One comment about a possible law suit. Nez was working for a school district. School districts have three classes of employees. Contract, tenured, or classified. Regardless of the state, “at will” or not, if he was not under contract then he is covered by civil service rules. Civil service rules came about as a result of several US Supreme Court cases. All states had to adopt them. I sat as a commissioner hearing employee cases for the last five years. Based on what I have read, he has a case, and there is a good potential for damages. He may not get his job back, but he may well get all lost wages and a hefty severance.
The hiring of a relative of the Superintendent to replace him was a really dumb idea. This sounds totally political to me. I a similar case I heard the employee had done something wrong, but the response was totally inappropriate. She got nearly a quarter million. County even appealed my decision and lost.

Heck the computers may generate more heat but when you consider that they are in schools that point means that they are mini space heaters. Heck he's probably reduced the schools heating cost by a small some. I have 2 rigs in my bedroom and they keep it quite comfortable in the winter without additional heat being pumped into the bedroom

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

If they ran 24/7 through the summer in Arizona heat with the air conditioning required the power bill could be significant.

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...

One comment about a possible law suit. Nez was working for a school district. School districts have three classes of employees. Contract, tenured, or classified. Regardless of the state, “at will” or not, if he was not under contract then he is covered by civil service rules. Civil service rules came about as a result of several US Supreme Court cases. All states had to adopt them. I sat as a commissioner hearing employee cases for the last five years. Based on what I have read, he has a case, and there is a good potential for damages. He may not get his job back, but he may well get all lost wages and a hefty severance.
The hiring of a relative of the Superintendent to replace him was a really dumb idea. This sounds totally political to me. I a similar case I heard the employee had done something wrong, but the response was totally inappropriate. She got nearly a quarter million. County even appealed my decision and lost.

If the facts are getting through the media and other filters ...

Nez was contract. In this case you need cause to terminate. However Nez resigned. Ignoring that, Nez apparently was told no more SETI at some point. Somehow after that point SETI ended up on an image load that went to all (most all) of the computers in the district, 5000 IIRC. One must consider that a contract benchmark that wasn't met. Cause for termination.

School district property was apparently found at Nez's house without authorization. Employee theft is always a reason for termination.

The rest of it really doesn't matter. Job is gone and no unemployment.

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Is Misfit still around? The only one to make contact....

Sorry... I've been hardcore gaming. Looks like I missed out on the fireworks. I'll have to read more about it later.

As for the truth being revealed... I've known for years but was told by DA himself to respect Nez's privacy and not reveal what I knew.

But this is why I used to laugh when people would try to guess how he had so many computers. They would say A school, or A college. Nobody ever guessed a school district. :P

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me@rescam.org

Just saw this news article posted, working to verify if it is accurate:

MESA, Ariz. — 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.


Now, if they claim it's going to cost $1M to remove the BOINC/SETI, how many machines did the man install the software on? And even it it's a 'ton', their IT department must be either (A) incompetent, (B) Lazy, or (C) in the stone age, since it's shouldn't be hard to use any modern network management tool to find what machines are'infected' and then run an advertisement to remove the software. I could do that easy in an hour or two, and I'm a slow worker

Finaly, I'm calling BS on the 'the program also bogged down the district's system and interfered with technology use in classroom' statement

IDIOTS.

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Kinda sad, really.

Disappointing to realize that, if the story is true, then NEZ is just a thief.

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

Albert Einstein

Kinda sad, really.

Disappointing to realize that, if the story is true, then NEZ is just a thief.

Better and wait for the full story, so far it seems mostly like Tabloid reporting.

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

Is Misfit still around? The only one to make contact....

Sorry... I've been hardcore gaming. Looks like I missed out on the fireworks. I'll have to read more about it later.

As for the truth being revealed... I've known for years but was told by DA himself to respect Nez's privacy and not reveal what I knew.

But this is why I used to laugh when people would try to guess how he had so many computers. They would say A school, or A college. Nobody ever guessed a school district. :P

Yer right Misfit and welcome back.

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Savoir-Faire is everywhere!
The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST

Kinda sad, really.

Disappointing to realize that, if the story is true, then NEZ is just a thief.

Better and wait for the full story, so far it seems mostly like Tabloid reporting.

Pretty much hiamps, I'll wait, I'm sure someone may speak on this and CNN might even pick It up.

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Savoir-Faire is everywhere!
The T1 Trust, T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, America's First HST

Kinda sad, really.

Disappointing to realize that, if the story is true, then NEZ is just a thief.

Better and wait for the full story, so far it seems mostly like Tabloid reporting.

I agree. As I said 'if the story is true'

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

Albert Einstein

working to verify if it is accurate

Did any of your research involve reading the 300 or so posts here on S@H bridging numerous forums that pre-date your ?? :-)

Ah, well, what ever the real facts are, there's one fact that can be
affirmed - the media's proclivity for distorting things, and spreading
incorrect impressions - latest video clip, apparently from our local
Phoenix station KPNX, as posted on msnbc.com, is titled:

5,000 computers hijacked to search for UFOs


Of course, we know, they weren't hijacked - they had seti/boinc
installed by someone who possessed (at least technical) authorization
to do so.

