The most adorable spambot killer ever

Iria · Apr 8, 2006, 02:54 PM

In the early, friendlier days of the Internet, when you wanted to register for a web site you entered your user name, e-mail address, and a password, and were sent an instant confirmation of your new account. You could then happily post away on the web site's discussion forum with all your new-found friends.

However, the rise of spambots changed all that. Written to search out discussion forums using Google, they zeroed in on site registration pages and signed up random account names like "john1375" who would then instantly post on every single forum about his wonderful new cheap clone of Viagra, or miracle method of gaining larger breasts.

A solution was needed, and it came in the form of a simple test known as CAPTCHA (ostensibly standing for Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart, according to Carnegie Mellon University, but some consider it merely shorthand for "Capture Characters"). Captcha tests present the user with a customized graphic consisting of a series of letters and numbers that have been mangled in some way. The user must enter the correct series of alphanumeric characters in order to gain entrance. Early versions of this technology were used by AltaVista in 1997 and became familiar to the Internet-using public when Yahoo adopted them a few years later.

Unfortunately, captchas were not perfect, and bots that made use of increasingly clever optical character recognition programs were able to defeat them. In an escalating arms race between bots and captchas, the amount of optical distortion necessary to make a foolproof test unfortunately makes the same test exceedingly difficult to pass by regular humans. We've all experienced that moment of wondering whether a twisted I is really an L, and the problem can only get worse.

Enter Oli, and his moment of "thinking outside the text box."
__________
Read More / Source: Ars Technica

LeanWolf · Apr 8, 2006, 04:06 PM

Heh "Kittenauth" - choose three kittens! Clever.

Zelig · Apr 8, 2006, 05:37 PM

Hard to make grids with pictures of kittens look professional though.

YAYitsAndrew · Apr 8, 2006, 05:39 PM

*squee*

Master Shake · Apr 8, 2006, 09:07 PM

they should do this but with naked chicks

Apr 8, 2006, 02:54 PM	#1
Iria DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 7,275 Rep Power: 89	The most adorable spambot killer ever In the early, friendlier days of the Internet, when you wanted to register for a web site you entered your user name, e-mail address, and a password, and were sent an instant confirmation of your new account. You could then happily post away on the web site's discussion forum with all your new-found friends. However, the rise of spambots changed all that. Written to search out discussion forums using Google, they zeroed in on site registration pages and signed up random account names like "john1375" who would then instantly post on every single forum about his wonderful new cheap clone of Viagra, or miracle method of gaining larger breasts. A solution was needed, and it came in the form of a simple test known as CAPTCHA (ostensibly standing for Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart, according to Carnegie Mellon University, but some consider it merely shorthand for "Capture Characters"). Captcha tests present the user with a customized graphic consisting of a series of letters and numbers that have been mangled in some way. The user must enter the correct series of alphanumeric characters in order to gain entrance. Early versions of this technology were used by AltaVista in 1997 and became familiar to the Internet-using public when Yahoo adopted them a few years later. Unfortunately, captchas were not perfect, and bots that made use of increasingly clever optical character recognition programs were able to defeat them. In an escalating arms race between bots and captchas, the amount of optical distortion necessary to make a foolproof test unfortunately makes the same test exceedingly difficult to pass by regular humans. We've all experienced that moment of wondering whether a twisted I is really an L, and the problem can only get worse. Enter Oli, and his moment of "thinking outside the text box." __________ Read More / Source: Ars Technica

Apr 8, 2006, 04:06 PM	#2
LeanWolf alpha male Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Skyrim Posts: 5,713 Rep Power: 84 System Specs	Heh "Kittenauth" - choose three kittens! Clever. __________________

Apr 8, 2006, 05:37 PM	#3
Zelig HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Canada Posts: 3,187 Rep Power: 71 System Specs	Hard to make grids with pictures of kittens look professional though. __________________ --

Apr 8, 2006, 05:39 PM	#4
YAYitsAndrew Anti-Piracy Poster Boy Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: NJ Posts: 2,605 Rep Power: 79 System Specs	squee __________________ "It is because the resistance to paying for copyrighted material, although often characterized as arising from a supposed technical burden or principled concern for the public interest, arises rather from exactly the same segment of the brain that is dominant in shoplifters." - Mark Helprin, Digital Barbarism In other words, it's never okay to steal even if you think you have a good reason! www.yayitsandrew.com

Apr 8, 2006, 09:07 PM	#5
Master Shake DriverHeaven Addict Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 310 Rep Power: 0	they should do this but with naked chicks