Asus Ships Cracking Software On Recovery DVD

Barence writes "Asus is accidentally shipping software crackers and confidential documents on the recovery DVDs that come with its laptops. The startling discovery was made by a PC Pro reader whose antivirus software was triggered by a key cracker for the WinRAR compression software, which was located on the recovery DVD for his Asus laptop. Along with the key cracker the disc also contained confidential Asus documents including a PowerPoint presentation that details 'major problems' identified by the company, including application compatibility issues. The UK reader is not alone, either — several users in the US and Australia have also found suspicious files on Asus discs."

Comments

Someone Is Getting Fired

[maz2331]

Someone is getting fired, and Asus is going to be getting sued.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[petwalrus]

I suspect perhaps they already were getting fired anyhow and decided to leave behind a 'legacy' they could be remembered for.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Four_One_Nine]

It's truly amazing how difficult it is to fire people in many organizations, so I doubt it is a guarantee that anyone will be fired.

However this is exactly the kind of public exposure of software piracy that the offended companies can use to boost earnings.

Firings=No Lawsuits=Yes

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[gEvil (beta)]

I suspect perhaps they already were getting fired anyhow and decided to leave behind a 'legacy' they could be remembered for.

Good thing they included their résumé in there. : p

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[adpsimpson]

Was it not Windows XP, before any service packs, which came with a file in the 'My Videos' which, when opened in a text editor, showed the cracked software version used to create it?

Did anyone ever lose their jobs over that one?

I've had a look on Google but searching for "Windows pirate video" only has one or two results...

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Skrynesaver]

It was in the wav files used in the XP tour introduction thinghy

LISTB INFOICRD 2000-04-06 IENG Deepz0ne ISFT Sound Forge 4.5

Was present in the files, a sign that a pirated version of Sound Forge from Deepz0ne of the Radium warez crew.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[daedae]

Really? All of the places I've worked (well, okay, so that's just been a university and Intel) have been "at will" employment--either party can terminate employment for any (or no) reason.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[fishbowl]

I remember thinking that should have been kind of a big deal. Then I remember never hearing another word about it before now.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[wud]

I don't think asus will get sued by winrar. This is obviously an accident, and im sure asus has purchased legal copies, or atleast they have now. Now they might get sued by Microsoft for violating the nda.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[AvitarX]

Not for any reason, but yes for no reason.

There are reasons it is legal to fire someone though.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Skrynesaver]

True, I wonder why the BSA never got involved ;)

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[daedae]

True, for a broad enough definition of any that was a false statement. I guess those restrictions are the ones that get called "no reason" ;)

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Miamicanes]

> Was it not Windows XP, before any service packs, which came with a file in the 'My Videos' which, when opened in a text editor,
> showed the cracked software version used to create it?

This was apparently surprising only to people who don't work for companies that actually make it easy for developers to BUY software without having to get approval up the management chain all the way up to god himself. Half the software my co-workers and I use ends up being pirated, because our company makes it damn near impossible to buy anything that's not on the list of officially-sanctioned software (almost all of which is stuff that the "business" users need). I can blow $150 on lunch when I'm traveling without even needing to get my immediate manager to sign off an approve the reimbursement as long as I don't spend more than $250/day on meals/incidentals/entertainment, but getting reimbursed $29.95 for some shareware app I can't live without requires approval by the vice-president (my boss' boss' boss), who requires our department to submit purchase requests in batches no more than once per quarter. Of course, if we're 5 weeks into the current quarter, and I need the damn app TODAY (or at least by next week)... well... time to visit astalavista.box.sk (under vmware, of course) to get the crack and run the app (also under vmware, with write access to nothing besides a usb thumbdrive, of course).

Personally, I think 99% of free software's appeal to people who work for big, oblivious corporations is the fact that it's not just free as in beer or liberty... it's also free of bureaucratic grief.

Getting back to the Microsoft example... name any app produced by Microsoft that does something remotely close to what SoundForge does. Um, none? OK, now picture the hapless employee, who works for the largest software company on earth, dealing with THEIR bureaucracy trying to get permission to buy a program sold by one of their "competitors", even though it's a niche they don't actually compete in. Especially with a looming deadline.

Or, alternatively... picture Microsoft hiring an outside consultant/musician to do the track. To save money, they hired a freelancer who's just getting started and doesn't quite do it as his/her "real" job yet. The individual hasn't gotten to the point yet where he/she's making enough money off of it for buying it to be a no-brainer (It IS usually one of the first 3 apps anyone who becomes halfway serious about music production ends up buying when "the time comes"), and the employees at the Microsoft end responsible for getting it on the disc were themselves under immense deadline pressure. The file played, normal users aren't going to view it in a hex editor looking for anything "funny", so on the disc it went.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[plague3106]

Where do you live? According to my HR guy, VT and one other state are the only ones left that still allow "at-will" employment. All the other ones sensibly got rid of it.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[daedae]

The university I worked for was in Virginia (this was in 2005), and Intel (summer 08) was in Massachusetts.

What's not sensible about at-will employment?

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Anonymous Coward]

Texas is definitely an "at will" state still. An employer can fire an employee for any reason (unemployment hinges if the firing is done for "gross misconduct" rather than termination), and an employee can leave for any reason.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[SirTicksAlot]

The "one other state" Happens to be New York.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[umrguy76]

I can blow $150 on lunch when I'm traveling without even needing to get my immediate manager to sign off an approve the reimbursement as long as I don't spend more than $250/day on meals/incidentals/entertainment, but getting reimbursed $29.95 for some shareware app I can't live without requires approval by the vice-president (my boss' boss' boss), who requires our department to submit purchase requests in batches no more than once per quarter.

Does that $150 lunch reside on your company's network?

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Inner_Child]

Indiana remains an at-will state, and I'm also wondering: What isn't sensible about it?

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[FictionPimp]

We are only allowed to make purchases once a year. I simply make my request, they go on a capital list, we have a department meet and discuss why, then it is sent up for approval and i get my software.

I just make sure to plan for the year. It's not too hard. I know what my job is and I keep a good eye on what tools are out there to make it better/easier. Sure I can't have the latest Adobe product the day it launches, but I can get it the next capital cycle.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[elrous0]

Your HR guy is full of shit. Pretty much every state in the southeast is at-will. It's how they sell themselves to companies (along with a lot of anti-union laws). It's no accident that Wal-mart came out of the South.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Teun]

What's not sensible about at-will employment?

Inequality.

A bit like the ban on unionisation, against an individual employee the company is always the stronger party.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[lostmongoose]

Missouri is 'at will' as well. Might wanna do your homework for yourself next time.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Vu1turEMaN]

The big question is.... Why weren't they using the pre-cracked installers?

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Thaelon]

I can blow $150 on lunch when I'm traveling without even needing to get my immediate manager to sign off an approve the reimbursement as long as I don't spend more than $250/day on meals/incidentals/entertainment, but getting reimbursed $29.95 for some shareware app I can't live without requires approval by the vice-president (my boss' boss' boss), who requires our department to submit purchase requests in batches no more than once per quarter.

So go to "lunch" and "entertain" a software development company for $29.95.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[joshtheitguy]

Ohio must be that other state

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[MadMidnightBomber]

Personally, I think 99% of free software's appeal to people who work for big, oblivious corporations is the fact that it's not just free as in beer or liberty... it's also free of bureaucratic grief.

Plus licensing. Ever played with flexlm, or tried to figure out how many Microsoft CALs you need? No need with GNU - saves a ton of time and potential liability.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[grassy_knoll]

Personally, I think 99% of free software's appeal to people who work for big, oblivious corporations is the fact that it's not just free as in beer or liberty... it's also free of bureaucratic grief.

Indeed.

Finding cracked software on your machine around here is a fireable offense. Open source is seen as a viable alternative.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[pluther]

I doubt that's true.

In fact, I don't know of any state where employment is not "at-will", unless specified in an employment contract.

I work on short-term contracts, 3-6 months at a time. In the past ten years, I've worked in Oregon, California, Arizona, Colorado, and Missouri. Every single one of those contracts contained a provision stating that employment is at-will, and that the company could let me go at any time. I can also quit at any time before the specified end of contract, but if I do I have to pay back any relocation or up-front bonuses they've given me.

Maybe it's different if you're working directly for the company rather than through a contracting agency?

Or maybe your HR guy is just wrong.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[dontmakemethink]

Vista?!! My eyes!! Everywhere I look everything is framed in translucent frames with a weak-ass Northern Lights rendition! And I have a date tonight! WHAT AM I GONNA WEAR??!!!!

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[jcrousedotcom]

Ohio, Michigan and Florida (all are three states I've lived and worked in) that are 'at will.'

