GuruNews, Volume 9 Number 35, 9-24-09

Thu Sep 24 18:40:17 PDT 2009

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Vol. 9, No. 35                           

9-24-09

1 CAPTCHA explained  

2 No way I’m doing that

3 Bear pics, Sidewiki, Amazon gizmos, MS tracking spyware 

4 Free PIM 

5 Mint revisited

Catch what now?

Some of you fine readers wrote in to me after last week's issue asking to know more about what CAPTCHAs were, and what Google's buying of reCAPTCHA means for the Internet and the Google Book service.  I'm happy to oblige you in this space this week, and I hope you'll come out of this a little more learned of what all this means to you.  

First off, you are probably wondering what a CAPTCHA is and why we keep putting it in capital letters.  It's an acronym standing for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.  It's all based off the idea of a Turing Test, which is the idea for a test that can see if a machine can demonstrate intelligence by putting together things it does know, and deriving answers from that bank of knowledge.  A CAPTCHA is sort of the reverse of that, which is to use a machine to deliver a test to a person that only a person can answer.  Basically, the computer is asking you to decipher something on screen.  All you have to do is regurgitate what you see and it gives you a favorable response.  CAPTCHAs as you see now are mostly a set of one or more warped words, or a warped set of letters that run together, that you have to type in a box below the image of the words.

I'm sure you're asking, “Hey, I thought computers were smart!  They can't figure out what their own pictures are saying?”  That is one of the most difficult things for a computer to decipher.  Sure, they can see the lines and dots, but deciphering text out of those is not an easy task.  Add a layer of two of obscurity to defeat computers using special programs to try to read the characters in the CAPTCHA and you've got a question that only a person can solve.

CAPTCHAs exist mostly to keep computers from automating things that only a person should be able to do.  Take a standard sign up form on a website.  If a computer had a database full of names and addresses, it could be programmed to fill in that sign up form and submit the information on the order of one name/address per second or even faster.  If that's some sort of contest, then flooding the entry box is immoral and even somewhat illegal.  Putting the barrier of a CAPTCHA in the way forces a person to look and enter what they see.  Here on our own website, for the question submission form, we have recently implemented reCAPTCHA in order to cut down on junk e-mail that was being sent to the team.  We were getting several junk e-mails filled with spam and advertising coming through every day and it became an annoyance.

The most prominent CAPTCHA system in use today is reCAPTCHA.  ReCAPTCHA is a CAPTCHA system that is taking words from digitally scanned books and newspapers that computers cannot decipher and having people enter what they see that the words are.  Not only is it good to help thwart the automation that causes the spam that you see above, but it also helps to archive book and newspaper text that is not easily legible.  Which leads to my news item of last week, Google's acquisition of reCAPTCHA.  ReCAPTCHA already has the system down to take printed materials, digitize them and piece together printed pages to get a digital replica with the CAPTCHAs placed on websites.  Google's Google Book service is set to embark on the task of scanning most of the worlds out of copyright and public domain works.  The purchase made sense because Google's going to scale the reCAPTCHA service to fit it's new need of cataloging the works of the world.  

I hope this trip down CAPTCHA Road has been as enjoyable for you reading it as it has been for me to write it.  If you find another subject that sounds like one you'd like covered, feel free to let Kevin or me know and we'll see if we can't work it in.  

Daniel A. Williams

daniel at thepcgurus.com

Terry Wise

www.ratland.com

Tech News of the Week

An amateur space exploration group got a balloon and an off the shelf
camera, made a styrofoam box, and got pictures of the Earth from the
edge of space.  The video and pictures they have of the experience are
just really cool:

http://bear.sbszoo.com/bear3-4/bear4.htm

Google announced Wednesday that they are starting a service called
"sidewiki" which is going to be a sidebar that you can open for any
webpage, and makes notes that others can see.  You can see notes from
experts on the subject provided; add your own information and what
your friends have to say about the same page.  Learn more:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/help-and-learn-from-others-as-you.html

Amazon is waltzing into the fray of consumer electronics with its own
AmazonBasics brand.  Are we taking bets on Amazon vs. Wal-Mart for the
chosen retailer on the web?

http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=1267157011

Microsoft is coming to the aid of computer users and going after
internet advertising companies that serve up spyware in ads:

http://consumerist.com/5362663/microsoft-goes-after-malicious-ad-suppliers

Keep us in the loop about the best you find on the web!

Daniel A. Williams

daniel at thepcgurus.com

Download of the Week

Could you use a little help staying on top of everything? Then you need a personal information manager that can help you manage your schedule and to-do list, keep track of your contacts, and create outlines as you brainstorm. EssentialPIM Free is an excellent one for those who don't want to spend any money; it offers just about everything you want in a PIM.  

It's exceptionally easy to use.  Scheduling recurring events is a breeze and it's easy to prioritize your to-do lists, there's a nifty note taker and there's even a surprisingly good built-in e-mail client.  It even imports data from Outlook and Outlook Express.  Get it here: 

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Plugins/EssentialPIM-nLite-Addon.shtml 

Carlita Lupino

Cards57 at gmail.com

Email Question of the Week

Q:  Hi - I enjoy your articles and do occasionally will send you a note or a
question. You mention Mint.com in your latest article and note that you have
used this for awhile. Is this really safe to use? Can I actually load all of
my junk on there and feel secure about it staying private? I would love to
use it but afraid to loose all of my meager fortune.

A:  I personally trust it after doing a little bit of research into the
product, and how all the data is handled.  Mint does a really good job
explaining what actually goes on with your bank information, and lays
it out in fairly simple speech.  You can view their page on security
here: http://www.mint.com/privacy/ .  They have lots of information
there, and down at the bottom of that page, you can also click the
link for their security FAQ, and get more information there.  The big
thing to note about Mint is that it is a read only service.  You can't
actually do any banking, you can just use Mint to help you look at the
numbers, make budgets, and see how your money is moving around.

Hope this helps, and please let me know if you have any questions

Daniel A. Williams

daniel at thepcgurus.com

Contact info and legal stuff

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