[anticorporate]

I love the throwback reference to the Diablo II CD key. There are some CD keys that will be forever etched in my brain, no matter how many PINs I struggle to remember. I suspect a good number of you know far too much of a certain string that starts with FCKGW.

[tommica]

For those who don't know: https://scribe.rip/@cristian.nedelcu/fckgw-rhqq2-yxrkt-8tg6w...

[mossTechnician]

This topic looked interesting, so I hunted down a better frontend for that full Medium article[0]. The writing is unsatisfying, doesn't really say anything, and by the last paragraph ("The tale of the product key... is a continuing demonstration of the never-ending struggle that takes place between the technological sector and the unyielding world of hackers") I was convinced the author was just posting a ChatGPT response. Which is sad, because I'd have liked to see the backstory for something apparently shrouded in mystery. But since there appears to be little explanation to how that key was leaked before Windows itself went on sale, I'll just enjoy the memory of the cultural phenomenon[1][2].

[0] https://freedium.cfd/https://medium.com/@cristian.nedelcu/fc...

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19298196

[2] https://marco.org/2007/06/18/wow-fckgw-has-its-own-wikipedia...

[kqr]

Full article: https://archive.is/TDE9g

[mrweasel]

That reference to CD keys is nice and when I look at their example vs. the Diablo II CD key I think they fall a bit short of creating something the looks nice. It's simply down to size, the example key they generate is just to long, to the point where I don't see the value.

It's a cute idea, but I really don't like the extra level of indirection, especially as I feel like there's nothing gained. The base32 encoded key is no more beautiful that the uuid7. I think it's to easy for someone to look at this and go uuid7().upper() and assume that's the same thing, if they just look at the key.