Lars Appel’s port of PGP encryption runs on HP 3000 systems

Pretty Good Privacy, a widely-endorsed encryption program and protocol for messaging, runs on HP 3000 systems.

The software has applications for sending files which contain sensitive information over unsecured transmission protocols, such as FTP. Lars Appel, an HP support engineer who wrote a raft of MPE versions of such software, offers PGP 5.0i on his personal Web site. Appel recently retired from the HP support operations, but his software ports for the 3000, including the ground-breaking Samba port, remain available online.

At www.editcorp.com/Personal/Lars_Appel, a long list of Appel’s open source and freeware programs includes PGP and GNU Ghostscript for MPE/iX, which converts Postscript files to formats including PDF.

As for Appel, he left HP this spring after 13 years of supporting MPE for the HP Response Center. He wants to remain a resource for the 3000 community.

“I intend to stay in touch with MPE even after my HP time,” he said. “I do not yet have detailed plans for a new job. It might even end up with doing some freelance job that also involves MPE work. It would be a pity to dump all the knowledge and experience gained over the years. Especially as MPE is still fun.” He can be reached at lappel.3000@web.de.