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

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

#561

Post by salawat »

oblio wrote: post #509
salawat wrote: post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cyclists ride. They do not drive. Drive implies you aren't the prime mover in the mechanism (i.e., an engine is doing the work, and you're merely performing the task of executive signaling and control to that set of movers and systems carrying you along do so. The inflection point is actually legal in nature; in that once you slap a motor on it, you require licensure, because you're driving now. This is also why I di…

First of all, they've self identified as non-American and presumably not a native English speaker. You could have presented the difference between drive and ride with less pedantry. Secondly, cities with large numbers of cyclists tend to have better, not worse traffic. It's obvious why: fewer people driving plus infrastructure for bikes is developed and separated from car infrastructure. You should wish for more cycl…

Unfortunately, you can't escape the need for pedantry as a native speaker, and as a non-native (which I sssumed they were), I generally find they appreciate th clarification.

Arguably, what makes motor traffic "flow better" is increased predictability, and decreased demand on shared infrastructure. I'm not condemning all cyclists or saying it isn't worthwhil; merely that the arrangements we've got with them being sometimes pedestrians/sometimes road users leads to a cultural clash that leaves everyone frustrated.

The entire urban network architecture leaves quite a lot to be desired.

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

#562

Post by CRConrad »

delecti wrote: post #425
nailer wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not entirely sure what a crosswalk is. I /guess/ it's a pedestrian crossing, but I wouldn't put money on it.

Yes, crosswalks are a marked place on a road where pedestrians are supposed to cross. They often have dedicated signaling to let you know when you have the right-of-way to cross. The signaling usually looks like this [1], though typically the other fingers on the hand aren't blacked out, so it's a full hand, rather than one showing a middle finger (I couldn't quickly find a better example). https://imgur.com/gallery/…

The GP poster knows what a pedestrian crossing is, what it's for, and how it looks in most countries that can afford to build them; they were just pointing out that the word “crosswalk” is only found in American English.

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

#563

Post by judge2020 »

DarkWiiPlayer wrote: post #351
1f60c wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would it be illegal? Being able to access a website (be it Twitter, Hacker News, or your hometown newspaper) is a privilege, not a right.

My comment was poorly phrased. My point is that this can quickly lead to legal problems, when such a captcha restricts your access to something you do have a legal right to. Say I buy a new phone and it stops working after 3 weeks. I want to contact the seller, but they only have a web contact form and I fail to get past the captcha. This is already getting very close to being a huge legal problem, and the only reaso…

It's definitely a problem regarding government sites - the UK even has a page advising their own government agencies to not rely on them unless absolutely necessary[0]. US government sites have simply resorted to putting everything behind a login wall and verifying identity, such as is the case for ssa.gov and healthcare.gov, or just not caring and letting spammers do whatever they'd like (typical for local-level governments).

0: https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/technology/using-captchas

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

#564

Post by bluGill »

webmobdev wrote: post #317
bluGill wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should ask your carrier why they are charging for SMS. There is no reason to do that in 2020. Though you are right Apple needs to deal with the reality of their customers.

Many carrier plans do offer local SMS free. Why in the world would a carrier pay for Apple's INTERNATIONAL iMessage / Facetime activation SMS?

Because SMS is essentially free. Companies exist to make money, but international phone fees ought to be a relic of the past. That they are not is a problem that we would all be better off getting to the bottom of and solving.

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

#565

Post by Abishek_Muthian »

I always used to wonder when I see a 'Pie' or other items specific to U.S./Western countries on re-CAPTCHA if people there would get it right if a Masala Dosai/ Idli (Common South Indian food) or Moimoi (Common Nigerian food) is shown.

Also it makes me wonder the success rate of people working in CAPTCHA farms(unfortunately), which I'm positive are not located in Western countries. Perhaps a large print outs of Pie, side walks are hanging on their walls and they just have to get it right couple of times to understand what it is.