In fact, one of the jobs in one of the states decided they didn't want my employ anymore and 'willed' me out the door.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[gabrieltss]

The mega corporation that bought us up has a "sanctioned" list as well - that SUCKS! We mostly use free and open source tools. But this company has a policy of "No Open Source on the Desktop.". But we basically gave them the middle finger and via our VP told them to go screw themselves. Now we can install basically whatever we want/need. :^)

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[plague3106]

The fact that it puts too much power in the hands of employers.

Why should an employer have the power to wreck my life because they're having a bad day?

Before you say "no employer would do that," I work for such an employer. And even with VT being "at-will," the way some people have been fired or let go is on shakey ground legally.. just that so far nobody has sued.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Anonymous Coward]

>According to my HR guy, VT and one other state are the only ones left that still allow "at-will"
>employment.

I think you should get that in writing. It might be valuable, if it's represented in the proper context (that is, if you could argue that the misinformation from an authoritative source is being used to abridge your rights).

But there are misconceptions to the extent of the power, on both the employer's and employee's side, of "at will employment." For example, the at-will status does not supersede contractual obligations, and there are always statutory exceptions. And you cannot "be fired for ANY reason" since that interpretation makes things like ethnic and religious and disability discrimination acceptable. You cannot fire your employee because he refused to do something for you that was illegal for either him or for you to do. Even some of the states that make the most liberal interpretations of "at will", still have rules dealing with "good faith" and "just cause."

If there is any potential that any party in an employment relationship can argue that a valid contract (even a verbal contract) exists, the doctrine of "at will employment" becomes irrelevant versus much stronger contract laws. In any kind of employment of a professional nature, it can be easier than you might think, to create a situation that a court would consider a contract. By exercising your rights with regard to "at will employment" you can certainly also put yourself in breach of a contract (and verbal agreements can be contracts -- and in employment situations, "consideration" is very easy to show.)

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[plague3106]

Well, I know that's not true. You couldn't fire someone for being black, or because they choose to start a family, for instance. There are federal laws against that.

It may be he's refering to the context of unemployement as well... but he's also said it's really hard for a company here to prove to the state that unemployement should be denied.. so I'm not quite sure what he means... but his take is that there are only two true at will states left.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[plague3106]

Well, he could be wrong. I also might be missing some context. Or he could be right.

Remember, just because somebody writes something into a contract does not mean it's legally enforceable. It may mean they didn't know about the change, or are still trying to keep control. Don't let your employer tell you your rights; they are cases where they've flat out lied. Ask a lawyer.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[plague3106]

Are you sure? Did you talk to a lawyer?

Also, you seem to be assuming that just because the company did it, it was legal.

Finally, being laid off would always be allowed, I think. There's a difference between a layoff and firing. Not being "at-will" means you need a justifiable (that is, it can't be because you don't like their hair style) reason to fire someone. A layoff is such a reason, but also allows you to collect unemployement. I know he's stated that "gross misconduct" is the only way for a company to be able to get out of paying unemployment here.

I think people might be confusing at-will with meaning contractual employment too. I think at-will allows you to be let go for no reason whatsoever, which means not being at-will means you can be fired with good reason, or laid off.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[phantomcircuit]

Does that $150 lunch reside on your company's network?

No but that nice Cracked program does now.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[DoctorDeath]

Add Virginia and Georgia.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, if you're a messy eater.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Culture20]

Yes, if you're a messy eater.

Another reason I'm glad I'm not doing workstation support anymore. Too many moldy keyboards.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[FiveDozenWhales]

Wow, and I thought my Government job had bureaucratic processes in place. The only person who needs to authorize software purchases is, well, me, and I'm in an entry-level position.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[fyrewulff]

Nebraska is an at-will state. We sensibly keep it around.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[jcrousedotcom]

I wasn't 'laid off.' Management and I had differing views on how to accomplish some things of a technical nature and the CEO won out (odd huh? The boss winning?).

I did talk to an attorney at the time. Pretty much, since I was an at will employee, I took my lumps and learned that next time keep your mouth shut and let the boss waste the company's money.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Anonymous Coward]

because the BSA's #1 funding comes from Microsoft.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[plague3106]

So did they give a reason, or not? You supplied one, but did they formally say that was why you were let go? Or did they simply say "you're done."

Perhaps the law was on their side... but I wouldn't be suprised if the lawyer wasn't interested in taking your case even if it was on your side.

At any rate, I'm going to ask the HR guy exactly what he means by "at will".

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[jcrousedotcom]

"It's just not working out." I was able to draw unemployment. Wouldn't even let me clean out my desk, I had to come back for my stuff. I held their laptop ransom. :)

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[plague3106]

Well, like I said, what my HR guy said may be under the context of unemployment. If they give no reason, they pretty much have to pay.

Good for you holding their laptop ransom; I would if I were in your situtation. If they called the cops, I'd explain they are keeping my stuff. :-)

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[WNight]

Why do people like you crawl out of the woodwork, just to inform actual useful people, that you don't have an issue with X?

You certainly would have an issue with that policy, if you did anything complex enough to require you to do something you didn't plan last year. All you're doing is making yourself look like someone who doesn't actually do anything, or who always does exactly the same thing.

Why are you proud of being a do-nothing?

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Anonymous Coward]

How can you fire someone if you can't see them? (Hint: --------_--------;;)

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Anonymous Coward]

> The file played, normal users aren't going to view it in a hex editor looking for anything "funny", so on the disc it went.

One word: grep.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Theoboley]

Sounds like what happened to me when I was working in Mosinee, WI... I was on my way back one weekday morning and i got a call and they basically told me to GTFO, citing reasons as follows 1. There's not enough work on the shift i was on 2. There's no one there to supervise me... Now, i can understand the first... but the fact that my supervisor was working first, second and sometimes third shift is NOT my fault. And the fact that they gave me that job in the first place was bollocks anyhow... They hired me, then fired me right away for no good reason and pretty much gave me the night shift job for 3 months to shut me up and not take their sorry asses to court for wrongful termination.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Kneo24]

Actually, they could fire them for being black, white, green, purple, up, down, northwest, it doesn't matter. However, they can't just openly say it or write it down. They have to come up with another reason, even if it's not even remotely true.

And that's the entire problem with those "right to work" or "at will" states. Besides, the majority of people who are fired never ask questions or sue.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Natasha]

Montana is only at-will for a probationary period. After that you can only be fired for "good cause", however that's defined.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[log0n]

Maryland, DC and Virginia are all at-will.

Up until your post.. I figured pretty much every state was at-will. [from there I could make a snide comment about politics/lobbying/at-will/big business, but I'll pass]

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[mrmeval]

Mauve

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Anonymous Coward]

Only if you use one of their switches for a table.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[LionMage]

This was apparently surprising only to people who don't work for companies that actually make it easy for developers to BUY software without having to get approval up the management chain all the way up to god himself. Half the software my co-workers and I use ends up being pirated, because our company makes it damn near impossible to buy anything that's not on the list of officially-sanctioned software (almost all of which is stuff that the "business" users need).

I don't really want to pick nits, but I kept re-reading that first sentence over and over, wondering why it seemed to contrary to intuition, until I read the rest of your post. Then I realized you were saying the opposite of what you meant. After all, it seems logical that Microsoft including a file generated by a pirated application would be a surprise to people who work for companies that do not make it difficult to purchase apps -- yet your first sentence states that it would be a surprise to people who don't work for such companies.

Anyway, nitpicking aside, I agree with you to some extent. I work for a company that is pretty tightly controlling of what goes on users' computers, and on the network, but there are mechanisms in place to get approvals for non-standard software (well, the stuff that you pay for). Open Source software that's free-as-in-beer seems to be totally acceptable, within some general limits. The approval mechanisms for the paid non-standard software are not too onerous, either, since they don't require the kind of approvals you describe -- no vice presidents involved, to my knowledge.

That said, the problem we run into is keeping the non-standard software whenever somebody gets the bright idea to reimage machines without asking (or without divulging what they're really up to), or to remove software remotely using LanDesk or some other management tool without really bothering to check and see if that software is there for a valid reason. And then there's the always fun "server move" which turns out to be more like "server virtualization," in which no user accounts get preserved, and no software seems to make the transition.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Anonymous Coward]

Does that $150 lunch reside on your company's network?

It could, if he places it on top of a server cabinet.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Anonymous Coward]

"and I need the damn app TODAY"

No, you don't. It is not you the one who need the app TODAY, it is YOUR COMPANY, since the job to be done is for YOUR COMPANY, not for you. Then, since it's your company the one needing whatever, from an office chair to a software license in order for the job to be done, let your company provide it or else fail their deadlines (surely your company promotes the "team sense", "all in the same boat", "shared responsibility" -but not shared big bonuses, of course, and all that shit, but remember they won't hesitate for a second to fire you whenever they feel like, so no matter what they try to sell to you, it is THEIR deadlines, not yours).

