OHIO Cruncher busted for SETI

[ken008]

LINKLINK

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: ken008
LINK

No link?

 

[ken008]

Link Fixed. This guy needs our help. This was on the front page of the " Cleveland Plain Dealer " today. The guy is 63 years old. His regret is that it screwed up his stats. The printed article had more details.

 

[Hyperfocal]

Sad case and bad reporting.

BUT-- he found out the hard way that you always have to have permission before you start loading DC applications on work computers.

 

[Unforgiven]

that link didnt work for me and i had to hunt down the story. below is the story in its entirety.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hunt for little green men yields only a pink slip
Friday, October 08, 2004
Ted Wendling
Plain Dealer Bureau

Columbus- In recent years, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has fired employees for collecting illegal unemployment benefits, downloading pornography, even for having sex in their cubicles.

But on Thursday, Charles E. Smith went where no department employee has gone before - he is the first to be fired for using state property to search for alien beings.

Smith, a $60,000-a-year programmer, was dismissed after he admitted having used one of the department's computer servers since last October to process information for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence project, run by the University of California at Berkeley.

In a user profile he posted on the SETI project's home page, Smith, 63, boasted that using Ohio's computer network to search for extraterrestrial life was "certainly worth putting on machines that sit here and run 24/7 anyway! It does scre w up my wor klo ad average statistics, though."

It screwed up more than Smith's statis tics, once department investigators and Di rector Tom Hayes learned that he was using state property to search for E.T.

"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," Hayes said. "I think that people can be comfortable that security has beamed this man out of our building."

Smith did not return a phone call seeking comment, but a disciplinary report says he told administrators that he didn't think loading the SETI software on the server was "that big a deal" because he ran the program only on weekends and on weekdays between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., when the server wasn't being used.

 

[jtusa]

If I ran SETI on every server here at work we'd be in first place in a matter of weeks.

 

[MedicBob]

Just sad, but a reminder to get permission prior to using work/other's computers

 

[Engineer]

"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," Hayes said. "I think that people can be comfortable that security has beamed this man out of our building."

That guy is a fvcking jerkoff!!! :|:|:|

He needs to look in the mirror to see NON-intelligent life and also an @sshole!!!

Regardless, he should have gotten WRITTEN permission to run SETI.

 

[zodder]

I took SETI off all my servers a few months ago.

"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," Hayes said. "I think that people can be comfortable that security has beamed this man out of our building."

Jackass. I hope he gets fired next.

 

[Polo]

If only I could load SETI on the work's servers...
Around 200 servers ranging from PIII Xeon 750 MHz to HP9000 Quadri PA-8700 (750MHz).

 

[DanC]

deja-freakin'-vu.

What's next? 7 felony charges? These people OBVIOUSLY haven't found out what idiots GA already made of themselves with the same situation.

:|:roll:

 

[Engineer]

Contact:
Tom Hayes, Director
Ohio Department of Job and Family Services
30 E. Broad St., 32nd Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
614-466-6282
614-466-2815 fax
Web Site: www.state.oh.us/odjfs/index.stm

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: DanC
deja-freakin'-vu.

What's next? 7 felony charges? These people OBVIOUSLY haven't found out what idiots GA already made of themselves with the same situation.

:|:roll:

So far, Thank God, he has faced only an insulting idiot (and loss of his job) rather than what happened to me in Georgia.

 

[amdxborg]

Dumbass!!! By the arrogance in his statement one can only tell one thing, his a first class piece of crap! :|:|:|

Hope he gets abducted by aliens and experimented on!

 

[Dantoo]

Why am I getting angry again?


Is it because I see a pattern of:
Ignorance?
Stupidity?
Arrogance?
Total disregard for the health welfare and wellbeing of co-workers?


Yes that's it - All of the above.

I just breathe a sigh of relief that I live in a place where it's in fact illegal to dismiss an employee on such grounds. Here it is required that a written notice of a breach of work principles be served. Dismissal can only follow from repeated incidents or an established pattern of breaches all having been notified in writing. Instant dismissal grounds exist of course (shooting guy in next cubicle, owning large Barry Manilow CD collection etc..). You just get the feeling that people like this Hayes creature are cheap bullies that feed off inflicting terror upon those who they entrusted with the responsibility to guide and improve.

