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Crack the Pepsi iTunes Promo Code

Posted by pudge on Wed Feb 18, 2004 05:49 PM
from the you-got-your-carbonated-sugar-water-into-my-drm-protected-pop-music dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Someone posted a technique to find a winner in the iTunes Pepsi promo giveaway." Next step: a Pepsi/iTMS winning number generator!
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  • On Apple's behalf... (Score:5, Funny)

    by NewWaveNet (584716) <me@austinheap.com> on Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:50PM (#8320805)
    (http://www.austinheap.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday May 11 2006, @09:48PM)
    Oops, there went that debt free memo [slashdot.org]! ;)
    • Re:On Apple's behalf... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:00PM (#8320934)
      AFAIK Pepsi buys the tunes from Apple for the standard $0.99... so it's Pepsi's problem, not Apples.
      [ Parent ]
      • Re:On Apple's behalf... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by letdownjournals (737635) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:32PM (#8321244)
        AFAIK Pepsi buys the tunes from Apple for the standard $0.99... so it's Pepsi's problem, not Apples.

        I have no idea how the profits break down... But I seriously doubt that Pepsi is paying full price per song. I also have the feeling the record labels are getting paid all or near their usual fees. So I guess it boils down to who you want to screw over-- Pepsi and Apple by scamming the contest, or the RIAA by going back to Kazaa.

        But the real question is, don't most of us have enough music yet? How many times have you listened to 99% of those 20, 40, even 100gb+ songs on your hard drive?
        [ Parent ]
        • Re:On Apple's behalf... by J-Hawker (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @07:48PM
        • Re:On Apple's behalf... by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @08:55PM
        • Re:On Apple's behalf... (Score:5, Funny)

          by lavaface (685630) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @11:34PM (#8323392)
          (http://www.wavetheory.org/)
          Let's be realistic. You are not scamming the contest by looking under the cap (without opening the bottle.) I wonder what percentage of bottles made are winners. 1 in 5? Who knows. When you consider that many people don't look at the cap or won't bother to claim (Pepsi expects only 1/3 to make claims) the few who know how to "cheat" will make nary a dent in the outcome.

          Pepsi's ad budget is ~$250 million a year.

          Also, consider they war with Coca-Cola over "turf" in school districts across the country. Money for nothing for cash-strapped schools.

          Also remember we're talking about flavored sugar water. Who's scamming whom?

          [ Parent ]
          • Re:On Apple's behalf... by martingunnarsson (Score:3) Thursday February 19 2004, @02:39AM
          • Re:On Apple's behalf... (Score:4, Funny)

            by andcal (196136) on Thursday February 19 2004, @08:27AM (#8325363)
            Also remember we're talking about flavored sugar water. Who's scamming whom?

            Yeah, but it also contains caffeine, the melange of the real world. No, I am not trying to claim that there is only one source of caffeine in the world. The reason compare it to the Spice of Arrakis is because, like how melange allows the guild pilots of Dune to fold space and travel between the stars, caffeine makes certain, critical work in the real world possible, which would otherwise not be done. Imagine all the code that would have never been written, were it not for caffeine!
            [ Parent ]
          • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
        • Re:On Apple's behalf... (Score:5, Funny)

          by atrader42 (687933) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @11:39PM (#8323421)
          "How many times have you listened to 99% of those 20, 40, even 100gb+ songs on your hard drive?"

          Well, since that 100 gb song is 71 days long, I don't get too many opportunities to listen to the whole thing. I do, however, enjoy sections of it.
          [ Parent ]
        • Re:On Apple's behalf... (Score:5, Informative)

          by DjMd (541962) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @08:58PM (#8322479)
          (Last Journal: Friday October 18 2002, @11:25AM)
          Dude, thats why you Recycle them [tunerecycler.com]...
          Sound familar you maybe have read it here [slashdot.org].

          This way you don't have to use 'suck'y Itunes, and you still get to stick it to the RIAA.
          [ Parent ]
          • Re:On Apple's behalf... by Muad'Dave (Score:3) Thursday February 19 2004, @10:34AM
            • Re:On Apple's behalf... by baddawg65 (Score:1) Thursday February 19 2004, @11:43AM
            • Re:On Apple's behalf... by dhamsaic (Score:2) Thursday February 19 2004, @11:54AM
              • Re:On Apple's behalf... (Score:4, Insightful)

                by Muad'Dave (255648) on Thursday February 19 2004, @02:08PM (#8329733)
                (http://slashdot.org/)

                Then I guess you wouldn't mind me spray-painting a slogan on the side of your car, huh? I haven't destroyed anything, and you're going to throw the car away eventually anyhow, right?

                From Merriam-Webster [m-w.com]:

                vandalism: [The] willful or malicious destruction
                or defacement of public or private property [Emphasis mine]
                defacement: to mar the external appearance of
                The stickers constitute defacement, in my book. They diminish the value of the CD to the retailer - the message is repugnant, they're large, ugly, and cover the artwork, making customers less likely to purchase a CD (the whole point of their little vendetta).

                Protest outside the store legally; start a direct-mailing campaign; skywrite for all I care, but don't break the law to make your point!

                [ Parent ]
          • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
        • 3 replies beneath your current threshold.
      • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
    • Re:On Apple's behalf... (Score:5, Funny)

      by ryanw (131814) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:03PM (#8320970)
      Well, you still have to "open" the bottle to win. Pepsi/Apple is still ahead on this one.
      [ Parent ]
      • Re:On Apple's behalf... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by NewWaveNet (584716) <me@austinheap.com> on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:19PM (#8321119)
        (http://www.austinheap.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday May 11 2006, @09:48PM)
        Well, you still have to "open" the bottle to win. Pepsi/Apple is still ahead on this one.
        They're not ahead because they whole point of this promotion is to get people to sometimes become an expense when they generate revenue for the company in hopes of that customer repeating thier decision in lack of a possible iTunes reward. When people simply abuse the game by only selecting bottles with an iTunes code, the purpose has been defeated. Also, if this were to get large mainstream press, the public will loose the, "hey...maybe I can win," attitude which, once again, defeats the purpose.
        [ Parent ]
        • Re:On Apple's behalf... by Trejkaz (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @09:14PM
        • Re:On Apple's behalf... (Score:5, Interesting)

          by Cylix (55374) * on Thursday February 19 2004, @12:35AM (#8323742)
          (http://www.notacult.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday March 07 2002, @11:05AM)
          Oh I did this with coke contests a long time back.