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Anonymous Coward]

I can blow $150 on lunch when I'm traveling without even needing to get my immediate manager to sign off an approve the reimbursement as long as I don't spend more than $250/day on meals/incidentals/entertainment, but getting reimbursed $29.95 for some shareware app I can't live without requires approval by the vice-president

The solution is simple. Just order the software, and list it on the expense report as "meals/incidentals/entertainment", etc.

Sheesh.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[failedlogic]

When I worked in gov't in a junior position too, one request and two weeks is usually what it took. A higher up needed to approve but sometimes was ordered within 2 or 3 days. Then again, its not their money!

I would agree with others though. Not having software which makes you more efficient (happier at job, more productive, less stressed to boot) is frustrating. Moreso when its Free Software and you aren't allowed to install it - gov't or not. Even if you ask a few times nicely.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[JD-1027]

Then you have Microsoft employees where finding open source apps on your computer is a chairable offense.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, a screen capture. For some reason, I fully expected to see goatse.

Amazingly, the image indicated that there was a resume, although we don't know if it belonged to the person who has been fired or is about to be fired.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Anonymous Coward]

Somebody probably needed a tool and requested it.

And their manager said, wait, Microsoft produces a tool that will let us edit audio. Use that instead. "We must be loyal. We must dogfood."

And the hapless engineer probably just went back and "found" a copy of SoundForge because the alternate tool suggested by the manager wouldn't do the job and he didn't have time to argue about it. "We must be pragmatic. We must ship. I am not going to be the one mentioned in shiproom for being behind schedule because my manager is a kool-aid-drinking PHB."

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[FictionPimp]

Things I'm doing this cycle.

  Replacing our Xiotech San.
  Implementing a proper backup system.
  Developing all sorts of web applications.
  Replacing aging sun servers with new sun servers.
  Installing a vmware esx blade server.
  Migrating many of our dell linux servers to vmware esx virtual servers.
  Implementing a reverse proxy system for load balancing for our main web application.
  Implementing a buisness objections enterprise server.
  Helping migrate our crystal reports into said server.
  Upgrading our checkpoint firewall to new hardware and creating a cluster.
  Finish testing all of our applications on oracle 10g.
  Finish testing all of our applications on php5.

This is just a small sample of my work load. If you really have no idea what you are going to be doing for at least 6 months, you are probably a consultant or support.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[plague3106]

Well, if you give a reason, you had better have the proof to back it up. If you say you fired someone because they were incompetent, and they were not they can turn around and sue you.. and if there's no proof.. be prepared to lose. If they give no reason, not much you can do though.. which is why I don't like allowing people to be let go for no reason.

At any rate when I said it couldn't be done, I of course meant legally.. not that it was impossible.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[WNight]

If your work can be summarized that well, and you know the steps well enough to know that a better text editor wouldn't be of any use, nor a tool to calculate something, or better log/diagram your network layouts, etc, then it's time to hand it to a lesser skill person for the grunt work.

Because if I was doing all that I'd certainly be looking continuously, not just once a year, for new tools. If one was pointed out it'd be a huge pain to go a whole year doing something manually knowing it could be easier. A huge waste of money too.

But just because your world drifts by slowly enough doesn't mean you should recommend a slower response time to new ideas by those of us who could order a new product more than once a year. It's not a virtue.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[FictionPimp]

I highly doubt the tech world gets revolutionized so quickly that you would not be aware of the best tools to do your job.

Or maybe you are one of those guys who has to ask slashdot what IDE to use for python/java/php/etc for his next project.

I keep abreast of technology and I am aware of the trends and direction of my business. It is very rare that I am surprised by something. I explore new technology, and if it is valuable, it goes on the list.

Is your job really that random? Are there really professional programmers out there discovering new IDE's on a daily basis? Are there oracle DBA's out there shocked to find out about new tools? You make it sound like professionals just stumble around the internet and are like "Holy shit! I just discovered photoshop, I can stop using paint now!"

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[WNight]

I am a consultant, and in a fairly broad area of "restructuring IT", so yes, I guess I probably do more one-off jobs.

But you're trying to argue the position that bloat is good - that it's good your company takes a year to buy something. That's only not visibly wrong because your job is well defined, and no random changes have been thrown at you.

When I do discover something new, or a new need for it, I appreciate being able to obtain it quickly and start using it.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Savior_on_a_Stick]

That's true, however; there is still a "fairness" standard in most states, to the effect that even in an At Will state, that company policies must be applied equally.

The employer can simply state "your services are no longer required" and leave it at that.

Where they get into trouble is in attempting to avoid increases in their U/I premiums.

If they state that they fired Johnny because he was late 13 times, they'd best not have retained anyone who was late 14 times.

Even in an At Will state, that can lead to a wrongful termination action.

And UI benefits are *supposed* to be easy to get.
The only people who are intended to be excluded from benefits are those whose actions essentially constitute willful abandonment of their employment.

A clerk dipping into the till is abandoning their duties willfully, whereas the clerk that can't add and hands out lots of extra change is merely incompetent, irrespective of the difficulty in distinguishing the two.

I actually helped a friend successfully defend her UI claim after she was fired after being caught stealing from her employer.

He fired her in lieu of reporting her to the police, and it was a small operation so there were no witnesses.

In a He Said/She Said, without corroborating evidence of gross misconduct, the employee prevails.
This is how it must be.

I defended my own UI claim against an employer who suddenly discovered I was incompetent after close to three years with the company.
In an amazing coincidence, this occurred immediately after I accidentally discovered massive fraud at the company.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[Savior_on_a_Stick]

What I loved about the time I was fired is that I knew it was coming and couldn't wait.
It was a corrupt VP that orchestrated my firing, and no one but me and her knew the reasons behind it.

The department head calls me into a conference room and starts apologizing and justifying, all the while I have this big shit-eating grin. He's having a hard time getting his head around the fact that he's firing the tech that our dev team went to for answers.

Finally, they get around to escorting me from the building, so we do the Walk of Shame to my cubicle to pack up my effects.

I pulled a big cardboard box from under my desk.
I'd been packed up for over a week.

When we hit the lobby and I was able to exit into the clean fresh air, I whooped and hollered in sheer exuberance.

The bimbo VP had the audacity to try to dispute my UI claim.
The hearing was conducted via phone and took about 90 seconds - with the state reviewer cutting her off and telling her flat out that her challenge was obviously fabricated.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[jcrousedotcom]

The funny thing for me - the HR lady that they hired was all about getting her tech guy from her previous company. She had been there about 6 months, she came over from the same company one of the VP's did (see a pattern). The new tech guy didn't last very long either.

The best part about the whole situation? She got herself jammed up with one of the employees (she was married and had kids but apparently the grass was greener at the office) and got canned herself less than two years later.

It really sucked at the time - I'd never been asked to leave (well technically here I 'resigned') and I was young and a little less experienced in the world of business. Now I look back and think - "Wow, that may have been one of the better things that happened to me in my life!"

They did pull some stunts - getting my co-located box taken off the wire by the ISP they used for their Internet connectivity. That was unprofessional for both them and the ISP. Since they were a local financial institution, they had a little more pull than the recently available tech that had a co-located box with them. :) Again, live and learn.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired

[max0211]

iSofter DVD Ripper Platinum software is truly a effect solution for all your DVD burning needs. This DVD copying software is a one-click DVD backup tool with great features and its Free to Download. If you're in the market for an advanced DVD backup software with loads of features and burning options, look no further, this is truly a feature-rich product, and certainly one of the best of its kind. iSofter DVD Ripper Platinum is an all in one tool that aims at converting your DVDs into different video formats compatible with the portable video playing devices on the market. The application will turn your DVDs into M4A, MP4, MPG, AVI, Mp3, WMA, WMV and 3GP. The audio formats included in the supported list prove that DVD Ripper Platinum is also able to extract audio files from the DVD you are feeding. ww w.isofter.com

Software Crackers?

[TheNecromancer]

Do they come with cheese?

Re:Software Crackers?

[Timothy Brownawell]

Yes, it's in the floppy drive.

Re:Software Crackers?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do they come with cheese?

No need, software cheese is open sauce! :)

Re:Software Crackers?

[crashmph]

and wine?

Re:Software Crackers?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, they come with relish.

Re:Software Crackers?

[CSMatt]

What floppy drive?

Cue lawsuit....

[CdBee]

Asus, however accidentally / carelessly, have just made themselves the obvious target of a lawsuit for distribution of tools for copyright infringement...

Re:Cue lawsuit....

[wanderingknight]

Worse (or better) than that, they also released some of their source code. Better Linux compatibility anyone? :D

Re:Cue lawsuit....

