SETI@home, not at work

You can search for intelligent life in the universe. Just don't look for it at work.

That was the message drilled home to a worker at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, who was fired last week for using the state's computers to run SETI@home, an application that lets computer users donate processing time to the search for extraterrestrials.

According to a report in Cleveland newspaper The Plain Dealer, Charles Smith was fired after he confessed to running the application on the state's servers since last October. The paper reported that he told investigators that he was only running the program between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.

But the admission was met with harsh words from Director Tom Hayes, The Plain Dealer reported.

"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 told the paper. "I think that people can be comfortable that security has beamed this man out of our building."