Slashdot Mirror


CAPTCHA Using Ad-Based Verification

mk1004 writes "Yahoo news has an article explaining how the text-based CAPTCHA is giving way to ad-based challenge/response. It's claimed that users are faster at responding to familiar logos, shortening the amount of time they spend proving that they are human. From the article: 'Rather than taking just a mere glance to figure out, recent studies show that a typical CAPTCHA takes, on average, 14 seconds to solve, with some taking much, much longer. Multiply that by the millions and millions of verifications per day, and Web users as a whole are wasting years and years of their lives just trying to prove they're not actually computers. This has led many companies to abandon the age-old system in favor of something not only more secure, but also easier to use for your average Webgoer: Ad-based verification, which can actually cut the time it takes to complete the task in half.'"

174 comments

  1. Lol by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mechanical Turk, baby!

  2. more ads by spokenoise · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's only because some company will pay to use their logo or watch their mini movie for the answer.

    1. Re:more ads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      Yeah, someone should really tell that to these guys

    2. Re:more ads by Sockatume · · Score: 3, Interesting

      They also know that if you have to write down the name you're more likely to remember the brand. There's a lot of research right now in working around people's wonderful capacity to tune out commercials.

      (I think I saw a Microsoft patent for Kinect-based ads where you could skip the ad, but only by saying the product's name (or whatever).)

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  3. translation by the_Bionic_lemming · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Heh, This is a desperate attempt to stop people like me from adblocking so we can actually use the service.

    --
    _ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
    1. Re:translation by Zemran · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Time to dump Yahoo, I only still use it for the spam filter which it has been good at but if it expects me to look at ads I will stop using it.

      --
      I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
    2. Re:translation by arthurh3535 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Time to dump Yahoo, I only still use it for the spam filter which it has been good at but if it expects me to look at ads I will stop using it.

      I ran into a nasty 'ad-captcha' that was at least 10 seconds long before it would give the option to 'solve' the captcha. All the time an inane, loud commercial played for something I would never buy.

      Yeah, great job annoying people even _more_.

      --
      No! It's a *SIG*. Keep the Special Interest Groups away! (Con joke!)
    3. Re:translation by master5o1 · · Score: 1

      What if they create a service like recaptcha and it gains popularity? Though, I imagine those websites that use it would want a small cut just like anyone displaying ads on their site.

      --
      signature is pants
    4. Re:translation by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Hahaha! They thought text-based CAPTCHAs were getting too easy to automatically solve! Wait until they try logo-based captchas! Hahahaha!

      This is too funny.

      First off, TFA is W-A-Y off: companies didn't abandon text-based CAPTCHAs because they took too long! They have been abandoning them because they are TOO EASY for machines to solve! I have been paid to do CAPTCHA - solving apps myself.

      Put logos in there instead, it will just get easier!

      And "to add insult to injury", as the saying goes: even more economical in many cases, there are 3rd-world services that will solve CAPTCHAs using humans to decipher them, 100 for a penny! It would get even easier if logos were used. I can easily see the services starting to offer 300 per penny.

      It's just too funny.

    5. Re:translation by Zemran · · Score: 1

      On one of my sites, I found that the spam bots were getting through Google Captcha as if it wasn't there. I tried a math test and the spam bots stopped getting through... Can you explain to me why as I would find it much easier to write a script that could solve simple math?

      My biggest problem with Captcha is that the clients do not like it at all. They want an easy life.

      --
      I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
    6. Re:translation by osu-neko · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ... All the time an inane, loud commercial played for something I would never buy.

      And yet, people get upset about targeting ads, as if that was a bad thing rather than a blessing.

      --
      "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
    7. Re:translation by Miamicanes · · Score: 1

      Just wait until captchas turn into 30-second flash videos, followed by freeform text answers with questions like, "How many cups of ___'s delicious Mountain Roast coffee did Jane buy?", followed by "What color was the scarf of the elderly woman behind her" and "what is the 800 number you can call to send a gift certificate for CoffeeCo's tasty rich dark coffee to a cherished friend?".

      Before you argue that the number questions would be small, remember... advertisers will be shooting loads on their computer screens at the thought of being able to force users to watch, re-watch, and watch their commercials another 7 times to answer the captcha questions their marketing department will be submitting to Google along with the ads themselves. The more inane questions they come up with to submit (and by extension, the more ad views they can wring out of a single exposure payment to get him to be able to answer their questions), the happier they'll be. Mark my words, two or three years down the line, they'll be sending you on scavenger hunts to the advertiser's website to look up SKU numbers and specs from the users manual. Don't believe me? Sites offering downloads of pirated software and mp3s were doing the same thing YEARS ago... to download some file, they'd literally send you out to a hundred sites where you had to view ads and answer questions about them to prove you did it.

    8. Re: translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They are not mutually exclusive.

      Ads should be optional: if you force me to view or interact with them I have the option of not using your service or visiting your site.

    9. Re: translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      Don't let the door hit you on the way out. If you block ads, you're just a leech anyway,

    10. Re: translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      What about the folks who want their privacy and in NO WAY shape or form said it was ok to track every web site they go to, location, and more?

