How would it cost 1 million dollars to remove Seti@Home? Someone here please go offer to uninstall it for a lower price as a donation to Seti@Home. :)

Wow NEZ had a lot of work units maybe he will get lucky one day one of his units actually is the lucky signal.








Wednesday December 2, 2009
Space alien search costs AZ school worker his job
by The Associated Press
Advertiser

MESA, Ariz. (AP) - A former Arizona 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.

Schools officials say Brad Niesluchowski, who was Higley Unified School District's information technology director, downloaded free software on district computers in 2000.

The program, known as SETI(at)home, uses Internet-connected computers worldwide to analyze radio telescope data in an experiment to find extraterrestrial intelligence.

But Superintendent Denise Birdwell told the East Valley Tribune that the program also bogged down the district's system and interfered with technology use in classrooms.

Birdwell said it will take more than $1 million to fix the problem, including removal of the SETI software. She says police are conducting a broader investigation.

Niesluchowski resigned from the district Oct. 22.

His lawyer did not return calls for comment.

How would it cost 1 million dollars to remove Seti@Home? Someone here please go offer to uninstall it for a lower price as a donation to Seti@Home. :)

Wow NEZ had a lot of work units maybe he will get lucky one day one of his units actually is the lucky signal.








Wednesday December 2, 2009
Space alien search costs AZ school worker his job
by The Associated Press
Advertiser

MESA, Ariz. (AP) - A former Arizona 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.

Schools officials say Brad Niesluchowski, who was Higley Unified School District's information technology director, downloaded free software on district computers in 2000.

The program, known as SETI(at)home, uses Internet-connected computers worldwide to analyze radio telescope data in an experiment to find extraterrestrial intelligence.

But Superintendent Denise Birdwell told the East Valley Tribune that the program also bogged down the district's system and interfered with technology use in classrooms.

Birdwell said it will take more than $1 million to fix the problem, including removal of the SETI software. She says police are conducting a broader investigation.

Niesluchowski resigned from the district Oct. 22.

His lawyer did not return calls for comment.

If that School is willing to pay my airplane bill to/from Spain and an all-inclusive housing for four weeks, I could do the job!!
The trip would include a visit to UC Berkeley and SETI Institute, of course.
Cheers!

---

making national news now. just saw this on msnbc.com

5000 Computers Hijacked to Search for UFO's

" . . . i would say SETI's Statistics have dropped, drastically"

~ Denise Birdwell ~

---

BOINC Wiki . . .

Science Status Page . . .

making national news now. just saw this on msnbc.com

5000 Computers Hijacked to Search for UFO's

" . . . i would say SETI's Statistics have dropped, drastically"

~ Denise Birdwell ~

Just from her attitude I hope he Sues and wins...See what she has to say then.

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Official Abuser of Boinc Buttons...
And no good credit hound!

Guess it's even less likely he'll get a green star now.

Sigh. No Santa Clause. No Easter Bunny. No Great Pumpkin. And now this.

;o)

---

Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas.

Albert Einstein

Not unless He gives oodles of cash.

Hmmm, ok NEZ & Lawyer, we know you're reading... how about kicking back 2% pre-commission of any lawsuit. Seems only fair. We know it'll be a 2 year process.

I wouldn't want some apparent blogger to be called a liar, so I'll keep him honest after the fact.

Feel free to comment.

Edit: As for the remark about 575 million credits.. perhaps he's never heard of Milkyway@home.

---

me@rescam.org

whats bad for Seti is that they demonize seti as much as the actual perpetrator. Perhaps a call from the seti/BOINC staff to the news sources telling them their rules that were clearly not followed.

New job for DA??? Public relations???

I thought that's what these wonderful forums and account eye candy are for.

[edit] now I've been sulking. That's a new one.

Innocent until proven guilty. That is the law of the land. For those news reports about Brad omitting the word "allegedly" can cost them millions. Remember that security guard in Atlanta during the Olmypics bombing? The hero who was later accused of planting the bomb? The guy who was then fired and vilified? The news left out "allegedly", and he won millions. Like it or not only Brad knows what really went on. Maybe he really was invited to a White House party. Maybe he really did crash into a fire hydrant and tree, later to have his vehicle clubbed to death like a baby seal. Personally I'll wait for the system to play itself out. It worked for Bill Clinton, right?

---

me@rescam.org

[edit] now I've been sulking. That's a new one.

Gonna have to check the "k" key. Skulking.

---

[edit] now I've been sulking. That's a new one.

Gonna have to check the "k" key. Skulking.

I'm the skull king? Well I am pretty smart.

---

me@rescam.org

Maybe he really did crash into a fire hydrant and tree, later to have his vehicle clubbed to death like a baby seal.

