They can be compared in that there are ethical considerations in both cases. As I said, abusing the supercomputer is a much more extreme case. In many ways, my examples are victimless crimes, while the supercomputer case had a far more tangible impact. In a relative moral scale, the supercomuting case was much more severe and would therefore have a more severe penalty. My whole point, I guess, is that even victimless crimes are cases where an ethical person should think twice before taking action.
I do feel compelled to point out that “victimless crime” is a loaded term that is abused by some people who want to poke their noses where they don’t belong. Some people would, for instance, want to say that growing your own weed and smoking it is a “victimless crime.” I’m not sure what the current laws are, but since this doesn’t involve interstate commerce, it’s not a crime at all, and it might be called a crime in the first place only because someone objects in general to smoking pot. Even if it were a crime, technically, I think the ethics in this case depend on the broader impact. If smoking pot improves your over-all wellbeing and doesn’t negatively impact your functioning in society, then it’s probably a good thing. If you’re neglecting your kids because of it, then it’s wrong. The ethical failure, however, is not in smoking pot but in failing to moderate the impact of your choices — it’s just as bad to neglect your kids playing video games online.
In the case of abusing equipment that was bought by tax-payer money, even if it’s “victimless,” it’s still unethical because you’re acting beyond your rights with respect to this asset that you have been trusted wtih. In other words, the ethical failure is not in the use of the equipment, per se, but rather in a breach of trust with respect to how you’re expected to use it. It’s one thing to borrow the company truck to go grab lunch. It’s entirely another to borrow company A’s truck to go do consulting work for company B, even if you’re not on company A’s clock at the time and you use your own money to fill the gas tank.