Are you really that much in love with Gateway that you will lie to defend them? If you actually check you will see that there was simply an additional check for the date - no claim of some date determined self-destruct code.
Perhaps Gateway had intended to release their new firmware prior to this date and wanted to check for any firmware created after that date as an additional clone protection measure. Unfortunately their anti-clone software blew up in their own face and has caused them some issues since then.
Are you sure you're not in Gateway's employ as some sort of (failed) disinformation agent?
Perhaps a Chinese Mafia agent pretending to be a French Gangster agent attacking fictitious Chinese Mafia?
