Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 12/02/2009 10:33:50 AM PST by JoeProBono
A computer administrator with the Higley Unified School District in Gilbert, Arizona, has resigned during an investigation into suspicious activity.
He's accused of wasting district resources, totaling more than a million dollars to search for UFOs.
The IT administrator is accused of installing a program on every one of the district's 5,000 computers.
The school district was unknowingly the largest contributor to the "SETI" program, the search for extra terrestrial intelligence.
Authorities say 38 year old Brad Nezloochowski rigged up Higley School District computers to help look for intelligent life in outer space.
Superintendent Denise Birdwell says the district recently discovered Nezloochowski installed U.C. Berkley's "SETI At Home" program, which uses volunteer's computers to process mass amounts of information.
Energy use and equipment loss is estimated to be as much as $1.6 million over 9 years.
Nezloochowski's mother said she's not aware any obsession with UFOs, but says she has heard her son talk about "SETI."
Gilbert police said they've been investigating the former employee for the last two months.
Higley's superintendent says she expects he will face criminal charges.
You win the thread!
It depends on whether the program kept the computer from going into sleep mode where it would use less energy. And whether he influenced the schools policy to leave the computers on.
See my cost analysis in post 18
On a serious note, this is why I hate journalists. SETI@home does not “hijack” computers, nor does it “look for UFOs”. Yellow journalism at its finest.
The total hours available (assuming pc’s left on 24*7*365) would be 394 million hours ,, if you assume 40 weeks a year , 8 hours a day 5 days a week of on time for 9 years you still have 72 million hours ,,, if this is a cpu intensive analysis program and it runs only during slack time you could burn a lot of electricity ,, the $1.6M pricetag sounds low.
It might be nice if they would be so zealous to expose the far bigger wastes of money in the public school system.
on 65nm processors, the power draw of 5,000 processors running 10 months a year from 6pm (or whatever) to 6AM ( or whatever) could cost almost $150,000 a year easily.
Except he’s been doing it for 9 years, which means the costs were greater during the mid 2000’s as the processors were energy hogs.
SETI itself estimates that the program will shorten the lifespan of cpus and mobo components by at least 10%. (From some Q&A the head researchers had in the last few years) Multiply that by 5,000 computers. And all of the defendant’s overtime costs to service all the fried components he fried.
This guy will be thrown into gen pop, hope he takes some self defense lessons right quick.
Of course it comes from UC-Berkeley. Funded by taxpayer money no doubt.
.....what makes you think we can’t.....
Excellent question. I don’t know the answer but so far we can’t.
There have been some efforts and we know a little, but so far it is not two way.
We think we know some of what they communicate to each other but can’t tell how a bee colony develops and communicates the consensus we know they reach
Thanks. Can you imagine trying to maintain computers in a school system? Kids messing up the computers, trying to train and support knucklehead teachers that specialized in “urban mob techniques” on how to use a simple program?
Thanks.
Excellent!
I want to believe
If you are married to a redhead, YOU KNOW THEY ARE AMONG US!
If the computers bogged down it was more likely from all the games and porn on them than anything academic!
I would load all the kids PCs with a standard Linux distro that I customized for the school, reimage liberally, rinse, repeat.
I suspect the biggest abusers wouldn’t be the kids. (;-)
Yes, unfortunately I suspect you are correct. Like you said, they don’t teach you how to use a PC when you are busy studying social justice, what a hellhole the US is, and how Heather Has Two Mommies.
I watched “V”. They are among us. It was on TV. /S
What are you saying about redheads? ;)
Higley: IT boss in trouble for alien search, porn
Hayley Ringle, Tribune
December 1, 2009 - 3:29PM
A longtime Higley Unified School District information technology director has lost his job and is under police investigation for taking computers home, downloading pornography and installing computer software throughout the district that searches for extraterrestrial intelligence.
It will take about a year and more than $1 million in estimated costs to fix the various problems caused by Brad Niesluchowski, who had worked in the Higley district since January 2000, said Superintendent Denise Birdwell.
Brad Niesluchowski
By downloading the unauthorized software in February 2000, Niesluchowski bogged down the district’s system, interfered with teachers’ technology use in the classroom and used unnecessary electricity, Birdwell said.
The district was forced to replace an estimated 2,300 computer processors because of the 24-hour use of the computers. There also was a security concern because the software activity required holes in the firewall, which potentially allowed others into the district’s system, she said.
“Clearly this is a disturbing find,” Birdwell said. “We acted quickly and found other things, such as incompetence to ethical concerns. The district is cooperating (with Gilbert police) and is the victim.”
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.
Niesluchowski resigned from the district Oct. 22, in lieu of termination. He was sent a termination notice on Oct. 7.
“It was in the best interests to let the criminal courts handle it,” Birdwell said.
District officials have been working with the Gilbert Police Department since mid-September, and it is considered an “active investigation,” said Sgt. Mark Marino, who wouldn’t comment further. A police report was not immediately available.
Niesluchowski’s lawyer, Robert Arentz with Phillips & Associates, did not return calls to comment.
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.”
To find out what the problem was, Higley officials hired five technology experts to investigate. One of the technology companies, Todotech, put together a districtwide technology audit that cost $15,000. The audit was discussed Nov. 5 at a school board meeting.
The four-month audit has uncovered many problems within the technology department, and suggested district officials reorganize the information technology department. New technology director Chuck Kelly started Nov. 23. The school board approved new job descriptions, and the six current technology employees are expected to reinterview for their jobs in January to see if they are qualified for the new positions.
The problems include a network system not designed to handle the district’s growth, a system in need of substantial repair and a building needed to securely house the network. There are also cabling problems and a lack of tracking inventory for technology equipment that is three years out of date.
It will take at least a year to fix all of the issues, Birdwell said.
The problems stem from Niesluchowski, who built the district’s system and has held several positions within the technology department.
The software he downloaded onto district computers, known as SETI@home, is a scientific experiment that uses Internet-connected computers to analyze radio telescope data in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
The software, which is typically downloaded on a home computer, uses part of the computer’s central processing unit power, disk space and network bandwidth.
Basically, whenever teachers or district employees weren’t using their computer, the software kicked into gear and used the computer’s power, space and bandwidth for its research. SETI@home involves millions of home users from around the world in research conducted by the University of California Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory, according to their Web site.
Niesluchowski, who went by NEZ in the program, was considered a “world grid runner” for the SETI competition because of the many computers he was able to install the program on. He was seen as a “God” because of his status, Birdwell said.
Members on a message board discussing the SETI program often wondered who NEZ was because of his “high credit.” One user, who went by the name Captain Avatar, even surmised that NEZ was not using all of his own computers, “probably some university or corporate system.”
The problems were discovered at the beginning of the school year when teachers were having problems in the classroom with new technology installed during the summer. Five schools received interactive white boards, document cameras and laptops as part of a district technology rollout, Birdwell said.
Teachers who were using their interactive white boards in the classroom, and turned away for a few minutes to teach a lesson, turned back to see their boards had shut down. They had to reboot their computer to finish the lesson. Teachers were also having problems sending in grades, Birdwell said.
Former administrators, including former superintendent Joyce Lutrey, knew about the software and told Niesluchowski to remove it. He assured them he had removed it, and no one looked into whether it had been done, Birdwell said.
“No matter how long someone has been here, they should have been held accountable,” she said. “Multiple administrators tried to handle it in a less aggressive fashion. I wish four years ago someone would have done something.
“It’s been a nightmare,” Birdwell said.
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