P.S. I recently received an CAPTCHA on LinkedIn to identify a 'Spiral Galaxy', although that made me happy, the questions raised about CAPTCHAs seems validated with it.

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

#566

Post by judge2020 »

latexr wrote: post #432
zbuf wrote: post #57

Captchas have gone mad. The other day a major service gave me less than 10 seconds to solve a puzzle with a mouse in a maze and some cheese, and subsequently locked out of my account. Actually before I got locked out, I thought I would stand more chance with the alternative for the visually impaired. It jumped straight in to a fuzzy voice reading 20+ numbers at a rate of more than 1 per second. I was already behind o…

> The other day a major service gave me less than 10 seconds to solve a puzzle with a mouse in a maze and some cheese Guessing you might be referring to the ones Epic uses[1], which indeed look terrible. [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/EpicGamesPC/comments/ihiidp/new_mou...

Direct MP4: https://v.redd.it/cdjc79eutij51/DASH_720.mp4

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

#567

Post by reaperducer »

livre wrote: post #524
nailer wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not entirely sure what a crosswalk is. I /guess/ it's a pedestrian crossing, but I wouldn't put money on it.

You don't really have to know which squares are actual crosswalks or what a crosswalk really is, reCAPTCHA doesn't care and it thinks that any street with white striped lines is a crosswalk even if the lines are for indicating something else (which is also annoying because it'll ask you to verify you are human again if you don't check those non-crosswalks). So do as I do and select any street that has white striped l…

reCAPTCHA doesn't care and it thinks that any street with white striped lines is a crosswalk

In my experience, reCAPTCHA doesn't know what a street is, and thinks any object with vertical stripes on it is a crosswalk.

It also thinks wheelchairs are bicycles, and some dogs are human beings.

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

#568

Post by joshuaissac »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #522
tzot wrote: post #499

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember a flame war between US-English and UK-English speakers, where one of the former said “if it weren't for us, you'd be speaking German now” and one of the latter ones said “if it weren't for the French, you'd still speak English now”.

I don’t understand the rebuttal. Is American English supposed to be more French-influenced than UK English?

It is a reference to the assistance provided by France to help the American colonies (and later the United States) rebel against the British Empire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_in_the_American_Revolut...

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

#569

Post by reaperducer »

est wrote: post #531
FooBarWidget wrote: post #528

This reminds me of account security questions. They ask things like "what's your childhood nickname", "what's your first pet's name". To my Chinese mother-in-law, who was born in the middle of the Cultural Revolution, when food was scarce, everyone was poor, education was not easy to get, government was non-functional due to anarchy, and when her first priority was to survive, all those questions are just weird . The…

you are not supposed to type realistic answers to security questions. Its better to answer in complete unrelated ways so its not guesable

you are not supposed to type realistic answers to security questions

Assuming that you are allowed to type an answer.

United Airlines makes you pick from a list of pre-selected answers. And some of the questions are easily worthless.

For example, one of the United "security" questions is "What is your favorite ice cream?"

How is someone who is lactose intolerant supposed to answer that? Or someone who has never had ice cream? Or someone who doesn't like any of the flavors on the list? My favorite ice cream today isn't the same as it was 20 years ago when I signed up for my frequent flyer card.

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

#570

Post by tremon »

alias_neo wrote: post #393
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They could just ask to decypher one of those parking signs as well: http://www.polisassist.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/confus...

I'm not American, and I agree there is a lot of information there, but it seems reasonably sane if you read through it. I don't see any obvious contradictions. You can't park 11-1 tuesday due to street cleaning. You can't stop there mon-fri 7:30-16:00 with the exception of 7:30-8 for school business (dropping the kids off). You can park mon-fri between 4 and 6, once per day, per district (to pick up your kids after s…

it seems reasonably sane if you read through it.

It doesn't matter if it seems sane that way. How many seconds does a driver have to read through that all when he's driving near the speed limit? Do we expect drivers to still keep an eye on the road while trying to decipher it? Do we expect every driver to slam on the brakes, and stand still until they've parsed it all?

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