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Search for aliens leads to out of this world costs for school district

Posted on December 2, 2009 at 11:02 AM

Updated Wednesday, Dec 2 at 1:08 PM

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MESA, Ariz. (AP) — A search for space aliens has been a very costly experience for the Higley Unified School District.

The district's former information technology director Brad Niesluchowski is accused of installing a computer software program that searches for extraterrestrial intelligence.

District Superintendent Denise Birdwell said it will take about a year and more than $1 million in estimated costs to fix the problem.

The downloaded software uses Internet-connected computers to analyze radio telescope data in the search for space aliens.

Whenever teachers or district employees weren't using their computers, the software kicked in and used the computer's power, space and bandwidth for its space search.

Niesluchowski resigned from the district Oct. 22.

His lawyer did not return calls to comment.

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Information from: East Valley Tribune, http://www.eastvalleytribune.com

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takeabreak said on December 2, 2009 at 10:10 AM

How sad. How do they figure a million dollers? that is obsurd! I am sorry that he did this without approval. To find out more visit http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

gvmtspook said on December 2, 2009 at 12:41 PM

Outrageous! 19 Years I have been a Network and Security Architect. I could write a program that when any computer in logged onto the network it looks for and uninstalls SETI@Home (the program that helps SETI look for ET, as mentioned in the article). Cost = 16 hours @ 125/hr = $2,000 say an extra month to weed out the corner cases where the program doesn't work = 20K At worst, if they did not have a centrally managed network and I had to add this = 30K with hardware cost. So I see AT MAX (and probably much cheaper) 52K and a month of work. ORRRR you could just get the computer club guys to do it for free.

mocast said on December 2, 2009 at 2:14 PM

Re-imaging a hard drive and synchronizing the whole network via a broadband connection and administrator privileges doesn't take a year or even close to $100. This is a ridiculous news story. A million dollars? Seriously? I'm a public school teacher. Do you know why people are sick of paying outrageous tax bills? THIS! I knew Denise Birdwell when she was a P.E. teacher in Nowhere, Arizona... She's smarter than this. I don't think we're getting the whole story here.

adamfausch said on December 2, 2009 at 2:33 PM

I will contract to go to add\remove programs for 1/2 million dollars.

brucefromhb said on December 2, 2009 at 5:42 PM

Adam, with all due respect, you have it backwards. Remember, this is a government contract I will contract to go to add\remove programs for 1 1/2 million dollars. *grin* .. and I agree with the other posters that are upset at yet another government waste of money.

denisebirdwell said on December 2, 2009 at 7:05 PM

If the District Superintendent really came up with that figure and time frame for removing seti@home, then she needs to be replaced and as quickly as possible. If it did cost that much, then obviously the solution would be to just leave the program on the computer(s). If it was to cost over a million, It would be just as cheap or cheaper to get all new computers and OS's, software etc.. which is probably what her ulterior motive really is but she choses to make a scapegoat out of the former IT director and come up with this lame excuse to replace equipment.