I use the "Did You Pass Math" plugin for WordPress, which asks a simple math
problem in text ("What is the sum of four and three?"). I've had no
complaints from users, and no spam.
***********
Jim Tobias
Inclusive Technologies
[log in to unmask]
+732.441.0831 v/tty
www.inclusive.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Nissen [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Saturday, August 05, 2006 3:00 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: New "Captcha" to replace "distorted letter" tests,
> protecting sites.
>
> Hi all,
>
> Up till now, some sites have protected themselves using a
> "captcha" test that involves the user recognising some
> squiggly letters, which cannot be done automatically by
> software, until now.
> Perhaps a new test approach should be developed, which does
> not exclude vision impaired people.
>
> Cheers,
>
> John
>
> John Nissen
> Cloudworld Ltd - http://www.cloudworld.co.uk maker of the
> assistive reader, WordAloud.
> Tel: +44 208 742 3170 Fax: +44 208 742 0202
> Email: [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 1:00 PM
> Subject: [Webwatch] seattletimes.com: Researchers try to
> create newdistorted-letter test
>
>
> > This message was sent to you by [log in to unmask], as a service of
> > The Seattle Times (http://www.seattletimes.com).
> >
> >
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Researchers try to create new distorted-letter test Full story:
> >
> http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003147633_bt
> > captchas24.html
> >
> > By Crayton Harrison
> > The Dallas Morning News
> >
> >
> >
> > DALLAS -- Computers are better than humans at a lot of complex
> > calculations, but we still have them beat on some small problems.
> >
> > That's why a very simple test has protected some of the world's
> > biggest Web sites for so long. Go online to perform a
> routine task --
> > buying sports tickets, say, or sending an e-mail or commenting on a
> > blog -- and you'll see a picture of random squiggly letters.
> >
> > The Web site asks you to type the letters you see, something a
> > computer can't do without sophisticated programming. That keeps
> > hackers from using software to repeatedly enter information on the
> > sites, sending spam through online e-mail services or blogs.
> >
> > But the defenses are crumbling. Computer scientists are working on
> > replacements for the test, knowing that computers are
> learning to read
> > even the messiest scribbles.
> >
> > Lost ground
> >
> > The distorted-letter test "is getting to the point where
> it's almost
> > defeated" by computer scientists in the laboratory, said
> Luis von Ahn,
> > a postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University's
> computer-science
> > department. "The ones not yet defeated by computers are
> really hard to
> > read for humans. But they'll be defeated pretty soon."
> >
> > Researchers aren't trying to beat the distorted-letter
> tests to ambush
> > Web sites, of course. They use it to make computers better at
> > recognizing text.
> >
> > But if computer scientists can figure out how to beat the tests,
> > hackers won't be far behind. The next wave of tests will have to
> > present problems that computer researchers and cybercriminals have
> > barely begun to tackle with artificial intelligence.
> >
> > Carnegie Mellon's research team trademarked a name for these
> > computer-or-human tests: captcha. It's an acronym that stands for
> > "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers
> and Humans
> > Apart." Turing refers to Alan Turing, a British logician
> who proposed
> > a theoretical test to judge whether computers were good at
> imitating humans.
> >
> > The current captchas have protected Web sites for a remarkably long
> > time in the ever-changing Internet world. Researchers at the
> > pioneering search engine site AltaVista created one of the first
> > squiggly-letter tests in the late '90s.
> >
> > "Humans are much better at recognizing patterns than
> computers are. A
> > 3-year-old can tell apart a man from a woman. Computers
> cannot do that,"
> > said Andrei Broder, who was AltaVista's chief scientist at the time.
> >
> > Other researchers and companies began developing their own
> versions of
> > the test. Ticketmaster added one in 2002, and it's become
> an important
> > part of the company's defense against scalpers.