      And how about the security problems? Even Google gave out viruses in their ads just a couple of years ago. You think I trust strangers on the internet who want to push ads on me on pages I never wanted to begin with from doing searches? Most viruses are transmitted by online ads now.

      http://www.avast.com/en-us/pr-online-ads-put-web-users-at-risk
      http://www.spamfighter.com/News-8809-Online-Ads-%E2%80%93-New-Virus-Spreading-Tools-for-Hackers.htm

      So anyone not wanting someone begging you with flashing bright orange and letter colors, or showing half naked women trying to sell you something for erections, or jumping up and down like their screaming at you for your attention, or not wanting popup windows that have their own popup windows, then they are "leeches"? Ya right. You are a troll. That is the most illogical and ridiculous statement, and I am totally surprised that someone really defends obnoxious and irritating ads on websites. Not only that... you got angry about it. lol

      You, obviously, work for a company connected to the ad industry.

    11. Re:translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Doh, because the spam bots weren't configured/programmed to solve math problems.

      Of course you'll find many humans aren't able to solve math problems either and thus have problems using your site. This may or may not be a feature depending on the type of site. For a site like slashdot it may be a feature if people who can't solve simple math problems are prevented from posting.

    12. Re: translation by BrokenHalo · · Score: 1

      Don't let the door hit you on the way out. If you block ads, you're just a leech anyway

      Bullshit. The internet was never created for the convenience of ad-whores. The attitude of marketroids that they have some divine right to plaster their drivel over every surface visible to the human eye just makes me want to smack the bastards in the teeth.

    13. Re:translation by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 2

      Probably because there are pre-made applications to solve certain types of CAPTCHA. I don't know for sure, but I would imagine that anything from Google would be a prime target for that kind of thing. If you are a smaller site, you might be more likely to be hit with one of those, and less likely to have someone outsource human CAPTCHA-drones.

      Somebody hired me a couple of years back to scrape information from a government site, which was technically public information, but it used a CAPTCHA. Turned out that one was particularly difficult to solve. A pre-made app to solve similar CAPTCHAs didn't work on that variant, but I found a customizable app that, with some trouble, could be tuned to do it.

      But again, those are aimed at more typical CAPTCHAs. It could be that nobody wanted to take the trouble to do a custom solution for your site's new scheme. I don't know.

    14. Re:translation by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      "Just wait until captchas turn into 30-second flash videos, followed by freeform text answers with questions..."

      I don't deny it could happen. But I wouldn't sit through them.

    15. Re: translation by JakeBurn · · Score: 2

      What does the purpose of the internet's creation have anything to do with the day someone asked 'who the hell is going to pay for all this'? On what planet do you live where advertisers have any right whatsoever to put anything on a website without the owner's permission? Even if it was forced permission through a contract that a re-seller uses, no one has a right to advertise anything. The sites you use decide what they put up. Vulgarity, violence and a complete lack of knowledge on how things work. Your post is full of all kinds of fail.

    16. Re:translation by Nbrevu · · Score: 1

      Nobody would. Any webpage trying to make people accept that kind of shit, even gradually, is going to lose users over time. There will always be another place with similar content and no bullshit like that.

    17. Re:translation by Nbrevu · · Score: 1

      Yeah, there were pages that forced you to go to another (usually ad-flooded) page to "vote" and such. Like ten years ago. They disappeared as soon as there were better (i.e., less time-consuming, no ad-forcing) alternatives.

    18. Re: translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't let the door hit you on the way out. If you block ads, you're just a leech anyway

      Bullshit. The internet was never created for the convenience of ad-whores. The attitude of marketroids that they have some divine right to plaster their drivel over every surface visible to the human eye just makes me want to smack the bastards in the teeth.

      If you see ads, it is because you are visiting and using services that use ads to pay their bills and salaries and provide the service you are using. If you don't want that, don't use them, stick with usenet or non-profit/non-ad based web services. Nobody are forcing you to consume for free the services ads help pay for.

    19. Re: translation by cffrost · · Score: 2

      Don't let the door hit you on the way out. If you block ads, you're just a leech anyway,

      Is "leech" your term for an individual who's not completely incompetent with regard to network security? Or, maybe someone whose value system doesn't mandate owing a debt for participating in a voluntary exchange of ideas?

      As I see it, any person or entity who wants to publish their ideas on the web is generally responsible for the cost of doing so. For example, this site's owners incur the cost of publishing "slashvertisements" and links to other sources' articles on this website — much like how participants in this discussion incur the cost of their own hardware, Internet connection, etc.

      Now, I admit that Slashdot's own recognition of this exchange (in the form of its disable ads check box) is pathetically atypical. During the BBS days, the vast majority of sysops and users recognized and operated under this principal, yet nobody bitched and moaned about a glaring lack of epidemic-level hucksterism.

      Anyway, we can pretend to play it your way if you want... I'll play the "leech" reader/contributor, and you can play the stoic consumer of shrill corporate drivel, furiously clicking on malware-laden buy-more-shit!-links to keep the Internet from shutting down, with nary a complaint save the occasional finger wagging and cries of "leech!" directed at the thieves who don't click their fair share. I can live with this arrangement — and yes, of course I'll fix your computer for you after you fuck it up again, just like every time before. ;o\

      By the way, since I haven't placed any ads in this message, please just donate a few bucks to the non-profit charity of your choice and we'll call it square. :o)

      --
      Thank you, Edward Snowden.

      "Arguments from authority are worthless." —Carl Sagan
    20. Re: translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, his post is full of all kinds of right. Yours is full of all kinds of shill.

    21. Re:translation by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      And yet, people get upset about targeting ads, as if that was a bad thing rather than a blessing.

      I'm not at all upset about targeted ads themselves. If I'm going to see an ad I'd prefer it to be relevant. What I object to is being spied upon by companies that want to target ads at me.

      As it happens I use Ad-block, so it makes no difference whether they try to target ads at me. I'm having my privacy compromised for something that's not benefiting anyone.

