Of Blogs and Oranges..

If you’ve signed up for anything online lately, you’ve seen a CAPTCHA. They usually take the form of a distorted image containing text, where you have to type in the text shown.

The capitalization is correct; the word is an acronym for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart” and is trademarked by Carnegie Mellon University. Actually, I’m not entirely sure if these are Turing tests, since a Turing test would be the process of trying to hoodwink a person into thinking a computer is not a machine, but another person.

The first time I saw a CAPTCHA would be around the year 2000, while signing up for a second Yahoo! Mail account. They haven’t really evolved since, but anti-CAPTCHA technology has. Character recognition scripts that clean up images, correct distortions, split characters and use edge-detection to solve the CAPTCHA are available. Another low-tech technique is to use cheap workers in India (Rs. 25 ~ $0.60 an hour).

Here’s a slight improvement, suggested in jest on /.

Match each band to the model of truck its music is eminating from:

1. Metallica
2. Billy Ray Cyrus
3. Lynnrd Skynnrd

a. GMC truck with double tires on the back
b. Primer-color El Camino with beer cans in the back
c. Shiny red F-150 with aerodynamic truckbed lid

Bittersweet. That end of relationship sex, the we’re graduating, we’re moving apart, we’re taking a break for the summer, we have both come to terms with the fact that our relationship is doomed, let’s end it with a bang of passion sex. Goodbye sex is hot because it’s emotional: happy and sad, distract- yourself- from- your- feelings- with- your- body kind of sex.

You honor the best of what you had because, damn, for a while there it was really good and you’ll never forget it. You focus on creating those memories to carry on: the smell of her hair, the smooth skin on his stomach, the way her breasts bounce when she’s on top, the look in his eyes just before climax. With real goodbye sex, you’re together, but already apart, too — in your mind and your memories. So, if you’re smart, you make the most of your goodbye sex, walking away from a climax that you both know is closure. You savor every moment on the way there, because when it’s over, it’s over, and you know it.

- From The Flat Hat.