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Lionel
Heavyweight Member
Joined: 25 Jul 2016
Posts: 783
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 Posted: Sat May 09, 2020 9:53 pm Post subject: About Captcha tests |
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Just now finally looked up what it means,
"Completely automated turing test" aka "CAPTCHA"
Apparently these are designed to weed out spammers using computers to harass and overload websites. Preventing the posting all kinds of unwanted promotional and other for profit crap. Okay I get it! And I'm glad that websites have this tool.
I however am a senior these days. Not meaning a "senior in high school" but one who is finally over 65 years of age. Yippie me! I finally made it. However on certain websites those Captcha tests are really hard for me to see & read. I wonder if anyone knows of another system that a webpage could use to make the pictures in the test appear more clearly?
Recently I tried posting some material on a site using Captcha system and it took me close to fifteen minutes just to satisfy the doggone test. It asked me to point to wherever I saw a truck. Well? Shucks man! Sometimes a car looks like a truck. Another time it made me ask to point to a bus, plane etc.
Sorry to say but even with glasses and my ever-handy magnifying glass I still failed the test five times lol.. Granted some of my problems are due to using my smartphone instead of a laptop. Back before my PC died this wasn't a problem. However have you seen the prices on new laptops lately?? OMG!! The salesman told me that since the epidemic/panic began,
"every store is out of stock on low end laptops".
I think he's right. Oh well this is what we old timers often do...
We complain a lot (:
PS: I'm not necessarily writing about Trumpetherald here.
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LittleRusty
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Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 12658
Location: Gardena, Ca
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| Posted: Sat May 09, 2020 10:19 pm Post subject: |
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This thread talks a little about them in the TH context.
One interesting point was | trumpetherald wrote: | | They are intentionally slightly challenging to solve in order to defeat AI and prove that you are human. |
I thought it was crappy engineering by the company that makes it.
That said, I have issues with them too.
On your phone your might try using the zoom gesture to enlarge the photos. To do this put two fingers that are touching each other on the touchscreen. Then move them apart. (I think most people know how to do this, but some don’t)
Zooming doesn’t work on every component in a webpage, and since I have never tried this, it might not work on the captchas. |
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khedger
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Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 754
Location: Cambridge, MA
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| Posted: Sat May 09, 2020 11:13 pm Post subject: Re: About Captcha tests |
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| Lionel wrote: | Just now finally looked up what it means,
"Completely automated turing test" aka "CAPTCHA"
snip snip snip
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I swear, computer geeks are worse than the military sometimes. I mean how do you arrive at "captcha" as an acronym for 'completely automated turing test' ??? I mean...REALLY......sigh......
keith |
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LittleRusty
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Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 12658
Location: Gardena, Ca
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| Posted: Sat May 09, 2020 11:59 pm Post subject: Re: About Captcha tests |
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| khedger wrote: | | Lionel wrote: | Just now finally looked up what it means,
"Completely automated turing test" aka "CAPTCHA"
snip snip snip
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I swear, computer geeks are worse than the military sometimes. I mean how do you arrive at "captcha" as an acronym for 'completely automated turing test' ??? I mean...REALLY......sigh......
keith |
Most computer geeks would get the facts right. 
It actually stands for "completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart".
Better? 
But it should really be capttttcha, right? |
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WxJeff
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Joined: 10 Dec 2002
Posts: 2484
Location: Atlanta GA
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| Posted: Sun May 10, 2020 5:01 am Post subject: |
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I'm with you, Lionel. My strategy is to hit the little refresh button (lower left, I think?) to get a new set of images. Usually by the third try my old eyes are able to identify all the traffic lights, bridges, buses, Amado water keys, etc.
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Lionel
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Joined: 25 Jul 2016
Posts: 783
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| Posted: Sun May 10, 2020 9:17 am Post subject: |
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Good responses all of them.
