Bad news reporting and dumb school administrators in one package...

[Guest]

This is a wonderful microcosm of what's wrong with both education and news reporting in this country today.

Here's the story:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34241415/ns/technology_and_science-space/

NBC itself called it a "search for UFOs" - as they apparently can't tell the difference between looking for flying suacers and looking for radio signals from distant stars.

In brief, IT director Brad Niesluchowski of Arizona's Higley Unified School District installed the SETI@home software on a large number of school PCs. I'm reading estimates of 5,000 PCs.

I know something about this software - I've been running it myself since the 1990s. As far as number of "workunits" processed, I'm in the top 1/2 of 1% worldwide (of well over a million people who've used the software) so I know whereof I speak.

First things first - it's mostly run as a SCREENSAVER. This kind of belies the "sub headline" on the MSNBC story of "Man used computer program that bogged down system; will cost $1M to fix".

SETI, and it's successor "BOINC" (Berkeley Open Infrastructure Network Computing) are designed to run as the lowest priority of ANYTHING on a PC - they ONLY do "idle time processing". It's impossible for it to "bog down" computers.

My initial reaction was "Wow, this guy is REALLY looking to climb up the performance charts".

More reports from other sources get some interesting quotes from superintendent Denise Birdwell on why she fired Brad. like how she would have supported cancer research (BOINC supports multiple projects of which SETI is only one) but "does not support the search for E.T." - ignoring the fact that SETI@home is probably the most respected distributed-computing projects in the world and just about the oldest. It was earlier versions of SETI@home's software that was "adapted" to create the open platform that has become BOINC.

Now here's the real kicker.. She thinks that this *screensaver* was slowing down "educational programs in every classroom". She goes on to magically estimate that it's cost her district "$1 million in added utility fees and replacement parts," with a further huge cost required to remove the software.

REPLACEMENT PARTS??? UTILITY FEES???

Another in a long line of clueless school administrators - people that have no idea what is going on in the schools and yet feel qualified to make all sorts of decisions managing what they don't "get".

But wait - there's more!

Later updates are now talking about allegations of stolen equipment and, as always seems to be the case, downloaded porn. It isn't until you get to the bottom of azcentral.com's version of the story that you hear specifics on the other allegations - some actually sound reasonable, but others show a staggering amount of cluelessness - like processors 'burning out' prematurely. This is rich. I've had a LOT of computers over the years and the only time a CPU ever "burned out" on me was when a cooling fan on the CPU chip fell off. My PCs run 24/7 and I've never had a problem with this.

But the superintendant, instead of focusing on other matters with 'meat' (like making budget decisions without input from others) picks on "space aliens".

Bridwell also said "It's not easy to remove it. You just can't hit an uninstall button."

Umm.. Yes - you CAN. In fact, you can set up a network login script so that the next time anyone fires up the computer, it can AUTOMATICALLY remove the software. Another example of cluelessness.

I just don't understand it. There are allegations of the guy bringing home PCs from the school system to run his home business, and she could talk about that - but does she? No - again - we get "space aliens".

Sorry - I just had to vent.

[Guest]

Sounds like the administrator does not know what she is talking about according to you.

A Villages Computer Club speaker had mentioned this. I think this was at the talk about using computer for astronomy.

[Guest]

I'd really like to know who, if anyone, is feeding the superintendant this "info". I mean, if the guy was misusing district property (PCs) at home and violating rules concerning budgets and procurement policies, that's plenty of ammunition to go after someone's job. But to be so fixated on "finding E.T." that you end up showing such ignorance makes me wonder.

[Guest]

So you think that this IT director putting unauthorized software in a bunch of school owned PCs is okay since he is searching for ET?

His ass should be fired and he should have to pay to remove all of the unauthorized software.

What about the power he used to process the software using these 'screensavers"? THat was not free.

There is no gray area. I don't care if it only costs $50 to remove the software. He did something he should not have done. PERIOD!!

[Guest]

I do not have or boinc on my computer but do have a similar program called folding@home that is used by Stanford to study brain protiens in the home of finding cures for Alzheimer's and other diseases of the brain. Like djplong I leave my computer on 24/7 to support this effort and can assure any and all that it takes away nothing from the usefulness of the computer.

If the school district is concerned about computer power usage, they should simply turn them off at night. That will reduce power bills, but taking seti off the computers does virtually nothing.

The programs are helping critical research and I encourage everyone let them make use of your computer's power when you are not. Also, if you own a Playstation 3, it can be used in the same way and contributes significantly more processing power than your PC. The superintendent’s statement that seti’s statistic and have dropped drastically shows total ignorance of what is going on in the world of research. There are millions that support seti, folding@home and similar programs realizing that it is the interest of all of us.

[Guest]

zcaveman: Not, I don't think it's ok. But why is the superintendant zeroing in on the SETI@home stuff - and doing it so BADLY? If you actually knew anything about it, there is NO EFFECT. And here's another clue - if the computers in the district are set up to go to sleep (power saving) after a certain amount of time, SETI doesn't keep them awake. You said "what about the power" - there was NO EFFECT. If it was district policy to leave the computers on 24/7, there's no difference. If the district turned them off, then SETI was off.

As a side note, I find it interesting that he only amassed some 5 million workunits with 5000 computers (the number quoted in the stories).

Here at home, I had a maximum of 4 desktops and a laptop. I've been with the project for 10 years and I've amassed just shy of 2.5 million workunits. This tells me that there weren't 5000 PCs running 24/7 for years - his numbers would be a LOT higher. Based on those numbers, the PCs were probably hibernating or going to sleep mode after a certain amount of inactivity.

The part that gets me is that there seem to be some FAR more serious charges - not being authorized to take *18* PCs home with him and running some sort of home-based business on them, questions about procurement and whether or not proper bidding procedures were followed, etc.

But those are "boring" news stories.