And UFO's ?? sheeesh. In the body of the video, the reporter does
refer to UFOs.

The casual observer (who only reads the headline and then scrolls on)
could well think that this seti thing is probably a worm/virus thing that
might attack their computer too (at the behest of some UFO, no less!).

and so it goes.

[edit]
almost forgot - the thumbnail image attached to the video link is even a
grainy flying saucer photo, just to make it all real authentic!!

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Dave

I've known for years but was told by DA himself to respect Nez's privacy and not reveal what I knew.

I would hope you didn't need to be reminded by anyone to respect privacy and confidences! Even today.

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Admirers often pondered in their Internet chats about SETI@home in 2007: "What is NEZ? Who is NEZ?" Some even offered the theory that he "is a god."

WTF?! Was that some sort of lame google search to get a post from 2007? Perhaps they could have heard from Brad himself, once, oops thanks mod Misfit - your BOTD thread could've been world famous. Looks like I ended up saving myself a lot of BS email interview requests. ;)

OK, as for the rest. He was the I/T Director. That means the top dog in the districts computer dept. Unless specified in his contract it would be up to HIM to ultimately decide what hardware gets used/upgraded/bought. Adding SETI or any other software project is an after-the-fact issue that is unrelated to any purchasing allegations.

After reading the news article and comments from his fellow/former employees I cannot believe that he had SETI installed all these many years without anybody else in the district ever knowing about it. That blows away all common sense. Most likely his prior boss did give him permission to originally run the software. Most likely his prior boss gave him permission to have/use district property at his home. How much was his pay cut for budget reasons? 20%. Not a furlough, just a straight cut. It's like working a day a week for free. If you do your own googling on his name you'll find district meeting minutes with Brad's name all over them dating back years. He was very involved in the tech aspect of the district. If he was replaced by the replacer's wife tells me this was all done to gain his ouster. You don't hire family in the public sector. It's a huge conflict-of-interest issue. I agree with the comments that Brad may come out of this a very wealthy man.

I would hope you didn't need to be reminded by anyone to respect privacy and confidences! Even today.

And acting like a condescending bastard doesn't help your plea.

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me@rescam.org

Doesn't matter if it's a sleeve bearing or a ball bearing -- it's the seals that count.

A sleeve bearing has no seal.

Sleeve bearings have two smooth surfaces with a film of oil or grease. It is even more important to have the friction-reducing lubrication, compared to a ball bearing.

If there is no seal, what keeps the lubrication in place for months or years?

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Finaly, I'm calling BS on the 'the program also bogged down the district's system and interfered with technology use in classroom' statement

IDIOTS.

The question is, is this article:

• A careful and accurate accounting of the facts without embellishment.
  
  
• An attempt by a reporter to help sell newspapers/advertising.
  
  
• A district official misquoted.
  
  
• Something more sinister.
  

I don't know which might be accurate. Best not to call anything.

(Except maybe the reporter, whatever the truth is, he/she likely didn't get it)

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Doesn't matter if it's a sleeve bearing or a ball bearing -- it's the seals that count.

A sleeve bearing has no seal.

Sleeve bearings have two smooth surfaces with a film of oil or grease. It is even more important to have the friction-reducing lubrication, compared to a ball bearing.

If there is no seal, what keeps the lubrication in place for months or years?

The bearing sleeve that the fan shaft is supported by is usually made of sintered bronze or a similar material....which is somewhat porous and holds the lubricant like a sponge, releasing it to the load bearing surface over time.

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

none of the above,

Unfortunetly the misinformation about Boinc/Seti is being spread far and wide by AP

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hQEEZ1hg7uNolSi46p83k1GIVXJQD9CBAQ901

based on the original article:

http://epaper.aztrib.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Search&Source=Find&Key=EVT/2009/12/02/63/Ar06304.xml&CollName=EVT_APD&DOCID=37594&Keyword=%28Brad~+and+Niesluchowski~%29&skin=EVTribune&AppName=1&PageLabel=GNA3&ViewMode=HTML

If you decide to comment, you may find this link helpful:

http://www.husd.org/DistrictOffice/GoverningBoard.aspx

Doesn't matter if it's a sleeve bearing or a ball bearing -- it's the seals that count.

A sleeve bearing has no seal.

Sleeve bearings have two smooth surfaces with a film of oil or grease. It is even more important to have the friction-reducing lubrication, compared to a ball bearing.

If there is no seal, what keeps the lubrication in place for months or years?

The bearing sleeve that the fan shaft is supported by is usually made of sintered bronze or a similar material....which is somewhat porous and holds the lubricant like a sponge, releasing it to the load bearing surface over time.

Yes. The thing that keeps it in place is surface tension.

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