School Worker Fired For Using District PC To Chase Down Aliens
credit: East Valley Tribune |
That said, the deal is that school-owned computers were used for who knows how long to "analyze radio telescope data in an experiment to find extraterrestrial intelligence," and obviously that's not so kosher with whoever is in charge here. Thinking rationally about this, we can understand that SETI@home (which is a completely legitimate program, by the way) would force school-owned PCs to run longer (instead of falling to sleep after classes end) and would definitely tax PC hardware more. It's hard to put a finger on how much extra energy this scheme would consume and how much faster it would accelerate HDD deterioration, but still, we can't help but think the $1 million figure was just thrown out there for shock value.
SETI @ Home PC Client
And shock it has. Birdwell stated that the $1 million included figures to remove the SETI software, and that while the fellow blamed won't be returning for work, police are still conducting a broader investigation as we speak. Something tells us this guy really did more than just help some scientists locate aliens, but those sins are probably too embarrassing to be made public.
Network Cabling, Higley School District
credit: East Valley Tribune