How Asus Recovery Disks Ended Up Carrying Software Cracks

Anthony_Cargile writes "We all now know about Asus shipping illegal software cracks and confidential documents/source code on their recovery DVD (and in the system root), but this article tells exactly how it happened. It's even more careless than you think, and most likely an accident."

Comments

TFA

[Anonymous Coward]

Asus Recovery DVD scandal: How it happened
Posted by anthony Published in Security, Software

For those who havenâ(TM)t already heard, the PC OEM company Asus was involved in a major scandal where a directory on the recovery DVD and inside c:\Windows\ConfigSetRoot\ contained a software crack for the WinRar program, software serial numbers, a resume (presumably for a now-jobless Asus employee), an internal Asus powerpoint describing âoeknown compatibility issuesâ, Asus source code, and even an OEM issued Microsoft document, which mainly says âoedo not distribute DR-DOS with any computersâ.

We now know from an OEM source how exactly the files got where they did in the first place, and it isnâ(TM)t very surprising.

An Asus representative said they would be investigating the matter, and while someone is still going to lose their job over this just so Asus can say so, the way the files made it to thousands of PCs is pretty common.

An OEM employee (name not mentioned here) discussing the matter said that during the vista installs, the generic vista disc installing the OS looks for an XML file (unattend.xml) on a flash drive, and upon finding it the installation parses it and runs the XML code as installation instructions so nobody has to go through the installation menu for the hundreds of synchronous installations (hence the unattend).

BUT⦠there is another twist: If a certain tag or attribute is present, all files other than unattend.xml itself on the flash drive will be copied to c:\windows\configsetroot - see the connection?

So apparently an Asus employee happened to have a personal flash drive, and stored his resume (presumeably, conspiracy theorists may disagree) as well as a few âharmlessâ(TM) keygens and serials on it as well, in his defence in case maybe he lost the serial to winrar or other programs. Apparently the same employee used the flash drive to store or back up confidential Asus documents and source code, as well.

So if the Asus internally distributed unattend.xml file was copied to this unnamed (and jobless) employeeâ(TM)s personal flash drive, and included the xml tag/attribute to copy over everything to the system root and, therefore, recovery DVD as well, then voila! Then the only way somebody could come under fire because of this is because of oh, I donâ(TM)t know, not checking the installation root once everything was installed!

So now we know HOW exactly this whole ordeal was started, and there is a lesson to be learned hereâ¦. somewhere.

Re:TFA

[master5o1]

encrypt all sensitive data?

Re:TFA

[AKAImBatman]

encrypt all sensitive data?

I was gonna say, "Use a Mac".

Or Linux. Or Solaris. Or SOMETHING other than Windows.

It seems to me that Windows and Office are far too often the culprits of accidental leaks. Microsoft's strategy has always been one of convenience rather than security, so it's no surprise to me when these things happen. If you're looking for a decent home system, fine, use Windows. If you're going to use it as an employee workstation, be paranoid. But never, ever, ever deploy it to the production floor of anything!

Not that anyone is going to listen to me. I'm just going to keep seeing more blue screens on busses, trains, airplanes, ATMs, factory floors, and anywhere else it's actually important not to use Windows.

Re:TFA

[HeronBlademaster]

I thought it would be "Don't buy Asus machines." It isn't hard to imagine a vendor doing something similar to this for Linux installations.

Re:TFA

[TheLink]

What if they consider the xml sensitive as well?

If you encrypt on a per drive basis, it also means you'd decrypt the entire flashdrive when trying to access the xml.

So that wouldn't help as well.

Better to use one flash drive for private data (use encryption if you want), and use other drives for other stuff.

Mixing stuff like that is just bad hygiene.

Re:TFA

[Nazlfrag]

Great, then the mac or linux files would have been copied from the usb stick to the windows install directory. Reduces the chances of cracks appearing, but does nothing for the documents.

Re:TFA

[DrSkwid]

That sounds like the dumbest choice. The only negative effect an Asus client could have is if the USB flash drive contained malware of some description.
Condemning the whole company because of one employees ignorance of MS's stupid xml magic really is cutting your nose to spite your face.
Asus products have always been good to me.

Re:TFA

[blind biker]

So apparently an Asus employee happened to have a personal flash drive, and stored his resume

If that really was his/her resume, I doubt it will do much good to him/her, now.

I love the twist, though: "I worked for 3 years at Asus, but I, er, decided to move on now. Oh, BTW: you can find my resume on your Asus recovery disk - isn't that convenient!"

Re:TFA

[couchslug]

"I thought it would be "Don't buy Asus machines."

Why would I mind if they come with a free bonus?

I'd be delighted with the "unintended extras" on the recovery disk, and (since I don't own one) hope they will show up via the usual sources so I can check them out.

Re:TFA

[Anonymous Coward]

That sounds like the dumbest choice. The only negative effect an Asus client could have is if the USB flash drive contained malware of some description.

Which isn't worth worrying about, because THAT never happens.

Re:TFA

[Sam36]

amen I hate windows

Re:TFA

[atamido]

ignorance of MS's stupid xml magic

Because all Linux config files make perfect sense... Seriously though, XML may be verbose, but at least the format is clear. In contrast, ever .conf file has its own peculiar formatting that makes editing an adventure.

Re:TFA

[SenseiLeNoir]

Although not a "Mac" per se, but there was a case where iPods were accidentally sold with a virus on them (plug it in, and bang you are infected - windows users only)

Re:TFA

[SenseiLeNoir]

My real worry is that it may not even be the person mentioned in the CV at fault.

Assume the following scenario.

X has a USB drive with confidential infomation, which he keeps in his desks, it may even be a backup of sorts.

Y is a trainee/intern who is doing an OEM machine image. He gets his instructions which say "get a USB drive to perform the next steps". He doesnt have a USB flash drive, so he asks X if he can borrow a USB flash drive to "install something"

X, who may be busy and mislead by the rather vague request may think that Y wants to download something from the internet. A driver or something, and says, "sure use the drive on my desk, do not delete anything"

Y follows the instructions, and the debacle above happens, but no-one knows yet, and the above exchange is forgotten. Maybe Y is an intern and has even left the company by now. .. some time later....

the excrement hits the fan, and X looses his job.

Re:TFA

[Toll_Free]

But, the problem is, nobody in their right mind (consumers) want to go through all the bullshit of installing linux.

Yeah, I downloaded Ubuntu. Latest and greatest, 4 weeks ago.

Took a week / week and a half for my roommate to get a friggin Broadcom wifi card working. It was done as a test, to see "just how good" the install of the newer distros is. (I run slackware). Yup, install windows, runs fine OOBE. Run Linux, go find some FWCUTTER thing, then have to compile it, then have to get it to work (it never did for him), then figure out where in the OS to install the "flash" files.

Yup, that's an operating system destined for desktops everywhere!

The problem with Microsoft isn't that they make things easy, that's what the world wants. Tech geeks, I'm sorry to say (as one), are NOT the people MOST companies mass market to, they do it to the people NOT classified as nerds or geeks in school because, magically, THEY ARE THE MINORITY.

Anywho, just thought I would set you straight. Having an easy to install O/S isn't the problem. The problem was the asshole at Asus that didn't do his job correctly, was using illegal software cracks (presumably, nobody knows for sure where he lives), and the assholes that where supposed to actually TEST the OOBE (Out Of Box Experience) and the image verifiers should ALL LOSE THEIR JOBS!

--Toll_Free

Re:TFA

[darkpixel2k]

It seems to me that Windows and Office are far too often the culprits of accidental leaks.

No, the culprits are usually idiots. Microsoft can't help it if the majority of idiots out there happen to use their software.

I'm sure there's a handful of people out there who went out to buy a computer yesterday and had to decide between Windows and Mac--and the reason they walked away with a pre-loaded Vista machine was because they remember that funny ad with Seinfield and that rich dude shaking his ass.

...you think I'm joking.

Re:TFA

[darkpixel2k]

ignorance of MS's stupid xml magic

Because all Linux config files make perfect sense... Seriously though, XML may be verbose, but at least the format is clear. In contrast, ever .conf file has its own peculiar formatting that makes editing an adventure.

When he refers to XML Magic, he's not referring to how you edit an XML file, he is referring to the 'magic' that goes on behind the scenes that no one know about because Windows is closed-source.

Had Windows been open sourced, there's a better chance that someone would have looked at the XML code and decided it was stupid.

Then they would have rewritten it so it looks vaguely like erlang.

Re:TFA

[Machtyn]

Okay, here's the thing I would like to know. Why is Microsoft banning the use of DR DOS? Does Microsoft own DR DOS or is this more of the anti-competitive, monopolistic practices that Microsoft employs to attempt to rid the world of things like Netscape Navigator?

Re:TFA

[HeronBlademaster]

My only point was that the conclusion "Use a Mac because Windows sucks" is far less logical than "Don't buy from Asus".

I've never had an Asus machine. I have a few Asus motherboards (in fact I have three arriving in the mail today), and they seem to work alright. I didn't say *my* conclusion would be "Don't buy Asus", I said I thought *his* conclusion would have been "Don't buy Asus". I guess I made the mistake of thinking he was logical about his assertion.

Re:TFA

[Belial6]

My son did his first install of Ubuntu just after his second birthday. He was unsuccessful at installing Windows at that time. Nobody is going to convince me that Ubuntu is harder to install than Windows.

Re:TFA

[hatshepsut]

I threw Kubuntu onto an Asus laptop just before school started. Laptop shipped with Vista (shudder). Tried putting a 64bit version of XP on it, ran slower than molasses in January, lousy video, couldn't get the sound card working, etc. Threw on Kubuntu... video ran smoothly out of the box, had to fight with the sound (but only until I found a post in the Ubuntu forums about the well-known problem), got my bluetooth working and was able to sync up my palmpilot, and my iPod with very little trouble.

Asus hardware is just fine, Kubuntu/Ubuntu is just fine. Windows is proving more trouble than it is worth.

All that said, I'll be checking my recovery disk (which I kept, of course) for any interesting files tonight!

Re:TFA

[Sancho]

I don't get it. Why is this "XML Magic" bad? That flag is clearly documented. Open source wouldn't have prevented this problem any more than just reading the documentation would have. It's even likely that this person knew about that flag and just forgot about it.

Re:TFA

[colourmyeyes]

Yay, anecdotal evidence thread!