Take note, at no point in my O/T did I reference Trumpetherald. Even though we all know that TH uses the Captcha system to protect itself. This was intentional. Because I didn't want to blame the staff of TH. Rather I just wanted to find ideas from the gallery here on how to deal more effectively with the very strange Captcha program. As Captcha really is a bloody nuisance lol.
And I found everyone's post very helpful.
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dstdenis
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Joined: 25 May 2013
Posts: 2123
Location: Atlanta GA
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| Posted: Sun May 17, 2020 7:57 am Post subject: |
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Some websites allow users to create a login and password. They use it to distinguish traffic from humans versus "bots," software programs that scrape content from websites. They can also use it to track usage by user account.
Often these websites will trigger their CAPTCHA feature for visitors who aren't logged in. If you create an account and login, no CAPTCHA. So whenever I get a CAPTCHA, I check to see if this is a website where I could've logged in to avoid the CAPTCHA.
Just a tip that might reduce the number of CAPTCHAs you have to deal with.
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mdarnton
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delano
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Location: The Netherlands
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| Posted: Sun May 17, 2020 11:50 am Post subject: |
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| What’s the right valve combination to play CAPTCHA? |
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khedger
Heavyweight Member
Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 754
Location: Cambridge, MA
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| Posted: Sun May 17, 2020 3:52 pm Post subject: Re: About Captcha tests |
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| LittleRusty wrote: | | khedger wrote: | | Lionel wrote: | Just now finally looked up what it means,
"Completely automated turing test" aka "CAPTCHA"
snip snip snip
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I swear, computer geeks are worse than the military sometimes. I mean how do you arrive at "captcha" as an acronym for 'completely automated turing test' ??? I mean...REALLY......sigh......
keith |
Most computer geeks would get the facts right.
It actually stands for "completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart".
Better?
But it should really be capttttcha, right? |
MUCH better!  BTW....I AM a bit of a computer geek......just so everyone knows....btw, ever seen the 16 page milspec chocolate chip cookie recipe???
keith |
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Beyond16
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Joined: 07 Jan 2020
Posts: 220
Location: Texas Gulf Coast
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| Posted: Sun May 17, 2020 5:37 pm Post subject: |
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| LittleRusty wrote: |
I thought it was crappy engineering by the company that makes it.
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I did software engineering for 35+ years before retiring and can confirm the field is known for crappy solutions. Engineers are often too childish to say they were wrong. Bugs get fixed after 10 years sometimes, and more often never get fixed. End users live in a world of workarounds that become so second nature they forget what bug they are even avoiding. Proof that software engineers aren't as smart as they think they are is in password policy. When I log into the social security website, something I do only once every few years, it makes me change my password every time. Most sites will lock out accounts when password guessing is detected. However they don't realize trying the same password several times isn't a guessing method. OK enough rant.
How do you know when a software developer screwed up? When there is a version 2.0 and version 3.0 that is nothing more than version 1.0 plus some emergency re-engineering. Google Captcha is up to version 3. |
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LittleRusty
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Joined: 11 Aug 2004
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Location: Gardena, Ca
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| Posted: Sun May 17, 2020 5:53 pm Post subject: |
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| Beyond16 wrote: | | LittleRusty wrote: |
I thought it was crappy engineering by the company that makes it.
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I did software engineering for 35+ years before retiring and can confirm the field is known for crappy solutions. Engineers are often too childish to say they were wrong. Bugs get fixed after 10 years sometimes, and more often never get fixed. End users live in a world of workarounds that become so second nature they forget what bug they are even avoiding. Proof that software engineers aren't as smart as they think they are is in password policy. When I log into the social security website, something I do only once every few years, it makes me change my password every time. Most sites will lock out accounts when password guessing is detected. However they don't realize trying the same password several times isn't a guessing method. OK enough rant.
How do you know when a software developer screwed up? When there is a version 2.0 and version 3.0 that is nothing more than version 1.0 plus some emergency re-engineering. Google Captcha is up to version 3. |
40+ years for me. And literally billions of shipped copies of a piece of software I contributed to and managed the team.