          I sifted through the gas stations 1:6 winners til I bought all my friends a free coke. we were kids and half the fun was just biking to the gas station. As long as you get some minimumwage employee... no one seems to mind.

          Then I discovered the real fun in contests. At the time you could call in an 800 number and punch in your numbers to see if you won a real prize. So, I read the rules and nothing said I oculdn't enter as many times as I liked.

          At that point I setup all my little memory dial buttons to enter the sequences for entering. I even played around with it and found certain numbers gave a spanish version.

          After school I would sit down and enter a few hundred times a day and even my brother got in on the fun. This went on for a month or so.

          In the end we only won a game gear... which was quite expensive and only 500 game gears were available nation wide.

          Since then I have never seen coke do such a contest or at least allow the kind of entry I was performing.
          [ Parent ]
        • Re:On Apple's behalf... by proj_2501 (Score:2) Thursday February 19 2004, @12:49PM
        • 3 replies beneath your current threshold.
      • Re:On Apple's behalf... by Mc_Anthony (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @10:35PM
      • Re:On Apple's behalf... by Mr. Droopy Drawers (Score:1) Thursday February 19 2004, @06:07AM
    • by bonch (38532) <bonch@nOSPAm.slackersguild.com> on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:38PM (#8321285)
      "Would you rather sell sugar water to kids for the rest of your life, or do you want to change the world?"

      Steve Jobs to that guy from Pepsi. It's on folklore.org somewhere. The Bouncing Pepsis story, I believe.
      [ Parent ]
      • by l3prador (700532) <wkankla AT gmail DOT com> on Wednesday February 18 2004, @07:07PM (#8321559)
        (http://kg.tongos.com/)
        that guy from Pepsi. John Sculley, who subsequently joined Apple, kicked out Steve Jobs and let Bill Gates use Mac features in Windows 1.0. Change the world, he did. :(
        [ Parent ]
        • Re:Famous Steve Jobs quote to Pepsi guy by elmegil (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @08:52PM
        • by rixstep (611236) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @08:58PM (#8322485)
          (http://rixstep.com/)
          Famous Steve Jobs quote on Pepsi guy:

          John Sculley ruined Apple, and he ruined it by bringing a set of values to the top of Apple which were corrupt and corrupted some of the top people who were there, drove out some of the ones who were not corruptible, and brought in more corrupt ones and paid themselves collectively tens of millions of dollars and cared more about their own glory and wealth than they did about what built Apple in the first place - which was making great computers for people to use.

          [ Parent ]
          • Re:Famous Steve Jobs quote to Pepsi guy by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @09:04PM
          • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 18 2004, @09:17PM (#8322619)
            Sculley is the only CEO in Apple history who both managed to both keep Apple profitable and increase Mac sales year-to-year every year. None of the other three Mac-era CEOs -- Jobs, Spindler, or Amelio -- managed the trick.

            So, yeah, Sculley ruined Apple: he made it profitable and expanded the Mac user base. Such horrible crimes. Real Apple fans know the goal is to become an ever-shrinking demographic until the Mac is sitting on the same shelf as the Amiga, clung to in irrelevancy by rabid fans.
            [ Parent ]
            • by rixstep (611236) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @09:26PM (#8322669)
              (http://rixstep.com/)
              Jobs didn't say profits. He said making good products. Sculley didn't do squat, and that was Jobs's objection: from 1984 until jobs's return, Apple had one product, from all the way back in 1984: the Macintosh.

              Jonathan Ive was more or less put on ice until Jobs discovered him working there. Jobs has otherwise done quite a job himself in turning the company around.

              Besides - and this is the clincher - what if Sculley had been good for Apple? Just think how much better he would have been if he and his cohorts hadn't pocketed all that money Jobs speaks of? Just think how much better off Apple would have been!

              [ Parent ]
              • Re:Famous Steve Jobs quote to Pepsi guy by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @11:19PM
              • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 18 2004, @11:41PM (#8323435)
                And exactly how many Macs did they sell in Sculley's last year at Apple? You didn't list the figure...

                For reference, Sculley's last year at Apple was 1994. After that, Mike Markkula took over. In 1995, Gil Amelio took over. Then The Holy And Praised Return Of The Steve occurred in 1997. Sculley pushed one and only one good product... the Newton. Unfortunately, he didn't last long enough to push it to the unassailable top of the heap.

                Then Markkula pushed the Performa, killed Newton for all practical intents and purposes, and diversified the product line into about 35 different models.

                Amelio is generally an underrated Apple exec. He killed most of those product lines (which were milking Apple dry), tried to revive the Newton, despite Palm's arrival on the scene, and discovered Jonathan Ive and promptly set him on the task of making the iMac. Amelio made two mistakes: clones (which kept the milking going even after the product line was trimmed) and buying NeXT and bringing Steve Jobs on board.

                Steve Jobs threw Amelio off the roof, stole his praise, and fortunately, kept up the good moves Amelio had started. Note that after Amelio's projects were finished, Steve's first pet project bombed. The G4 cube was a market failure.

                Lately, they've been focusing less on cool new computer features and focusing more on cool new software (iApps, MacOS X, etc.) and cool new peripherals to help the computer get things done (iPod, iSight, etc.). That might account for the drop in sales. The economy's current shitter-dwelling state also might have something to do with that.