Re:TFA

[Zibri]

Yeah. This shows that Asus really cares about their customers! (Do they still ship the CD?)

Re:TFA

[Anonymous Coward]

You still have a palm pilot? Really?

Re:TFA

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem isn't the bizzare behavior of the tool that used the XML. The problem is that Asus didn't bother to have anyone review the final contents of the disc before shipping it.

Re:TFA

[bluefoxlucid]

I had that problem with Ubuntu like 3 releases ago, when fwcutter was first integrated. Somewhere along the way they managed to make it ask you about it in the restricted device manager, and then automatically get the firmware and install it. It works in 2 clicks now.

Re:TFA

[Anonymous Coward]

Aha, now I understand why most OEM copies of Windows are full of crapware - it's not by choice, it just happened to be on the USB key at the time when the media was created...

Re:TFA

[Machtyn]

I quote TFA:

and even an OEM issued Microsoft document, which mainly says Ãoedo not distribute DR-DOS with any computersÃ.

Now tell me, what is off-topic about my question?

Re:TFA

[HeronBlademaster]

Who modded me Troll? Come on, I wasn't trolling, and I think it's obvious - I can seriously imagine without difficulty a vendor accidentally distributing some random employee's files on their Linux CDs.

Lipstick on a disc

[deadcrickets]

Damn that lipstick!

This doesn't explain everything

[RGRistroph]

I can how an internal ASUS USB flash disk with an unattend.xml file on it, might get used to move documents around, and then also get used to install windows.

That might explain how certain documents got put on a lot of harddrives inside ASUS.

It doesn't explain how that directly ended up being part of what they made an ISO out of, and how no one apparently did quality control and checked every single file on a CD before it was replicated and sent out to the world.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Free the Cowards]

First rule of internal company dynamics: they are not nearly as well staffed, as organized, as thorough, or as competent as you think they are. They are in all probability just as quick and careless as you would be doing the same thing.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[master5o1]

Or not supposed to be there?

If it's Asus confidential crap or someone's personal CV then they should obviously be removed.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Anonymous Coward]

As an employee of an OEM that does these installs all day long, I can say they really messed up. Using an unattend.XML from a flash drive is BAD. Using a USB drive that has anything else on it is WORSE. Having illegal software and ND docs on the MFG floor, on an unsecure USB drive, next to your install scripts, is enough to get you FIRED.

And to other comments...Yes, we do look at nearly EVERY SINGLE FILE, including c:\Windows\ConfigSetRoot\. If you send out for 100k recovery DVDs, you want to make sure they are correct.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[IceCreamGuy]

When was the last time that anyone checked every file on a CD when it's say, a windows restore? Yeah. Nice job dipshit. Think before you talk. What human actually knows every file that's supposed to be on there?

diff -r, dipshit.

If doing this kind of quality control doesn't seem trivial and normal to you, then congrats; you don't work in the IT field.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Miseph]

"When was the last time that anyone checked every file on a CD when it's say, a windows restore? Yeah. Nice job dipshit. Think before you talk. What human actually knows every file that's supposed to be on there?"

How else do you think this stuff could have been found? Magic?

I dunno... maybe the guy responsible for figuring out what the hell is supposed to go on there in the first place would know. Last I checked, Microsoft only hired humans for work outside of the legal department. More importantly, nobody would need to know off the top of their head, since they could just check against a list... or even better they could write a short script to do it for them.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[MerlynEmrys67]

Uh - I do. You mean when you are building a large distribution you don't create a manifest that lists all of the files that are supposed to be on the disk - and then have a script automatically check that everything is on the CD that is supposed to be on it... nothing more - nothing less.

Sloppy work at the best - a simple engineering problem to solve, takes 2 minutes to run after the ISO is cut. My QA lead would laugh hysterically at me if I tried to pull a stunt link this on her. Easy to verify final ship products

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[RGRistroph]

I had forgotten that it was a windows restore CD, I was thinking in terms of a driver CD or something.

However, there exist tools that are designed to do exactly that sort of thing. I run something that checksums every file on a server and compares it to a known good value, as part of an intrusion detection system. If I were shipping a windows computer otu of manufacturing, I would take file lists from as-shipped as well as after restoration, and I would compair them against other windows installations, and make sure I knew a reason why every single different file was different.

It's not that hard. Once you write a script to go through and get the file list out of all the .cab files, and subtract that from what's on the disk, what's left is not that much. Just the pre-installed cruftware and whatnot . . . maybe they had so much of that, these files got lost in the noise.

So, what had to happen was this:

1) Employee got the "official vista install" USB fob, probably used it, and then he or someone else used it as a hand file transfer mechanism, adding more files to it

2) This non-pristine USB fob was used again to install the "master" harddrive that would be used to make recovery DVDs shipped with the product

3) No one carefully checked the files on that recovery, OR the USB fob infection had also gotten to the vista's that he compaired against

Still seems sloppy to me. If you know you are going to be dealing with a behemoth like Vista, one of the things you do is write scripts or develope tools to deal with it.

One thought I had, is that this would be a way to make a virus replicate. What if instead of random crap, it put some kernel driver in windows that checked to see if you were writing an "unattend.xml" file and dumped itself on that drive if so ? Some minimal attempts at hiding might take you a long way, given that there appears to be little quality control. How to get it into the OEM so it will be re-distributed ? Oh, just add it to a cracked copy of WinRAR and post it on a warez site, that apparently works.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[dougmc]

I think the point is that Asus *was* sloppy about it, and they just happened to get away with it until now. That's the nature of sloppy work -- if it's too sloppy, you don't get away with it, so you improve the quality until you generally can get away with it. Doesn't need to be 100% -- just most of the time.

I'll bet they don't make the same mistake again. (Though of course, they may make similar makes, or may create procedures to help prevent them too. We shall see.)

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[lysergic.acid]

well, if they have a clean copy to compare with diff, then why wouldn't they have just used that disc image for the shipped discs?

obviously more stringent quality control is needed here, but i don't think running a simple diff command is the solution.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately, they were using Windows. Yet another tragic casualty of bad software, tsk tsk.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Hal_Porter]

The problem is that these files ended up in the master copy. Of course they should have diffed that against a know good Microsoft RTM disk in this case to make sure that the only changes were intentional ones, so yeah someone low level is going to get fired.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Probie]

Its a problem with the carbon, at the very least grep for the unattend.xml file. Its just lazy, sloppy work.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[jimicus]

One thought I had, is that this would be a way to make a virus replicate. What if instead of random crap, it put some kernel driver in windows that checked to see if you were writing an "unattend.xml" file and dumped itself on that drive if so ?

This isn't a million miles from how viruses used to replicate back in the days of DOS, though they would have been a TSR rather than a kernel driver. Though it amounts to much the same thing.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, when I take backups of my systems, the first thing I do afterwards, is check that the tars work. And quickly go thru all the directories to see that whats supposed to be there is there.

Sometimes Ive screwed up and included some stuff not supposed to, or vice versa. You tend to notice these.

I started doing this checkup routine after a backup tar.gz once failed to deflate properly when needed...

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[IceCreamGuy]

if they have a clean copy to compare with diff, then why wouldn't they have just used that disc image for the shipped discs?

Are you asking why an OEM with their own, custom tailored restore disc with their own, in-house written custom apps and drivers matching their custom hardware would not ship a vanilla restore disc with their systems?

I will give it to you that diff probably would not be the best solution since it would generate a lot of leftover files that would have to be manually audited, I was just responding to the parent for saying something so ridiculous

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Koiu Lpoi]

You can how? He just accidentally the install.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Anonymous Coward]

Why not just give out copies of the installed software on their PROPER install media? Not too long ago when you bought a new computer you didn't get a crappy "restore disk" that became useless by a simple hardware change. You had the option to NOT install the crappy bloatware that came bundled with the machine. You could change your harddrive without jumping through hoops. It is sheer laziness and greed that came up with those silly things.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[PopeRatzo]

First rule of internal company dynamics: they are not nearly as well staffed, as organized, as thorough, or as competent as you think they are.

At least not any more.

As long as a company's stock price gets rewarded by Wall Street for laying off employees, we're going to see stressed corporations.

Remember that really slow guy in QA who took forever to write his reports, and was getting a little gray, and was making more than a lot of us because he'd been with the company forever? He was the guy who would catch these stupid mistakes.

But he was laid off when we got "lean and mean".

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Anonymous Coward]

I used to produce computer magazine coverdiscs, and have also written several computer books with CD/DVDs attached. Millions of my authored CDs/DVDs have been produced, maybe more.

I am FREAKING PARANOID that anything untoward might get onto the disks that shouldn't be there. Once sent to the duplicator, there's no turning back. I personally have spent hours checking each and every file on discs that I've made, even going so far to check file dates to ensure files haven't been tampered with accidentally (maybe I've discovered a new bug that causes files to be mixed with, say, porn). I check them on different operating systems, and either delete hidden system files (.thumbs etc), or open them in a hex/text editor to see what they contain.

Also, and this is a golden rule, if you're producing a CD/DVD for distribution, you MUST USE A CLEAN COMPUTER. Luckily virtual machines make this a lot easier because you can keep the OS and the virtual file system clean -- nothing gets onto the virtual file system unless it's downloaded (provided you turn off file network sharing of course).

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Anonymous Coward]

Once I had a phone call from a lady who claimed my magazine coverdisc was distributing porn. It was a real "holy crap" of a moment, because I had to admit that it was possible -- our coverdiscs went through many hands during compilation, and it was possible.

I asked her to explain more, and it turned out she'd installed a screen saver slideshow application that was on the disc. Hmmm... I looked into it and the screensaver applicaiton merely scanned the user's hard disk for pictures, and then presented them in a slideshow.

Ah. The porn pics weren't on our disc. They were on her computer. I communicated this to her in as many words. She denied any possibility of porn being on her disk but, upon further questioning, it transpired the only other user of the computer was her son... Who was 14. Yeah. OK. But it couldn't be him, she said. He wouldn't be into... this kind of thing. So she continued to blame us, even though she knew that I was probably right. I eventually hung up as she was threatning to call her lawyers. We never heard a peep out of her after this.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[JoeMerchant]

As an employee of an OEM that does these installs all day long, I can say they really messed up.....

