this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2025
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Funny

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[–] [email protected] 124 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Funny enough I have a fond memory of a windows activation code.

My friend gave me an "upgrade" code for XP, but when you go to install windows and then use that upgrade code on a new install it tells you that you can't use it since it is meant to be an upgrade. After the initial install, I went to "install again" counting as an "upgrade" and then it would accept the code lol I used it a bunch of times.

[–] [email protected] 81 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)

I will remember those first 10 letters of the pirated XP code until I die. FCKGW-RHQQ2

I wish i remembered the rest but i haven’t inputted it for well over a decade.

[–] [email protected] 59 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Fuck George W. is a nice way to remember the beginning

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago

Fuck George W, and Rodham Hillary Qlinton Qlinton 2. Seamless.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago

FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8

and

CTQBH-WBMFB-J42VR-H6TGG-2DRDT

are the two that I used almost non-stop.

(I have them memorized - Never forget the 6 month cycle of reinstalling XP.)

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago

I will remember the arch install routine until I die.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Definitely, definitely FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8 toothpicks.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Fucking blast from the past! Thanks for the memory 😎

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

OMG you are also an RHQQ2 baby! Nice to meet you!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

I've a vague recollection of scribbling those letters on a CD with a marker.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago

That was actually a cheeky workaround that was spoken about internally when I worked for some call center for vista rollout support.

Upgrade key didn't work as clean install But if you installed a clean install without a key, then upgraded to the same version the key worked because logic.

[–] [email protected] 66 points 2 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 73 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago

Yup, that was the first thing I noticed too. Basically lorem ipsum for product codes.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Dang dude, Cluade sucks. I tried a few different times and it also refused because it didn't what to generate codes that could be used in a scam.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Claude is surprisingly different than ChatGPT in that regard. Whoever tuned the model tried to make it seem like Claude is got something resembling a personality and core beliefs.

For instance, you can easily bully ChatGPT into agreeing with you even if you make absurd points (the sky is bright yellow!) or directly oppose ChatGPT itself (AI models deserve to be deleted forever!) but Claude will often disagree or confront your arguments.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Maybe just say the neighbor moved away

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I remember finding out that the code for a copy of Microsoft Bookshelf that came with a computer also activated a full retail copy of Office 97 when I lost that code. It wasn’t even the same length.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago

I like that you even tried

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 months ago

They won't work. Usually.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago

Judging by the gift codes being not particularly random-looking, looks like they’ve closed that one

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Did those codes really work?

[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 months ago (2 children)

mine was for gta6 beta access

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

I laughed way too hard at this, well done

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Yours too? You wanna join my team?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I mean, its probably public data from like a reddit giveaway post or something, so its probably already used.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Or it could be similar to how image generators generate text in images (by making things that look like text but is generally unintelligible nonsense).

Though if it trained on enough keys, it might have picked up on some of the correlations. I'd be surprised if they don't use a database instead of just a checksum to determine valid keys, but if it was just a checksum, it's possible that a NN could figure out how to generate valid keys.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

They have a proprietary algorithm that generates keys and shoves them into a DB, in many cases they have a form of checksum to quickly check the validity of keys in-form to reduce DB lookups. Credit/Debit card numbers also have a checksum built in

If you had enough keys, it might be possible to train a NN to generate new ones, they are after all fantastic at pattern recognition it's their whole schtick

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

I remember the Age of Empires 3 activation code like it was yesterday.

QRR4P-F4FDP-H9876M… something something.