                So, a short review: Sculley was not pushing the Mac like he should've been, but he wasn't killing the company like Markkula did. Amelio actually was turning Apple around until Jobs fucked him in the ass and took all the credit. Jobs isn't as wonderful as some people would have you believe, but he is doing the best he can in the current market environment.

                Oh, and you need to learn a little Apple history. Consider this your first lesson.
                [ Parent ]
              • Re:Famous Steve Jobs quote to Pepsi guy by Moofie (Score:2) Thursday February 19 2004, @01:56AM
              • by Blic (672552) on Thursday February 19 2004, @03:42AM (#8324533)
                I think Amelio will always have a bad rap, but he performed the essential role he was hired for - hatchet man.

                See, you hire someone, have them cut lots of fat out of the company, fire lots of folks, and consequently everyone hates them. Then you get rid of them and in swoops the savior to take control of a leaner, restructured company without any of the ill will because you just fired everyone's friends.
                [ Parent ]
              • Re:Famous Steve Jobs quote to Pepsi guy by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Thursday February 19 2004, @04:59AM
              • Re:Famous Steve Jobs quote to Pepsi guy by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Thursday February 19 2004, @09:05AM
              • Re:Famous Steve Jobs quote to Pepsi guy by anourkey (Score:1) Thursday February 19 2004, @05:56PM
              • 3 replies beneath your current threshold.
            • Sculley: FEH. (Score:5, Interesting)

              by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 18 2004, @11:00PM (#8323136)

              Just out of high school, I worked for apple as a phone jockey/dope in the thick of the Sculley era. Every single day my job consisted of taking desperate (to the point of suicidal) calls from these poor, pathetic bureaucrats in the purchasing departments at school districts who had sent their entire computer hardware budget to Apple some six, eight, 12, 18 months ago, and they had still not received their orders.

              We were told explicitly and with great threat that we were never to reveal this to the customer, and were in fact to continue to feed them the "Real Soon Now" line of bullshit ("Next week, I promise... It's shipping tomorrow... It already shipped..."), when the blunt reality was that they would not be receiving their orders the next week, month, four months, six months, EVER - eventual refunds were assumed, amounting to a zero-interest loan from the school districts to Apple - because Apple had in fact shipped every one of their orders overseas, to be sold at a higher markup in foreign retail. They had sold their standing inventory at least twice, and probably several times more, and only actually delivered it to the highest bidder. It was pathetic.

              Mind you, "profitability" of Apple aside, this was the height of the "MacInTrash" era, when every government department in the United States, outside of the toniest school districts, was replacing their entire IT infrastructure of Apples with cheap first-generation beige boxes running some godawful proof-of-concept "Windows." I vividly recall watching newscasts showing dumpsters overflowing with discarded Apple machines and thinking to myself, "this company is fucked."

              Sculley made Apple "profitable" for the X many months it took him to ruin its reputation and forever doom it to the statistically irrelevant fringe market.

              [ Parent ]
            • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
      • Re:Famous Steve Jobs quote to Pepsi guy by Man Eating Duck (Score:1) Thursday February 19 2004, @06:34AM
  • And Apple just got back in the black by Anonymous Coward (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:50PM
    • by daviddennis (10926) <david@amazing.com> on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:01PM (#8320938)
      (http://amazing.com/)
      Most likely, no.

      The majority of Pepsi drinkers probably don't care about the promotion.

      Those who do will win. Those who don't care won't win and won't care that they didn't win.

      The tunes go to the people who want them, and more or less everyone is happy.

      I'd say this would hold true if anywhere under 10% of Pepsi drinkers wanted the iTunes songs. Once you get past that, you wind up having massive inventories of losing bottles nobody wants and things turn ugly fast.

      But if that's the case, it's Pepsi that loses, not Apple. Apple has no liability for Pepsi's inventory problems or lack of same.

      D
      [ Parent ]
      • Re:And Apple just got back in the black by FauxReal (Score:3) Wednesday February 18 2004, @09:18PM
        • by daviddennis (10926) <david@amazing.com> on Wednesday February 18 2004, @10:47PM (#8323021)
          (http://amazing.com/)
          You might want to look at this another way: They may not mind the cheating at all.

          What they want to do is convert Coca-Cola addicts (like me) to Pepsi addicts. This is a back-handed bribe for me to switch from Coke to Pepsi for a month. The economics actually aren't bad, since as well as shifting my brand, they want me to buy more expensive single bottles at over $1 each, as opposed to my usual 6 and 12 packs at under $ 0.50 each.

          The actual sugar water component of a soda costs around $ 0.10. The wholesale value of a song on iTunes is probably around $ 0.50. If they have about a 100% markup at retail, the $1.20 pepsi bottle is giving them $0.60, so they are roughly breaking even on my sodas which are a guaranteed win.

          What they're counting on, of course, is that I switch to Pepsi and continue drinking it after the promotion. This is surely not impossible, as long as I decide I like the taste better. If they wind up doing that, they may not care that I'm only picking winning bottles, and they might have even made it deliberately trivial to cheat. They won't tell us that; it ruins the fun. But they may well have done it. Of course that's also why there's a 200 song limit for each email address. They'll let me have $100 wholesale, no matter how I get it.

          Interesting, no?

          D

          [ Parent ]
  • Oh, come on! (Score:5, Funny)

    by American AC in Paris (230456) * on Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:50PM (#8320811)
    (http://www.snowplow.org/tom/)
    The big secret: "tip the bottle and see if you can see 'again' under the cap." Sheer genius.

    No, really--this would never have occurred to me.

    I mean, really--the tipping of the bottle I could probably get to, but then to look through the clear plastic--inspired, my friend, inspired. And differentiating between 'again' and a random string of numbers? This guy has to be into hardcore pattern recognition. NSA, are you seeing this?

    Yeah.