[MadJo]

Did Microsoft get sued for its use of a cracked version of Sound Forge?
No?
Then why will ASUS be sued?

Re:Cue lawsuit....

[alx5000]

Well... for distribution, actually.

Just as the GP pointed out.

Re:Cue lawsuit....

[Anonymous Coward]

Same reason Bill Clinton got a pass on perjury, but Karl Rove didn't.

Re:Cue lawsuit....

[Anonymous Coward]

You misunderstand.

MSFT didn't distribute a cracked version of SoundForge. They distributed a sound file that had been created with a cracked version of SoundForge.

Re:Cue lawsuit....

[Anonymous Coward]

Did Microsoft get sued for its use of a cracked version of Sound Forge?
No?
Then why will ASUS be sued?

Microsoft didn't distribute a crack, but Asus did.

Re:Cue lawsuit....

[Anonymous Coward]

Because, Asus isn't using it, they're distributing it. Microsoft used the program to make an audio file which is being distributed, they're not distributing the crack itself.

All of this could have been avoided

[Verteiron]

If only they'd used 7zip instead! Oh, you fools!

Re:All of this could have been avoided

[Tubal-Cain]

Wait, nevermind. You are saying they should have used 7zip instead of WinZip. My mistake.

Re:All of this could have been avoided

[Anonymous Coward]

7zip doesn't require a key so there would have been no crack to put on the CD? ::whoosh::

Re:All of this could have been avoided

[Anonymous Coward]

7zip doesn't require a key so there would have been no crack to put on the CD? !!whoosh!!

Re:All of this could have been avoided

[Machtyn]

7zip supports rar, arj, zip, 7z, cab, iso, etc. etc., and it is a free program, unlike winRAR or WinZip. And it works very nicely.

Re:All of this could have been avoided

[nawcom]

Wait, nevermind. You are saying they should have used 7zip instead of WinZip. My mistake.

You "ARE" joking, right? If anyone still uses WinZip these days, they are well deluded from that company. Perhaps WinRAR is what you meant?

Re:All of this could have been avoided

[Tubal-Cain]

Yeah, my reading comprehension sucks this morning.

Re:All of this could have been avoided

[Cytotoxic]

7zip supports rar, arj, zip, 7z, cab, iso, etc. etc., and it is a free program, unlike winRAR or WinZip. And it works very nicely.

This is only partially true. 7zip supports 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR fully. The other formats are "unzip" only. So no-go if you need to compress with RAR (the original thread). Too bad because RAR is amazing on database backups. I often get 90% + compression on multigig SQL server backups - much higher than zip or built in compression in backup utilities.

Re:All of this could have been avoided

[CSMatt]

I should think so, because according to your timestamp you posted in the afternoon.

Re:All of this could have been avoided

[Tubal-Cain]

Not in my time zone. It's nearly 3pm now.

Re:All of this could have been avoided

[rts008]

Maybe he does not work bankers/golfers hours.
I am posting this at 0335 (my time-central USA timezone) while having a cocktail an hour after getting off from work at 0200.

Working non mainstream shifts causes 'morning' to adjust to your normal schedule.
According to the 9-5 crowd, this (3:35 A.M.) is like 6:35 P.M. for me.

Well about dinnertime, hmmm...spaghetti sounds good tonight.
See ya around. :-)

Re:All of this could have been avoided

[badkarmadayaccount]

how about rzip or lzip?

WinRAR

[Anonymous Coward]

Who needs a serial cracker for WinRAR when it just keeps working after the trial period anyway?

Re:WinRAR

[setagllib]

Who needs WinRAR when you have 7-Zip?

Re:WinRAR

[morgan_greywolf]

Which, for the benefit of those who have never used 7-Zip, fully supports unpacking RAR archives out of the box without having to have unrar or WinRAR at all.

Now if you want to make RAR files, then you'll need rar or WinRAR. But also you should note that 7-Zip's native 7z format gets rather better compression than RAR. ;)

Re:WinRAR

[hairyfeet]

My guess would be to get rid of the nag screen? That said,I thought all the PC makers loved to put trialware on the machines to help lower their cost. Someone at Asus needs to have their resume up to date,and I hope Asus has plenty of cash on hand,because this will probably get ugly real fast. Talk about a slam dunk lawsuit.

Does anyone know if the crack is carrying a trojan? The fact that it is setting off virus scanners tells me that it might,which means if it was used on the original Asus install image there is a lot of infected machines out there. Of course simply having a folder called cracks on the CD is bad enough,but if it is also trojaned it could be REALLY costly for Asus. But as always this is my 02c,YMMV

Re:WinRAR

[ozmanjusri]

The fact that it is setting off virus scanners tells me that it might,which means if it was used on the original Asus install image there is a lot of infected machines out there.

It's on a Windows DVD.

Asus is just saving its users some time. No point delaying the inevitable.

Re:WinRAR

[cawpin]

But also you should note that 7-Zip's native 7z format gets rather better compression than RAR. ;)

Not in my experience. Also, 7zip's software is horrid compared to WinRAR. Also, there is a fully functional version of WinRAR available for free. They released it in a 1 day giveaway sometime last year I believe.

Re:WinRAR

[Fast Thick Pants]

Tagging along with the offtopic 7-zip lovefest -- this program rocks! A little quirky, but worth it. I literally did a double-take recently when I made a 7z-format archive of a bunch of rtf files that came out to 4% of the original size.

Re:WinRAR

[Benanov]

7zip has a good UI *if* you mainly use the shell integration features (enabled by default.)

7zip is also FSF-Free minus unrar.dll, whereas WinRAR has very restrictive licensing terms.

Re:WinRAR

[lysergic.acid]

i'm not completely sure, but i believe that anti-virus makers often classify keygens and cracks as viruses. it's a way of posturing to scare the public away from using these programs despite their innocuous nature.

problem is, there are some warez downloads that genuinely do contain trojans/viruses, so if your AV program is set off by a download it's difficult to know if it's a legitimate threat or simply the AV makers trying to manipulate the public.

i imagine a lot of security analysis tools (which can be used for both white hat and black hat purposes) probably set off AV programs as well.

i can see how AV software detecting warez programs might be a useful feature to businesses who want to protect themselves from lawsuits, but it should at least make a distinction between viruses/trojans/malware and warez/hacking programs which aren't harmful to the user's computer. it's not really the place of AV makers to tell users that they can't use a keygen, crack, or security tool. that's not why most people run AV programs.

Re:WinRAR

[hairyfeet]

Ha ha,damn that is funny. Of course I'll need to tell that to my 8 year old install of Win2K who is happily running this that it is really infected by undetectable Windows bugs,because it hasn't had a single piece of malware in all these years. Of course I don't click on the dancing bunnies either.

But seriously,as a PC repairman I have seen a lot of users machines infected by these keygens/cracks that turn out to carry either rootkits or trojans. And depending on the site they got it from we are talking 85-95% of them carrying bugs. If Asus used one of these on the OS that was imaged it is going to cost them a pretty penny,since we are not only talking about the companies whose software is cracked,but also the users who might have had their data exposed to hackers. This could very easily go class action and get really costly for Asus. Personally I hate class actions as the lawyers make out like bandits and the victims get screwed,but when you are talking as many machines as Asus ships it does seem like a ripe target for one. But as always this is my 02c,YMMV

Re:WinRAR

[blind biker]

Who needs WinRAR when you have 7-Zip?

Damn right. 7-zip is not only a functional piece of software; even its user interface is good, and it's well integrated with 'doze. I'd say it's at least as good as the best of the for-pay compressors/decompressors, if not better!

Re:WinRAR

[Mr_Silver]

Who needs WinRAR when you have 7-Zip?

And for those of us who want an alternative to 7-zip with a user-interface that doesn't make you want to gouge your eyes out with spoons, then there is IZArc.

(free in beer, not speech - but I don't really care)

Re:WinRAR

[Amouth]

yea the very useful 7th sphear tools always gets flagged.. but in reality they are nothing more than port scanning and port hammering tools.. very useful for testing

Re:WinRAR

[Mister Whirly]

"Does anyone know if the crack is carrying a trojan?"

No. It claims it can't "feel anything" unless it goes in bareback.

Re:WinRAR

[tlhIngan]

i'm not completely sure, but i believe that anti-virus makers often classify keygens and cracks as viruses. it's a way of posturing to scare the public away from using these programs despite their innocuous nature.

Unfortunately, a large number of cracks/keygens contain malware. Maybe not from the big groups, but there's so many cracks and keygens out there, that it's hard to really identify which ones are "legit" and which ones work, but will also infect your machine with tons of spyware and adware. The tools work for what they do, but they also do a lot more in the background - I found one because it kept crashing on my machine - the keygens worked, but they also installed a downloader.