    22. Re:translation by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      I wouldnt say that text captcha's are "too easy" for computers to solve.. its just that it costs almost nothing for a machine to fail and try again. Even with a dismal success rate like 10% you can easily see how futile the captcha's are when being attacked by computers that will never get tired or frustrated about failing 9 out of 10 times.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    23. Re: translation by BasilBrush · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The sites you use decide what they put up.

      Lowest common denominator. The way so many things in the world turn to shit.

      In Sao Paolo they banned billboard advertising. Business wasn't damaged at all.

      In many cities and towns in Europe, advertising only allowed to be very low key, so that it doesn't spoil the look of the place. Especially so in historical locations. They still flourish.

      The only reason there's so much advertising on the internet is there's nothing to stop it. Bad practices induce worse practices.

      What does the purpose of the internet's creation have anything to do with the day someone asked 'who the hell is going to pay for all this'?

      Government pays for some of the internet. Consumers pay for some of the internet to their ISPs. Lots of content providers do it for fun. Lots of content providers do it because they want to spread their message, and that doesn't have to be third party advertising. If the internet wasn't an advertisers whorehouse, micropayments might take off for things that are worth paying for.

      Advertising doesn't have to ruin everything.

    24. Re:translation by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      I have been paid to do CAPTCHA - solving apps myself.

      So you rent yourself out to spammers? Or something less objectionable? I'm trying to think of a legitimate reason for mass cracking of captchas but I can't think of one. Have I missed something?

    25. Re: translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I bet you think looking away from commercials while watching your favorite programming is "pirating" television too.

    26. Re: translation by jodido · · Score: 0

      And you could ad the banning of many billboards along US highways many years ago, which caused no end of moaning and groaning about how business was going to be ruined. I doubt anyone even remembers that this happened any more.

    27. Re: translation by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1
      Advertising doesn't have to ruin everything.

      Where is your planet? and how can I visit it?

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    28. Re: translation by realityimpaired · · Score: 1

      In many cities and towns in Europe, advertising only allowed to be very low key, so that it doesn't spoil the look of the place. Especially so in historical locations. They still flourish.

      This. I don't object to advertising in principle, and even disable adblock on certain domains. If the site puts up one of those "hey, you're using adblock, but we need the money can you please enable advertising?" messages up, I will usually disable adblock for that specific site, especially if it's a site I use on a regular basis.

      What I object to are the fullscreen flash popups that some sites have, or the ones that start playing obnoxious music at you. And with HTML5, you can't get around just those ones by disabling flash. If the advertising is discrete, I don't even mind being tracked: I use addons to remove LSO's and other cookies when I close the browser. If the advertising industry hadn't started with that crap, I probably wouldn't have bothered finding adblock or equivalent.

    29. Re: translation by LurkingSince1999 · · Score: 0

      No. Ads leech off legitimate users' bandwidth. I pay for my bandwidth and don't want it being sucked up by ads. I'd pay more for an ad-free internet, but no ISP offers that, so I use the tools that are offered.

      The problem I have with targeted ads is that they are shown to me without my permission. They should only be shown to me when I inquire about purchasing something. That's one of the reasons I never conduct unsolicited business. The 100%, sure fire, guaranteed way to get me to not buy something from you is to try to sell me something I didn't ask about.

    30. Re:translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly. Add it to anti- ad-blocking policies and laws... Until nobody uses internet anymore and it gets back to his roots. Time to kick all those .com outside.

    31. Re: translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What about the folks who want their privacy and in NO WAY shape or form said it was ok to track every web site they go to, location, and more?

      If they want to make tracking you a condition of using their site, it's their site so either put up with it or don't use their service.
      As for cross-site tracking, see my first sentence, and then consider using a browser that doesn't leak your information all over the place.

      So anyone not wanting someone begging you with flashing bright orange and letter colors, or showing half naked women trying to sell you something for erections, or jumping up and down like their screaming at you for your attention, or not wanting popup windows that have their own popup windows, then they are "leeches"?

      I agree that those things are annoying, but that doesn't make the parent a troll. Adblock is a SITE blocking plugin, the purpose is to block sites which are known to serve advertising, any security aspect to it is secondary. If you're interested in security then you should be using a scriptblocker which will catch them from any site, not just from known advertising hosts. As much as it might hurt your feelings, yes you're a leech if you're using their service while bypassing their revenue generating mechanisms. Personally, I have no problems admitting that I'm leeching, so suck it up and admit you're leeching too, or quit visiting their site to start with.

    32. Re: translation by j00r0m4nc3r · · Score: 1

      In Sao Paolo they banned billboard advertising. Business wasn't damaged at all.

      Except the billboard makers/installers

    33. Re: translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You pay for your bandwidth, ad provider pays for their bandwidth and site pays for their bandwidth. Why do you think you deserve to be leeching off site's bandwidth without paying for that? Paying to ISP for ad-free internet doesn't give back to sites.

      You want ad-free - nag maintainers of sites you visit for subscriptions/donations/affiliate-link based funding. For example, you could have subscribed for /. and turn off advertisements, but for some reason you didn't (and seeing you with starting score of 0, unlikely that you've got that "Disable adverts" given for high karma). Hypocrisy much?

    34. Re: translation by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      If they want to make tracking you a condition of using their site, it's their site so either put up with it or don't use their service.

      Or find a way to bypass it, because once the HTML reaches my computer, fuck you I can do what I like with it.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    35. Re: translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In Sao Paolo they banned billboard advertising. Business wasn't damaged at all.