    There exist elegant solutions to truly vexing problems that, once discovered, are striking in their simplicity. There also exist people who try to pass off the painfully obvious as an elegant solution to a truly vexing problem.

    A free iTunes code to the person who can guess which category this falls into...

  • a crack? hmm. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by tedtimmons (97599) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:51PM (#8320818)
    (http://perljam.net/?ref=slashdot)
    This is a crack? I mean, if you count the cap'n crunch [webcrunchers.com] as a crack, sure. But I don't consider tilting a bottle of soda a crack. It seems more like social engineering.
  • Slashdotted Already! (Score:5, Funny)

    by gambit3 (463693) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:52PM (#8320825)
    (http://www.neolibrarium.com/ | Last Journal: Friday January 10 2003, @11:19AM)

    Darn!

    Now I'll have to play fairly and by the rules!

    That just ain't fair!
    • Article Text (Score:5, Funny)

      by OECD (639690) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:04PM (#8320980)
      (Last Journal: Monday August 20, @01:07PM)
      Warning: Too many connections in /home/macmerc/www/www.macmerc.com/mainfile.php on line 47
      Warning: MySQL Connection Failed: Too many connections in /home/macmerc/www/www.macmerc.com/mainfile.php on line 47
      Unable to select database
      [ Parent ]
  • Secret Agent Crack (Score:5, Funny)

    by qw(name) (718245) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:53PM (#8320846)
    (http://www.esnider.net/ | Last Journal: Tuesday June 06 2006, @12:41PM)

    As long as the "crack" can be placed in a secret decoder ring I'll be happy.
  • And the winner is... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Channard (693317) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:53PM (#8320847)
    The American Dental Association, for the sudden increase in work coming their way. A Mr Orin Scrivello, D.D.S. will be presented with the award - a special enamel yellow I-Pod - at the next 'Fillings Across America' convention.
  • That didn't take long by strech (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:53PM
  • Awesome! (Score:5, Funny)

    by furiousgeorge (30912) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:54PM (#8320856)
    Cool - a guaranteed way to pick a winner!

    Now i'm off to buy many $1.20 bottles of sugar water so I get get a free $0.99 song!!!! I can't lose!

    oh wait............

    Never underestimate the stupidity of people in large numbers.

    • Re:Awesome! by Squidgee (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:00PM
      • Re:Awesome! by line.at.infinity (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:16PM
        • Re:Awesome! by Squidgee (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:30PM
          • Re:Awesome! by line.at.infinity (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:48PM
            • Re:Awesome! by Squidgee (Score:2) Thursday February 19 2004, @11:54AM
              • Re:Awesome! by line.at.infinity (Score:2) Thursday February 19 2004, @04:23PM
    • Re:Awesome! by kev0153 (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:07PM
    • Re:Awesome! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by AdamBLang (674002) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:12PM (#8321054)
      If you're a regular Pepsi drinker, you're buying your normal beverage of choice at your normal price and getting a song to boot.

      If you're a regular iTunes Music Store user, you're spending 21 on a Pepsi.

      If you're an iTMS user and a Pepsi drinker, this whole thing is saving you 99 off your regular Pepsi/iTMS purchases.

      If you're a cola drinker but not a Pepsi drinker, buying a Coke is really costing you $1.20 + 99 (99 for lost opportunity cost).

      You really can't lose!

      Never underestimate the stupidity of people in small numbers.
      [ Parent ]
      • Re:Awesome! (Score:5, Funny)

        by l-ascorbic (200822) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:41PM (#8321306)
        And if you think that drinking any cola is only slightly preferable to sucking the sweat from Steve Ballmer's jock strap, then you'be just wasted 21c on sink corrosive.
        [ Parent ]
        • Re:Awesome! by PetWolverine (Score:1) Thursday February 19 2004, @02:57AM
        • Re:Awesome! by Valdrax (Score:2) Thursday February 19 2004, @11:46AM
      • Re:Awesome! by SoLoatWork (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:48PM
        • Re:Awesome! by AdamBLang (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:51PM
      • Re:Awesome! by cheekyboy (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @07:03PM
      • Re:Awesome! by Frizzle Fry (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @07:05PM
      • Re:Awesome! by daniel_mcl (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @07:38PM
        • Re:Awesome! by k_187 (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @08:02PM
          • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
        • Re:Awesome! by AdamBLang (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @10:26PM
      • Vagabonds and Scoundrels by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @08:43PM
        • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
      • Re:Awesome! by wankerbollock (Score:1) Thursday February 19 2004, @08:12AM
      • 3 replies beneath your current threshold.
    • Re:Awesome! by standsolid (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:17PM
      • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
    • Re:Awesome! by LoudMusic (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:26PM
    • Re:Awesome! by damiam (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:35PM
      • Re:Awesome! by cosmo7 (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:49PM
        • Re:Awesome! by Sparr0 (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @07:04PM
        • 2 replies beneath your current threshold.
      • Re:Awesome! by Aero Leviathan (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @07:15PM
        • Re:Awesome! by TKinias (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @07:40PM
      • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
    • Well, how about this, then?... by SpotBug (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @08:45PM
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • Usually, I think crackers are scum, but... by Trillan (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:54PM
  • All I wanted was an iTune (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:54PM (#8320865)
    ...Just one iTune, and Pepsi wouldn't give it to me!
  • Hard to imagine... by NeoTheOne (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:55PM
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • wtf? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Shakrai (717556) * on Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:55PM (#8320878)
    (Last Journal: Monday November 26, @06:13PM)

    That's pretty amusing but did the editors actually read this story before posting it? "Next step: a Pepsi/iTMS winning number generator!" WTF? Stuff that matters indeed.

    Of course before I criticize them too much don't think I'm not going to try this the next time I go to the store. I don't drink soda (evil substance) but I can resell it to friends that don't use iTMS for the purchase price and pocket the songs ;)

    1) Buy evil sugar water that's bad for you with winning code.
    2) Resell said sugar water to friends who don't use iTMS.
    3) Download songs legally while simultaneously screwing Pepsi and RIAA.
    4) ???
    5) Profit!