I guess it's a way for the less reputable crackers to gain some money for their work (or more likely, ripping off another group's crack/keygen and rewrapping it in their malware laden wrapper.

If nothing else, it's a good reason to have VMWare around since you can always rollback its disks.

I've also seen a pile of keygens and cracks mass-spammed across Usenet. I doubt those are anything but malware vehicles...

Re:WinRAR

[Anonymous Coward]

Now if you want to make RAR files, then you'll need rar or WinRAR, and a psychiatrist

Fixed that for you.

Re:WinRAR

[skeeto]

fully supports unpacking RAR archives out of the box without having to have unrar or WinRAR at all.

Eh, not quite. It ships with the official proprietary unrar.dll library, so there is a little piece of the actual WinRAR in it. However, it is still a huge improvement over WinRAR.

Re:WinRAR

[Fluffy Bunnies]

Last I checked, 7-zip didn't support ACE.

Re:WinRAR

[XHIIHIIHX]

LOL, that depends if your .7z'n porn or software source code.

Re:WinRAR

[Anonymous Coward]

7-Zip, fully supports unpacking RAR archives out of the box without having to have unrar or WinRAR at all

While 7zip supports rar most of the time, this statement is not entirely true.

Some time ago I downloaded the "free" version of Call of Duty 5, packed (as usual) in a series of rar archives. 7zip happily extracted the image, without complaining any error, the game also installed, but it crashed everytime it's run. I later found out that several files has 0 size, so I downloaded winrar and extracted and installed again, then the problem went away.

Since then winrar became my backup archiver.

Re:WinRAR

[NorQue]

'm not completely sure, but i believe that anti-virus makers often classify keygens and cracks as viruses. it's a way of posturing to scare the public away from using these programs despite their innocuous nature.

Not to scare the public and contrary to what other posters here think this doesn't come from them actually being viruses or trojans. The .exe of Keygens, Cracks, etc. usually is just packed and Virus scanners can't unpack it, so they assume that something fishy is going on.

Executable compression

Also, some older virus scanners simply report all compressed executables as viruses because the decompressor stubs share some characteristics with those. Most modern virus scanners can unpack several different executable compression layers to check the actual executable inside, but some popular anti-virus and anti-malware scanners have had troubles with false alarms on compressed executables.

Re:WinRAR

[TJamieson]

Seconded on the size issue. I was very curious about this, what with everyone claiming 7z blows rar away, but I'm finding that 7z files end up roughly 0.5% larger. Is this a HUGE difference? Certainly not. But it also is not 7z being better than rar.

Re:WinRAR

[Khyber]

7Zip is the choice for emulation - many ROMS are exactly the same minus some minor code changes for region/language - 7Zip can see that and thus you have one standard ROM file and then a bunch of under a kilobyte copies that are nothing more than the actual ROM represented with a single character and then the extra code changes are untouched. It's quite neat, some emulators have 7Zip capability built-in so there's no need to extract multiple versions, you just open the 7-zip in the emulator itself and you get a menu allowing you to choose which version of the game to play.

Re:WinRAR

[hairyfeet]

Sorry to burst your bubble,but I have actually watched keygens and cracks infect a machine. It is usually either a downloader or one of the W series viruses. From what I've seen working PC repair it isn't the cracking bunches that are infecting the machines,it is the sites that the folks get them from that are wrapping them in trojans and downloaders. But I can verify that it was the actual keygen/cracks,as I used a spare box we used for testing files and filemon and diskmon from system internals. Sure enough as the crack was activated while it did crack the program it also began writing tons of little files into system32. Those files when scanned were one of the W32 trojans. That is why I tell my users to just buy the stupid programs,as it is a lot cheaper than having to pay me to debone their box. But as always this is my 02c,YMMV

Re:WinRAR

[operagost]

Because it doesn't compress in RAR?

Re:WinRAR

[toddestan]

It's not always a bad thing. It's kind of nice that stuff like that gets flagged along with things like TightVNC, as finding their presence on a machine when I'm not expecting it there means that the machine is probably compromised. On the other hand, if you put the tools on your computer, it would be nice to tell the AV program to stop warning you about them.

Re:WinRAR

[FreakWent]

I think it's because the scanners don't like the executable packers used by the "scene" on a wide range of executables. It's hard to find a signature in a packed exe, so they use the "fingerprints" of the packer.

IMHO.

Re:WinRAR

[syousef]

This guy writes a lot of utilities including password recovery software.

Check out the false positives listed here:
http://www.nirsoft.net/false_positive_report.html

Re:WinRAR

[LackThereof]

  Does anyone know if the crack is carrying a trojan? The fact that it is setting off virus scanners tells me that it might

I see this all the time. Many modern antiviruses give a false positive on a lot of cracks, usually flagging them as suspicious unknown trojan-like things. Seems to me that when you create a program that meddles with another, pre-existing program in subtle, suspicious ways, modern antivirus software is instantly skeptical.

Usually cracks that are ACTUALLY trojaned are discovered very quickly and disappear from wherever they are hosted before they spread very far, and people tend not to swap them. Trojaned cracks are actually very rare in the wild as a result.

Re:WinRAR

[NorQue]

Yes, you're right, should've written about that - but on the other hand I hoped for the average slashdotter to *not* have to resort to random websites to get their warez from.

So, if you have a *trusted* source for cracks and keygens, *then* your Anti Virus most likely just stumbled over .exe compression. If, on the other hand, you are fucking random strangers on the street without condom get your Warez from random russian websites... you better forget what I wrote.

Re:WinRAR

[hairyfeet]

Well I don't use warez at all,as I've found that there are free alternatives for anything that is too expensive for me to buy. I also try to give my users a nice selection of freeware as a value add when I fix their machines. Firefox/Seamonkey/Kmeleon(depends on the user/PC specs)Open Office 3,Klite codec pack,Alzip,etc. But I work on the average users PC more often than I care to count and way to many of them either get crap from some Russian website,or worse,use Kazaa(EEEK!) and that is how they get boned.

That said,I haven't actually seen the virus scanners I use freak simply because of compressed executables. I usually use a combination of AntiVir and Trend Micro's Housecall and they don't seem to freak unless there is a nasty. Now AVG would,but AVG 8 became such a bloated hog I had to take it from my freeware list because it slowed down the machines too much. But at least I have been making headway by switching my customers off of IE,OE,and MS Office,which seems to have cut their infection rates way down(especially since I have begun installing Adblock plus and teaching how to use Noscript).But as always this is my 02c from out here in the shop,YMMV

Re:WinRAR

[Amouth]

that's what i have to do.. although it is a pain when i am using someone elses computer and they have their av set to clean/delete as the actions apon finding it..

Re:WinRAR

[cheesybagel]

Klite codec pack is not free (among other things they use the Real codec in a way that violates their EULA) and it sucks. CCCP is much better and entirely based on ffdshow.

Instead of googling keycracker...

[Anonymous Coward]

... i'll just look at my recovery cd.

Example of "WinRAR Full" 4chan meme useage on /.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is full of WinRAR... wait.. this is full of FAIL.

One of the files is someone's resume

[Anonymous Coward]

To that person: If your goal was to get your resume noticed, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Re:One of the files is someone's resume

[sorak]

To that person: If your goal was to get your resume noticed, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Yes, an rtf file, placed in a zipfile full of pirated software. I think we have finally found someone lamer than the freecreditreport.com guy.

Cracking WinRAR is lame

[Spatial]

WinRAR is free to use, last time I checked it only asked you to buy it through a brief, unintrusive nag window. Cracking it is really damn lame.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the tool is actually for extracting the passwords for any protected archives created with the WinRAR application...

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[Shikaku]

7zip is also superior and free.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[spyrochaete]

7zip is not superior. It's incredibly slow. I've tried 7zip many times over the past couple of years, hoping it to finally be a superior product to the needlessly expensive WinRAR ($35!), but it never happens.

Uncompressing a file in WinRAR consistently takes up to or over 10x as long to uncompress in 7zip. Try it yourself. WinRAR is even faster with .7z archives.

I tested both products with WinXP x86, Vista Ultimate x86, and Vista Ultimate x64, all on the same 7200RPM SATA2 HDD.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[Anonymous Coward]

lacks the ability to put individual files into sepeerate archives as a batch operation using the gui thus 7zip is not superiot

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[Clarious]

I have also tested 7zip and Winrar, while 7zip is a bit slower I sure that it does not take 10x as long as winrar to uncompress something. I also found that 7zip have better compression rate than rar though not much (at least with my files).

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[Nimey]

7zip's interface isn't all that friendly to n00bs. jZip's got a nice interface & the 7zip backend, but the license isn't Free and it doesn't support creating as many archives as 7z does.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[morgan_greywolf]

7zip is not superior. It's incredibly slow.