      The difference being that you only see ads on a website if you go TO that website. Comparing it to a publicly visible billboard is bullshit, the only accurate comparison would be the advertising INSIDE the actual store itself. Which hasn't been banned, last time I checked.

      The only reason there's so much advertising on the internet is there's nothing to stop it

      Well no. There is actually no advertising "on the internet", there is advertising on the sites which the internet connects together.
      And the reason there is so much is because it's the only way for most of the shit you use to pay for their servers, bandwidth, people, etc. Put up a subscription or paywall, most sites die almost instantly.

      If the internet wasn't an advertisers whorehouse, micropayments might take off for things that are worth paying for.

      No, they don't work. There is no easy and safe way for me to pay a fraction of a penny to visit some random site, and people are already sick of creating logins, passwords, etc. every where they go. The only feasible way to pay for open, publicly accessible sites is through advertising. The only other alternative is to fund such sites through charity donations or subsidize them with tax money, which both come with a holy shitload of other issues.

    36. Re: translation by Runaway1956 · · Score: 1

      The door didn't hit me on the way out, thank you for your concern.

      Ads are blocked at my router, for the most part. It won't connect to ad servers. I have AdBlock installed, because not all ads come from servers. NoScript blocks all those cross site scripts that serve up ads that the router misses. I see precious few adverts.

      If I MUST watch an ad to use the service, then it's not a "service". And, I don't need or want it, thank you very much.

      Did you say I'm a leech? Whatever. I don't much care what you think. I'm after content, and I'll get my content without wasting years of my life watching meaningless bullshit that you hope will pay for your next Carnival Cruise.

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    37. Re: translation by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      ... and nothing of value was lost. If every advertising company worker in the world had to go and do something else, or even be unemployed, it would make the world a significantly better place.

    38. Re:translation by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      Doh, because the spam bots weren't configured/programmed to solve math problems.

      Not necessarily - most CAPTCHAS are solved by human labor. Perhaps as a fake entry to "free porn" and other things. Doing this is ridiculously easy - user signs up and the webserver registers for an account on some web site, captures the CAPTCHA and presents it as its own. It then asks the user to do it, and forwards the response.

      Sometimes there are even farms of people who do this - just solving them day in and day out (for like $1/1000 solved).

      It's a lot harder to scrape a math problem, or even one that goes to say "What is the name of this web site?" (becauase naturally, that information is lost when it's proxied).

    39. Re:translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wouldnt say that text captcha's are "too easy" for computers to solve

      Apparently, use of apostrophes is far too hard for you to solve.

    40. Re: translation by suutar · · Score: 1

      visit hell. I want to emigrate.

    41. Re: translation by alexo · · Score: 1

      Better to be called a leech than to be a parasite and a blight on society.

      My connection, my router, my computer, my firewall, my browser, my screen, my eyes, my brain.
      If I decide to block your crap in any of these stages, I will damn well do so and if you have a problem with that, you can go fuck yourself with a jackhammer.

      Any bits that enter my residence and stay there are mine to do with as I please. Don't like it? Find a different business model.

      An in case you didn't get it, let me reiterate:
      My connection, my router, my computer, my firewall, my browser, my screen, my eyes, my brain, MY RULES .

      Now, kindly, STFU and GTFO.

    42. Re: translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jackhammer wasn't enough! Thor's hammer was lol http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3483769&cid=42979481 the end of that with the video clip being used's and very aptly so, considering it shows the troll you replied to being hammered by truths he couldn't disprove before the video, and the troll resorting to invalidly downmodding it without disproving its points of fact against advertisers online.

    43. Re:translation by drkim · · Score: 1

      I wouldnt say that text captcha's are "too easy" for computers to solve

      Apparently, use of apostrophes is far too hard for you to solve.

      It's a bot, dude...

    44. Re:translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hahaha! They thought text-based CAPTCHAs were getting too easy to automatically solve! Wait until they try logo-based captchas! Hahahaha!

      This is too funny.

      First off, TFA is W-A-Y off: companies didn't abandon text-based CAPTCHAs because they took too long! They have been abandoning them because they are TOO EASY for machines to solve! I have been paid to do CAPTCHA - solving apps myself.

      Put logos in there instead, it will just get easier!

      And "to add insult to injury", as the saying goes: even more economical in many cases, there are 3rd-world services that will solve CAPTCHAs using humans to decipher them, 100 for a penny! It would get even easier if logos were used. I can easily see the services starting to offer 300 per penny.

      It's just too funny.

      No kidding, I mean automatically solving captchas has been pretty simple for at least the past seven years. It is more or less impossible to use an image as a CAPTCHA because a little PCA+wavelets along with some pretty basic data mining techniques means computer vision is a reality, at least for static images.

  4. ads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I'm all for them. They're so much easier to solve and we see so many adds anyway. I would love to see more captcha verifications switched to the ad things

    1. Re:ads by wmbetts · · Score: 1, Informative

      I dunno why he's getting down modded. I'd rather be told click on the coke ad than type something I can hardly read. Then again I have trouble seeing so I might not represent the majority.

      --
      "Ubuntu" -- an African word, meaning "Slackware is too hard for me". - stolen from Dan C alt.os.linux.slackware
  5. Just ID computers by pubwvj · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It would be better to simply prove that the computer is used reasonably and then stop presenting the captcha's after the initial few tests. If the computer starts being detected as a spammer then it must prove again, harder this time, that it is a valid user to become reaccepted. This would save time and processing power.

    1. Re:Just ID computers by OhANameWhatName · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's a v.good idea, but how would that sell advertising?

