You might have noticed this yourself if you visit the Howler using the Safari browser or if you have a RSS feed for CNET. In case you were some of the lucky people who are now unaware, the XBOX 360 is getting a next-gen ‘Pac-Man.’ Kinda cool right? Now, imagine if I told you this every single time you saw me, and you were one of those people I see everyday. Imagine if that was the first thing you heard me say whenever I entered the same room, or hell, even within earshot of you. Annoying, yes?

Well, that’s what its been like since June 5th, when the article first went up. However, it went up with a little error, the publish date was noted as May 2, 2055. As in 48 years from now. Unfortunately for me and anyone else who uses those RSS feeds, new articles get put to the top of the pile, because you want your news fresh and up to the minute. Computers, however, don’t seem to be able to tell that its impossible for that article to be published in the future, and instead classifies this story as the ‘most new,’ putting it as the top story for almost a month now.

Well, yeah. Simple mistake right? I’ve never really thought of CNET as all that on the ball, but you think they’d fix this instead of letting it sit for 17 days. And a few members of CNET have commented on the article asking for the date to be fixed. One of those members, GatesOfHell, asks members to “See what a little advertising $$$ investment will get you???” I suppose it could be some sort of viral marketing scheme, since I am now all but intimate with the fact that the XBOX 360 is getting a next-gen Pac-Man game. But I’m not really motivated to buy this game or it’s console. All I really want to do is delete CNET from my news feeds.

Well, conspiracy or not, one thing is certain. CNET needs to fix its RSS feed.