I worked with a guy who did operating system software for Olivetti personal computers back in the Microsoft DOS days. His team took the “final” source from Microsoft and tweaked it to work on their hardware. He told me that each new major version was a complete rewrite from scratch. Often the software guys were new. |
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khedger
Heavyweight Member
Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 754
Location: Cambridge, MA
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| Posted: Mon May 18, 2020 8:53 pm Post subject: |
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All of you software engineers, let's sing together.....
"I like spaghetti.....I like spaghetti....."
You all know what I mean....
keith |
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LittleRusty
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Joined: 11 Aug 2004
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Location: Gardena, Ca
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| Posted: Mon May 18, 2020 10:07 pm Post subject: |
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| I always tried to write clear and well commented code. That way someone else could help in the maintenance and support and I could work on the next fun project. |
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khedger
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Location: Cambridge, MA
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| Posted: Tue May 19, 2020 8:05 pm Post subject: |
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| LittleRusty wrote: | | I always tried to write clear and well commented code. That way someone else could help in the maintenance and support and I could work on the next fun project. |
Oh yeah, but then, year after year deadlines, understaffing, bone headed managers, etc intervene and ultimately, despite good intentions you've got a code base that resembles a large platter of linguine with clams......
keith |
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Robert P
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| Posted: Tue May 19, 2020 9:09 pm Post subject: |
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If someone hasn't mentioned it already did you try holding the CTRL key at the lower left of the keyboard then the plus sign on the number pad as many times as needed to make the image larger?
Then you can hit the minus sign to reduce the image to suit you.
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LaTrompeta
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Joined: 03 May 2015
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| Posted: Tue May 19, 2020 9:22 pm Post subject: |
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| LittleRusty wrote: | | I always tried to write clear and well commented code. That way someone else could help in the maintenance and support and I could work on the next fun project. |
Comments don't make good code. The code should "read like well-written prose."
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Beyond16
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| Posted: Wed May 20, 2020 9:22 pm Post subject: |
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| LittleRusty wrote: | | I worked with a guy who did operating system software for Olivetti personal computers back in the Microsoft DOS days. His team took the “final” source from Microsoft and tweaked it to work on their hardware. |
I joined Compaq in 1994 and they did the same with DOS. Various minor customizations. |
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LittleRusty
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Location: Gardena, Ca
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| Posted: Wed May 20, 2020 9:59 pm Post subject: |
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| LaTrompeta wrote: | | LittleRusty wrote: | | I always tried to write clear and well commented code. That way someone else could help in the maintenance and support and I could work on the next fun project. |
Comments don't make good code. The code should "read like well-written prose." |
Code that “reads like well-written prose” doesn’t make good code. Think back to the days when authors were paid by the word. Some wrote tomes many feel are top quality well-written prose, but I sure wouldn’t care to see the equivalent in software source code. YMMV
Writing clear code, or to use your term “well-written prose”, *and* comments explaining what the intent of the code is are a minimum requirement.
Many other things factor in like not cloning code, think a bug in cloned code is also a bug in each clone, or keeping the mantra “every line of code is a potential bug” in mind when crafting code, or not using cute or obfuscated code, ...
I ran a weekly team code review with every software engineer reporting to me, reviewing every change to the codebase, every Thursday. This was a necessity considering we released a fully QAed production version of our software every week. We were shipping over 12,000,000 copies monthly for years on end with no field failures. |
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LittleRusty
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Joined: 11 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Wed May 20, 2020 10:03 pm Post subject: |
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| Beyond16 wrote: | | LittleRusty wrote: | | I worked with a guy who did operating system software for Olivetti personal computers back in the Microsoft DOS days. His team took the “final” source from Microsoft and tweaked it to work on their hardware. |
I joined Compaq in 1994 and they did the same with DOS. Various minor customizations. |
Compaq also did it with hardware. I still remember the frustration of not being able to upgrade something like a hard disk since the OEM version was custom. |
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