Dunn and four others charged in HP spy case

I really respected Hewlett-Packard decades ago when I was learning to program computers.

They made the minicomputers, the terminals, and the printers that high students in the public school system in my county used to do their Computer Science class programming assignments.

What impressed me about the HP computers was the quality of their documentation.

Just by reading their computer manuals, I taught myself: B.N.F, SPL/3000, zero-address space architectures (stack-based processor), and my second ALGOL-derived block programming language.

My first and third ALGOL-derived languages were PL/C, a PL/1 compiler from Cornell that ran on IBM/370 mainframes, and Pascal. All three of these languages I also taught myself back in high school. My school system also taught me BASIC and FORTRAN. I taught myself a couple assembly languages during my junior and senior years as well.

The first programming language I ever used was BASIC, and I ran it on two models of HP's once popular minicomputers. HP was instrumental in my computer education during high school.

I also used computers made by Honeywell and IBM during my first year of CS education during high school. HP computers were the main resource I used to learn how to program computers.

HP was people-friendly back then.

Their manuals were amazing, they had newsletters that were very educational, and they would even sell their manuals to high school kids. They had an office just 20 or 30 miles from where I lived that sold them to me.

HP treated me like an adult when I called their sales number. Their employees were probably my very first contact with a computer company. I was impressed with their knowledge.

Now I see that company has changed. Really changed.

It is sad.

globeandmail.com: Dunn and four others charged in HP spy case:

Former
Hewlett-Packard Co. chairwoman Patricia Dunn and four others are facing criminal charges in California, including identity theft and conspiracy, for their role in a covert hunt for a boardroom mole.

The charges, filed Wednesday by California Attorney-General Bill Lockyer, mark the latest blow for the venerable computer maker, which is also facing investigations by the U.S. Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Congress.

Patricia Dunn has recently made statements that (a) it is not illegal, (b) all the companies are doing it.

Facts that have subsequently come out in the press contradict her claims. First, she has been charged with crimes stemming from her actions. Second, Apple Computer sued - rather than illicitly sleuthed - to find out who was leaking information about its unreleased products.

When the court denied its plea to discover who had leaked confidential informaiton to the journalists, Apple dropped its case. The matter was closed. Apple did not cross the line that Dunn and HP crossed.

The same article explains the penalties for the charges if there are convictions.

The five defendants are each facing four charges: use of false or fraudulent pretenses to obtain confidential information from a public utility; unauthorized access to computer data; identity theft; and conspiracy to commit those crimes.

All four counts carry a maximum prison sentence of three years. The maximum fine for each of the three underlying felonies is $10,000 (U.S.). A conviction for conspiracy to fraudulently obtain phone records, or conspiracy to unlawfully access and use computer data, carries a maximum fine of $10,000.

Computer companies need to make money, but they should not just be about making money.

You have to like people and computers too.

Otherwise you are just spinning out of control, without a compass to guide your course or a rudder to steer you on it.

I hope Dunn learns to appreciate people and computers more at some point in her life.

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