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CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American (2017)

shkspr.mobi

31–40 of 700 posts

Re: CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American (2017)

#31
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And in India, they are commonly refereed to as "Zebra Crossing". No one refers to them as cross-walks and most have no idea about that term.

Same in the UK and most commonwealth countries I think

In Ireland we have zebra and pelican crossings. The general term used in the driver training literature is "pedestrian crossing." Most people would recognise the term "crosswalk" from American media, though.

Re: CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American (2017)

#32
post #10

The crosswalks Captcha provides the most difficult cultural discrepancy for me. Some US crosswalks look like European "forbidden for all traffic" road markings. Pretty much the opposite of a crosswalk. I always have to do a double take on those.

And in India, they are commonly refereed to as "Zebra Crossing". No one refers to them as cross-walks and most have no idea about that term.

There are no Zebras in Indian subcontinent; we accepted Anglo term.

Cross-Walk(even Pedestrian) is a better term than Zebra-Crossing; for kids though, Zebra helps.

Edit: English were in world over making colonies across Afro-Asian countries.

https://www.thehindu.com/in-school/sh-science/The-zebra-in-o...

Has anyone seen a Zebra cross a zebra-crossing? Only happens in England.

Re: CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American (2017)

#33

Anyone with a half functioning brain can figure out which ones are the taxis. Taxis are not yellow in my country and I would have no issue picking those out. They have the very distinctive sign on the roof that no normal car has. Not even OP was confused by this, they are just complaining on the behalf of some theoretical person who might get confused.

I think the blog is complaining about a more general thing - that Americans often assume that everone is American and make decisions based on this assumption. This can lead to a range of frustration from the annoying-but-whatever (taxis aren't always yellow) to WTF (dimes, nickels oh-my).

They're currently the dominant culture so it's not an awful assumption - people generally can accommodate and work around these issues. It's just, I dunno, a bit insensitive or frustrating?

Re: CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American (2017)

#36
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the hell is a chimney

A ventilation structure primarily for dispersing smoke from a fire or furnace. I think you call it a "smoke stack" in the USA.

“Simplifying English for the Americans”:

https://youtu.be/UCo0hSFAWOc

Re: CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American (2017)

#37
post #30

CAPTCHAs don't work. At least for humans. It's fairly easy to write a script with current technology even for an average "hacker" to solve them. But on the other hand it's extremely hard, nearly impossible for a person with special needs to complete them. Even for average person solving some of CAPTCHAs is a hassle. Most of the popular CAPTCHAs services are "robot-friendly" and providers don't care who solves them, t…

Oh is Google captcha etc solvable via robot?

[deleted]

Re: CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American (2017)

#38

Anyone with a half functioning brain can figure out which ones are the taxis. Taxis are not yellow in my country and I would have no issue picking those out. They have the very distinctive sign on the roof that no normal car has. Not even OP was confused by this, they are just complaining on the behalf of some theoretical person who might get confused.

I agree. I am from the UK. Taxis are not yellow. “Cross-walks” are called zebra crossings etc

But come on. It’s easy to figure these things out. This is an invented problem.

Re: CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American (2017)

#39

I always include the poles when asked to identify traffic lights.

Yeah this is an interesting point. What constitutes a "traffic light"? Just the bulb? The housing around it? Or the pole as well? What about the control unit? They won't function as "traffic lights" without that. Remove the control box, and they become just dumb street furniture with no purpose.

Do they need to be on a road to be traffic lights? If I took the lights, the pole, and the control unit and installed it in a forest, would it still be "traffic lights"?

Re: CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American (2017)

#40
post #13

It always amazes me that we as a society insist on using ambiguous words ("crosswalks" or otherwise) when there is an option to use an unambiguous option.

It often happens with things designed and made in the USA. It is assumed that the terminology or customs of the USA apply to the rest of the world, when it's often not the case. For example, their bizarre date system. Widespread use of state abbreviations and timezone abbreviations that are only known in the USA. "Zip code" on forms for customers in New Zealand or India or France.

Good point overall. I disagree with the abbreviations being exclusively a US thing. Two letter country abbreviations (UK, DE, IE, FR, DK, etc.) are popular in Europe, including on the back of food packaging which lists ingredients in multiple languages.
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