    (I'm not trolling for karma. Feel free to mod this funny to avoid giving me any overrated if you disagree).

    • Re:wtf? by Squidgee (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:58PM
      • Re:wtf? by Shakrai (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:01PM
        • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
      • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
    • Re:wtf? by Highlander (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:03PM
      • Re:wtf? by Shakrai (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:09PM
    • Re:wtf? (Score:5, Funny)

      by discogravy (455376) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:09PM (#8321028)
      (http://freebsdwiki.net/)
      That's pretty amusing but did the editors actually
      read this story before posting it?

      you're new, right?

      [ Parent ]
      • Re:wtf? by Shakrai (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @07:07PM
      • Re:wtf? by Chalex (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @11:18PM
        • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
      • 2 replies beneath your current threshold.
    • Re:wtf? by Silent Bob On Couch (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:20PM
    • Re:wtf? by Alsee (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @11:37PM
    • By the MPAA's Standards.... by Valdrax (Score:2) Thursday February 19 2004, @11:50AM
  • I'm not sure I can afford to win... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by erick99 (743982) * <homerun@gmail.com> on Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:56PM (#8320891)
    The way my kids drink soda, I could go broke "saving" money with free songs this way. We'll stick to the 2 Litre bottles when they are on sale and they can listen to their favorite music on the radio. Though, it would be fun to win just once or twice....

    Happy Trails!

    Erick

  • Here are the images (Score:5, Informative)

    by jonknee (522188) * on Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:57PM (#8320895)
    (http://www.mobiletracker.net/)
    Hey guys, someone submitted when we were already at the top of our load. So while the host works things out, here [mobiletracker.net] are the images used in the story.
  • Mirror (Score:5, Funny)

    by Alcimedes (398213) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:58PM (#8320912)
    Since it's already slashdotted i'll paraphrase.

    Tip the damn bottle.

    If it constains the word "song" you won.

    Buy that bottle.

    The end.
    • Re:Mirror (Score:5, Informative)

      by elflet (570757) * <elfletNO@SPAMnextquestion.net> on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:09PM (#8321020)
      Easier still: "try again" caps have 3 lines of printing, centered. Winning caps have 4 lines and fill pretty much the whole space. You don't even have to make out the words, just avoid the caps with a fair bit of whitespace at the edges.
      [ Parent ]
      • Re:Mirror by wankledot (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:31PM
        • Re:Mirror by LinuxGeek (Score:2) Thursday February 19 2004, @01:07AM
      • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
    • You forgot... by blorg (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:17PM
  • KeyGen Released!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by pantycrickets (694774) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:59PM (#8320923)
    ORiON PROUDLY PRESENTS
    iTunes Sweepstakes (c) Apple
    SUPPLIER ...: Team ORiON
    CRACKER ....: Team ORiON
    PACKAGER ...: Team ORiON
    RELEASED ...: 02.18.04
    TYPE .......: Keygen
    DISKS ......: XX/01
    /sarcasm
  • A bit of info (Score:5, Informative)

    by read-only (35561) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:00PM (#8320929)
    The server linked to was slashdotted, so I found this via Google. Not all that impressive...

    No, I don't have algorithm to generate winning numbers. (I would have to assume that they are randomly generated anyways) But, after my 5th winning pepsi top in a row, I'm pretty confident in my ability to pick a winner by examining the bottle. Assuming that the intial bottles really are only 1 in 3 winners and are evenly distributed (which isn't a given) then 5 in a row is good, but not conclusive.

    Anyways, on the bottles I've seen, you can actually see under the cap you down the kneck of the bottle. If the lighting is sufficient, you'll be able to make out at least a couple of letters. If you see a number then you have a winner. You'll look like a fool staring down bottles to find a surefire winner, but being a cheapskate isn't glamorous work.

    I don't know any method to win with the 7-11 Big Gulp cups where the code is on the rim of the winning cup. I've gotten 2 of 3 winners using my patented "pick the first cup" algorithm. The only strategy I've heard of to increase your odds is the "double cup". Some people claim that the stores don't mind if you do it, but to me it's crossing over from legitimate "selection optimization" to "theft".

  • by elflet (570757) * <elfletNO@SPAMnextquestion.net> on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:02PM (#8320956)
    ...but unfortunately this bottle cap is too small to hold it. - Fermat
  • This is just a port... (Score:5, Funny)

    by boinger (4618) <boinger&fuck-you,org> on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:03PM (#8320968)
    (http://fuck-you.org/)
    ...of the same crack that me and me l337 hacker bros worked out back in the BBS days to crack a very similar Mountain Dew promotion.

    Good thing we released it GPL. Now those Apache commies [slashdot.org] can't use it, either!

    Free Tibet!

  • Check around (Score:5, Interesting)

    by andyring (100627) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:04PM (#8320978)
    (http://www.andyring.com/)
    I was working cleanup at a stadium over the weekend, as part of a church fundraiser (I'm an adult advisor for the youth group). Just by picking up empty bottles, I snagged 19 winning caps.
  • Quick & Dirty Mirror (Score:5, Informative)

    by Str8Dog (240982) * on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:04PM (#8320979)
    (http://www.str8dog.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday July 09 2003, @12:53PM)
    Here is a mirror of the relevant content.

    http://www.str8dog.com/macmerc/
  • I don't understand by Music To Eat (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:06PM
  • Slower and Dirty Mirror (Score:3, Informative)

    by Str8Dog (240982) * on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:06PM (#8320997)
    (http://www.str8dog.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday July 09 2003, @12:53PM)
    Here is a quick and dirty mirror [str8dog.com].
  • Coke has better implementation? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by fembots (753724) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:08PM (#8321016)
    (http://vinc.iclod.com/)
    I am not sure if this only happens to Coke. Anyway, in one of a similar promotion (i.e. you win something if the cap says "Winner", otherwise "Again"), the message is in some sort of semi-transparent rubbery sheet, which is pushed into the cap, reversed.