[Citation needed]

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[Anonymous Coward]

citation

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[xonar]

I don't know how I'd live without 7zips simple context-menu interface and speedy compression times. I always hated winrar though, I used Winace back in the day.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[cawpin]

Are you on crack? WinRAR is far quicker than 7zip.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[RiotingPacifist]

tbf it is slightly slower, not 10x though. and why the fuck are you looking for speed for uncompressing something like a rar file? there are much better formats for fast compression decompression and apparently .7zip is better for flat out compression too.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[Clarious]

Err , a n00b only need to create and extract archives, and I think 7zip context menu does that just find. I don't think an archiver program need to have an interface after all, everything should be provided via context menu.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[0100010001010011]

IZarc is also free (beer not speech). I use it on all the systems I have. I love it.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[dubbreak]

Uncompressing a file in WinRAR consistently takes up to or over 10x as long to uncompress in 7zip. Try it yourself. WinRAR is even faster with .7z archives.

So you are saying a file that takes 10 seconds in winrar could take upto 1m40s in 7zip? Or a file that takes 1 minute in winrar could take up to 10 minutes in 7zip?

Please, at least give a believable factor.. yes you said "up to", but seriously in general is it even twice as slow? I doubt it. From my experience, no it's not and the time I save not clicking a nag banner makes it faster.

If winrar is so superior to other zip software then why don't they advertise benchmarks? Seems like a great selling feature to me.. if it were true.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe not, however your typos are a superiot.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[spyrochaete]

I'm not exaggerating when I state this 10x delay. I'm probably understating. The bigger the file, the longer it takes. A RAR file that took 15 minutes to unzip in WinRAR would have literally taken a day and a half in 7Zip - and that was with a quad core Intel CPU on a 64-bit OS, unzipping from one physical HDD to another.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[SBFCOblivion]

I don't see it now, but I recall reading on 7zip's website that it was slower because it had to avoid violating compression patents.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[spyrochaete]

Try it yourself. I can only speak for my experience using 3 OSes on my own computer, and one OS on someone else's computer. The results were consistent for me but I hope they're better for everyone else and that I simply used it wrong.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[spyrochaete]

It is definitely not slightly slower. For me, in my isolated but multiple tests, 7Zip was obscenely slow. I tried on many OSes on 2 PCs and the results were very similar. Your mileage may vary. Me, I won't try it again until the next major version.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[spyrochaete]

Yes, in my tests it looked like it was going to take WELL over 10x as long to uncompress the same file in 7Zip. I can't say for certain because I took 7Zip's word for it when its estimate told me it would take about 33 hours to unzip a file that literally took 15 minutes in WinRAR.

It's entirely possible that I used the product wrong or that there was a problem on both the PCs I tried, but if this was true then I'd rather use WinRAR simply because it worked better out of the box with no additional configuration.

I was very likely understating my frustration with 7Zip. I think it's appropriate to zip up a DOC for an email attachment but in my opinion it's worthless for backup and archival use on anything but a very small scale.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[gbjbaanb]

Some FUD on /., who'd have thought :-) (not you though, some other posters say different things in reply to you).

So, I thought I'd dl 7zipo and give it a whirl, then used the context menus to compress a few directories in the utility's native format (ie rar v 7z, 'cos I only care about the end-result not the format)

1 wmv file: rar took 35sec, 7zip 20 sec. Neither compressed very well, rar was .1mb smaller, 7zip .1mb larger (on a 80Mb file so no difference to compression)

a dir full of jpgs from my camera (23mb): rar took 13 sec, 7zip took 12. Neither did well with compression again.

a dir full of pdf files (89mb): rar took 54 seconds, 7zip 42. Here rar archive was 71mb, 7zip 69mb.

a dir of work stuff (cpp files mostly, few documents)(59mb): rar took 21 seconds, 7zip 16. Rar archive compressed to 8.16mb, 7zip down to 5.65mb

So: 7zip seems to be better or the same as WinRAR in all cases... for compression.

For Uncompression its a different story, WinRAR is faster in all cases, except for the work archive of lots of cpp files. That took 4 seconds to decompress v 3 in 7zip (not exactly much difference, or scientific testing of the timings). The slowest was decompressing the pdfs, 4 seconds for winrar v 10 for 7zip.

I think 7zip could appear to be faster if it's gui showed the progress of each individual file as Winrar does. I suppose it depends if you prefer the better compression of 7zip or the faster uncompression speed of Winrar. There's not much in it either way to be honest. 7zip, of course, is free.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[spyrochaete]

P.s., I waited about 10 minutes before cancelling that 33 hour uncompress, just in case the estimate adjusted itself. It didn't. P.p.s., rarlabs.com doesn't have much of a website at all, never mind marketing. Perhaps their excellent (but very overpriced) product speaks for itself.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[Bobb Sledd]

Well obviously there is your problem. Your drive is apparently not compatible with 7zip. Duh.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[alx5000]

{{Original research}} !!

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[clone53421]

I don't click the nag banner. I just right-click-drag and "Extract files here...".

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[necro2607]

Nice, I want a copy of that. Sounds like Asus is including some pretty useful utilities along with their new machines! Now there's a software bundle that for once might actually be of some use to me! ;)

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[Spatial]

Oho. In that case it's not exactly a big deal, although I have no idea why it would be on the disc.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[Anonymous Coward]

actually it now has a 40 day enforced trial period. If you go beyond the 40 days the nag window is as far as you get. (unless you uninstall it, download a newer release and install again.)

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[Naughty Bob]

{{Original research}} !!

What about the very first hit on Google, eh?

The truth is everywhere!

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[0xABADC0DA]

7zip is not superior. It's incredibly slow. ... Uncompressing a file in WinRAR consistently takes up to or over 10x as long to uncompress in 7zip

Lets look at some scenarios for compression large amounts of data:

1) Making a backup of data (ie, ~home). Backups are usually decompressed fewer times them compressed, since unless something goes wrong they are replaced with more up-to-date backups.
2) Moving data, save/restore. For instance "compress <file|ssh -c 'uncompress >file' anotherhost", or saving ~home then reinstall OS, then restore ~home
3) Reduce space when data is not in use. For instance you have many vmware images but a small drive, so you keep the less-used ones compressed. You have to recompress after using it to keep the changes.
4) An archive for distributing files to many places, or 3 where you can discard changes.

In the first three cases you don't care at all about decompression time (1) or you only care about total time (2, 3). Only in 4 do you care about decompression time, and size may trump this if you are paying for bandwidth for instance.

Now lets look at some times. Cat /vmlinuz 50 times for a ~100 MiB file.

7z compress: 25s user, 20s wall
rar compress: 28s user, 28s wall

7z uncompress: 1.05s user, 1.242 wall
rar uncompress: 0.91s user, 0.945 wall

Clearly 7zip is multithreaded since it used more CPU time than actual time, but even with one CPU the total compression time would be less. The 7z size was 1% smaller than the rar, so no difference there. Yes, the 7zip takes longer to decompress. But if you look at the total time to compress and decompress (the most common case) it was ~40% faster.

What this means is that unless you are going to decompress many more times than compress then 7zip completely destroys rar in performance.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[Anonymous Coward]

You're using an older version of 7zip if it doesn't show the individual file progress. Upgrade, it's also a lot faster.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[MaXMC]

That depends on a number of different factors.

For you, I'd say disk speed.
7zip is a bit slower than rar but it compresses better.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_archivers#Comparison_of_efficiency

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[FictionPimp]

As far as I known, 7zip uses a dll from winrar to do its compressing and decompressing of rar files.

So it should be exactly the same.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[bhtooefr]

What 64-bit OS? Vista?

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[ianare]

Here's a bug report I filed a while back.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[spyrochaete]

Yes, Vista.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[shutdown -p now]

Well, maybe WinRAR is not "needlessly" expensive then, after all? Is $35 really that much to ask for a mature, stable, well-designed piece of software that does its job extremely well?

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[Anonymous Coward]

Nag windows are really damn lame, which is why people crack them.

Not paying for the software because you're happy to click on a nag window is really damn fucking lame -- if the only reason you're squeezing your wallet is because the software lets you get away with it, you're just a cheapskate.

There are other reasons to not pay for the software, which are considerably less lame. Like, for example, you don't actually want the software, but you have to use it because people send you rar files and third-party app support tends to be somewhat broken or incomplete (like 7-zip).

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[spyrochaete]

Everything is worth as much as people are willing to pay for it. I suppose if people weren't willing to pay $35 for WinRAR then they'd change it, so more power to RARlabs. I love their product but I'd sooner deal with their nag screens than foot the bill.

In RARlabs' defense, I emailed them saying this a year ago or so and they said they'd knock 25% for me. I thanked them but it still seemed to expensive so I passed.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[bhtooefr]

Could be that 7Zip is accessing the file system via the copy methods, somehow.

