SETI@home Project Responds To School Firing

SETIGuy writes "SETI@home Project Scientist Eric Korpela has responded to many of the allegations made by Higley Unified School District administrator Denise Birdwell regarding the difficulties caused by the installation of SETI@home, which led to the recent firing of the school's technology supervisor. One of the project's founders, David Gedye, takes issue with Dr. Birdwell's claim that 'an educational institution ... cannot support the search for E.T.' Meanwhile, the fired supervisor denies misusing school computers."

Comments

Re:Ignorance in the comments from the Superintende

[Anonymous Coward]

There's no ignorance in her remarks, she knows exactly what she is doing. I've worked at a school district in Arizona for the past 5 years and what is happening here is typical. A new superintendent comes in and wants to fill all the high paying jobs with cronies. This guy just didn't leave quietly so they trashed his reputation (they do that all the time). Arizona school districts are some of the most corrupt organizations that i've ever dealt with. BTW don't feel too sorry for him, he more than likely got his job the same way, its the way things are done here.

Aren't we missing the point?

[Nefarious Wheel]

Aren't we missing the point by ruling entirely on accounting grounds? Aren't educational establishments supposed to be doing research, as a part of their fundamental reason for being? I want to know whether there's life out there. I want a cure for cancer.

Yes, I know, and you want a pony. But we're better than that, aren't we? We have to be.

Maybe we should start by teaching a bit of history, starting with the Reformation and the Rennaisence.

We have had personal computers and the internet for about a decade now. A decade. We have utterly no clue how that's going to affect civilisation in the future. But do we want to look back and say "Yes, for the longest time there we could have had it all, but nobody wanted it" ?