Yeah, but I bet you don't work for an asian vendor of cost competitive commodity goods. Sure there are procedures to prevent this, sure they don't cost much to implement, but the culture that enforces the kind of safeguards you mention does actually ingrain cost into the product along with quality.

It's much more cost effective to fire a couple of guys as an example and continue with business as usual, especially when the majority of your customer base doesn't really care.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember that really slow guy in QA who took forever to write his reports, and was getting a little gray, and was making more than a lot of us because he'd been with the company forever? He was the guy who would catch these stupid mistakes.

Yeah, he'd do something useful once every six months. The rest of the time he was lodging meaningless bug reports (for stuff that was working as intended) because he had no understanding of the software he was testing and no interest in learning about it.

That's my experience, and I was happy when he was canned.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[FlyingBishop]

Yes, in Linux where everything is plaintext that works fine, but I think Windows is actively arranged to make what you're suggesting a massive pain in the ass.

Not, of course, because they want to have crap like this happen, but because if they made this sort of thing straightforward, it would be equally straightforward to pirate Windows.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Anonymous Coward]

Grep! What a wonderful tool! And diff too!

Guess what didn't ship with Windows? That's right: grep and diff. And Windows "search" is horrific (try looking for an arbitrary string in a bunch of xml/html files).

Ultimately, it's always the carbon: someone chose Windows; hell someone (should have) designed Windows.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[ElmoGonzo]

I recall a time when the CEO came down and gave an order to ship the next build before 6:00 this evening. The build finished about 4:30 and the install CD got done about an hour later (2X CD-R wasn't all that fast), we stuffed it into an envelope and walked up the street to the FedEx drop box. Never even ran the CD to see if it WOULD install. If we were dumb enough to do what our CEO said, it's a pretty safe bet that someone else would make a similar bonehead move.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Toll_Free]

As an image verifier for both Win2k and Win98 at Compaq (Houston), I can tell you, WE DID.

So, dipshit, care to actually talk about something you know about?

Go back to your mothers basement and install BEOS on a flashdrive again. It suites you well.

--Toll_Free

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Toll_Free]

Sure he does.

He's GeekSquad!

Didn't you see his little VW as his avatar Bwahaha

--Toll_Free

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Toll_Free]

lol.

Yeah, linux is great. Install friendly, drivers always included or an easy download away (no fwcutter trying to get broadcom drivers), etc., etc., etc.

STFU fanboi. Last time I tried to compare two linux .conf files, they where MASSIVELY different.

Not so with windows XML files, unless your some ass that just bashes MS and doesn't actually KNOW or PRACTICE what your talking about.

--Toll_Free

--Toll_Free

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Toll_Free]

Yeah, but he'd still have a job if he wouldn't have made such a stink about his Bostich / Swingline staplers.

And don't get me started about his office space :)~

--Toll_Free

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Toll_Free]

As an ex Compaq employee who did Win98 and Win2k testing (when it was NT5.0), thanks for actually pointing out that people in IT and imaging actually CAN do a good job.

This guy was an idiot, and deserves what he got. Problem is, he's now working somewhere else in the company as a contractor.

--Toll_Free

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[snoig]

The funny part is all these people on Slashdot saying how easy it is to make sure a distribution disk contains the correct files. Yet they can't even use a spell checker. It's pretty easy to see how this got out.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[MightyYar]

There are plenty of nice diff tools for Windows.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[RGRistroph]

And keep in mind that if ASUS had been shipping Linux, this mistake would still be possible, if they were setting up their machines using a "kickstart" USB flash disk.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Anonymous Coward]

Working for Compaq isn't something to be proud of. Working to verify their crapware disc images is less so.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[poopdeville]

"Compaq" and "good job" do not belong in the same sentence.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Sancho]

The parent was suggesting creating a list of files which should be on the disc, and then comparing that to the list of files which are on the disc. That's not hard. That can be done in any file format you like. It has absolutely nothing to do with how Windows itself tends to package or arrange files.

It shouldn't be too difficult, either. Creating the master list would be time consuming, but once that's done, the rest is trivially scripted. Anything not on the master list should be scrutinized.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Sancho]

It's because your average grandma doesn't know how to install and configure Windows and any of the software they may want on their computer after a reinstall, and your average software company doesn't want to pay for 4 hours on the phone explaining the process. It takes a lot less time to say, "Insert the disc labelled 'restore', then reboot your computer. Call us back in four hours if it doesn't work." The company pays less, the customer doesn't have to follow difficult (to them) and tedious steps, and it makes reinstalling Windows a breeze. Considering how often this is necessary, I'd say that it's a perfectly reasonable thing for a company to do to make it as easy as possible.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Anonymous Coward]

Poor kid. It was probably gay porn. Imagine your mom finding out about you that way.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[bluefoxlucid]

Actually, manifest and sha1sums lists tend to come from scripts run on the final ISO.

*reads other slashdot posts, translates to slashdotese and tries again*

Hey dipshit, manifest files come from tools that make LiveCDs scanning the CD for a list of files AFTER it's made. Do you really expect us to believe you somehow magically know every file that belongs on a CD containing, oh I don't know, a whole operating system, plus restore programs to regenerate the original disk, plus a bunch of applications? I guess we can't all be omnipotent Level 29 Elven Water Gods like you. I wish *I* could use my magical natural-20 powers to know all the files my restore CD program was going to generate ahead of time, and magically poof a fully edited master copy out of my ass.

What a twat.

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Velorium]

I think by recovery disk they just meant partition. Many "recovery discs" are typically just automated scripts to replace files in one partition with files in a hidden partition on the hard drive; as was the case on an old Dell that I bought 4 years ago. Use some more thought, they used a flash drive, do you really believe that while doing that, the CD in the drive wasn't finalized and was directed to burn extra files to it?

Re:This doesn't explain everything

[Aramgutang]

That story sounds worthy of NotAlwaysRight.com. I think you should definitely post it there.

In case you're not familiar with the site, it's a great collection of stories (just dialogues, actually) about stupid/funny/difficult customers told by service industry workers.

Let me guess...

[Anonymous Coward]

butthis article tells exactly how it happened.

Don't tell me-- like everything else, it had something to do with the derivative debt instruments, mortgage-related assets, and deregulated credit market tightening.

Crack vs. Foss

[O('_')O_Bush]

FTA:
"c:\Windows\ConfigSetRoot\ contained a software crack for the WinRar program...

So apparently an Asus employee happened to have a personal flash drive, and stored his resume (presumeably, conspiracy theorists may disagree) as well as a few harmless keygens and serials on it.."

It amazes me that this employee chose illegal means of getting an archiving program instead of using a FOSS solution such as 7-zip ( http://www.7-zip.org/).

I know some companies have protocols for handling FOSS software, but this should have never have happened if the employee had just turned to his company's legal department for obtaining software licenses.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

If it amazes you, you're more naive than Paris Hilton.

Normal human beings tend to use commercial software because the quality of FOSS user interfaces is total shit.

Grow up and realize that the world isn't some FOSS wonderland, people use software that works, and FOSS doesn't.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[dnwq]

7-zip's interface is actually pretty easy to use. How complicated does an file compressor interface need to be?

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[DigitAl56K]

I know some companies have protocols for handling FOSS software, but this should have never have happened if the employee had just turned to his company's legal department for obtaining software licenses.

Sometimes the process for purchase requests can be anal, as can be managers who are running a department on an overstretched budget. I'm not at all surprised employees find easier and more timely solutions to their problems.

That said, I agree with you. If you can't afford WinRAR there are other solutions that don't involve piracy.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[tftp]

It amazes me that this employee chose illegal means of getting an archiving program instead of using a FOSS solution such as 7-zip

Compare GUIs of those two programs. 7-Zip's GUI is quite bad. Also 7-Zip does not have the "Move" function where your files are archived and deleted. I use WinZip for that since the company has it licensed. I also have 7-Zip installed, but as I said it's GUI is very rudimentary, IIRC lacking buttons for many obvious functions.

This is actually a well known effect of piracy on free software. If the commercial software is free to the user, just as F/OSS software is, then the commercial software wins - it is simply better in most cases, at least because more effort and more money went into it.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

And yet your idiot rambling is being distributed and viewed globally with FOSS.

I'm willing to bet that, in general, the quality of free software is is much higher than propietary software.

The reason crappy proprietary software seems rare is that it sinks to the bottom of the barrel faster than crappy free software, as it should.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

easy to use != nice to use

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

WinRAR is $30, for something that inexpensive I'd send an email to whoever handles purchasing requesting the software and reminding them that if I have to come explain to them why I need it, the waste of both our time will cost the company more than just buying the program in the first place.

It's always worked for me, your mileage may vary.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[pizzach]

I have a few questions but just to warn you I have been out of touch with GUI archival programs for a while. Also I only really only use zip/tar/rar from the command line because I can automate the crap of of things.

I'm a bit surprise that Winzip is still around. Doesn't Windows since XP have built in GUI archival tools? When Mac OS X moved away from Stuffit, so did most of it's users. I would have expected a similar move by Windows users.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[htnprm]

Ummm...No. Sorry. 7-zip's interface is crap.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[c-reus]

define "nice to use"

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

you are confusing naive and skanky

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[mgblst]

Because 7-zip if shit and doesn't handle a lot of zip formats. I wish it was better, but we would always have it falling over, where it gets stuck for 30 minutes while it figures out that it can't understand that file.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

More likely, perhaps the employee just didn't know about 7-zip? It's not that widely marketed. When you are looking for a way to deal with RAR files the first thing that comes to mind is WinRAR.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[HeronBlademaster]

If all you ever use it for is through the right-click explorer-integrated menu, then it's a breeze to use. Especially if you bother to customize it to show the things you actually use and nothing else.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[baxissimo]

The Zip archiver built into Windows (XP and Vista) is horribly HORRIBLY slow compared to WinRAR.
Probably most mom and pop users get along fine with it, but if you work with big archives a lot, it starts to get annoying fast. Also Windows only supports zip by default. If you've got to open a .gz .bz2 .7z .rar .lzo or .lzh then it's no use.