    2. Re:Just ID computers by torsmo · · Score: 2

      My ISP leases me an IP address for a period of 24 hours. It then resets. How does your solution work out for me?

    3. Re:Just ID computers by Miamicanes · · Score: 1

      There's an easier way to slow down spammers... generate a random string with some bit of known plaintext, save it in session context, generate a random 40-bit encryption key, save it in session context, encrypt the random string with that random key, deliver it to the user's client app, and make the client app bruteforce the encryption key & submit the decrypted value as a formvar along with the new message. Even phones are fast enough now to bruteforce a 40-bit key within a few seconds if you give them a hint or two so they can attack the problem intelligently. The biggest drawback is that ARM is so much slower than x86 or AMD64, even a shit PC can bruteforce something in a few seconds that would take an Android phone or iPhone a minute or more (ARM is about half the effective speed as an x86 of a given speed in megahertz/gigahertz with mainstream apps, but when the big boys pull out the heavy artillery and start involving lots of floating point math, matrix calculations, and huge integers, the gap between ARM and x86 widens considerably).

      Example: a few months ago, I did a proof of concept experiment for a group of developers at my company. Given a list of ~500,000 real-world passwords obtained from compromised popular web sites, a ~2GHz Thnkpad T61 can iterate through the list, do a single round of PBKDF2 key stretching, attempt to decrypt a short pdf document that might have been weakly-encrypted with AES using that as a key in ECB mode, and rip through about 100,000 keys per minute. Of course, in real life, you'd never use ECB and you'd do at least 1,000 (if not many, many more) rounds of key-stretching, but the example just goes to show how fast even mediocre computer hardware is now at bruteforce cracking. In fact, the hardest part is finding a supported encryption algorithm that's suitably weak to make cracking it be (statistically) a 15-30 second job on a high-end Android phone or iPhone.

    4. Re:Just ID computers by DKlineburg · · Score: 1

      What about all the computers that are zombie's? and the user doesn't even know? I'm sure spam is not coming from the real spammers computer.

      --
      Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events. - Albert Einstein
    5. Re:Just ID computers by watice · · Score: 2

      By using identifiable information OTHER than your IP? There are tons of other options, ya know...

    6. Re:Just ID computers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And what prevents anyone from grabbing that database of known good guys (possibly with guns) and picking an entry at random when asked for credentials ?
      Better wrap out your cryptography knowledge now.

    7. Re:Just ID computers by pubwvj · · Score: 1

      The zombies would do bad things and web masters like me who flag them would mark those zombies as spammers. A single flag should not be enough to nail them but several would demote them to a 'proved not valid' status from which it is much harder to get back to both 'unknown' and then 'valid'. This sort of thing is already done with some software. The addition I'm suggesting is combining it with the Captcha which suggests 'valid' and at some point doesn't need to be done (no more Captcha) if the user/computer obtains the status of 'valid'. This way zombies dig themselves into deep graves while valid users get elevated above the fray. If you're letting your computer be a zombie then you go down with it. Incentive to kill zombie in your control.

    8. Re:Just ID computers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://mollom.com/how-mollom-works

    9. Re:Just ID computers by pubwvj · · Score: 1

      The IP address is indeed one way of identifying computers but falls down. That is why I said, 'identify the computer' rather than the IP. IP's fall down because they may be dynamically assigned like yours or they may be used by many computers such as behind a router or WiFi point. Identifying the individual computers can be done in a number of ways.

    10. Re:Just ID computers by realityimpaired · · Score: 1

      Identifying the individual computers can be done in a number of ways.

      That are all easily defeated. Ping fingerprinting isn't reliable because of firewall configuration. Agent strings are easily spoofed. Cookies are trivial to circumvent. Javascript *could* tell you what processes are running on a system, but with sandboxing and default security settings in modern browsers (even Internet Exploder), it wouldn't be feasible. Even using Flash to do it wouldn't work, because Flash isn't installed everywhere any more, and because it's sandboxed on most installations now. To get any kind of uniquely identifiable information that's verifiable and storable at the server side would require privileges that aren't given to browsers any more, and that's not even considering the load that it would place on the server.

      How do you suggest, then, that individual computers be identified? I am not trolling you here, I honestly can't think of a way to identify an individual computer that wouldn't be easy to circumvent for the person writing the cracking software.

  6. Yeah? by WillKemp · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A fancy rationalization of a money making scam. Nobody's wasting years of their lives doing captchas. And what about those of us who have very low exposure to advertising - how are we supposed to recognize logos?

    1. Re:Yeah? by Cryacin · · Score: 2

      how are we supposed to recognize logos?

      You must be a communist! (ducks)

      --
      Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
    2. Re:Yeah? by Spacejock · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And the logos - there's no point showing a US-centric firm's logo to an Aussie visitor, for example. I wouldn't know what most of them look like or who they represent.

    3. Re:Yeah? by stephathome · · Score: 1

      Communists ducks? They're everywhere!

    4. Re:Yeah? by clemdoc · · Score: 2

      Another thing that came to my mind while reading the BBC article linked to by the Yahoo article in TFS (yeah, I actually read all that stuff, I must be new here) is the fact that while many people with non-english native language may be comfortable reading articles in english (maybe sometimes using Google translator or some other stuff) but not necessarily be able to easily answer the question, even if they knew the brand.
      The "Ad-CAPTCHA" in question (image) asks to describe the brand "dyson". A valid answer would probably be "vacuum cleaner". Would the system accept "Staubsauger" (German for vacuum cleaner, actual meaning: "dust sucker") as well?

