Sunday 3 July 2011

CAPTCHA codes


Hands up if you find CAPTCHA codes annoying, now everyone put your hands down, you look silly sat at a computer with your hand in the air !!
Did you know what the Acronym stands for ?

Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart


A Turing test normally being a way of testing a machines ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour, but in the case of a CAPTCHA its a machines way of testing the intelligence level of the user. Allegedly, if you can work out a CAPTCHA code you must be intelligent enough to be classed as a human, so you pass and your not a computer sending SPAM


Now regular bloggers will encounter these daily, and they are annoying, but if you paste many links on Facebook you will have to deal with ones like that above. What is that second "word" ? Most times I have to click "try different words" at least once. It strikes me this system is in the same category as child proof medicine tops, you know, the ones only kids can open !


As I have looked at some of the words displayed on Blogger's CAPTCHA they have on occasion been almost fitting for the post I am making, which is very bizzare... This got me wondering !!! 


I am sure you have heard the "Infinite monkey theorem" you know the one that says

 "that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare"


Well, what if you were to note and collect all the CAPTCHA codes you had been presented with. Given an infinite amount of time, would a monkey be able to arrange them in to something you and I could actually read !!!!!