That said, I haven't used WinZip in a long time. The interface on that thing was wretched. Worse than 7zip's even, so you might as well go with 7zip in that case. WinRAR's UI is pretty good compared to those two.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[HeronBlademaster]

7-zip doesn't handle what zip formats? For your convenience, here is a list of the file extensions it recognizes (you can guess the associated compression algorithms):

7z, arj, bz2, bzip2, cab, cpio, deb, dmg, gz, gzip, hfs, iso, lha, lzh, lzma, rar, rpm, split, swm, tar, taz, tbz, tbz2, tgz, tpz, wim, xar, z, zip

I would venture to guess that there are 7-zip plugins to handle other formats. What else do you want from 7-zip (besides a decent GUI)?

In my personal, anecdotal experience, I have never had 7-zip choke on a file or be unable to figure out what format it's in. Of course, I don't spend a lot of time downloading files on BitTorrent (read: none), so I may not come across some of the more obscure formats...

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[__aardcx5948]

Then again WinRAR has no purpose. 7zip ( http://www.7-zip.org/ ) is superior and free, actually even Open Source.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[zz99]

ASUS has a lot of its workforce in mainland China, where most of the installed software, both personal and on company computers, is pirated. Officially the government is against piracy, and at regular intervals raids are conducted in visual places, but at the whole I don't think they will shed any tears if MS looses licensing revenues. The better the anti piracy control is the more people will use FOSS. Because piracy disrupts the free market. If you can get something worth $200 for free, why choose something truly free (worth $0)?

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

7z, arj, bz2, bzip2, cab, cpio, deb, dmg, gz, gzip, hfs, iso, lha, lzh, lzma, rar, rpm, split, swm, tar, taz, tbz, tbz2, tgz, tpz, wim, xar, z, zip

I would venture to guess that there are 7-zip plugins to handle other formats. What else do you want from 7-zip (besides a decent GUI)?

For the functionality (and more) of 7-zip on Windows, with a WinZip-like GUI, the best free software program to choose would probably be PeaZip.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PeaZip

http://www.peazip.org/

PeaZip running on Windows Vista:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Browse_pc_pealauncher.jpg

Enjoy.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[deniable]

I find it comes down to what you're doing with it. I'm mostly unpacking other peoples' compressed files so it's perfect, especially with the Explorer right click menu. The people who don't like it seem to be packing more than unpacking. YMMV. That said, the only files I've had that 7zip can't handle are RARs from more recent versions of WinRAR.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

Probably because WinRar, when cracked and/or purchased, is a far more intuitive and useful piece of software than 7-Zip is, not to mention the fact that 7Z's compression ratio is much slower for a minimal amount of space saved. I refuse to download 7Z files for the mere fact of how long it takes to extract them regardless of what sort of hardware I use.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[deniable]

Yep, the price itself is usually less of a problem than figuring out how to pay for something. First, there is the paperwork. Then you have to see if the supplier is set up by Accounting. Then you may have to make a cost justification. Then you run into the 'we don't pay for things online, do they have a mailing address and can we get thirty days credit' line from the Accounting people. It's quicker and easier to get a cracked copy than jump through all of the hoops for a cheap item.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

Especially if you bother to customize it to show the things you actually use...

Which is yet another one of the reasons 7-zip sucks. It gums up your right-click menu with a bunch of options 99% of users never need. WinRAR, on the other hand, adds just the most useful ones so that average users don't have to do the extra step of cleaning out the ones they don't need. I also seem to recall that despite the large number of menu items from 7-zip, it lacked one of the options WinRAR has by default that I actually do use.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

7-zip can't create RAR archives nor can any other free archiving program since that part of the RAR format is available only through licensing. So if the employee needed to create RAR archives your point is moot.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[kitgerrits]

The price is not usually the problem.
I currently work for a large company and I needed an SSH client for my *berry.
This client enables the 24*7 dept. I work with to quickly diagnose problems and implement quick fixes.
The licence was only $90 but the purchase required someone to put a Credit card number on a web form.
No-one in the purchasing dept. has a company credit card, much less an idea of how to use it.

I ended up buying the licence myself and having the company buy me a 500GB USB disk.
And, yes, this organisation will spend hundreds of dollars in administration on a $25 order.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[hairyfeet]

That is why I give folks Alzip instead of 7zip. The interface on 7zip is just too geeky for your average user. While Alzip isn't OSS,it is free,and the user interface is just as easy as WinRAR to use IMHO.

As for ASUS,I'm really surprised a company that size pulling such a rookie foul up. I guess it is pretty obvious that they didn't have anyone checking the images that went out. Has the images been scanned for malware? Because if the guy was carrying cracks and keygens there is no telling what else could have been on that stick,or even what all went into the image for that matter. If I had one of the affected machines I would definitely look at it as suspect. But as always this is my 02c,YMMV

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[mgblst]

I have had problems using 7-zip on new winzip created zip files. I am not the only one to have this problem in my company. We wish we could get rid of Winzip, but we can't since out clients use it (not from bittorrent, wanker!) uses it. You do know that zip has different compression algorithms within it (not 7z, arj, just zip!). This is the problem, 7-zip doesn't handle the latest ones.

All I want from 7-zip is as I said, for it to work, and it not to waste 30 minutes figuring out it can't handle a file.

In my personal experience, it keeps failing. What more can I say. Not all the time, but a couple of times a day.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

WinRAR is $30, for something that inexpensive I'd send an email to whoever handles purchasing requesting the software and reminding them that if I have to come explain to them why I need it, the waste of both our time will cost the company more than just buying the program in the first place.

So you just wasted the purchasing clerk's time by putting in a reminder about why you shouldn't have to explain things. You could have put the explanation of why you need it in the email, instead of a reminder about why you're too important to explain things. This would have saved the company the purchasing clerk's time taken to reject your request, and your time to redo the request properly.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

Then why did I switch to Linux from MS?

Could it have been that all those "wizards" were so fucking annoying? Could it have been that I got tired of those very same "wizards" falling back to default even though I told them to do something different? Could it have been that I got tired of jumping through shitloads of hoops just to get my machine set-up and configured the way I wanted it?

NOPE, couldn't have been any of that. I just wanted a total shit interface and user experience. Oh, wait, I don't have that now. Damn it, now look what you've gone and done! I'm gonna have to switch back to M$ just so I can get that shitty interface feeling that I've been missing.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

The windows unzip functionality is extremely simplistic, and it doesn't afaik have zip functionality.

I suppose to prevent accusations of monopolistic practices,.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[dissy]

It amazes me that this employee chose illegal means of getting an archiving program instead of using a FOSS solution such as 7-zip ( http://www.7-zip.org/).

I know some companies have protocols for handling FOSS software, but this should have never have happened if the employee had just turned to his company's legal department for obtaining software licenses.

From the files I've seen on this disc, the krack wasn't the type to register winrar, it was the type to remove/recover the password on a rar archive.

Last I checked, 7zip would not read rar files, let alone extract the password of the rar file for you, nor do I know of any free open source program to extract/remove the password on a rar file (Though I must admit I haven't looked for one.)

Even if there is another DVD different from mine with the actual 'register or remove the nag screen of winrar' type of krack, I still don't think OSS would help much here.
The OSS rar tools are very limited in what they can do with rar files (different archive formats? maybe extensions? I know that happened with .zip)
Plus the linux unrar tool I use is still not free software really, just free to use for end users. This means either ASUS would still not be allowed to distribute it by license, or they must pay for the license to do so just like with winrar, so would have gone the same route.

With so many people talking about this krack as if it was the type to register the winrar program itself, I am seriously wondering if there are multiple versions of this recovery DVD out there, and my copy is different...
Or are people just assuming as they go? Am I missing something?

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

Then use TUGZip, IZArc, PeaZip, Filzip, ZipGenuis or a dozen other free compression utilities. I'm sure one of them will be to your liking.

I have personally used TUGZip and IZArc for years and think they are both fantastic pieces of software. I have been meaning to also give PeaZip a try, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

Dont be amazed.

The work required to fill in all the paperwork to get a simple license for an app in most large organizations is so big most will just snag a keygen.

Doesnt make it right, or legal.. just how the world goes unfortunately.

I went the easy way and bought myself my own license so I could avoid the paperwork :-p

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[CCFreak2K]

Last I checked, 7zip would not read rar files

It most certainly can read RAR files, but I'm not sure if it will extract from password-protected RARs.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

Does Alzip support 7z/LZMA compression? If not, it's hardly a replacement for 7zip. Oh and yes I did try to find out what formats it supported, but their website is a fucking train wreck and I gave up. Cutesy but useless.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[ChienAndalu]

Seems like it does. They even built a password cracker into it. I'd honestly say I'd try it if I had to use windows somewhere. My guess is that it places an icon in the systray or has a nag screen or something.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

7-zip sucks. It plugs itself into each and every context menu in Windows, and the UI is hideous and clumsy. I use it only when I come across a .7z archive and uninstall it right after. I wish there were an open source replacement, but as long as there isn't, WinRAR does the job.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Sobrique]

Problem is, sometimes when you do this and you're not paying for the 'commercial' RTU, you're again in violation of your license - despite having paid for it.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[TJamieson]

Wrong -- For many, WinRAR gets better compression than 7zip, and 7zip cannot create RARs.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

Forgive my ignorance, I'm not a windows user, nor much of a pirate, but isn't RAR pretty much a windows thing that is used for historical reasons?

From what I rememember, RAR was popular on usenet because it could easily be split up into multiple files, and it also had the ability to do some magic in recovering damaged (maybe missing??) files as well.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

Well having a simple checkbox saying "don't include hidden files, there's a reason why they're hidden dagnabbit" would be a good start. That's the only reason I need winzip in preference to 7zip.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[tftp]

RAR is a pretty good format, and software for [de]compression exists for all platforms, incl. Linux. It indeed has tons of features, like solid archives, locked archives, error recovery, multi-volume, and more. Latest WinZip borrowed some of those, but not all. RAR also offers very good compression factors. It is a very good format (and software.)