    So normally you cannot see anything thru this rubbery sheet, and the message is on the other side (i.e. facing the cap).

    I wonder why Pepsi didn't use a better solution.
  • by Ron Bennett (14590) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:11PM (#8321040)
    (http://www.wyomissing.com/bennett/)
    It's not truly a crack in my view, since one still has to buy the bottle to obtain the complete, usable code; I bet Pepsi really doesn't care since they're still moving product.

    Ron
  • Cheaters never prosper by John Harrison (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:11PM
  • The Random Odds (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MBraynard (653724) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:12PM (#8321046)
    (Last Journal: Tuesday July 31, @12:20AM)
    Pepsi is giving away 100 million songs, so I was thinking that there was a good possibility of people trying to hack it by guessing the codes to get the free song.

    I got a winning cap and did some math. Unless the codes are not random, this isn't going to happen.

    There are 8 digits in the code, and they appear to use alphas and digits. Presuming they aren't using zero so it's not confused with the letter "O," this means there are 1.0E+35 possibilities. With 100 million winners, that means one in every 1.0E+27 is a winner. Spelt out, that is 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

    However, given that it is not random, I guess the odds are much better.

    • Re:The Random Odds by jared_hanson (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:35PM
    • Re:The Random Odds by akuzi (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:58PM
    • Actually, it's 10 digits (Score:5, Informative)

      by Otto (17870) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @07:38PM (#8321814)
      (http://ottodestruct.com/)
      Actually, it's 10 digits, not 8. And yes, they use both zero (0) and the letter O. The zero's are more elongated vertically, and the O's are actually slightly elongated horizontally. Therefore there's about 10^36 possible codes.

      Winning caps look like this (fake number, obviously):

      12345
      ABCDE

      ONE FREE
      SONG

      Centered. The blank line is actually about half a line.

      Losers look like this:

      PLAY

      AGAIN

      Simple enough. If you hold it up so that the yellow cap is facing the light, yes, you can peer down the side and make out enough to tell which is which, especially on the Sierra Mist bottles. The Pepsi bottles are harder, but since that foul stuff is undrinkable anyway, stick to the clear drinks.

      Note, I have not tried this in a store. I have, however, won a few songs on Sierra Mist bottles.
      [ Parent ]
    • Pepsi: Random or not? by 0x0d0a (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @11:44PM
    • Re:The Random Odds by utahjazz (Score:2) Thursday February 19 2004, @12:42AM
    • Re:The Random Odds by MBraynard (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:31PM
    • Re:The Random Odds by MBraynard (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:46PM
    • 4 replies beneath your current threshold.
  • Not funny. by fuzebox (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:12PM
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • Like iTunes? Hate Pepsi? by Roskolnikov (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:12PM
  • Already over the 200 limit. by i_am_syco (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:16PM
  • Dang... by sH4RD (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:16PM
    • Re:Dang... by fuzebox (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:45PM
  • It Would be a Nice Gesture if... by Nom du Keyboard (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:16PM
  • More soda? by FuryG3 (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:21PM
  • by greymond (539980) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:22PM (#8321131)
    (http://www.morbidgames.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday November 30 2004, @07:38PM)
    I'd just like to point out again for the record that NO ONE has been arrested/sued by the RIAA for DOWNLOADING music. They have been sued for SHARING their music files. Yes I know the News and Magazines keep saying "Music Downloaders" and "Downloading Music" but thats just so people will be afraid to use P2P softare for legitemate uses, such as Downloading the mp3s to the Bjork CD I own that is scratched and unplayable...

    With that said, I understand this is somewhat news, but honestly your not really scamming or solving anything here. People are buying songs from itunes - good for them, people are downloading songs from itunes for free - GREAT you just made the powers that be "right" that music "Downloaders" are "teh d3v1l".

    Congratz.
  • double standard here at slashdot sometimes by 0xfc (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:22PM
  • When will Pepsi learn,, by Mynt-E (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:25PM
  • thank you captain obvious (Score:4, Funny)

    by happyslinky (545469) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:28PM (#8321205)
    for the next front page writeup at slashdot we have:
    "WATER H4X0R3D... found to be wet" and
    "GRASS P0WN3D.. GREEN ENSUES"

  • Server down by Ec|ipse (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:33PM
  • I drink pepsi now by ABaumann (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:33PM
  • Didn't work (Score:5, Funny)

    by rixstep (611236) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:35PM (#8321258)
    (http://rixstep.com/)
    This didn't work for me.

    I took the Pepsi bottle cap, inserted it into my PC CD drive, and could read nothing.

    But I forgot to hold down Shift - that may be why.

    I just wish people would document these hacks properly before publishing them. I'm pretty computer-savvy, so I don't think it was a mistake on my part.

    • Re:Didn't work by kingrat (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @07:40PM
    • Re:Didn't work by Phroggy (Score:2) Monday February 23 2004, @10:39PM
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • mirror by calyptos (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:36PM
    • Re:mirror by calyptos (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:42PM
  • No soda here by ktulu1115 (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:38PM
  • The best part of the article (Score:5, Funny)

    by emkman (467368) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:43PM (#8321325)
    The best part of this amusing if lame article, is without a doubt the Mountain Dew eBay link [ebay.com].
  • Fatal flaw (Score:5, Funny)

