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Worker Fired For Running SETI On State-Owned PCs
Formica writes "A programmer working for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services was fired for running SETI software on a state server. As quoted in this article,
department head Tom Hayes says, 'I think that people can be comfortable that security has beamed this man out of our building.' More articles from Google."
*winces* context clash! Please, don't mix your metaphors. Star Trek!=SETI. At all.
This qualifies as "Useless waste of government resources", just like browsing Slashdot. See ya, buddy.
Life in Orange County
maybe he was searching for illegal aliens stealing jobs in ohio
Finally we have the proof. The state is covering up the existence of ET's I can see "they" now - "One computer less for them to know the truth MUAHAHAHAHA"
"The message that you sent was undeliverable to the following: hayest@odjfs.state.oh.us (user not fou nd)"
You can imagine the scene.
Hayes: You! Computer monkey. Stop these e-mails coming to me or I'll fire you and make childish, attention-seeking comments to the press.
Unused cycles don't cost anything, dipshit.
I wonder what it would be like to have a Slashdot effect on phone...
I e-mailed the bastard!
3 9&tid=126&tid=1
Here's the message:
Good morning/afternoon/evening Mr. Hayes!
You have just appeared on Slashdot as the asshole of the day today (09 October 2004), the largest geek news website. Expect many many more e-mails and possibly telephone calls and faxes from other geeks like me!
Use of such software on production line equiptment isn't a good idea in the first place. SETI does not cause damage, but may slow things down. Warning, pay cut, write up, whatnot might have been a more suitable punishment, but fireing the dude and saying:
"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."
is just uncalled for. And because of your actions, this is now on slashdot and you have basically been deemed asshole of the day.
Your personal info is in the comment tree of the article such as address, this e-mail address, fax, etc.
Here is the link: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/09/17402
Good luck!
"And so the Trekkies were executed in the mannor most befitting virgins - thrown into volcanoes" - Futurama
Quote: Tom Hayes, who will retire as director in October, said Wednesday that in his three-year tenure the department has replaced or is starting work on replacing six of the seven major computer systems running agency programs.
Good point.
However, all the spyware slowed down the computers to the point where their OS's (Win95/8) crash whenver you loaded a spreadsheet of any significant size, so the county bought ALL NEW computers.
I was at the auction when they got rid of the old computers, and there was nothing wrong with them.
Anyway, IIRC, SETI@Home only cuts in when there are unused clock ticks, correct? So instead of a loss in productivity, it was a small loss of money due to the activity of the processors.
Interviewer: "So, why were you let go of your last position?"
TheGuy: "Well, I was fired for using company equipment to find space aliens."
Interviewer: "Space aliens?"
TheGuy: "Yip!"
Interviewer: "Um, okay, nice meeting you, we'll call you, don't call us."
Table-ized A.I.
Been running Folding@Home. Like to see them fire someone for that. "Oh yeah, we fired him because he was using spare governement computer resources to try to find cures and other medical breakthroughs."
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Umm, the busy signal?
Ecce Europa - Web Design for Business
The real question is, how bad is the thing this guy did? Does it rise to the level of termination? How much taxpayer money did he waste? How much risk to security did he cause? Were there other mitigating circumstances, such as already being told not to do this once before, or did he have several other questionable items on file?
I've run a few calculations of my own to determine how much taxpayer money he wasted, and I arrived at 35 cents/year electricity-wise. According to a careful analysis and security risk assessment, the mean cost per year of additional security problems due to SETI is roughly 3 cents/year (it would be much lower, but my complex analysis takes into account that this was a production server for the government of an entire state, and we all know that government production servers run calculations that are of great value and importance...this particular production server was most likely figuring out how to balance Ohio's budget heavily on the surplus side so that the state could afford to treat little old ladies compassionately when they cannot afford health care instead of leaving them to die in the street; or perhaps it was about to finish a calcuation that would allow Ohio to do away with gang violence and ensure that would-be gangsters grow up and get good jobs in marketing). This brings us to a grand total of 38 cents/year.
Now we must also consider the intangibles. First, it is important that government organizations are ruled with an iron fist. Working for the state is not like having a normal job...at most workplaces, bosses are expected to treat their employees with great care and respect. But as we all know, in government organizations, it is far more important to ensure that the governmental workers are terrified at every moment they'll lose their jobs for any reason at all; otherwise, the system quickly degenerates into utter chaos. We must keep government workers in this constant state of fear in order to guarantee that they scurry around and look busy even when they have little to do. This is necessary because if they do not look busy at the foot soldier level, people may begin to realize that politicians have directed an undue amount of funds from the state and federal legislatures to the enterprise-in-question unnecessarily, and these extra millions of dollars are actually of little direct benefit to the people. Rather, it gives the government a place to put money for the current year's budget until the politicians find a way to redirect it to other important state affairs, such as assuaging special interest groups and paying lobbyists in order to get reelected. This is important because if our exalted leaders, who have the best interests of the people at heart and who shoulder an enormous responsibility to them while meeting the highest standard of ethics, cannot secure reelection, the government could fall to corruption and waste.
There's another intangible here as well. We must ensure that, in order to keep turnover low in the more significant positions, we allow managers in governmental organizations to indulge in behaviors that suit their personalities so they will feel a high level of job satisfaction. In this case, Mr. Hayes' personality is obviously one of vindictiveness and unfairness. In order to keep him satisfied at his job, we should support his right to paint this employee as a man who believes in space aliens and was willing to sacrifice the safety and security of the resources of the state of Ohio and waste hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to pursue his absurd search for little green men. We must, just for this moment, overlook the fact that this is serious research going on at several esteemed institutions around the country, many of which are public institutions supported by public funds. We should also probably forget about the scientific summits, attended by the likes of Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov, that addressed such projects as SETI. In this case, it is much better for everyone involved to focus on the fact
but have you considered the following argument: shut up.
> Maybe Tom won't be the only one 'beamed' out of the building.
Funnier yet if the long sought ET's abduct Hayes for a weekend of hot recreational probing.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Not in Columbus, Ohio. The village idiot is heading the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
with this reply, I've lost the chance to moderate this thread, but...
Doesn't the photo of this Tom Hayes look almost exactly like Bill Lumberg from Office Space??
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0170550/
http://jfs.ohio.gov/director.stm
yeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaah....
You're assuming that actually finding aliens would be serving the public. Suppose SETI finds the kind of aliens that kick the crap out of a world as in the movie Independence Day?? Wouldn't do the public much good if we start beaming back "Hey, over here!!" messages...
Furthermore, and I have to point this out to users ALL the time- the computer they use is not theirs. It belongs to the company, as does the telephone, the power that PC uses, and its internet connection.
Bet you're a popular guy around the office
Literalism isn't a form of humor, it's you being irritating.
Certainly he should have downloaded SETI@Work.
~D
Admittedly I don't know what the situation is in the US but in the UK the legal system views "stealing" telephone usage, bandwidth and so forth as "theft of electricity" the missing goods being the actual electrons (theoretically) - OK, perhaps it may not make complete sense from a scientific point of view.
Maybe he beats his wife, hates jews, and is a terrorist too. There's no evidence he isn't! Hell, I already hate this guy based upon what we don't know!
Maybe I'm crazy, but I don't take into consideration anything unless I actually have a reason to believe in it. Imagined justifications for the firing are just that, imagined. Unless you know either of these guys it's unfair to assume there were any straws on anyones backs.
I'll tell you this though, it does sound awfully bizzare this whole thing even gets in the news, and then this Tom Hayes ass makes public statements questioning his intelligence.
AccountKiller