The sickest part of this is Haye's position and who he represents:
Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

I have no doubt that he will now be putting extra time in to try to find work for a 63 year old unemployed IT Technologist while at the same time providing support for this same unfortunates family.
Ppppppppppppppt fat chance!

 

[Dantoo]

The Rat has already deserted:

Link

?Tom has a successful track record of improving the performance of public agencies,? Taft said. ?His tenure at ODJFS has demonstrated once again that he knows how to bring the best out of his employees.?

or maybe not according to this report:

"I'm responsible," said Mr. Hayes, a Democrat brought in by Republican Gov. Bob Taft in 2001 to right a newly merged agency found to have improperly withheld child support from some families and spent millions on computer systems that didn't work.

The failure to adjust the funding mix began several years before Mr. Hayes took over, but he also failed to catch the mistake as it worsened. Earlier this month, he canceled his planned retirement to stick around to correct the problem and plan for the 2006-07 budget."


Can't get link to work but it's from toledoblade.com

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Dantoo
The Rat has already deserted:

Link

?Tom has a successful track record of improving the performance of public agencies,? Taft said. ?His tenure at ODJFS has demonstrated once again that he knows how to bring the best out of his employees.?

Good riddance, but it's sad that his departure is such a pleasant affair for him. It would be better to see him fired for doing something really stupid, but you can't have everything, I guess.

 

[Moltres]

Tom Hayes did what he was supposed to do. We do have a progressive disciplinary system in place that limits what offenses merit immediate termination. Everyone in every department at the State of Ohio is required to read and sign a disclosure that clearly states that such activity is grounds for 15 day suspension or termination. I suspect his "no big deal" attitude bought him the harsher of the two.

This issue has come up time and again. There is no justification for using a public resource for something it was not intended for. We have 3 newspapers here that would love to report such a misuse of funds. It is understandable how Mr. Hayes wants to make sure there is no sanction of this type of behavior by the State. I suspect they will withhold criminal charges and restitution unless Mr. Smith grieves his termination or the federal CMS department conducts an audit.

 

[networkman]

It's definitely a different game when you're working for a governmental entity. In my own case, I have written permission to run a project(CPDN) only on my own workstation and no other. Period. My boss, who is the IT Director does the same on his own workstation and that's it.

It's aggravating to see dozens.. now hundreds of P4 class machines left on at night and have no way to tap their completely wasted CPU power, but with the alternative being possible job loss and the accompanying negative publicity for the organization, the machines have to be left alone.

I rather suspect that the employee in this story was warned about "unauthorized" software being installed on state machines. I know that here in Michigan, IT departments have been cracking down a lot on this very same issue, not just because of peceived taxpayer-dollar waste, but also because most of the users may also unwittingly be allowing access to the network for virii, spyware, etc. that can compromise the network and other attached resources.

It's sad to see that someone lost their job over something like Seti@Home, but not unexpected either.

 

[Yo Ma Ma]

Originally posted by: Moltres
Tom Hayes did what he was supposed to do. We do have a progressive disciplinary system in place that limits what offenses merit immediate termination. Everyone in every department at the State of Ohio is required to read and sign a disclosure that clearly states that such activity is grounds for 15 day suspension or termination. I suspect his "no big deal" attitude bought him the harsher of the two.

This issue has come up time and again. There is no justification for using a public resource for something it was not intended for. We have 3 newspapers here that would love to report such a misuse of funds. It is understandable how Mr. Hayes wants to make sure there is no sanction of this type of behavior by the State. I suspect they will withhold criminal charges and restitution unless Mr. Smith grieves his termination or the federal CMS department conducts an audit.

I think the termination has more to do with Tom Hayes' smartass attitude "beam me up Scotty" type of flippancy than the programmer's lack of showing proper remorse for the heinous crime committed.

I don't know how long the programmer had been with the department, but good luck finding work when you've been fired @ 63 years of age.

 

[zodder]

Sue for age discrimination!

 

[BofRA]

Originally posted by: networkman
It's definitely a different game when you're working for a governmental entity. In my own case, I have written permission to run a project(CPDN) only on my own workstation and no other. Period. My boss, who is the IT Director does the same on his own workstation and that's it.