FWIW, I think we learned two important things:

1) Tiger needs to work on his driving accuracy.

2) We now know one person who can beat Tiger with a golf club.

---

I may be wrong but Brad may have set another first.

According to Google news this morning 232 Articles around the globe have been wrote that discuss "Seti@Home and Boinc" Some (most that Ive read) is not good publicity but it IS publicity. Most of these reporters need a slap upside the head in reality but it does spread the word. Anyone with a half a brain that got interested in the topic may further look into it and discover the distributed computing world and the good work that is being done across all the BOINC projects.

Peronally I have learned a great deal about computers themselves and have gained knowledge and confidence in how they work, using and upgrading them all while aiding in the computing needs of the projects I run. Most of that knowledge and confidence has come from other participants in these projects and from these message boards. I wish the media would take more responsibility in reporting news and stop the BS Negativity that in my opinion deters from news sales than adds to it in todays society.

Brad I wish you well and hope you'll land on your feet somewhere. I have been through the middle management ousting over personality conflicts and can tell you the grass was definately greener when I landed on the other side.

---

Rick
**************************

Sigh. No Santa Clause. No Easter Bunny. No Great Pumpkin. And now this.

;o)

Don't fret - there are still Vampires and Werewolfs in your forests out there in BC :-)

Sigh. No Santa Clause. No Easter Bunny. No Great Pumpkin. And now this.

;o)

Don't fret - there are still Vampires and Werewolfs in your forests out there in BC :-)

And Bigfoot...son't forget Bigfoot!!!

---

Calm Chaos Forum...Join Calm Chaos Now

Sigh. No Santa Clause. No Easter Bunny. No Great Pumpkin. And now this.

;o)

Don't fret - there are still Vampires and Werewolfs in your forests out there in BC :-)

Wow! Join SETI one day and donate the next day. That's fast..must be a record.

Welcome and thanks for donating!

Wow! Join SETI one day and donate the next day. That's fast..must be a record.

Welcome and thanks for donating!

Thanks! Just doing what I can to keep it alive and well. We got one fine BOINC project here...

Wow! Join SETI one day and donate the next day. That's fast..must be a record.

Welcome and thanks for donating!

Thanks! Just doing what I can to keep it alive and well. We got one fine BOINC project here...

Thumbs (err...paws) up from the kitties to the wolf.

Welcome to the project.

---

"Time is simply the mechanism that keeps everything from happening all at once."

Some (most that Ive read) is not good publicity but it IS publicity.

As-if things (such as donations, etc) weren't uphill enough with just the dismissive "little green men" smears. Funny how one user out of 100,000 actives failing the ethics test can lead to bad publicity. Stuff like this can cement boinc into the commercial & enterprise malware checkers.

Personally, beyond any records subpoena (has Berkeley commented on if a subpoena was received?), I think the S@H mavens should take some distancing action. This is not kicking someone when they're down, or retribution for a black eye upon us all. But it is imporant to keep Boinc projects on the level and above reproach in legitimat academic and R&D endeavors. They should have done this in October.

#1. Either rename the NEZ account to "Higley USD" or outright delete it across the Boinc namespace (tombstoned appropriately so it waterfalls to all the stat collectors over the ensuing weeks). Why? Because NEZ didn't earn those credits, they belong to that school district.

#2. Limit accounts to a dozen active devices until a signed well worded hold-harmless release is received. Why? If Berkeley gets named in a lawsuit seeking damages (and using this case as an example, the lawyers for both the school district & Nez himself have probably considering it), then regardless of outcome, S@H would likely get shuttered as a nuisance magnet.

#2B. Conduct a DB audit to identify and then contact other possible nez's ... throttle down their task queues quickly to zero until they respond. Maybe even lose machine anonymity as an option after 100 devices.

#3. As WU's seems to be in short supply anyhow, might as well recycle the ones NEZ has in that anonymous task queue rather than wait the remaining 4 weeks for them to time out (get the era over with) ... I doubt Higley would mind.

Were his activities known about by DA and seti.
Message 36895 on Beta message boards.
We had a reply on the BOINC_alpha mailing list. David Anderson deliberately allowed self-validation, because otherwise NEZ would have no-one to validate with - he does such a high proportion of all the Beta work.
Could be argued that as he and all other user’s on Beta were given the right to validate their own WU’s. That he was openly encouraged to continue his activities, and not requested to stop???
After all a simple lock on his account would have been sufficient. Although no doubt some would say that would probably go against freedom of speech.
IMHO anyone who can log 579,162,661 credits cannot be doing it on his own equipment even running 24/7/365. 400 million more than his nearest rival
Michael