For those of you with a relatively new ASUS laptop.

http://www.msfn.org/comments.php?shownews=22869

"Asus is accidentally shipping software crackers and confidential documents on the recovery DVDs that come with its laptops. The startling discovery was made by a PC Pro reader whose antivirus software was triggered by a key cracker for the WinRAR compression software, which was located on the recovery DVD for his Asus laptop. He discovered a number of other suspicious files, including:

* A directory called "Crack" that appears to contain serial numbers for other software packages
* A directory containing a large number of confidential Microsoft documents for PC manufacturers, including associated keys and program files
* Various internal Asus documents and source code for Asus software

The reader sent the disc to PC Pro, and we can confirm the existence of such files. The key cracker is found in the WinRAR application folder on the recovery disc and is credited to "Freddy Cruger". One of the confidential Asus documents includes a PowerPoint presentation that details "major problems" identified by the company, including application compatibility issues."

 

Thank you, buddy.
I know what is it and what is for.
It doesn't harm notebook, it doesn't violate my privacy, it can be very helpful if you know 'what' and 'how'.

 

I wish I could see that PP presentation.
perhaps a whistleblower or someone who got fired...LOL

 

besides the PP, in what evil ways can i use this? assuming that my g50v a2 has this on the disk when it arrives early next week. of course i would never do anything too break the copyright laws......

 

rather than doing evil, you could do a lot of good with the source code if you are a competent programmer. Their classic "I am a service" program suggests that programming standards may not be that high at asus

 

This has nothing to do with programming standards but with pure procedure negligence by technicians. Perhaps QC was not concerned either since that does crap not affect PC any way

 

I know that, but the fact that source code for many asus programs is being distributed in this directory (along with the cracks, etc.) would allow a competent programmer to improve on some of their famously buggy programs. unfortunately, my c++ is too limited to do anything useful with them...

 

have you ever heard of something called "industrial espionage" ?!?!?

you are from MPLS you should know better