    by Stonent1 (594886) <stonent.stonent@pointclark@net> on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:44PM (#8321339)
    (Last Journal: Monday March 10 2003, @12:51AM)
    You actually have to buy the pepsi! It costs $1.09-$1.29. Even worse if you accidentally drink the pepsi!
    • Re:Fatal flaw by mlk (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @07:52PM
    • Re:Fatal flaw by Xyd (Score:1) Thursday February 19 2004, @12:14AM
  • new way to steal music... by aceh0 (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:45PM
  • Sorta works by Xibby (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:46PM
  • Patent: How to get free winning caps! by russotto (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:47PM
  • Decisions Decisions by Stonent1 (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:47PM
  • Best promotion (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Hobobo (231526) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:47PM (#8321370)
    This promotion is probably the best I've seen in a while. Three benefits:
    1. To Pepsi - increased sales
    2. To Apple - more people use and know about iTunes
    3. To RIAA - people consider free music downloads a prize rather than taken for granted
    Also, because it is so unique it recieves much more publicity than other promotions (such as this article).
  • Good Thing... by pablo_max (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:51PM
  • Pepsi Points (Score:3, Interesting)

    by stylee (253307) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:52PM (#8321419)
    A few years ago pepsi did their pepsi points promotion. Several of us were living in DC at the time in an apartment behind the home of a couple that drove catering trucks to construction sites. They were a nice couple and let us take anything we wanted off the trucks each night while they were loading them for the next days deliveries.

    We did this same thing back then and saved up thousands of those pepsi points in a matter of weeks. Unfortunatley, I never cashed in as the points were pooled amongst us in the apartment and I had to move soon after. I did gain almost 20 pounds while living there for only a few months.
  • Crack?!? by El (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:52PM
  • bottlecap fun. by b0ycheese (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:54PM
  • I love the first drawing by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:55PM
  • Yeaaah by Alternate Interior (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:55PM
  • Mountain Dew Givaway (Score:4, Funny)

    by returnoftheyeti (678724) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:58PM (#8321464)
    I got hooked on Dew back in 99 or so when you could win a free pop (soda) in the cap. I worked in a gas station and had nothing to do but go through the stock room and tilt the bottles to look under the cap and see WINNER. Then I would just open the bottle, drink and turn in the cap when I was done. I had like 5 cases that were exclusivly winners that never made it on to the regular sales floor.
  • Right now... (Score:3, Funny)

    by AsmordeanX (615669) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @07:00PM (#8321490)
    359 7-11 employees are going through their Pepsi stock and taking out all the winners.
  • Profit by blackmonday (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @07:07PM
  • Looking at the diagram... (Score:3, Funny)

    by X86Daddy (446356) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @07:07PM (#8321553)
    (Last Journal: Thursday July 01 2004, @09:03PM)
    ... (Here [mobiletracker.net]) I am concerned that either Pepsi's formula has become much more syruppy, or someone is screwing around with the gravity near MacMerc's headquarters.
  • Where are they? by bigbigbison (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @08:10PM
  • I love the last statement (Score:3, Funny)

    by peter_gzowski (465076) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @08:14PM (#8322074)
    (http://slashdot.org/)
    You might find it easiest to practice while not in the store. Just buy a few and take them home. Get the knack for the angle, and it isn't that hard to pull off without looking like a huge tool.

    Yeah, for that you need a website about it...
  • yesterdays news.. by basslineshift (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @08:17PM
  • I CAN'T BELIEVE... (Score:5, Funny)

    ...that this hard-hitting piece of "journalism" made Slashdot's *front page*. I mean, I understand -- slow news day and all, and, well, Slashdot's front page was never a real "exclusive club" in the first place.... "Try to read the cap and see if you've won before you buy the Pepsi." That's it. THAT made the front page. He even put pictures for the, shall we say, "less intellectually fortunate" among the Mac faithful. What's next, "shake your Christmas present and maybe you can tell what's inside?" How about "Check your fruit for bruises BEFORE you buy it to avoid getting bruised fruit!"? GENIUS, I tell you, SHEER GENIUS. Yes, Bobby, "Genius" as in "Genius Bar". I bet Apple's already looking for this Einstein's number as we speak. But they'll have to beat NASA to him! He's like the guy off Phenomenon, I wonder if he can learn Spanish in a half hour. Frickin' Brilliant. I hope he uses his powers for Good, not Evil. Hey, I'm not kidding. He managed to make Slashdot's FRONT PAGE. The FreeBSD guys could cure cancer with their ass and they wouldn't make the front page.

    Why do the Editors even *bother* with apple.slashdot.org when something this fundamentally NON-earth-shakingly important (ie remember that credo "Stuff that Matters"?) makes the front page? SLASHDOT is now apple.slashdot.org. Get it? Slashdot = Apple. Everything NON-Apple seems secondary. Linux stories are tolerated. Books are ignored. YRO is buried. Games are irrelevant.

    You know, I used to think the guys who say "the Slashdot Editors are on Apple's payroll" and that "Apple is astroturfing here" were crazy. Now, I'm starting to believe it. Or has the definition of "stuff that matters" changed fundamentally since Apple is involved?

    Either the editors are slipping or they have an agenda. Take your pick. I like cheating as much as the next guy, but this doesn't deserve front page coverage. I guess that's why I'm not an editor. I'd be fair, I speak in full sentences, and my spelling is adequate. Hell, right there my chances are shot.
  • just stupid by SteveXE (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @08:32PM
  • nerds and Mt Dew by Isca (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @08:33PM
  • This Works - spoiling it for everyone by acomj (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @09:12PM
  • I'm not a gravitational expert but.. by jamonterrell (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @09:16PM
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • Thank you, Capitain Obvious! by Tokerat (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @10:32PM
  • You can do it with all the promotions by jazzykindaguy (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @10:47PM
  • What prevents artists from buying their own songs? by Jack Zombie (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @10:54PM
  • Contests gone bad.. by nolife (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @11:14PM
  • way to pay Pepsi back for its support... by fitten (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @11:16PM
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • Duh by bobdole369 (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @11:19PM
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • Steve's own kids by Cinematique (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @11:43PM
  • cheating to get downloaded music legally?!? by iamhassi (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @11:56PM
  • I went out and tried this tonight after work, and ended up purchasing eight bottles that are all winners. (Oddly enough, most of the bottles in one of the cooler weren't...I went through a dozen and only found two. But when I moved to another cooler, every single yellow-capped bottle I checked was.)