    5. Re:Yeah? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The "Ad-CAPTCHA" in question (image) asks to describe the brand "dyson"

      My answer would be: "How the fuck could I know? They don't sell that brand in my country"

      If you make me google stuff and guess spellings to log on your website, you'd better make a site that I absolutely have to use it or I'll skip happily to other parts of the intturnet.

    6. Re:Yeah? by scdeimos · · Score: 2

      My answer for Dyson: fucking overpriced.

    7. Re:Yeah? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I noted in the article linked to in the posting, that they has examples on the left side. Top one was entering text from an ad, the second was assembling a jigsaw from 4 pieces and the 3rd was solving a math problem.
      Hah! I switched my own website's contact form to a random math problem over a year ago. I am ahead of the commercial big guns, just this once. Yay!

    8. Re:Yeah? by ArturoBandini77 · · Score: 1

      I'm with you.... This makes no sense:
      "You spend 1/3 of your life sleeping.
      Multiply this by 6 billion human beings.
      You are not productive.
      You are fired."

    9. Re:Yeah? by azalin · · Score: 1

      In Soviet Russia the ducks quack you?

    10. Re:Yeah? by BrokenHalo · · Score: 1

      That's what I thought too, until I tried one. I've owned a few industrial-type vacs which worked well enough, in their own way, but are overly bulky for the home. I've abused the hell out of the dyson machine I bought ~3 years ago, and I'm still happy with it, whereas I usually start bitching and whining when machines stop working properly after a month. Only thing wrong with the dyson is that it's no good for wet stuff.

    11. Re:Yeah? by stephanruby · · Score: 1

      And the logos - there's no point showing a US-centric firm's logo to an Aussie visitor, for example. I wouldn't know what most of them look like or who they represent.

      With a little bit of remedial studying and some perseverance, you'll be able to become more like an American consumer. I don't see how this would be be considered a bad thing to an advertiser.

      Plus, I hear Aussies like to pay more for the same things, that's got to be good news for advertisers as well.

    12. Re:Yeah? by KritonK · · Score: 1

      This particular Ad-CAPTCHA had better accept "sphere" as a valid answer. Not being a USian, I 've never heard of this brand.

    13. Re:Yeah? by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      Cheaper vacuums that don't work nearly as well are available. Typical vacuum, it's hard to tell if the suction is working at all, without putting your hand over the aperture. A Dyson tends to pull the carpet up from the floor.

      (That may have changed since Dyson's patent on cyclonic vacuums ran out. I haven't tried any of the Dyson copies.)

    14. Re:Yeah? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This one is easy. Just write 'crap' every time and you'll pass with flying colours.

    15. Re:Yeah? by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

      Dyson is a British brand. Americans would probably know it. I'd imagine there are quite a few countries where they are familiar.

      But the general point is that captchas would have to be targeted per country. And that part at least is not an issue with this scheme, because the advertisers would want the ads to be targeted per country anyway.

    16. Re:Yeah? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'd be amazed to see computers fail at recognizing company and product logos in images and videos.

      Not to mention that there is a very finite amount of popular logos that are going to be used for this. Probably less than 1000-2000.
      It shouldnt be too hard to have a list of advertisments mapping to the correct response.
      You can even earn money generating it by hosting a website with this kind of ad-captcha, both recording the sucessful responses and earning money for displaying the ads.

      Obvious scam.

    17. Re:Yeah? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Addendum: The ads would have to be reused frequently, since they are more expensive to produce and it would be silly to obfuscate the identy of the advertised company...

    18. Re:Yeah? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How many 'well-known' logo's are there anyway - well-known not only in one country, but all over the world?
      Can't be too difficult to brute-force this...

    19. Re: Yeah? by tepples · · Score: 1

      For the purposes of the advertisement, the correct term is ball, not sphere.

    20. Re:Yeah? by markxz · · Score: 1

      There would have to be a lot of "correct" answers for these images (including some which are not complimentary to the brand/product). I tried out the example on the solve media website ( http://solvemedia.com/publishers/captcha-type-in ) and it accepted "shit" as a description for Samsung.

      Since there will only be a limited number of companies advertising on this service it would be easy to have an answer for each company which can then be entered to break the captcha.

    21. Re:Yeah? by realityimpaired · · Score: 1

      You can probably count on your fingers the number of corporate logos that are well known all over the world. A *lot* of brands that sell all over the world use different logos in different markets, for one reason or another, which cuts the number down to products like Coca Cola, and a very small number of car companies that actually sell their product everywhere without rebranding for different markets. Maybe a couple of cell phone manufacturers do it, too, but they don't sell in every market.

    22. Re:Yeah? by clemdoc · · Score: 1

      This solve media captcha example accepted "asrgtvfj" as well and that doesn't mean anything in any language as far as I know.
      Useless.

  7. Spyware by matria · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I've examined a few of these "services". They keep track of who is using these things. Some of them even provide you with some of their data, such as a weekly or monthly report on how many people solved their question and how many failed. And some of them use cookies, allowing anybody to track your users.

    1. Re:Spyware by TaoPhoenix · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Nice catch.

      (shock, horror) I actually read The Article, and you're spot on about how thin it is.

      I don't know anymore. Maybe slashdot editors feel like they're under a gun to produce something/"anything" in the timeframe, but the cost to the readers of bad stories is growing. In other news sites I wouldn't care because we expect that drivel from some of them. But "news for *nerds" ... yes this matters, but aren't / weren't nerds the ones who dug into the details!? The ones who got thrown into the dumpster because we asked too many questions in class?

      Supposedly the raw code to slashdot is open, but I haven't once seen us fork slashdot to only include (fewer?) high quality stories. (Not saying someone didn't, just saying that this medium regular user never saw it.)

