article on fixing it, the bottom line is if he didn't have permission to install it then he is guilty. Is this overacting? Yes of course it is, but school districts have a set of rules teachers/employees usually sign stating what they can and cant do with a computer. Im sure a script can be setup to remove the offending software easily

[DoubleK]

Besides the silly cost being quoted in the article on fixing it, the bottom line is if he didn't have permission to install it then he is guilty. Is this overacting? Yes of course it is, but school districts have a set of rules teachers/employees usually sign stating what they can and cant do with a computer. Im sure a script can be setup to remove the offending software easily

Exactly! With school budgets in peril these days any actual extra cost down to the kwh of electricity should be recouped. Lets not exaggerate the situation however. I like your management style GZ, some of these pinheads could learn plenty from us dummies.

Unfortunately the whole searching for Aliens headline made for better news I'm sure.

[GroundZero3]

Usually the IT budget and the power budget for the schools are totally different

But with the push to "Go Green" and saving tax payers some money many schools have started moving over to VMs and setting up the computers to shutdown after a certain hour to save the city/county money.

[Sky King]

This is a malicious use of the press to taint a future jury, plain and simple. Certainly he'll be sued, he'll be suing them, and there's no way a small case like this will ever change venue to another city. So you go right to work using the press to pre-dispose the community from which the jurors will come.

If they sue this guy for $100,000 for the cost of removing the software, then the district's lawyers know very well that any jury will go *yawn* and fall asleep in the jury box. And then they feel sorry for the sap who lost his job and they end up siding with him and he countersues for his back pay and he wins. You know it, I know, they know it.

So how do you break the cycle?

1. Sue him for an astronomical amount that his actions have violently torn from the tax payer's wallets, depriving their children of the education they so richly deserve.
2. Marginalize his research goals by not recognizing SETI as a multi-billion dollar, international, often-government-backed legitimate research endeavor, but instead a "search for ET."
3. Smear his reputation by publicizing that he must have been downloading porn.

I suspect that he wasn't well liked, got caught with a naugthy picture on his PC or got caught with a work PC at his home. His mangers, realizing their shoddy supervision of this guy for over 10 years would reflect poorly on them, decided that sacking him and going stright to the newspapers would be their best bet of survival.

Many of their claims may be true, but classifying this guy as a nut-case because he was interested in SETI lacks integrity both by the school and the press.

[osprey4]

Anyone in private industry who did this would be fired, plain and simple. There's no reason why an idiot like this should keep his job just because he works for a public school district.

[Networker4321]

The problem here is either the news is one sided and said IT professional did more than run SETI, ie remote mgmt or my personal theory which relates to more and more aspects of life and that is idiot's with Master's and Doctorate degrees who manage/control us that work.

@ $200.00 per pc to remove SETI I wish I were that new IT firm that gets the contract

Wow! That would be a nice PS engagement. Write a simple SOW and send a team. Wonder if there will be an RFQ posted?

What do you think,,60% profit?

[Sky King]

Anyone in private industry who did this would be fired, plain and simple. There's no reason why an idiot like this should keep his job just because he works for a public school district.

Agreed. Not saying he shouldn't be fired. I am saying that characterizing him as a alien-abduction whack-job and saying that it will cost 1.2 million to undo his sinister acts is outright showmanship. Firing someone, and vilifying them, are not the same. My critical thinking tells me that there is nowhere in the world that I can install 5,000 copies of software onto PCs and run it at 100% CPU 24/7 undetected for 10 years. That, combined with the characterization of him as a loon and the claims being made (which we in this forum above all others know are patently false) about how hard it is to uninstall a DC program, lead me to believe there is likely a motive here. That's all.

[DoubleK]

I have to say I am somewhat taken back by your seemingly keen insight and aforementioned critical thinking ability SkyKing.

By chance are you an attorney and can you get us Techmolians a remote contract to do this DC uninstall?

By my estimates we should seriously underbid the contract and split that amongst ourselves. We should then outsource to networkers4321 American firm (see more tax savings) to code the uninstall script that we will then run from your home business SkyKing LLC that will incur tax deductible losses in regards to hiring the School Districts brother who happens to be a well positioned consultant.

That should put as at about a 600% gpm Networker, after all we did lose a significant amount of our portfolios in the global subprime fiasco. Why settle for 60% When 6000% is obtainable? At 600% you do not appear so greedy.

[Networker4321]

I have to say I am somewhat taken back by your seemingly keen insight and aforementioned critical thinking ability SkyKing.

By chance are you an attorney and can you get us Techmolians a remote contract to do this DC uninstall?

By my estimates we should seriously underbid the contract and split that amongst ourselves. We should then outsource to networkers4321 American firm (see more tax savings) to code the uninstall script that we will then run from your home business SkyKing LLC that will incur tax deductible losses in regards to hiring the School Districts brother who happens to be a well positioned consultant.

That should put as at about a 600% gpm Networker, after all we did lose a significant amount of our portfolios in the global subprime fiasco. Why settle for 60% When 6000% is obtainable? At 600% you do not appear so greedy.

I wasn't thinking. 600% is reasonable. I am going to research the local papers out there and the school website, I'm sure they have one. Some company closer to the source is likely already reaching out or, the school board pulled those numbers out of the air.

Yes, some research is called for and after I get my new GTX295 installed in another machine I will do just that.

I too had communicated with Sky King once, the first time I saw him post. I was on the BeeLine EXPY in FL the day the real guy who played Sky King died in an auto accident. Wonder how many people remember the old early 60's show SKY King. It was awesome.