They didn’t say it like that, but it’s basically what they’re trying to say. Some copies of Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 shipped with a serial number which was missing a character (19 instead of the 20 required) due to a printing error. EA’s response (and I’m not making this up):

There is currently a work around that may allow you to bypass this issue. Since you have the first 19 characters of the code already, you can basically try “guessing” the last character. To do this, simply enter your existing code, and then for the last character, try the letters A-Z, and then the numbers 0-9. You should eventually get the right combination, and be able to play the game. If this does not work, you can follow the instructions below.

Wow great work around. Click here for the official explanation at one of EA’s site, or see below for a screen shot (to preserve it forever):

I found this collection of videos posted by gamepro and had to share, the common thing making them all related is their use of Nintendo’s mascot Mario trying to flog various products. Just look at this commercial for milk:

That never happened when I was playing Super Mario 64 (OK I lie it did, after I drank some expired milk). At least it has a positive message. The others are all negative (McDonalds, Sugary Cereal, Mac and Cheese), but still good for a laugh. Check out the full list here.

This picture actually makes a lot of sense:

The image was snapped by a speed camera in Germany, where the camera is optimized to take a picture of the person driving the car (a picture and allegation aren’t enough over there). In Germany the driver sits on the left hand side, which is where this gets interesting. The car (and presumably the driver) are from Britain where the person driving the car sits on the right hand side. The driver (and I have to agree with them) thought it would be a laugh to put a life size doll of Animal from The Muppets in the seat where the camera is designed to take a clear picture, frustrating the authorities who said:

This may be an example of the famous British sense of humour but it is still dangerous driving. The driver has been caught on camera on several occasions and the puppet is on the passenger seat every time. We suspect he positions the toy deliberately before accelerating past the camera.

In the lead up to Halloween (not that we celebrate it) I present another creepy post. This one’s about disturbing album covers from the past, note that disturbing is a complete understatement on my part as this example will show:

I honestly have nothing to say in regards to the title of that record. You can see all of the creepy covers here, and for a bonus click here to check out hilarious covers (which funnily enough are equally as disturbing).

Cracked has put together yet another fascinating list, this time of urban legends which are damned creepy and happen to be true.

A young man is dropping off groceries at the house of an eccentric old lady when he notices an old photo that makes the hair on his arms stand on end. The photo’s normal enough–a young boy in his Sunday best–but something just seems off. He asks the old lady who it is. “Oh,” she replies, trying to stuff a cat in the dishwasher “isn’t that beautiful? You can hardly tell he’s dead.”

I’m deeply disturbed. Read the whole list here via cracked.

Although these screenshots are from the pre-Beta PDC build of Windows 7 it’s still fascinating to see what may end up looking like our next major operating system release from Microsoft.

The other significant part of the Windows UI is Explorer. Windows 7 introduces a new concept named Libraries. Libraries provide a view onto arbitrary parts of the filesystem with organization optimized for different kinds of files. In use, Libraries feel like a kind of WinFS-lite; they don’t have the complex database system underneath, but they do retain the idea of a custom view of your files that’s independent of where the files are.

Give the article a read here via ars technica.