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

I HATE 7-zip. Its a piece of crap program. And I detest WinZip. WinRar is AWSOME! And I have a VERY bad habbit of misplacing my keys for WinRar which I have legally purchased, so I usually use a crack as well.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

In the vast majority of files, 7-zip achieves better compression than RAR. It also decompresses much faster.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[hairyfeet]

I haven't seen any nag screens. And it works really nice and is easy to use,especially for my older/less tech savvy customers. They also have free tools for FTP,password management,a movie player,and a MP3 player that displays lyrics. The only thing they ask is that you pay a small fee($20) if you are going to use it commercially. Which seems like a fair deal to me. It gives the user a choice of either context menu or a WinRAR style program interface that is REALLY easy. So if you are like me and have to help Windows users who may not be the most tech oriented,why not give 'em a try? No email or jumping through hoops required. Simply download,install,and use. Can't get any simpler than that. But as always this is my 02c,YMMV

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Ilgaz]

Stuffit have concentrated to usability and archive management after OS X had built in ZIP. Also they do things like "multi core ZIP archiving", "encrypted zip archives" along with their own formats enhancements. The people you see who buys Stuffit aren't exactly "tricked", they like commercial and supported software and some really need encryption in archives. If one has thousands of ZIP or other archives, managing them could become necessary too.

They also seem to notice the lack of good 7zip GUI so they added 7zip decompression (not compression) to their recent version 13 release.

Just having something in core OS doesn't mean the commercial alternative should be dead. Windows built in compression has always been problematic thanks to their method of doing things. At least Apple does call a separate core utility to do things. If I told you the Windows "zip" is actually rundll32 calling a dll , you can imagine the issues :)

What makes me sad is, the company doing the excellent concept of "ZIP Folders" got acquired by MS and their excellent product/concept has become that junk coming with Windows.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[Anonymous Coward]

Winzip is always adding new compression algorithms as a way to force people to use their product. It sucks and I refuse to use it to create archives, even though I have a license.

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[dissy]

Last I checked, 7zip would not read rar files

It most certainly can read RAR files, but I'm not sure if it will extract from password-protected RARs.

I stand corrected! I might have to check that out then, as the linux unrar app tends to tick me off at times too with lack of features.

Thanks

Re:Crack vs. Foss

[King_TJ]

Wow! If I only had a spare mod point for ya....

This is SO true! At least where I work now, they generally have a policy that "If the purchase is under $1000, and you're among the privileged few holding a corporate credit card, you can go ahead and order it on your own. Just turn in the paperwork with notations about what/who it's for, and the cost center it needs to be billed to."

But I sure do remember EXACTLY what you're talking about from other jobs! Sometimes, you needed a little utility (a la WinRAR) for only ONE or TWO specific situations. Going to your boss to get permission to buy it and so forth might be "doable", but it could hurt your chances for approval of the next thing you wanted to buy. (Hey, your boss is only human. He's going to remember the fact that "John Q. Public has bugged me to buy new software 5 times in the last 2 months!" more than he's going to remember the details of what it all cost, or why it was needed.)

Re:A-what?

[Anonymous Coward]

You, sir, are bringing down the good name of anonymous cowards everywhere. For shame, sir, for shame.

Thoughts vs. Deeds.

[Ostracus]

"It amazes me that this employee chose illegal means of getting an archiving program instead of using a FOSS solution such as 7-zip ( http://www.7-zip.org/)."

Why should it be surprising? The idea that attitudes don't have consequences should have been debunked.

Re:Thoughts vs. Deeds.

[Anonymous Coward]

FOSS though it may me, 7-zip does kinda suck compared to WinRAR.
I thought I would ditch my WinRAR license after hearing the rave reviews for 7-zip. Guess what -- you get what you pay for in this case.

Maybe someday 7-zip will come to be better than WinRAR. Such is the nature of FOSS. But that day ain't here yet.

Re:Thoughts vs. Deeds.

[anss123]

FOSS though it may me, 7-zip does kinda suck compared to WinRAR.

I agree. 7-zip works great until you hit a corrupt file, that's when it stars crashing and being an all-round pain. 7-zip might have improved lately, but I bought a WinRAR license and never looked back.

Re:A-what?

[aXi]

Wow that was GOOD, you are a really talented piss & poop joke maker. Keep up the great job, send Bill Gates your resume, maybe you'll end up taking over Seinfelds place.

Could have been me

[InlawBiker]

I am completely unsurprised. When I heard about it I thought, "Oh, some jackball inadvertently copied his personal files via some install script. That's pretty funny."

I personally have the exact same stuff on my thumb drive - my resume and some cracking tools. As we all know, nobody tests their own work. That's why testers have jobs.

So he screwed up - at least he has a good story to tell!

Re:Could have been me

[Morkalin]

As we all know, nobody tests their own work.

Speak for yourself.

Re:Could have been me

[ogl_codemonkey]

As we all know, nobody tests their own work.

Speak for yourself.

I don't know anyone that tests their work as thoroughly as the next person to find a mistake in it.

Re:Could have been me

[this great guy]

I personally have the exact same stuff on my thumb drive - my resume and some cracking tools.

Hello, this is John, your boss's boss from Asus. We found your thumb drive plugged in one of our server used to build Vista images. Are you available monday 9:00am for a quick meeting ? We need to have a little talk.

PS: bring 1 or 2 empty boxes.

-John

Re:Could have been me

[AnonChef]

As we all know, nobody tests their own work.

Speak for yourself.

It should be:
As we all know, nobody should test their own work.

Re:Could have been me

[Anonymous Coward]

On the up side - at least a lot of people have his resume. . .

Re:Could have been me

[mea_culpa]

Having dealt with ASUS over the last 10 years I am not surprised that such carelessness happens within their organization. In the late 90s and early 2000s I probably had 500 or more of their motherboards in use at various small businesses. Early on I had a great deal of confidence in their product, never had any defects so never had to deal with their company. This was very rare at that time. That was until their A7x series of motherboards came along. Countless failed NB fans, intermittent PS/2 port failures, etc. When calling for support I was expecting very professional help but was met with people that didn't give a sh*t. They would only send one replacement fan at a time even though every single one failed and I needed like 10-20 at a time. Getting a motherboard replaced was insane especially when dealing with intermittent problems. They directed me to an incredibly bothersome webform rather than assisting me over the phone. They had a bad habit of sending the same defective board back to me 3 times saying it 'passed' their diagnostics. Out of frustration I resorted to putting them in the microwave for few seconds to make them really dead before I would get better working products. I lost thousands in lost hours and handling my own warranty. ASUS didn't give a sh*t for my problem, and it was probably the same attitude that led to this recovery disk debacle.
When I saw this I hear so clearly the words of Nelson... HAH HAH! And can't agree more.

Re:Could have been me

[beaviz]

We need to have a little talk.

PS: bring 1 or 2 empty boxes.

I've always wondered about this. In American movies, the hero always hauls boxes from the office when he gets fired. What's in those boxes? My personal stuff at my workplace can fit in my pocket (or the trashcan).

Re:Could have been me

[Anonymous Coward]

Personal stuff at work? I have none. Everything is company supplied.

My personal stuff (wallet, keys) don't leave my body. Fire me and I'll head for the nearest exit. No need to get to my office/cubicle at all.

Likewise, I don't have company property at home.

Re:Could have been me

[houghi]

(Looks in the box)
A red stapler to begin with, a desk lamp, 25 CDs with data I burned, 72 pens, business cards, a keyboard, a mouse, ...

Well, you get the idea. Everything that is in, on or around my desk. What are they going to do? Fire me? Too much trouble to call the police over it. At least were I am.

Re:Could have been me

[Whiteox]

What does a microwave do to a motherboard?

Re:Could have been me

[proverbialcow]

at least he has a good story to tell! ...and a lot of free time in which to tell it.

Re:Could have been me

[Anonymous Coward]

PS: bring 1 or 2 empty boxes.

And chairs.

Re:Could have been me

[NeoSkandranon]

I don't really understand it, but plenty of people see the need to "decorate" their cubes. Family photos, pictures, trite "motivational" posters and the works.

The stuff at my desk that's mine will all fit into my lunchbox.

Re:Could have been me

[steelfood]

That's how things used to happen, 10, maybe 20 years ago.

Today, it's a phone call the night before that says, "Don't bother coming in tomorrow" or security guards at the lobby that escort you directly to a waiting car service.

All of your personal possessions will be mailed to you after people sort out what's company possessions and what's personal.

Re:Could have been me

[beaviz]

A red stapler to begin with, a desk lamp, 25 CDs with data I burned, 72 pens, business cards, a keyboard, a mouse, ...

Well, you get the idea. Everything that is in, on or around my desk. What are they going to do? Fire me? Too much trouble to call the police over it.

So basically the boxes are for looting. Cool.

Re:Could have been me

[bluefoxlucid]

Energizes the traces by high frequency magnetic field, causing the chips to see a voltage spike and burn out due to silicon stress.

Re:Could have been me

[piers_downunder]

Similarly bad thing happened to me once. I had forgotten I had used my USB stick to move some 'tasteful' pics of my girlfriend at the beach. They were buried way down in a nested folder so I wouldn't accidentally mix up my work files with my personal stuff.

Anyway, I went to do an install of some software at a client's site from the USB stick. Suddenly some brainless Adobe photo product pops up and starts scanning all the files on the stick displaying previews of all the JPEGs in full size bikini-clad glory. I hit the close button as fast as I could but the damned thing kept popping back up.

Lesson learnt - *never* mix a work thumb-drive with a personal one. Yeesh.

Carelessness

[Anonymous Coward]

"It's even more careless than you think, and most likely an accident."

Not really. While the details are interesting, this is about the level of carelessness I expected.

Software cracks and other personal files somehow made it into the master ISO, and nobody caught it. We knew that already, and that fact alone implies massive carelessness by several individuals. TFA just shows the path that carelessness took.

And of course this is an accident. Unless you think Asus decided to go into the software crack business, what the hell else would it be? Someone screwed up.

I'm all for rhetoric and such, but come on--in a 2 sentence OP, 1 of those sentences shouldn't be throwaway.

I always get keygens for software I buy

[Matt Perry]

I always get keygens and cracks for software I buy as a safety measure, and test them in a virtual machine to make sure they work. With all the phone home activation that software does these days I don't want to have to call a vendor and beg for access to to software I've already paid for when Windows takes a nose dive. What if the vendor doesn't support that version any more and doesn't want to give me a new activation key? What if the vendor is bought or goes out of business? If I reach that point I can at least use the keygen or crack to protect my investment.

I can't fault anyone for having keygens for their apps.

Re:I always get keygens for software I buy

[DigiShaman]

Let be real ok? 99.999% of the time someone uses a keygen, it's to pirate software. Hey I've been guilty of it, sure (with Nero Burning rom). But I've also purchased a real key from their website a few months later. The point is, it's still wrong.

