Crack the Pepsi iTunes Promo Code

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!

Comments

On Apple's behalf...

[NewWaveNet]

Oops, there went that debt free memo! ;)

Re:On Apple's behalf...

[ryanw]

Well, you still have to "open" the bottle to win. Pepsi/Apple is still ahead on this one.

Re:On Apple's behalf...

[lavaface]

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?

Re:On Apple's behalf...

[atrader42]

"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.

Oh, come on!

[American AC in Paris]

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...

Re:Oh, come on!

[ForestGrump]

Yea, yet another reason to get a job working for the school cafetria...
so you can sit in the back tipping bottles while getting paid for it.

-grump

Re:Oh, come on!

[John Harrison]

Good thing they don't have Crystal Pepsi anymore or this would be even easier!

As far as the idea of a generator, I hope that Apple was smart enough to use strong crypto in their generator, such that you would have to know the key to come up with a winning entry.

I don't see how subverting this promotion is good for anyone in the long term. Do you want more promotions like this in the future? Do you want the store to last? I guess the temptation of a free 99 cent song is too much for some.

Re:Oh, come on!

[t1nman33]

Pepsi and Apple Computer would like to remind you that attempting to circumvent our patented "CapTron" technology is a violation of the DMCA, and will be prosecuted as such.

Re:Oh, come on!

[AvitarX]

Wow,

I was thinking it is a good thing they don't have Crystal Pepsi because it is so awfully disgusting.

to each their own I guess.

Secret Agent Crack

[qw(name)]

As long as the "crack" can be placed in a secret decoder ring I'll be happy.

Re:Secret Agent Crack

[MikeXpop]

free iTunes code:

8UYM0R30V4L71N3

(don't mod this offtopic if you don't get the joke. read the code slowly)

Re:Secret Agent Crack

[JM Apocalypse]

I don't know why, but I was just at the store and had this incredibly strange urge for some sort of chocolate drink.

And the winner is...

[Channard]

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.

Awesome!

[furiousgeorge]

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.

All I wanted was an iTune

[Anonymous Coward]

...Just one iTune, and Pepsi wouldn't give it to me!

Re:Wow, mods are retarded.

[Anonymous Coward]

I suspect not, but I'm sure it could produce music of the same quality as most of the stuff produced today.

Re:Priorities

[Anonymous Coward]

No, people who lack the capacity to detect sarcasm ad absurdium is a truly vexing problem. What part of that post made you think the guy was actually singing the praises of an individual he considers an intellectual giant?

KeyGen Released!!

[pantycrickets]

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

Re:Oh come on! The WHOLE pop machine?

[netringer]

Oowwwww!! I have such a pain!

I tired this in our break room but I had to tip the entire Pepsi machine over to see which bottle I should buy! I hope the boss didn't see me.

Is that why they have that picture of the guy being crushed by the pop machine?
Is it to keep you from checking for iTunes winner bottles?

I've come up with the perfect iTunes DRM crack

[elflet]

...but unfortunately this bottle cap is too small to hold it. - Fermat

Article Text

[OECD]

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

Re:wtf?

[discogravy]

That's pretty amusing but did the editors actually read this story before posting it?

you're new, right?

Re:itunes under wine?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it's too hard to print the entire winning number on the bottom of a cork.

Re:a crack? hmm.

[kfg]

It seems more like social engineering.

If your only friend is a bottle of Pepsi.

KFG

Re:a crack? hmm.

[Cloud 9]

If your only friend is a bottle of Pepsi

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Re:Already over the 200 limit.

[prockcore]

I drink Pepsi like water, and friends give me their caps at school, so I'm already over the 200 cap limit. Really.

Maybe Pepsi should be giving away a free diabetes exam instead.

Exciting times we live in...

[general_re]

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.

The Four-Color Map theorem.
Kepler's Sphere-Packing problem.
Fermat's Last Theorem.
And now this.

Brilliant.

Re:Warning: Joke

[Anonymous Coward]

I think someone should start a business selling CDs full of random numbers.

I've got your company's tagline:
"1 in 2^(# of bits on a CD) chance of getting the software you wanted!"

Re:Warning: Joke

[elvum]

At last we can finally put to rest the national stereotype of the Germans as humourless.

Didn't work

[rixstep]

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.

Famous Steve Jobs quote to Pepsi guy

[bonch]

"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.

I CAN'T BELIEVE...

[bfg9000]

...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.