> >
> > "There are not a lot of ways, at the end of the day when a
> transaction
> > is being made, to tell if someone is an automated bot or a
> human, and
> > this helps us to identify that," said Bonnie Poindexter, a
> spokeswoman
> > for the ticketing agency owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp.
> >
> > Several varieties
> >
> > The character-recognition tests come in several varieties.
> > Ticketmaster uses a string of letters that don't appear to
> be warped
> > much. But diagonal lines crisscross around them, and the
> background is sometimes grainy.
> >
> > Google's Blogger service, on the other hand, uses no
> background. But
> > the letters roll and swirl as if they have been caught in a wave.
> >
> > There are ways to beat the text-based captchas, and not all of them
> > are high-tech. Some computer experts have done it simply by looking
> > for patterns in the random characters or the computer
> language used to
> > generate them. Some hackers have been rumored to pay people
> to enter
> > the correct information or entice them to do it by offering
> free pornography.
> >
> > But computer researchers are also beating text captchas simply by
> > developing computers that are sophisticated enough to read them. In
> > the same way that supercomputers have been developed to beat chess
> > masters by making millions of decisions in an instant,
> computers also
> > can learn to "read" and detect patterns by making a series
> of complex calculations.
> >
> > Fortunately, people can still find patterns in other ways
> that stymie
> > computers. Carnegie Mellon's Pix program, for instance, shows four
> > pictures that have relatively little to do with each other
> except for
> > one common element -- a cow, or a cup. Other researchers are also
> > experimenting with image-based captchas.
> >
> > And some sites, including the Blogger service, offer an audio
> > alternative for people with visual impairments. In the
> audio test, a
> > voice speaks a series of numbers over a staticky
> background, and the
> > user must type the correct sequence to access the site.
> >
> > Researchers continue to tweak the text-based captchas, too, using
> > colorful backgrounds or breaking the letters apart to fool
> the bots.
> > But with every change, they face the danger of making the
> captcha too
> > difficult for people to read.
> >
> > Other concerns
> >
> > Advocates for Web users with disabilities already are
> concerned that
> > captchas keep the visually impaired from accessing the
> sites they need.
> >
> > Text-based captchas have another problem. It's unclear who owns the
> > rights to the technology.
> >
> > When AltaVista developed its test, Broder and his team
> patented the idea.
> > Through several mergers and acquisitions, the patent fell into the
> > hands of Hewlett-Packard.
> >
> > HP no longer owns the patent, said Brigida Bergkamp, a
> spokeswoman for
> > the technology giant. She declined to disclose what had happened to
> > the patent.
> >
> > Carnegie Mellon researchers must decline requests for software code
> > for text captchas because the patent rights are unclear,
> von Ahn said.
> > "We're a little upset about that," he said.
> >
> > But it may not matter, since text captchas are becoming
> more and more
> > vulnerable.
> >
> > "We knew this was going to happen. It was just a matter of
> time," von
> > Ahn said.
> >
> >
> ======================================================================
> >
> > TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE SEATTLE TIMES PRINT EDITION Call (206)
> 464-2121 or
> > 1-800-542-0820, or go to https://read.nwsource.com/subscribe/times/
> >
> > HOW TO ADVERTISE WITH THE SEATTLE TIMES COMPANY ONLINE For
> information
> > on advertising in this e-mail newsletter, or other online marketing
> > platforms with The Seattle Times Company, call (206) 464-2361 or
> > e-mail [log in to unmask]
> >
> > TO ADVERTISE IN THE SEATTLE TIMES PRINT EDITION Please go to
> > http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/contactus/adsales
> > for information.
> >
> >
> ======================================================================
> > For news updates throughout the day, visit
> http://www.seattletimes.com
> >
> ======================================================================
> >
> > Copyright (c) 2005 The Seattle Times Company
> >
> > www.seattletimes.com
> > Your Life. Your Times.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Webwatch mailing list
> > [log in to unmask]
> > http://accessplace.net/mailman/listinfo/webwatch_accessplace.net
> >
>
>
|