I have a Tivo, so I tend to skip commercials, so they’re finding other ways to get the products shoved down our throats, like the above examples. But this is just going WAY to damn far. What’s ironic is that it was advertising Pacific Law Centers, looking to represent people who have been accused of DUIs and such. Ironic in that it’s massively distracting and might itself, cause an accident or two.. especially someone who’s driving under the influence and more prone to distractions from big shiny things on the road. Notice that the signage is brightly lit and it periodically changes between 2 different displays.

Apologies for the crappy quality… whipped out my cell phone and used its camera while keeping my attention on driving at the time.

So I’ve been using my new 17″ MacBookPro (that’s the Intel based ones for those not in the know) and right at a month now, and I love it. I know it’s been exatly 1 month because I installed Parallels on it and have been using it to play around with WinXP inside a virtual box. In fact, I played a full game of Alpha Centauri on it a couple weeks ago.

Anyway, it’s been 30 days, so WinXP insists on being “activated.” I’ve tried to, but the activation wizard has informed me that I’ve hit the limit of times this copy of windows can be activated. WTF?!? This is a valid copy of windows XP Pro that I bought a few months after XP was released. I use this install on my gaming box… each time I upgrade, I install this copy and activate it, and retire the previous one.. perfectly within my rights according to the software license. Now that my game box is running x64, I want to use this copy (legally) in parallels.. and I can’t because MS would rather treat even their law-abiding customers like criminals.

My only option now is to buy another license (no way in hell) or go through their phone activation. I would love to, however, note the output of the wizard:

Notice that due to what looks like a statndard IE “can’t load image” error graphic, you can’t read one of the numbers that I have to read off into the computer.. Thanks MS! Buncha jackasses.

I guess my only option is to call in and try each possible number in that slot. Joy.

As for the MacBookPro… I love it. Apple actually makes products that are nice to use. I’ll have to blog on it seperately.

Update: Called the stupid activation system, I guessed the number was 4.. nope, it was 7 (2nd guess). Then after going through the process of entering all those numbers, it told me “sorry, can’t activate” again. Was put through to a live person (clearly in an India call center) and had to go through it again, but when I explained the situation I was given a valid code to activate. Here’s hoping I don’t have to do this every time I install this copy again… though I bet I will have to.