They're called "CAPTCHA"s -- Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. (That name, by the way, is trademarked by Carnegie-Mellon University, just in case you were wondering.) They are those distorted boxes of text that you see in many places where you have to enter the letters you see in order to prove you are not yourself a computer. It's a whole lot shorter than asking you to, oh, give your opinion on the Iraq war, which would probably likewise prove you are not a computer, but would take longer than ten seconds.

I hate them. Passionately.


Hate 'em. Hate 'em. Hate 'em. Hate 'em. Hate 'em. Hate 'em. Hate 'em. Hate 'em. Hate 'em. Hate 'em. Hate 'em. Hate 'em. Hate 'em. Hate 'em. Hate 'em. Hate 'em. Hate 'em. Hate 'em. Hate 'em.

I can't read the damn things. Last week, it took me four tries to get one right.

I hate them so much, I started this blog to try and get away from them. Didn't work.

However, there is another thing I hate, too: comment spam. Little Anonymous comments have started showing up which are clearly automated because they all contain the same nondescript text and the same links. I ignored the first few but they are increasing. So far they are behind the times, not showing up in my most recent posts, and I'd like to keep it that way.

So, I am turning on the CAPTCHAs.

Sorry for the inconvenience. I hope this won't keep anyone from commenting.

Stupid spambots.