Do you think if I carried a crack pipe in my pocket, I could convince a COP that it's just a goodluck charm? You see my point right?

Re:I always get keygens for software I buy

[amirulbahr]

The DMCA makes a criminal out of you.

Re:I always get keygens for software I buy

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you think if I carried a crack pipe in my pocket, I could convince a COP that it's just a goodluck charm? You see my point right?

Well, I believe that's the exact principle that allows head shops to operate. Unless they can prove that crack pipe is not a good luck charm, they've got nothing on you. Course what you said may be true -- even if he can't take you in, you may not be able to convince the cop. :-)

Re:I always get keygens for software I buy

[commodoresloat]

You see my point right?

That you're a crackhead?

Re:I always get keygens for software I buy

[Zironic]

>Do you think if I carried a crack pipe in my pocket, I could convince a COP that it's just a goodluck charm?

Yes you could, there is nothing illegal about owning a crack pipe.

Re:I always get keygens for software I buy

[Anonymous Coward]

>Do you think if I carried a crack pipe in my pocket, I could convince a COP that it's just a goodluck charm?

Yes you could, there is nothing illegal about owning a crack pipe.

Unless there happens to be cocaine residue in it. Then they're got you on possession.

Re:I always get keygens for software I buy

[dwarfsoft]

Because Possession is 9/10 of the law? I thought that was supposed to work in favour of the person who held possession...

Re:I always get keygens for software I buy

[Matt Perry]

You see my point right?

No, not at all. I have receipts and original boxes (where they came with one) for all of my purchased software.

Re:I always get keygens for software I buy

[Anonymous Coward]

Whoooooossssshhhhh!

Re:I always get keygens for software I buy

[Toll_Free]

A crack pipe isn't sold as a pipe. If you mention ANY type of smoking or injesting of a controlled substance, they are required to NOT sell to you, and will ask you to leave (in California, Nevada, Texas and Florida, all states I've lived in).

They sell them to burn "essence" or oils (ie, incense oils). Typically in California, they are sold for methamphetamine or cocaine use, but a lot of marijuana users use them for hash oil, hence the term "oil burner".

--Toll_Free

Re:I always get keygens for software I buy

[Toll_Free]

Yes, there is.

Referring to it as a crack pipe means your intent is to use it to "smoke crack".

Intent is conspiracy.

Owning a pipe intended for burning "oils, essences and herbs" isn't illegal, but calling it a pipe is.

In my state, the headshops get away with it by calling it an oil burner. Referring to anything in a manner contrary to the law implies intent.

Implied intent =! implied consent!

--Toll_Free

Re:I always get keygens for software I buy

[Anonymous Coward]

But I DO carry a goodluck charm crack pipe in my pocket, you insensitive clod !

I wish I was kidding.... Crack is illegal here, but carrying the pipe with embedded smell is not ...

Re:I always get keygens for software I buy

[Zironic]

You prosecute people for thought crime in the US? I'm happy that I live in Sweden where you actually have to commit the crime (unless the police can actually prove you were about to do the crime by for example finding detailed plans in your apartment)

There is a simpler, safer solution.

[NotQuiteReal]

I just back up my keys.

I have one key that is over 10 years old, that was updated by the company from an 8 digit code to a more secure 6-groups-of-5-alphanumeric code that still works.

Never needed a crack, and the key takes up a lot less space. Plus it I know it isn't a trojan program or a virus.

Re:There is a simpler, safer solution.

[yayotters]

But that thread starter was saying that they didn't want to be bothered by limited activation keys in the future.

Re:There is a simpler, safer solution.

[powerspike]

It's not that easy anymore, programs like windows, anti virus software just to name a few, require you to either phone a number to active the software, or connect to the internet, if you don't do that, it won't run until you do. Now add in they usally only let you install the software X number of times per key/product, your going to be screwed in ten years if you need to activate software from today. Safely storing your serial/product keys these days for long term use is pretty useless.

Re:There is a simpler, safer solution.

[Technician]

Safely storing your serial/product keys these days for long term use is pretty useless.

Using software that needs to connect to the mother ship to ask permission is pretty useless when there are plenty of alternatives.

I keep the keys for my older software as barcodes for easy entry with a barcode gun for quick reinstalls. Chance of accidental deletion or copy is pretty nil. They are pasted on the CD boxes.

Re:There is a simpler, safer solution.

[Anonymous Coward]

Some software I bought is protected by a hardware dongle. However I actually use a cracked version of the software so I don't have to take my hardware dongle out and about with me (it stays safely locked away at home).

Same features, same functionality just no faffing about with an eminently losable dongle.

Re:There is a simpler, safer solution.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not that easy anymore, programs like windows, anti virus software just to name a few, require you to either phone a number to active the software, or connect to the internet, if you don't do that, it won't run until you do. Now add in they usally only let you install the software X number of times per key/product, your going to be screwed in ten years if you need to activate software from today. Safely storing your serial/product keys these days for long term use is pretty useless.

Those apps and games that require me to "call home" after or during installation are those that I hate, and I just use a crack to bypass that step. I've paid for the software, I didn't expect to be paying for such a hassle.. Though, software that doesn't need such additional steps except that I enter my serial are quite ok, I don't need cracks for such.

This is a strong case...

[dosh8er]

for using TrueCrypt (or some other derivative). Aforementioned individual wouldn't have exposed that kind of sensitive information with an encrypted volume on the thumb drive. Shoot, Vista wouldn't have "looked" for an XML file in the case of an encrypted volume in the first place! This doesn't change my love for the ASUS mobo in my desktop. Solid.

Re:This is a strong case...

[QuantumG]

Wow, you completely missed the point.

Re:This is a strong case...

[MattPat]

Shoot, Vista wouldn't have "looked" for an XML file in the case of an encrypted volume in the first place!

How very right you are. That's exactly why your solution would fail miserably, because the unattend.xml file was an integral part of the employee's job. No XML file = sitting there for an hour clicking through installation screens manually. :)

Re:This is a strong case...

[kitgerrits]

My guess is, the employee would have stored the XML file (with the company's installation key) inside the encrypted volume.
Net effect: zero

Re:This is a strong case...

[zullnero]

Really? I thought the part about encrypting your personal thumb drive and how it would probably prevent you from doing something as stupid as using it for an unattended install...or at least encrypting your personal directory...made enough sense. Or maybe you didn't get that particular point?

I mean, ragging on the poor schmuck who botched his installs at this point is probably redundant, but offering a halfways decent idea up to every other smug schmuck ragging on the unemployed guy while inviting bad karma down upon themselves is probably worth a whole lot more.

Re:This is a strong case...

[QuantumG]

meh, he obviously wasn't aware that the script copied everything off his thumb drive.. so your solution would either

1) prevent him from doing the task he needed to do because the entire drive is encrypted
2) result in an encrypted directory being copied instead of an unencrypted one (slightly better)
3) have no effect because he needed to mount the encrypted drive to give the script access to the xml file and at the same time gave it access to his personal files

So yeah, your speculation about what might have helped him is probably completely pointless as I'm sure he's already gone over the issue in his head 20 times while waiting on the unemployment line.

Lately their quality has been going downhill...

[cyberjock1980]

This is disappointing. A few months back ASUS got into a flamewar with GIGABYTE. GIGABYTE came out and told Tom's Hardware that ASUS used inferior parts, changed their % gains versus their competitor without changing the product whatsoever, and that ASUS's EPU feature is software instead of hardware(meaning it is inferior to GIGABYTE). GIGABYTE did come back and appologize for claiming ASUS used inferior parts(it was found that it was a different vendor's board that contained inferior parts). ASUS threatened to sue any website that talked dirty about ASUS when this all came to light. Check out http://www.tomshardware.com/news/asus-gigabyte-motherboard,5348.html to read about the GIGABYTE versus ASUS drama. Then check http://www.tomshardware.com/news/asus-gigabyte-motherboard,5480.html for ASUS suing GIGABYTE for the bad publicity.

I have been an ASUS user for many years, building many computers with ASUS parts. While GIGABYTE did include some false claims, they did have valid complaints for their other arguements. I was one of the people that was stuck with a motherboard that cost me $250 that didn't do quite what it was supposed to do, and as a result my linux based computer cannot use their power management function(because it is software based). GIGABYTE's is hardware, and is enabled in BIOS and doesn't care which OS you use. This one hit home for me. My computer is on 24x7, and I wanted my computer to be green. Unfortunately that dream will not be a reality with ASUS hardware.

This again paints a bad picture of the quality work ASUS has been doing lately. I am sure that my next motherboard won't be ASUS. They have lost points with me, and I am going to check out one of the other top tier motherboard companies.

I have never purchased a motherboard from GIGABYTE, but I'm already looking for motherboards for Nahelem when it comes out next month, and I'm not even looking at what ASUS is offering. Bite me once, shame on you. Bite me twice, shame on me!

Reasons for leaving ASUS:

1. Changing your product efficiency % gains after shipping the product for months, AND not changing anything on the product! As if they wouldn't get caught? Competitors are always shopping their other competitors!

2. They fail to mention that EPU REQUIRES Windows to run. I don't care what ASUS says. If it requires software(Windows based at that!), then it's software based. Even if its hardware functions are enabled by using the software.

3. Suing anyone who talks about their bad publicity from GIGABYTE. WTF? Seriously, WTF? That's RIAA type behavior, and I will not tolerate that type of child in my house.

Re:Lately their quality has been going downhill...

[m50d]

Asus have been low-end for a long time now; they've always had the worst failure rates I've seen. On a recommendation from a friend, after receiving yet another dead ASUS motherboard when building this machine I used an MSI motherboard instead, and I couldn't be happier; it's well designed, well-featured and works beautifully.

Re:Lately their quality has been going downhill...

[Anonymous Coward]

I haven't had a single problem with my Asus laptop and it's on 24x7. I'd actually recommend Asus. Their software sucks though, but hardward compatibility among different systems works pretty fine, no problems whatsoever, for now.

Re:Lately their quality has been going downhill...

[Anonymous Coward]

My computer is on 24x7, and I wanted my computer to be green. Unfortunately that dream will not be a reality with ASUS hardware.

I share your dream, but let's face it, it wouldn't be a reality with Gigabyte hardware either, nor with any hardware that we're likely to see in our lifetimes.