That could explain why it's slower on Vista, as copying on Vista is sometimes hit or miss on speed...

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[spyrochaete]

You might be right. I think we tried it on pre-SP1 Vista so that might have exacerbated the disk access issues.

Re:Cracking WinRAR is lame

[bhtooefr]

And, I've heard that the disk access issues persist in SP1, in some cases, so if you want to accurately test it, use XP. ;)

Well that's what you get

[elrous0]

Putting the CEO's dim-witted nephew Steve in charge of disc duplication seemed like such a good idea. I mean, how could anyone screw something THAT simple up, right?

Down already?

[Anonymous Coward]

Link looks down already. Any specific file names I should look for?

I just hope...

[tom_75]

Asus bundles their next product with Photoshop CS4 and 3ds Max CD's :)

So how long...

[Darundal]

...until some of the documents end up on Torrent sites?

Re:So how long...

[BUL2294]

...until some of the documents end up on Torrent sites?

What, they're not there yet? Damn slacking software pirates...

Re:So how long...

[Simon (S2)]

http://www.mininova.org/search/?search=asus

Re:So how long...

[Darundal]

How was I modded redundant? I was the first to ask the question...

Re:So how long...

[tigerbody1]

Hmmm, I dont see the specific torrent file.

It will be interesting to see

[mandark1967]

How the cracking software got onto the restore DVD as well as why it was even present at Asus in the first place.

I can't imagine why a company like Asus would even "need" to crack software keys when they can, most likely, get it at a discount. I mean, it's not like Asus is a barely-scraping-by company that is unable to afford even simple tools.

Re:It will be interesting to see

[Anonymous Coward]

Both Taiwan and mainland China, let alone Hong Kong, pirated software is easy to obtain. I'd place my bets on either of...

1. The disc master's computer had this information
2. The disc replication (usually china/taiwan) factory had this software, and someone didn't erase their image drive.

I'd put more money on 1 due to the power point file about the company. This would suggest that it was done carelessly or intentionally and a whole lot of QC didn't happen before the disc got put in the box.

Re:It will be interesting to see

[Anonymous Coward]

Asus is a Taiwanese company. You would be surprised how common pirated software is in Taiwan. If you buy a laptop, you would expect it to come with pirated software... I was surprised when a friend of mine bought an Apple's powerbook (through a third party vendor) and it came with pirated copies vmware, photoshop, etc.

Re:It will be interesting to see

[ctnp]

I hear that software piracy runs pretty rampant, even at a corporate level, in China. Not surprised at the story but they certainly have egg on their face now.

Re:It will be interesting to see

[Anonymous Coward]

Almost every computers here have Winrar, cracked or not.

Re:It will be interesting to see

[Anonymous Coward]

Chances are probably good that ASUS, the company, had nothing to do with it - that this was the result of one of their engineers who had been diddling around, creating the CD image and was lazy and sloppy in the process... he/she is probably unemployed by now, too.

Re:It will be interesting to see

[digitig]

I mean, it's not like Asus is a barely-scraping-by company that is unable to afford even simple tools.

Yet.

Re:It will be interesting to see

[TheNetDevil]

In large companies money may not be the reason for pirating, but the bureaucracy. In you have to wait months to get your simple tool you might be inclined to pirate it to get the work done.

Re:It will be interesting to see

[rtechie]

I can't imagine why a company like Asus would even "need" to crack software keys when they can, most likely, get it at a discount.

Because keeping track of product keys is a hassle and having to fill out a PO for a $30 shareware app is a PITA.

Re:It will be interesting to see

[Abreu]

Here in my country software piracy is not even considered weird anymore.
It is not unusual for small computer hardware vendors to ask you what software would you like in your box and they will get it for you.

Sometimes they don't even ask. My last computer (advertised as the "multimedia and graphic design model") came preinstalled with copies of the latest adobe and autocad software, msoffice and norton antivirus.

(Of course, I erased everything and installed Ubuntu) 0:)

Software crackers...

[kokho]

Damn... what happened to the good ol' days when people used to eat real crackers...

Re:Software crackers...

[Anonymous Coward]

That is called cannibalism, and is strongly frowned upon in modern society.

Leaked docs

[Stavr0]

Has anyone sent them to Wikileaks yet?

Cracking tool? What about the docs?

[DaveV1.0]

A directory containing a large number of confidential Microsoft documents for PC manufacturers, including associated keys and program files

I would think that this would be of much more interest than some cracking tool one can download. Even the Asus source code should be of more interest as it could be used to improve FLOSS support.

Re:Cracking tool? What about the docs?

[commodoresloat]

Even the Asus source code should be of more interest as it could be used to improve FLOSS support.

Not legally it couldn't.

Re:Cracking tool? What about the docs?

[DaveV1.0]

Well, you may be right, but then it may provide undocumented information. They may not be able to use the code, but may be able to set up a chinese wall where one group looks at the code and writes specifications and includes memory addresses, data structures, etc. then another team is provided with the information and creates a clean implementation.

alt.binary.asus.stupid.employe

[Anonymous Coward]

surprise, surprise This will be a tricky entry on ones job application for future employment. Reason for leaving last job? ....Maybe McDonalds doesnt care, and there is always the Nike tennis shoe factory.

This was a triumph

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm making a note here. HUGE SUCCESS!

Goes to show how PERVASIVE piracy is

[Anonymous Coward]

If you can't keep it off your distribution CDs, you just have WAAAAAAY too much of it around.

Re:Goes to show how PERVASIVE piracy is

[timbck2]

This got moderated as +1 Funny, but should be +5 Insightful.

The Butterfly Effect

[Dystopian Rebel]

A guy burns a master CD while smoking a joint in Taiwan... Somewhere in Redmond, a large office chair is hurtled through a pane of glass.

Re:The Butterfly Effect

[Anonymous Coward]

When I was in Redmond for *gasp* an interview (I declined) they showed me a room where they are allowed to vent. Since it is always so gloomy/misty/kinda-rainy they don't allow any rough chair-window relationships. They tried it once but they kept getting everything all wet inside, ruining the paper-based code trails.

Re:The Butterfly Effect

[bky1701]

"When I was in Redmond for *gasp* an interview (I declined) they showed me a room where they are allowed to vent."

They let you in the board room? Wow.

Re:Rule #1: If you learn something, don't tell any

[pak9rabid]

(sheeet! in Eubonics_Jive)

I believe the correct spelling is shyyyyyyaat!

Review Process Fail

[Anonymous Coward]

EPIC FAIL

How do you mix these sorts of data up like this, and how that it even approaches production? Granted there may not be much of a content review process before driver disks get made, but come on! A powerpoint of major flaws included on a DRIVER DISK?!

Bet there'll be a review process now! HAH!

Re:Rule #1: If you learn something, don't tell any

[Lostlander]

Because if it's on a recovery CD which is duplicated a thousand times then it's worthless to the company you want to blackmail as they're screwed anyway so why pay for your extortion.

They put other stuff on there too

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine my surprise when an immediate restart after driver installation off of an asus cd booted my computer into a broken version of freedos. An explanation written 4 years ago of what happened to me is here: http://www.freedos.org/freedos/news/technote/211.html
 

Anyone have a Mirror Image of Disk file?

[McFly69]

I don't know about anyone else, but I personaly would love to see these powerpoint's and word documents. Just from personal perpective... but of course these document may prevent me from buying any ASUS products.

Re:Anyone have a Mirror Image of Disk file?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's okay, no need to lie. We all know what you REALLY want is that winRAR crack program!

Now that's service!

[Anonymous Coward]

I love Asus. That would save me lots of time in not having to search for the crack and break into Asus's network to steal their private documents.

Re:Someone Is Getting Fired *CORRECTED

[ziggy00001]

Someone is getting fired, and Asus is getting sued....NA, NA, NA, POO, POO

It happens, when QC isn't very high. Example:

[blind biker]

Several years ago I worked in a very large and respectable company that shall remain unnamed (but whose name rhymes with, say, "Nokia"...) and we just shipped our turnkey system with our software AND with the source code. And the company wasn't (and still isn't, AFAIK, but don't work for them since a long time) an open-source company :o) It was a screwup by the consultant guys in India.

I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often, knowing the level of QC that happens in India and China.

oh, right, I forgot that it does indeed happen. Even nowadays (de javu).

Re:It happens, when QC isn't very high. Example:

[BUL2294]

I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often, knowing the level of QC that happens in India and China.

"The quality checking will be happening as optional."

Re:It happens, when QC isn't very high. Example:

[xerxesVII]

deja vu, not de javu

Re:It happens, when QC isn't very high. Example:

[Spatial]

It happens, when QC isn't very high.