    But it's not as easy as the article makes it look. Due to the ribbing around the neck of the bottle, the view can be pretty easily distorted and reflections from overhead light can get in the way, especially if there's condensation or fingerprint smears on the bottle already. I suspect that carrying a small penlight to shine through would improve visibility.
  • Obvious design flaw by medazinol (Score:1) Thursday February 19 2004, @12:44AM
  • This is news? by Pingsmoth (Score:1) Thursday February 19 2004, @01:22AM
  • Serves em right! by euxneks (Score:2) Thursday February 19 2004, @01:29AM
  • oh boy. by agentq (Score:1) Thursday February 19 2004, @03:29AM
  • Really... by kitzilla (Score:2) Thursday February 19 2004, @03:34AM
  • Walmart adding sleeves to the bottles... by adzoox (Score:2) Thursday February 19 2004, @07:44AM
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • That's fine but, by fgb (Score:1) Thursday February 19 2004, @09:12AM
  • Pepsinomics 101 by Pergau (Score:1) Thursday February 19 2004, @09:28AM
  • Awesome.... by herrvinny (Score:2) Thursday February 19 2004, @09:31AM
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • What specially marked bottles? by 5 time champ (Score:1) Thursday February 19 2004, @09:53AM
  • A question by danila (Score:2) Thursday February 19 2004, @01:20PM
  • Pepsi flows uphill by richlb (Score:2) Thursday February 19 2004, @02:53PM
  • So where is it? by Jon Abbott (Score:2) Thursday February 19 2004, @03:00PM
  • Great... by quantaq (Score:1) Thursday February 19 2004, @04:28PM
  • Longest $0.99 iTunes Music Store song? by oldsyd (Score:2) Friday February 20 2004, @04:07PM
  • "Always Win iTunes from Pepsi" The Movie by Photo_Designer (Score:1) Monday February 23 2004, @05:12AM
  • Re:Boredom (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Lysol (11150) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:55PM (#8320872)
    The music's only awful if you make it that way. I've downloaded/bought some decent stuff off iTunes so far. Much better deal than going into some mega-cd store...
    [ Parent ]
  • Re:Great teach people that open source == cheaters by freeze128 (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:55PM
  • Wow, mods are retarded. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Ophidian P. Jones (466787) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:56PM (#8320885)
    The link is to a random character generator written in Java. Mods, do you think random characters will make an iTunes code?
    [ Parent ]
    • Re:Wow, mods are retarded. (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 18 2004, @05:58PM (#8320905)
      I suspect not, but I'm sure it could produce music of the same quality as most of the stuff produced today.
      [ Parent ]
      • HUH??? by DOCStoobie (Score:1) Thursday February 19 2004, @09:52AM
    • Re:Wow, mods are retarded. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by FooGoo (98336) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:01PM (#8320939)
      Eventually...yes...but maybe not before the contest ends.
      [ Parent ]
    • Re:Wow, mods are retarded. by Anonymous Coward (Score:3) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:02PM
    • Re:Wow, mods are retarded. (Score:4, Informative)

      by Drawkcab (550036) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @09:13PM (#8322589)
      There are 10 alphanumeric characters in these codes, so around 36^10 different possible codes. If there are 100 million winning numbers, then about 1 in 30 million of them is going to be a winner. I would say that it would take quite a long time to brute force a 1 in 30 million code, considering that you have to wait for the website to respond to each request. Its fair to say that the contest would be over by the time you succeeded, and the time and bandwidth you wasted would be worth more than the 99 cents worth of free music (which you could just as easily download for free).
      [ Parent ]
    • 2 replies beneath your current threshold.
  • Re:I swear.... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MikeXpop (614167) <.mike. .at. .redcrowbar.com.> on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:00PM (#8320931)
    (Last Journal: Tuesday January 04 2005, @06:09PM)
    RTFA. It basically tells you to look through the bottle to read the inside of the cap. Purchase is still necessary.
    [ Parent ]
  • Re:I swear.... by therevolution (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:01PM
  • Re:I swear.... by Squidgee (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:03PM
    • Re:I swear.... by Smidge204 (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:24PM
      • Re:I swear.... by Squidgee (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:28PM
        • Re:I swear.... by Smidge204 (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @07:06PM
          • Re:I swear.... by Squidgee (Score:2) Thursday February 19 2004, @11:57AM
      • Re:I swear.... by Awptimus Prime (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @07:24PM
  • Re:Before Long (Score:5, Funny)

    by happyfrogcow (708359) on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:07PM (#8321006)
    But then ebay will yank the auctions, because the numbers do not belong to you, they belong to Pepsi.

    hear that, all your numbers are belong to Pepsi. don't try any funny stuff, like making up your own numbers, or "adding" or "dividing". They'll get you... get you, I say!

    [ Parent ]
    • Re:Before Long by lwsimon (Score:1) Wednesday February 18 2004, @07:05PM
    • Re:Before Long by PetWolverine (Score:1) Thursday February 19 2004, @02:59AM
  • Re:itunes under wine? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:11PM (#8321036)
    No, it's too hard to print the entire winning number on the bottom of a cork.
    [ Parent ]
  • They are nice enough to give away songs.

    Now stop right here.

    Anyone who thinks that the Pepsi/ iTMS 100,000,000 song give-away is charity needs some remediation.

    Apple & Pepsi aren't being nice to anyone.

    The whole iTMS sweepstakes, just like all sweepstakes, are to entice you ... the consumer ... to drink more Pepsi (or purchase/ consume a product). It just so happens that you're enticement here is a 33% chance of a free song.

    [ Parent ]
  • Re:so smart. by TeddyR (Score:2) Wednesday February 18 2004, @06:55PM
  • 32 replies beneath your current threshold.
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