But I understand what you mean. It's certainly a good thing to make choices that will minimize our impact, and technology is improving all the time in this respect... sadly we're very far away from the point where our technology can really be considered ecologically benign. Once we master nanotech though, things will be good (or possibly just goo).

Re:Lately their quality has been going downhill...

[Toll_Free]

Yes, I still use my MSI boards.

They where a bargain basement company when I started, and I didn't want to fork the $$$ for Asus.

Now, it seems, they are kickass.

I love mine, although they are both ATA based RAID boards for AMD chips... One is running linux, the other XP. The linux based computer is a KT100 based board, the XP is KT133.

--Toll_Free

Re:Lately their quality has been going downhill...

[NotQuiteInsane]

Interesting, I've had the opposite experience. I had two MSI motherboards (MS-6147 - Slot 1, Celeron/P3 class Mini-ATX) fail, plus I've seen a few of their graphics cards fail (both owned by a friend). Every time it's the same thing, faulty capacitors.

On the other hand, I've got an ASUS A8V Deluxe that's nearly five years old and still works perfectly. The Geforce card in that machine needed a new fan, but the motherboard just keeps on going. It's like the frickin' Duracell Bunny...

I can't comment on current hardware, but the P5N72-T in my current main machine (and the Eee 1000H sitting next to me) work fine. Time will tell, of course, but at this point in time I really don't have anything bad to say about them. In fact, I don't have anything bad to say about Gigabyte either -- I have (somewhere) a GA-586ATM motherboard -- one of the old Pentium boards. To my knowledge, it still works fine.

In any case, I learned long ago not to buy cheap computer components. Buy it cheap, buy it twice.

Re:Lately their quality has been going downhill...

[VoltageX]

Interesting. I've had the same types of power management issues from an ASUS motherboard. It works perfectly in Linux though.
The KT4xx chipsets from a few years back were more troublesome (thanks, DFI!)

Bad chips happen, bad batches happen. Large batches of bad chips happen (just ask NVIDIA!)

I'm curious about that anti DR-DOS document

[electrogeist]

OEM issued Microsoft document, which mainly says "do not distribute DR-DOS with any computers".

Is this something recent? Someone have one of these restore CDs to post the text? With the history of bad blood this could be a story in itself

Re:I'm curious about that anti DR-DOS document

[pecosdave]

I don't think this is the actual document in question, but I found this while looking and I would say it qualifies as interesting and related. I like the reference to "scare tactics".

Re:I'm curious about that anti DR-DOS document

[Orion Blastar]

Here is a reference to that but Microsoft made sure the original articles got scrubbed off the Internet. There were things Microsoft did to GEOS, GEM, the Amiga, the Atari ST, Vision, Desqview, etc to discourage OEMS and hardware and software makers from supporting them and only supporting Microsoft products like MS-DOS and Windows instead. Microsoft did the same thing to IBM over OS/2. But most of the articles about that Microsoft had scrubbed off the Internet.

The history of the Amiga clearly shows its 8-bits roots with the Atari 2600 and Atari 400/800 series that evolved into the Amiga eventually, parallel to the Macintosh.

In the 1990's PC OEMS were fighting over the Amiga, but were loyal to Microsoft. But Microsoft used the same tactics against the Amiga that they used against DR-DOS, and killed the Amiga by leveraging what OEMS could and could not do and then Gateway had to sell the Amiga division to make Microsoft happy.

"The press attention to the Microsoft case reveals their relationship with Gateway. Jim Von Holle, a former Gateway employee, describes how the company tried to punish Gateway for the type of software they shipped. Although largely in the background, it became increasingly clear why Gateway chose to develop an alternative to the Windows market. Unfortunately, just a few months later Gateway's relationship with Microsoft regarding their set-top box would have a dramatic effect upon Amiga's plans. Who could have guessed Microsoft would play a major role in the Amigas downfall?"

I have said it before, but my comments got rated down as troll, by rapid Apple and Microsoft fanboys who hate the Amiga. This time I found the links that prove it.

It was not just DR-DOS that Microsoft murdered, but the Amiga as well. Apple had a hand in it by forcing Apple dealers to lose their license if they sold Amiga computers as well as Macintoshes. Then later Apple killed the Apple Dealers and did the store within a store and web store to sell Macintoshes as revenge on Apple dealers that still tried to sell Amiga One and Classic Amiga computers along with Macs.

Re:I'm curious about that anti DR-DOS document

[Anonymous Coward]

Blaming Microsoft for the death of Amiga makes you sound like a rabid Amiga fanboy. I'm guessing you hail from the western side of the pond, and thus only experienced the Amiga popularity secondhand. (And also - kept the flag flying long after the masses over in Europe had abandoned Amiga)

By the time Gateway got involved with the name 'Amiga' (c. 97), the platform was already dead. Personally, I think Amiga was dead by the time A1200 hit the market ('92) - a successor for the last great home computer (A500) came way too late to keep the masses buying.

Re:I'm curious about that anti DR-DOS document

[Shin-LaC]

Then later Apple killed the Apple Dealers and did the store within a store and web store to sell Macintoshes as revenge on Apple dealers that still tried to sell Amiga One and Classic Amiga computers along with Macs.

That had been an interesting post, but you veered into fantasy territory right at the end. Apple's entry into retail was a long-term strategy that represented a huge investment for the company and required several years of work before it was refined into a working model. Do you really think they went to all that trouble just to kill the Amiga? Did the Amiga even need killing at that point? You complain about fanboy hate, but fanboy love can make you just as irrational.

Re:I'm curious about that anti DR-DOS document

[richlv]

i think the credibility & age of the document is important. i am actually very surprised that this is ignored in this discussion in favour of discussing various windows archivers. how sad :)
anybody who could link to the mentioned document ? (i guess anybody with an asus computer ;> )

Re:I'm curious about that anti DR-DOS document

[Anonymous Coward]

uh, by the time gateway bought the Amiga it was dead as a platform. No need to attribute to MS malice what is suitably explained by Commodore incompetence.

Re:I'm curious about that anti DR-DOS document

[Anonymous Coward]

Read the rest of his comments sometime, the guy thinks that he's a space pirate from the year 4000 (no I'm not joking). He's a schizoid freak, I wouldn't waste my time trying to get any sense out of him if I were you.

Re:I'm curious about that anti DR-DOS document

[Anthony_Cargile]

If I find the doc on tpb, I will write another (MIRRORED) article about it. As you can tell I'm always digging deep into leaks, however they are made available. I wrote a 2,000 word post about my personal in-depth analysis of the leaked MS 2k/NT code, and my attempts at building it. For now the entire server is being flooded, so don't attempt to click the homepage button just yet ;) .

Re:I'm curious about that anti DR-DOS document

[Orion Blastar]

You are talk about fanboy love making one irrational as Apple fanboys get irrational with Apple love?

read up on interviews about the Amiga

{Former Apple engineer Jean-Louis Gassee (now at BeOS, Inc.), reminiscing about Apple in the mid-'90s, said: "When the Amiga came out, everyone was scared as hell. No one could figure out how they packed so much power into its off-the-shelf parts." Apple's Mac was still black and white, cost more, and could only do one thing at a time. But, Apple advertised; Commodore didn't. "We [Apple] were really scared of the Amiga. Fortunately, Irving Gould [CEO of Commodore] helped Apple by running Commodore into the ground." (Interview with Mr. Gasse in Amazing Computing, Nov. 1996) Around the same time, Atari was also launching a multimedia computer - the Atari ST (and later the Falcon) - which was also way ahead of IBM/Microsoft's PC and Apple's Macintosh. Ironically, the two companies with the best products bit the dust, and vice-versa; Atari and Commodore put all their money into their computer development, while Apple and IBM/Microsoft instead put their money into their advertising. Since most of the public didn't know much about computers back then, advertising proved to the most important part of making computers.}

The Amiga was technically superior to Apple and PCs, but in the end it all came down to who did the most advertising and marketing hype. One of Apple's CEO admits they were scared of the Amiga and did everything they could to discredit it and ruin the company in an interview.

No love or hate of the Amiga there, just plain and simple FUD from Apple and Microsoft on the Amiga. Fear Uncertainty and Doubt, now the same thing is being done to Linux by Apple and Microsoft. The more things change the more they stay the same. Linux companies don't do much advertising and marketing either, but Apple and Microsoft do tons of advertising and marketing. Would you say at this time that does Linux even need killing at this point?

Apple has a history of retail failures in the 1990's, and almost went under until Steve Jobs went back as the iCEO and cut expenses and brought the iMacs and Next technology to save Apple. Then he had the iPod and iPhone projects that helped save it as well.

Re:I'm curious about that anti DR-DOS document

[Orion Blastar]

"Read the rest of his comments sometime, the guy thinks that he's a space pirate from the year 4000 (no I'm not joking)."

I don't think I am a space pirate from the year 4000, I joke about being a space pirate ninja from 4096AD, I use this character to joke on the Internet and write funny articles in Wikis like Uncyclopedia. I don't know how many times I have to keep telling that to you Anonymous Cowards who never learn from your same stupid mistakes you make over and over again. Most Slashdot readers get my jokes and mod my comments up as "funny" which is why I have Excellent Karma here, and your comments keep being modded down as "troll" and you post as Anonymous Coward because you cannot back up what you are saying most of the time.

Re:I'm curious about that anti DR-DOS document

[Orion Blastar]

The only Commodore incompetence was lack of advertising and marketing as Microsoft and Apple had done. The reports of the death of the Amiga were greatly exaggerated and it still lives on in Intel X86 PCs as AROS as a free open source alternative operating system.

Re:ASUS, so that should be, first POOP !!

[Anonymous Coward]

I think he means the plural form of ass.

Coral Cache

[Anonymous Coward]

Coral CDN to the rescue
http://thecoffeedesk.com.nyud.net/news/index.php/archives/30

Re:What is important.

[Technician]

I personally have the exact same stuff on my thumb drive - my resume and some cracking tools.
What is important to learn is to learn from mistakes. Some learn from other's mistakes. Others wait till it happens to them. This is why proceedures are put into place. Often they are there to prevent common mistakes. Bypassing written proceedures is a gateway to making known types of mistakes.

Thumb drives are nice, but what exactly is your company policy regarding their use?

The one hanging on my employee badge is not treated the same as the one hanging on my keyring. Personal and professional never mix.

Asus Conspiracies...

