Thursday, September 27, 2007

WORD verification?








Type the characters you see in the picture above.




WTF???




I don't suppose that leaving the box blank is an option, because I DON"T SEE ANY FREAKIN"CHARACTERS!!!


Am I the only one that has been having trouble lately with "WORD Verification? Maybe it's because I'm running into it more now that I'm in the blog world. I don't know, but I have to say I have just a couple of issues with these necessary annoyances. First of all, they're rarely words so why do they call it word verification? And are they case sensitive or not? Sometimes they are and sometimes they aren't, what's up with that? Blurry backgrounds, characters all running together. Lines slashed across the whole thing. Is that a capital "B" or a "3" getting real cozy with that lower case "d" next to it? Who the hell knows? Give it a shot, place your bets, cross your fingers, close your eyes and press "Submit". Sorry, no winners this time. Here's another unintelligible picture, call Tom Hanks and give'er another try. You might just find the Holy Grail.

Word verification is part of a group of security tools called CAPTCHA which stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. They were developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. The Wikipedia entry says "A CAPTCHA involves one computer (a server) which asks a user to complete a test. While the computer is able to generate and grade the test, it is not able to solve the test on its own. Because computers are unable to solve the CAPTCHA, any user entering a correct solution is presumed to be human." I certainly understand the need for these things. I know that email accounts, blog comments, concert ticket sales, etc are besieged and flooded by automated spamming all the time. I hate spam. Spamers are vermin who should be dragged into the street, stripped naked and slapped silly. I'm not suggesting these threshold guardians be done away with. I'm just asking for a fair shot at solving the puzzles because I also hate the idea that there's a computer out there somewhere that's presuming I'm not human. And it's laughing at me.


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think they may say "Bruce is a ball bag" LOL

I tell you what,I have ran across a few download places where I had to click the handicap symbol because I just couldn't figure out if the symbols were a 1 or an l or if the o was a letter or a number.

Bruce said...

PP (I guess I shouldn't call you that after your blog the other day about potty training), I have a confession. You were indirectly the inspiration for this subject. I've been having trouble for the last several days posting to your blog. I've had to retype the verification at least twice every time. Unless you have it set for double security for that Bruce character there has to be something wrong with the system. I mean, it can't be me :-)

Tequila Mockingbird said...

i DESPISE word verification because even when i am not drunk, it is harder than hell to read those. not to mention, after a few shots, a couple mixed drinks and a bottle of wine.

Bruce said...

Tequila, I couldn't agree more. Strangely, for some reason while I was reading your post I thought I heard George Thorogood singing something about a bourbon, a scotch, and a beer. Oh, the voices in my head!

Leslie Kelly said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Leslie Kelly said...

Just be glad they're not in red/green fonts, you sweet color blind man you.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the history lesson on this annoying phenom that has entered my life. I would rather be done with this gate crashing and just hook myself into my computer with an IV line.

I am one of your new Blogbuddies...hello!

Bruce said...

Match, thank's for coming by. Yeah, I'm afraid this little annoyance like so many others these days is just a sign of the times. Kinda like standing in an airport in your socks.