Running SETI@Home? Read This.

[ethics]

I admit that I used to run UD for BBR team. Came in 4th place, overall because I was loading it on to some client pc's at work. If I got fired for that, "see ya!" According to Techdirt:
<blockquote>
Perhaps Charles E. Smith should have paid a little more attention to the @home part of the SETI@home project. It appears he was fired for running (http://www.newsnet5.com/news/3793629/detail.html)it on some servers at his office, which happens to be the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. While it is true that he doesn't own these computers and probably should have asked permission first, this does seem a bit extreme.

Lots of techies run distributed projects on their work computers. Even worse, Mr. Smith probably did not deserve the following insult his boss gave him on the way out the door: "I understand his desire to search for intelligent life in outer space, because obviously he doesn't find it in the mirror in the morning. I think that people can be comfortable that security has beamed this man out of our building."

Seems a bit harsh for a guy who was just trying to use spare computing cycles to help a legitimate, NASA-supported, scientific project out. However, at least he didn't face the same threats as David McOwen, who was threatened with jailtime a few years ago, after installing distributed.net clients on computers at the university where he worked.</blockquote>

Now, as we all techies know distributed crunching utilizes UNUSED CPY cycles. Meaning that when the machine is not doing much, it crunches numbers for these projects. I am not too familiar with SETI since I never ran that. The United Devices program for Cancer was certainly a well oiled program that never caused ANY problems whatsoever.

[joseftu]

I did (a long time ago) run SETI@Home on my work computer. I guess I'm lucky I never got caught! (In fact, I once ran it over the Xmas vacation, and the image burned permanently onto the monitor screen. But I think I was the third or fourth inheritor of that monitor, and it's long gone now).

[ShinyTop]

I ran SETI for over 4 years and only quit when I was unemployed and found that another running it on 4 computers like me had figured out the cost to be $50/mo. However, I would never have dreamed of running it on 1200 GE computers without permission and would have expected to lose my job if discovered. That said, his boss's comments were way overboard and obviously somebody more in love with his own voice than with fair treatment.

[Andy]

I made my comment elsewhere on this, and I'll share it here too...

I sincerely hope that the state of Ohio, is equally searching out and FIRING employees who install (without permission, I'm sure) non-oem screensavers, webshots, spyware, crapware like "bonzai-buddy", music sharing software, and anything else that did not come pre-loaded with the "state approved software image".
But somehow I doubt they would think to do so, since SETI is such a "threat", they will just stop here and pat themselves on their own backs.

If this department is like any other government run office, they most likely FORCE a PC into locked-screenaver mode after 15-30 minutes of idle time, and if it is anything like the graphic-intensive crap the Army uses.. guess what...

CPU is sitting @ 100% when the machine is just sitting there locked. :rolleyes:

Is what he did "wrong" sure... he should have asked first, but I'll wager there is at least one peson there usin the scrensaver mode, or 5 or 6 more people in that office doing one of the above things I mentioned, and think that they're OK since it's not SETI.

[mers2]

I'm sorry, but anyone who installs software that makes use of the <b>employer's</b> system resources, unused or not, without the express permission of the employer deserves to be fired. That to me is stealing. In this case stealing from the taxpayer. The employee isn't paying for a share of the electricity, maintenance, etc. to do the crunching. The employer's remarks about the individual were way over the top and perhaps the employee might have some recourse for that.

[Biker]

Most companies have an acceptable use policy and if you violate it, you're screwed. Don't feel sorry for this guy in the least.

[ethics]

Permission should have been sought but how about a warning before firing a guy? He wasn't doing anything bad or trying to get company in trouble. Ok, he goofed by trying to do something geeky, but something beneficial?

[Biker]

Considering it was a government facility, he's lucky he just got canned. I'm sure he signed something that stated what the penalties were for violating the policy. If there was a loophole for him to use, I'm sure he would have used it, but most policies are cut and dry. Violate them and out you go.