      --
      My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
    2. Re:Spyware by Turminder+Xuss · · Score: 2

      Glad it wasn't just me with that dumpster thing ...

      --
      You seem to regard science as some kind of dodge... or hustle.
    3. Re:Spyware by TheSpoom · · Score: 1

      Everybody tracks everything in the web development world. Analytics are key. Nobody should really be surprised by this any more.

      They don't care about you as a person, and the reports aren't on you personally, they're aggregate. Mostly, they're built and sent by the ad-CAPTCHA provider to the client(s) to prove that they're doing what they say they're doing.

      --
      It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
      - E. Debs
  8. Let's save the world 7 seconds! by Czubaka · · Score: 0

    Yeah, let us all save the world's 7 seconds multiplied by 1 bilion users. That would give us 221 years. Imagine what we can do in 221 of productive life! Fantaramtastic! I love such calculations. But, hey, I spent 80 seconds typing this message. That's 80-7=73 seconds waste? Now I feel I waster 2313 years (assuming one bilion people typing this message).

  9. Only because of Adblolck by ksemlerK · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They are only trying this bullshit because of Adblock. If an advertisement is required to be used to solve a question, that renders Adblock completely useless, and will force people to view crap ads they have been able to block for ages now. If the internet becomes the ad-infested crap fest that I remember from the days before Adblock Plus, and Privox, I'll disconnect from it permanently. I'm not willing to endure a deluge of ads to enjoy a service that I'm already paying a pretty penny to receive,.

    1. Re:Only because of Adblolck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because you pay your ISP everyone else should work for free or at a loss even? Yeah that makes sense.

    2. Re:Only because of Adblolck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My god, you'd think that ads were food, and GP is literally taking it out of someone's mouth.

      "You wouldn't not download an ad, would you?" (Shot of sad starving marketing executive)

    3. Re:Only because of Adblolck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ads are copyrighted. I'm quite happy to use AdBlock, Privoxy, etc., to avoid downloading ads and violating some poor fool's copyright.

      What? You want everyone to view ads but still be able to sue them for violating copyright?

    4. Re:Only because of Adblolck by azalin · · Score: 1

      So Adblock needs to evolve to autosolve these captchas. You could even crwodsource it quite easily, so every new captcha would have to be solved once and all other users could now bypass it.

    5. Re:Only because of Adblolck by i+kan+reed · · Score: 1

      No, it's not just because adblock. That's bullshit and you know it. Advertisers have upped the stakes every time they can.

      Remember when google ads were unobtrusive text? During that time I whitelisted them and sometimes even clicked them, because that was fine. Then the advertisers won their case to annoy the hell out of users, and blacklisted it went. They would have gone to this point to convince people to pay attention to their damn ads anyways.

  10. House numbers. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In one of the popular CAPTCHA schemes, you only have to solve one word to unlock access to whatever service you're trying to use, while decoding the other word is a distributed service sold to companies/agencies trying to digitize text.

    I've noticed that one of the clients is interested in having street addresses decoded. That seems creepy and fishy to me, so whenever I see one, I enter a false number.

    1. Re:House numbers. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/03/29/2055228/google-using-recaptcha-to-decode-street-addresses

  11. How much shit can they sell us already? by JoeyRox · · Score: 1

    I get the idea behind advertising but don't ads lose their effectiveness when they're so pervasive?

    1. Re:How much shit can they sell us already? by preaction · · Score: 1

      Yeah, they cause me to use adblock and ghostery no matter how often they crash Safari

    2. Re:How much shit can they sell us already? by grumbel · · Score: 1

      There might be some fall of of effectivness, but in general I don't think anybody really cares, given how bad ads on the Internet are. Not only are they still almost completely untargeted, they are also incredible repetitious, boring and not even made for the Internet. If Youtube for example shows me a video, why not tell me the name of the product at the start of the video? I am going to skip it in 5sec anyway, so you could just tell me now and reenforce that logo into my brain or I won't see it. Also why are there so few ads? Youtube seems to run the same five ads in a loop, every few month they might update one, but if I open three tabs, I get to see the same video three times. What's the point of that? Also why are they not interactive? Why can't I comment on them? Why can't I click a "I do not care about this product" button to get rid of them? Why can't I click a "I want to see more"?

      Maybe there is some reason for ads sucking so much, maybe that's what makes them stick in my mind. I don't know. But the general feel I get from Internet ads is that nobody really cares about making them intersting, it's just colorful garbage dumped all over the Internet and it makes no real use of the possibilities that the Internet would provide.

    3. Re:How much shit can they sell us already? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      sure, but that just means they need more ads.

  12. Already Broken by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah, cause all those CAPTCHA's they had pictures of would be impossible for computers to break! One of these ad based CAPTCHA companies has already been hammered on a bit.

    http://hackaday.com/2013/01/16/script-defeats-minteye-captcha/
    http://hackaday.com/2013/01/19/breaking-the-minteye-captcha-again/
    http://hackaday.com/2013/01/29/breaking-the-minteye-captcha-one-more-time/

  13. Faster? More Lucrative! by ohnocitizen · · Score: 2

    Captcha's don't take all that long to solve if they are halfway readable. Seamless web uses a method I find interesting - image recognition and classification. "Identify which items are food! Go!". I find it hard to believe speed is the issue. It seems far more likely the companies realized the combination of captive traffic in front of a desired activity was too good of an opportunity to pass up. "Our users will see an ad every time they go to rate a restaurant they recently ordered from" is a hell of a pitch.