It's aggravating to see dozens.. now hundreds of P4 class machines left on at night and have no way to tap their completely wasted CPU power, but with the alternative being possible job loss and the accompanying negative publicity for the organization, the machines have to be left alone.

I rather suspect that the employee in this story was warned about "unauthorized" software being installed on state machines. I know that here in Michigan, IT departments have been cracking down a lot on this very same issue, not just because of peceived taxpayer-dollar waste, but also because most of the users may also unwittingly be allowing access to the network for virii, spyware, etc. that can compromise the network and other attached resources.

It's sad to see that someone lost their job over something like Seti@Home, but not unexpected either.

I know the pain of seeing wasted crunching power. I recently transferred from the USS Ronald Reagan to the USS Dwight D Eisenhower. On both ships there are over 700 P4 2.8's running 24/7 and I cannot due a thing with them. :brokenheart: But as said above One's job has to come first!!!!

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: Moltres
Tom Hayes did what he was supposed to do. We do have a progressive disciplinary system in place that limits what offenses merit immediate termination. Everyone in every department at the State of Ohio is required to read and sign a disclosure that clearly states that such activity is grounds for 15 day suspension or termination. I suspect his "no big deal" attitude bought him the harsher of the two.

This issue has come up time and again. There is no justification for using a public resource for something it was not intended for. We have 3 newspapers here that would love to report such a misuse of funds. It is understandable how Mr. Hayes wants to make sure there is no sanction of this type of behavior by the State. I suspect they will withhold criminal charges and restitution unless Mr. Smith grieves his termination or the federal CMS department conducts an audit.

I agree. It's the personal attacks on intelligence of the person that pisses me off. If he wanted to think it, that's fine. But to publish it was unacceptable, especially for a government official. I hope his job is next!

 

[panhead49]

:|

 

[LANMAN]

So since they they fired Charles, is Tim thinking about firing the entire IT department also for not locking down the workstations via a group policy?

Tim painted his own picture for those whom he manages. If you don't want users to install unapproved software then your policies should dictate such.

Would it be implied then that if an employee gets caught installing, running etc.. unapproved software on a company owned computer system that the penality will be dismissal? No questions asked, zero tolerance etc..??

Being the CIO in my company, I find Tim at fault for making it happen. Obviously he doesn't have common sence either because it sounds like he fired one of his key employees for a minor violation. (Can anyone confirm that this company even has such a policy? Paper/software or otherwise?)

Now I ask each of you, regardless if your in a supervisory position or not, if were in a deparment head position would you fire someone for running SETI?

Tim should have saved everyone the trouble and just told Charles, "Take that stuff off... and don't run it again." I think Charles would have complied with the demand and all is well.

Way to go Tim!! You just showed the world what it's like to be a total hard a$$ and a idiot at the same time! What did you gain? Absolutely nothing. Now spend the rest of your days trying to replace Charles with a ignorant teenager that will hide SETI better then the people before him.

Anyone ever figure this was Tim's way of getting rid of a high paid employee? I wouldn't put it past him in today's corporate enviornment.

My .02 but that being said, their both wrong in what they did. Some people (Tim) still display the lack of common sense based upon the problems set in front of them. I don't think I would pat myself on the back for firing one of my key employees for running SETI on his computer and then make it public. (Per his remark of: "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," Hayes said. "I think that people can be comfortable that security has beamed this man out of our building."

Wow what a man.. what a BIG man!!

Oh and BTW Tim, don't speed when you leave home from work. God forbid you would break the law too. :|

Maybe next time the CEO will fire you for your lack of common sense and embarassment to your company. (No matter the outcome, it still displays that your company had an employee that screwed up and you were in control)
Congrats on a great victory firing the dude, but it still looks like you just got a close 2nd in the looser line.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall when your boss says, "Nice job Tim, but damn, do you really think that firing him was the answer? Now you pick up the slack and search for another replacement, or it's your a$$ that's going to be beamed out of here in a few weeks."

It's a fine line between being a worker and a leader. Tim, you have a lot to learn my friend. The things you lack, cannot be taught in college.

--LANMAN