Seems somewhat ironic

Story: San Francisco's mayor gets back keys to the networkTotal Replies: 7
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flufferbeer

Jul 28, 2008
10:39 AM EDT
Actually, didn't Hans Reiser work about 20-30 miles of Terry Childs in the East part of the San Francisco Bay Area? Everyone reading this knows that Reiser was also heavily involved with IT, although he was of course as a programmer much less directly involved with any sort of WAN Admin.

Hey, even at its very worst, Terry Childs at least cannot be convicted of murder as was the case with Hans Reiser. That could gives a definite positive spin to this ongoing IT saga.
tuxchick

Jul 28, 2008
11:45 AM EDT
LOL flufferbeer. So the baseline for every IT story could be "Well at least he didn't murder anyone!"
flufferbeer

Jul 28, 2008
11:46 AM EDT
I already checked this out and Terry Childs and Hans Reiser are about a year or two apart, not that their closeness in age by itself is of any significance.

@tuxchick "Well at least he didn't murder anyone!" Something positive here even with the grim humor of this :)

Although I do see that some admin's responding to news of Terry Child's arrest are defending him by using language such that Terry was trying to save "the baby he gave birth to" from those incompetent city officials, meaning rescuing the big-city WAN he built himself. "Saving his baby" language sounds very personal with that :( Maybe some scary threats, but no stalking nor downright murder of a person thank goodness!
jezuch

Jul 28, 2008
11:50 AM EDT
I don't like how the mainstream media talk about a "vicious admin taking entire city hostage". Sensationalism in its finest! Some positive spin would be nice, but common sense would be more adviced.
Sander_Marechal

Jul 28, 2008
12:10 PM EDT
Quoting:no stalking


Excuse me?! While Childs was right that the city officials were incompetent (see the password fiasco shortly afterwards), he *was* snooping on network traffic to see what they were writing about him. That's cyberstalking at the very least.
NoDough

Jul 28, 2008
12:41 PM EDT
Heh. I can see it now. Our new tagline.

FOSS Advocates: We mostly don't kill people. :-)
vainrveenr

Jul 28, 2008
1:14 PM EDT
Quoting:Maybe some scary threats, but no stalking nor downright murder of a person thank goodness!
Seems that Terry's supporters would definitely agree. This snippet came out from the Wired.com blogpiece 'San Francisco Admin Charged With Hijacking City's Network' at just about the exact time news of Terry's arrest first came out:
Quoting:Outside of court, his attorney, Mark Jacobs, told reporters that Childs was "not a threat to public safety."

"He loves kittens," Jacobs quipped. "He didn't kill anybody. Murderers usually get $1 million bail."
from http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/07/sf-city-charged.htm...

Another side of this case serves to perhaps negate the "grim humor" aspect of the original thread. Yesterday's SFGate.com came out with the piece 'S.F. computer tech had turned life around' at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/27/... . This now reveals some conjecture that maybe Terry COULD have possibly stalked and physically assaulted others regarding his network. In regards to threatening and stalking
Quoting:It also dawned on them that Childs was the only department administrator capable of accessing the FiberWAN. That became a source of concern, authorities say, when they approached Childs and he reacted angrily.

"Childs had become increasingly hostile at work and defiant toward certain managers," police Inspector James Ramsey later wrote in an affidavit in support of a search of Childs' home and car.

On June 20, prosecutors say, Childs had a confrontation with the new head of security at his department, Jeana Pieralde, during what was described as an audit. Childs was upset that no one had told him what was happening, and the 6-foot-tall, 280-pound man began taking pictures of Pieralde with his cell phone. Pieralde locked herself in a nearby room and called a senior supervisor, Rich Robinson, for help.

Robinson in turn called Childs, who told him, "I'm ready for you, Rich, or I can come up to your office," prosecutors say. Pieralde says she heard Childs tell other Technology Department employees that he knew where they lived. Authorities say both Robinson and Pieralde filed police reports June 23.
In regards to possible physical assault
Quoting:Arguing that he had lied about his criminal record to get hired, prosecutors were able to persuade a judge not to lower Childs' bail. They also revealed that a search of his Pittsburg home had turned up a loaded 9mm magazine and .45-caliber bullets, which they said violated a state law against convicted felons possessing ammunition. They also said he had $10,000 in cash on him, which they cited as evidence that he intended to run.


Irony of the two cases of Reiser and Childs indeed, and perhaps more than imagined at the beginning of this thread.
gus3

Jul 28, 2008
3:15 PM EDT
If the reports of Terry Childs are even half true, he is a danger to the city of San Francisco.

The instant he showed signs of possessiveness, he should have been demoted at the very least. He did not own that network. Those who allowed him to think he did for as long as he did, should also be called to account for their dereliction.

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