Re: Web vs. Desktop based systems

Robert Maas, see http://tinyurl.com/uh3t said:

<snip>

--

Poorly-formed sig marker. Please add a space. The marker starts on a new
line, and consists of the characters '-', '-', ' ', '\n' - that way,
newsreaders can automatically chop out sigs, so it does actually
matter.

But since we're talking about your sig block, let's talk about it some
more...

Nobody in their right mind likes spammers, nor their automated
assistants. To gain access to this site, you must demonstrate you're
not one of them. Please spend a few seconds to try to read the
text-picture in this box:
+------------------------------+
| .. |
| : . 7===~ |
|. MNM.,.:MZ .,M$ ....8.|
| DNM~, ~ 8 . D8O.,8 .N.|
| :O $ M..78...MM.M.. :.|
|. ..7 D7. . . .=Z. |
| . . |
+------------------------------+

I couldn't make head or tail of it, and I am neither a spammer nor an
automated assistant.

Then enter your best guess of the text (4-6 chars) into this
TextField:

+------+
|BROKEN|
+------+

(What's the first prize?)

In other words, even if your image had been readable-to-humans (which,
in my opinion, it isn't), your technique is no longer a reliable
anti-autoreply strategy. The following process has been automated:

On encountering a "prove you're not a spammer by reading this image"
site ('the target site'), do the following:

1) copy the image to your own site, which is well-known for allowing
people to get the latest news and pics on charity work amongst those in
third-world areas such as Las Vegas who are too poor to afford clothes.
2) insist that people prove they are not spammers by showing them your
image and getting them to provide a text interpretation.
3) capture their input, and send it to the target site.
4) if this doesn't work, just act as a man-in-the-middle, shuttling
error messages, fresh tries, and fresh images between the target site
and your current user.
5) once he finally gets it right, show him his pics as a reward for
getting you validated on the target site.

Don't shoot the messenger. I didn't invent this workaround. But those
who use image-to-text conversion as a user validation technique need to
know that the workaround exists.

--
Richard Heathfield
"Usenet is a strange place" - dmr 29/7/1999
http://www.cpax.org.uk
email: rjh at the above domain, - www.
.

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