[RudeIota]

and stored his resume (presumeably, conspiracy theorists may disagree) as well as a few ÃharmlessÃ(TM) keygens and serials on it as well

... So, are you implying that you're a coincidence theorist???

Re:A-what?

[Anonymous Coward]

You insensitive clod, I'm dyslexic and that's almost exactly how I read the headline.

Re:So the guy who goofed, is he BLACK?

[Dr. Hellno]

Has anyone else noticed he bizarre renaissance of racism going on right now? I know it's garbage trolling and I'm (sort of) taking the bait, but I don't remember Slashdot being this quick or eager to bash black people in the past. It's every thread now, right below first post!

Re:What is important.

[houghi]

The company should make it unpossible to mix the two. Is that even possible on a technical level, or is that just sloving a social problem with a technical solution?

Re:So the guy who goofed, is he BLACK?

[yahwotqa]

All it takes is one bored idiot. Just ignore it.

Re:So the guy who goofed, is he BLACK?

[Ant P.]

Becauses it's hard to imagine anyone else posting that?

a chip of the old block

[Anonymous Coward]

I am a Chinese, but I'm not going to cover them. Try take a look at the Taiwan manufacturer's driver ... all kinds of mistakes in the document! The driver itself have similar problem was usual, and it truly reflect the quality control was a mess. Not only Asus, also MSI, Gigabyte, IWILL, CMI, Realtek ... there're much more mistakes everythere!

Re:a chip of the old block

[Anonymous Coward]

I am a Chinese, but I'm not going to cover them.

Try take a look at the Taiwan manufacturer's driver ... all kinds of mistakes in the document!

The driver itself have similar problem was usual, and it truly reflect the quality control was a mess.

Not only Asus, also MSI, Gigabyte, IWILL, CMI, Realtek ... there're much more mistakes everythere!

I am a Chinese, but I'm not going to cover them.

Try take a look at the Taiwan manufacturer's driver ... all kinds of mistakes in the document!

The driver itself have similar problem was usual, and it truly reflect the quality control was a mess.

Not only Asus, also MSI, Gigabyte, IWILL, CMI, Realtek ... there're much more mistakes everythere!

ha...how ironic. Of all the people, chinese are the least qualified to talk about "quality". Even worst than taiwanese.

Find the lesson yet?

[Athaulf]

So now we know HOW exactly this whole ordeal was started, and there is a lesson to be learned here... somewhere.

Did you check your c:\windows\configsetroot?

Re:A-what?

[Anonymous Coward]

First rule of comedy, know your audience. Most of the world aint dyslexic, your comedy is lost to us. Would you find it funny if say... a Synesthetic joked how a article on Java programming tasted like coffee?

Best divulgation ever

[Andr T.]

Hello, this is Terry, from -big company name-. We found your resume in one of our PC's... apparently, it appeared in the 'windows' folder of our newly-bought PCs.

Well, anyway, the thing is we liked your resume a lot. Can you stop by so we can talk, and maybe hire you? We'll pay you more than the value that's listed in the Excel sheet you're using to control your funds.

Yours,
Terry

Re: Amiga history

[Lonewolf666]

I remember the Amiga from the late 80s/early 90s, from the perspective of a gamer/private user. For a while it was superior to a similarly priced PC. But that advantage slipped away as PCs got cheaper and faster, and the supply of games also caught up to the Amiga. When I wanted a replacement for my aging C64 in 1991, the PC already looked more attractive overall. I ended up buying a 386SX then, which was equivalent or superior to the Amiga 3000 (as described on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_3000) in most regards.

I think the Amiga lost out against the PC in the early 90s, and no further meddling was necessary on Microsoft's part to kill it.

Tools can be fooled...

[JoeMerchant]

It is possible that the (nameless, now jobless) employee actually ran a QC script that was simply fooled because it built its reference file list from the already "enhanced" ISO.

Not saying that he's not a dip---- for not knowing what's supposed to be there, but I wouldn't be surprised if he actually executed a QC script given to him by some manager who got it from an employee they haven't seen in years....

Re:What is important.

[Whiteox]

There are severe technical difficulties securing most OS against USB based drives. There are complicated registry hacks in Windows to try and prevent thumb drive access (R/W) as there doesn't seem to be a group policy to govern this.
Some computers have USB disconnected and/or plugged up to prevent access. So there is no easy technical solution.

This is why...

[cyberjock1980]

This is why if I buy a computer, it had better come with a genuine Microsoft Windows installation disk. I don't know what is on that recovery disk, and I don't want to find out when I'm a victim of identity theft because my installation comes with a free virus. Never mind all their crapware that I can uninstall. Viruses don't come with an uninstall. If I want an "uninstaller" it's called AntiVirus. I'm pretty sure Dell/HP/etc would be MORE than happy to sell me a copy too. Aren't they nice? First give me the problem, and then sell me the fix.

This sounds like one of those TV ads...

"But wait! There's more! Call in the next 15 mins and we'll send you a FREE virus! Yes, FREE! A $250 value, yours free!"

Re:So the guy who goofed, is he BLACK?

[m50d]

There's an election coming up.

Re:So the guy who goofed, is he BLACK?

[Dishevel]

Becauses it's hard to imagine anyone else posting that?

Not hard at all. You see racism is not due to a lack of intelligence it goes much deeper than that. So it is very possible that an otherwise intelligent person could also be a racist. So if you were to put a small amount of thought into your post instead of just typing during a Knee-Jerk reaction you might not sound like what you are accusing someone else of sounding like.

Re:So the guy who goofed, is he BLACK?

[Anonymous Coward]

Jew.

Links

[Whiteox]

Here is a forum link for one poor unfortunate who managed to get a new non-Asus laptop: http://apcmag.com/Forum.htm?g=posts&t=504
Here is a screenshot of the config folder: http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/4320/8192008120604amaw4.png

So if you've got an affected Asus laptop with a few months of warranty left, you may be able to get a new non-Asus laptop for nix.

damn

[Anthony_Cargile]

Wow. A 2Mbps line immediately saturated *applause*. Next time, I'll be sure to mirror it elsewhere. At least it was bandwidth this time, last time when I was running this off just one server, it started paging and everything was hosed. This time the individual server loads never topped 0.1, although I'm sure this is partly because of the bottleneck :p. And if anyone is interested in writing for thecoffeedesk.com for /. submissions, PM me or whatever we need writers.

Re:So the guy who goofed, is he BLACK?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's possible to have no ill feelings towards any race and no desire to discriminate against anyone and still think that racial humor is funny. What's stupid are the people who get all offended and on their high horse and take this shit so damned seriously.

Re:So the guy who goofed, is he BLACK?

[Toll_Free]

And they don't realize they are discriminating against the free speech of the people that are being "racist".

The problem with racism, is, until every "race" gives up their "identity", we will all be different. Period.

--Toll_Free

ASUS and Gigabyte

[phorm]

The sad thing is that Asus used to be fairly decent, but it does seem that their failed/buggy boards are a bit more common these days.

On the other hand, Gigabyte doesn't have much to be proud of either. Back when I used them a few years back, their boards gained a notoriety for failure, mainly due to bad capacitors, etc.

It's funny because since I've moved to cheaper boards I've had less issues with dead hardware, but even if I did I'd rather have to replace hardware that costs half the price.

Halnon's Razor...

[Anonymous Coward]

strikes again.

Friday

[jeephistorian]

We prefer to let people go on Fridays....

Re:ASUS, so that should be, first POOP !!

[Anonymous Coward]

How is babby formed?

Re:TFA in 7-bit ASCII (other errors left intact)

[Anonymous Coward]

Asus Recovery DVD scandal: How it happened
Posted by anthony Published in Security, Software

For those who haven't already heard, the PC OEM company Asus was involved in a major scandal where a directory on the recovery DVD and inside c:\Windows\ConfigSetRoot\ contained a software crack for the WinRar program, software serial numbers, a resume (presumably for a now-jobless Asus employee), an internal Asus powerpoint describing "known compatibility issues", Asus source code, and even an OEM issued Microsoft document, which mainly says "do not distribute DR-DOS with any computers".

We now know from an OEM source how exactly the files got where they did in the first place, and it isn't very surprising.

An Asus representative said they would be investigating the matter, and while someone is still going to lose their job over this just so Asus can say so, the way the files made it to thousands of PCs is pretty common.

An OEM employee (name not mentioned here) discussing the matter said that during the vista installs, the generic vista disc installing the OS looks for an XML file (unattend.xml) on a flash drive, and upon finding it the installation parses it and runs the XML code as installation instructions so nobody has to go through the installation menu for the hundreds of synchronous installations (hence the unattend).

BUT... there is another twist: If a certain tag or attribute is present, all files other than unattend.xml itself on the flash drive will be copied to c:\windows\configsetroot - see the connection?

So apparently an Asus employee happened to have a personal flash drive, and stored his resume (presumeably, conspiracy theorists may disagree) as well as a few `harmless' keygens and serials on it as well, in his defence in case maybe he lost the serial to winrar or other programs. Apparently the same employee used the flash drive to store or back up confidential Asus documents and source code, as well.

So if the Asus internally distributed unattend.xml file was copied to this unnamed (and jobless) employee's personal flash drive, and included the xml tag/attribute to copy over everything to the system root and, therefore, recovery DVD as well, then voila! Then the only way somebody could come under fire because of this is because of oh, I don't know, not checking the installation root once everything was installed!

So now we know HOW exactly this whole ordeal was started, and there is a lesson to be learned here.... somewhere.

There were photos too

[sp3298622]

http://forum.notebookreview.com/archive/index.php/t-245933.html

Re:So the guy who goofed, is he BLACK?

[Showgun_Billy]

Acknowledging difference is different than racism - while there are small differences between races, our mental plasticity as humans makes it unlikely that any race is significantly different mentally than any other, and really race is an artificial distinction... We're all human, and racism is hate speech, not free speech

Re: Amiga history

[Orion Blastar]

Acutally Slashdot covered the AmigaOS and GUI in 1999 as not being dead yet.

Apple didn't kill it, just stole the AmigaOS GUI for Mac OSX which was based on Next OpenStep which stole from AmigaDOS 1.0 Workbench 1.0 to create a GUI on top of BSD Unix so Steve Jobs and Next could copy the Macintosh by stealing the best parts of the Amiga GUI and claiming them as their own.