No, QC were definitely high alright.

Re:It happens, when QC isn't very high. Example:

[Anonymous Coward]

It was a screwup by the guys who decided they would save a few pennies to outsource consultant guys in India.

FTFY

Re:It happens, when QC isn't very high. Example:

[blind biker]

I completely agree. Thanks for FTFM.

So..

[Trelane]

where are the files? I'm highly curious to get a peek into the secret goings-on of a major Microsoft OEM.

Re:So..

[taylorsimpson]

where are the files? I'm highly curious to get a peek into the secret goings-on of a major Microsoft OEM.

if you have an asus pc look to see if you have a windows\configsetroot\ directory.

Not just a hard disk

[Lonewolf666]

If you read TFA, you will find that this is more than a case of a hard disk someone forgot to erase before selling an old computer.

This time, the wayward data are on a recovery DVD that comes with new ASUS computers, and presumably hundreds or thousands have been shipped. Which makes the following two differences:
1) Trying to keep this secret is probably futile, there are too many copies floating around.
2) Distributing stuff by accident in this way is an epic, newsworthy blunder. Much worse than forgetting to erase a single harddisk.
 

This demonstrates the importance of formal English

[hey!]

Especially in international, multi-cultural enterprises.

When the executives said they wanted "Cracking software" on the CD, they meant it in the same way that Wallace does when he compliments Gromit on breakfast: "Cracking toast, Gromit!"

Asus had to compete with MSI

[Anonymous Coward]

Because, you know, after MSI threw in those free moviez, ASUS had to up the ante a little :)

Not the first time

[Xian97]

I remember years ago that The Settlers 2 had a crack for SciTech's Display Doctor, a shareware DOS VESA utility, buried away in one of it's directories.

PRON!!

[Dancindan84]

I'm just surprised that the CD didn't wind up with his pron collection on it.

Re:PRON!!

[jimicus]

It wouldn't be the first time something like that's happened.

(though to be fair that was a repair rather than a new PC)

AsusGirl?

[kap.devoid]

I think they should opted for the AsusGirl approach instead.

And localized to boot!

[zooblethorpe]

And apparently they were kind enough to include both English and Chinese versions of it, too!

Cheers,

all company should follow suit

[grumpyman]

....details 'major problems' identified by the company, including application compatibility issues...

Sounds like a release notes ^_^

So Open Wifi... leads to terrorist attacks?

[Anonymous Coward]

If the govt thinks banning open networks is going to help them reduce terrorism, good luck with that.

Maybe not so accidental?

[necro2607]

When I first read it, I thought, "Oops! Someone copied the wrong file over"... After I read that some internal documents about key issues in the company were on the disc? That makes it sound like an intentional act... Wonder if we'll hear some news about a developer getting fired/sued/etc. ...

Frame?

[phorm]

Sounds like a good way to frame somebody too though...

Missing Option

[Junior J. Junior III]

Maybe someone will go to jail, too.

Can someone post a

[geekoid]

rar of the directory? I'm interested in the..uh.. resume.
Sure.

Re:Can someone post a

[Kooty-Sentinel]

Don't you mean you want a ZIP of the directory? You wouldn't be able to use WinRAR without the crack :)

Asus naval fleet? Closed source recovery DVDs?

[Hurricane78]

Did anyone else read that as:

Asus Ships
Cracking
Software on Recovery DVD

Toooot...toooot... here comes the naval hacker fleet!
(I wonder if their ancestors were pirates...)

And in other news...

[nixkuroi]

...the makers of WinRAR have call their lawyers and ask them to get out their latex gloves...er...software auditors.

This is good actually.

[TechwoIf]

With everyone complaining about DRM in games and so on. Having a major company complaining about it will fuel the fire to convince publishers that DRM is bad. Being this is an internal document that wasn't supposed to "leak", it has more creditably then publicly announcing it and still have creditably with the publishers. Meaning they won't get "punished" for speaking out against DRM.

Sacked.

[changa]

We apologise again for the fault in the
CD's. Those responsible for sacking
the people who have just been sacked,
have been sacked.

Because they're BSA members, of course.

[Xenographic]

I know you're joking, but for anyone who doesn't get the joke, Microsoft is a BSA member.

They only terrorize small businesses.

Re:Because they're BSA members, of course.

[fishbowl]

Why do you need the BSA? The evidence Sony needs is right there on the disc.
Copyright infringement on an industrial scale is already shown in prima facie evidence.

Minor road bump for Asus

[Anonymous Coward]

ASUS is going to say that this is just the work of a disgruntled employee trying to smear the image of the corporation, and it will all just vanish.

And the evidence shows... what?

[Animaether]

It shows that somebody - most likely a third party hired by Microsoft for the sole purpose of supplying audio files - has either made or acquired (from yet another party) an audio file that is likely to be authored in a cracked version of a piece of software.

Microsoft didn't distribute the cracked copy of the software themselves, so they have no recourse against Microsoft. At best, SONY could ask Microsoft kindly to find out where that file came from and deal with the matter appropriately; presuming it -did- come from an actual Microsoft employee and the software was on a Microsoft corporate computer, then you might have something of a point - although the likely recourse there is booting the employee out - but good luck in finding that out, first.

Re:And the evidence shows... what?

[fishbowl]

So in other words, you're saying that a company can pretty much use any pirated software they want, even broadcast the fact that they use it, and as long as they don't get caught in the act, that's ok -- no legal repercussions are possible.

Cool. That's basically what I was told by the General Counsel of a largish company I worked for as well.

Re:And the evidence shows... what?

[Animaether]

Except that they didn't broadcast that they used it, per se.. as I said, it most likely comes from a third party - if nothing else, I'm sure Microsoft would claim as much.

By far the majority of BSA 'raids' are based on information from insiders that are telling them "The company I work(ed) for *is using* [software] illegaly.", rather than "I found a file distributed by [company] that has all the markings of being made using an illegal copy of [software], but I have no proof whatsoever that they actually authored this file."

For kicks, snap up a royalty-free sound-effects CD-ROM from the 90's if you can find one. You'll find many of such files, and all you'll get from the distributor is "Thank you for your information. Our legal department will be in touch with the source of the file in question." or something to that effect. I should know, I tried (green disc titled "WAV sound effects", distributed by MEDIASOURCE in 1994, copyright Applied Optical Media Corporation. Out of business, near's I know, but likely unrelated :P)

That doesn't make it 'okay', but if you purchase royalty-free media from a reputable source *or* hire somebody to author sound files for you, then there is no due diligence required that you then check whether the files were authored with legit software (if even possible).

In the case of ASUS' disc - as far as I can tell - they're actually distributing cracked / cracking software... completely different area of legal code.

Better check for Miss Syphilis after ..

[freaker_TuC]

Might be a nasty after-experience putting other disks in other holes ;)

it's a hassle for the vendor side too...

[simplerThanPossible]

It seems to me that what the big software vendors really provide is bureaucracy-compatibility. You need to charge a lot, for all that hassle to be worthwhile.

But, if you go to the trouble to reach that threshold, it contributes to your competitive advantage; maybe by quite a lot.

Making a software product you love seems problematic as a business: you either have to go free (not charging for the product), or go corporate (which is about dealing with the hassle).

Where is the torrent file?

[tigerbody1]

That is what I would like to know ;)

No worse fanatic than the newly converted!

[rts008]

I have been guilty of making comments derisive of Windows regarding malware and security faults; typically in the stereotypical '*nix zealot, foaming at the mouth' fashion. But...

To be honest, I learned how to secure a home network while using Win 98 SE (well, as good as can be expected for Win 98).

I then went along with the XP Pro Upgrade on my PC, was then given an older Dell with XP Pro already there, and had good results applying what I had learned with Win 98 with a few twists.

Since network and individual PC security and keeping malware free machines where important to me, I made it a point to keep up to date with Windows Updates and anti-malware software. I rarely had any problems with any 'infections'. Sometimes a friend of my wife's would come over and her daughter would go to her Myspace page and would click on any thing that moved...or didn't.

More research...Hmmm... default admin rights for users? Ah Hah!
Fixed that quick.
*note: self taught by way of 'I WILL figure this stuff out!! mind-set. Heck, it took me until I was 16 years old to figure out what my maternal grandfather was always asking me: 'You know how curiosity killed the cat, don't you/'
I spent too much time on the different possibilities, that I never looked at the whole 'moral of the story is...'*

My own experience tells me that is about mindset and best practices more than anything else, but I do have fewer worries with Kubuntu than with Windows. I also had very few issues with malware on XP after a short time(I was still learning), eventually no issues.

I'm actually considering making an XP partition when Fallout 3 comes out- after it has been out a month or so.

Asus is innocent ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Asus is innocent, Crab people is responsible for all !