    1. Re:Faster? More Lucrative! by osu-neko · · Score: 1

      Captcha's don't take all that long to solve if they are halfway readable.

      This is correct, both for humans and computers. The last part is why many of the captchas I see these days aren't even halfway readable.

      --
      "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
    2. Re:Faster? More Lucrative! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      CAPCHAs fail to load over slower dialup connections, especially with cookies or scripts disabled.

    3. Re:Faster? More Lucrative! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Identify which items are food: Cow, pig, dog.

      European user: Cow, pig.
      Muslim user: Cow.
      Indian user: Pig.
      Chinese user: Cow, pig, dog.

    4. Re:Faster? More Lucrative! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      British user: Horse.

    5. Re:Faster? More Lucrative! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ-LiUNegws

  14. Defeating its purpose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Well... isn't placing well-known logos, which can be easily image-matched by computers, kind of defeating the purpose of a CAPTCHA?

    (And this CAPTCHA I just had to solve took me MUCH less than the fourteen seconds they claim as an average.)

    1. Re:Defeating its purpose? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well... isn't placing well-known logos, which can be easily image-matched by computers, kind of defeating the purpose of a CAPTCHA?

      Of course it defeats the purpose of the CAPTCHA and they already know that, but that doesn't matter to them as this is only the first step.
      The next step is "In order to prove you're a human, you need to buy one of these products"-CAPTCHAs.

      (Cause computers couldn't possibly have access to a valid credit card number, right?)

    2. Re:Defeating its purpose? by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      it's not a captcha system.

      it's a make-sure-the-ad-was-shown system.

      and that's nothing new!

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    3. Re:Defeating its purpose? by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      (oh and since computer use can be scripted they would still need a regular captcha for anything that really needs one)

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  15. A 'solution' in search of a problem by SpaceLifeForm · · Score: 1
    How often do you personally deal with a captcha?

    This is a waste of time, and another vector for ad-servers to throw malicious javascript and flash attacks at you.

    --
    You are being MICROattacked, from various angles, in a SOFT manner.
  16. It's a sound idea by ixarux · · Score: 0

    I think that this is the way to go. Every organization has different motives and the captchas can be tailor-made to utilize user-time in that direction. It works well in atleast one direction, if not in both. Depends on who the user is.

    If it is a profit-maximizing organization, it makes sense to monetize these few seconds of user attention. If it is an organization working for human-rights, replace the captcha with the image of some charity or some news item that they wish to inform the user.

    Get the captchas to help you read books, solve world-hunger problems, solve NP-hard problems, whatever you wish. But seriously we need to move on from random letters that do waste A LOT of time, with little productivity for anyone.

    1. Re:It's a sound idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You must be new here (to the internet). A number of CAPTCHAs are already digitised text from books in an effort to get the internet-at-large to Turk it for them. I'd rather more of those than being forced to sit through advertising to answer a question.

    2. Re:It's a sound idea by fast+turtle · · Score: 1

      The only problem here is that as I identify ad servers, I add them to my hosts file and block all connections with them. This is due to many of them being hacked and serving malware and viruses. All that is happening is that I'll soon have no reason to use any of the services I've been paying for - Cable TV ( already don't use due to ads), Internet (becoming less useful due to ad/malware servers), Phone (scammers and robo-callers: Political Parties are the worst offenders).

      On the utility front, I'm already planning a solar powered home with a well so I don't have to contribute to the inefficient distribution of energy. For transportation, I'll use a bike or what little public transport we have.

      --
      Mod me up/Mod me down: I wont frown as I've no crown
  17. It's more than that by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If a person hears or reads something that they don't like (e.g. an ad) their brain will often discard it immediately. But if you can make them say it, or in this case type it, they're more likely to remember it, and even start to believe it.

    This is, essentially, low-grade mind control.

    1. Re:It's more than that by DKlineburg · · Score: 2

      which is why I think this is terrible. And honestly, I don't look at adds. I don't have cable. I have ad blocker, the chance of me knowing a slogan is slim.

      --
      Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today's events. - Albert Einstein
    2. Re:It's more than that by Yer+Mom · · Score: 1

      They can make me type the company's name.

      In fact, I'll type it twice. The second copy will be in companies_never_to_buy_from.txt.

      --
      Never mind Spamassassin. When's Spammerassassin coming out?
  18. Don't shoot the messenger! by Pale+Dot · · Score: 5, Informative

    Time to dump Yahoo, I only still use it for the spam filter which it has been good at but if it expects me to look at ads I will stop using it.

    The news was by Yahoo, not about Yahoo. The company could still be among those planning to adopt the technology, but this isn't mentioned in the news story.

    1. Re:Don't shoot the messenger! by BrokenHalo · · Score: 1

      And incidentally, by far the best way to deal with Yahoo mail is via a proper email client (take your pick, Thunderfart, mutt, whatever rocks your boat). I can guarantee you'll never see any of their ads that way (unless Yahoo happens to be spamming you).

    2. Re:Don't shoot the messenger! by x_t0ken_407 · · Score: 1

      Except, you can't use an email client with Yahoo's service unless you have the paid-Yahoo crap, Yahoo+, or whatever the hell it is they call it. Rather, you don't have access to IMAP/POP3 without the paid account -- unless they've changed this recently...?

    3. Re:Don't shoot the messenger! by BrokenHalo · · Score: 1

      I've been getting yahoo mail via POP3 for several years (I think since ~2005?), and I've never been asked for one red cent. I'm quite sure I would remember something like that...

  19. Brand recognition? by Engeekneer · · Score: 2

    In addition to all the other posters qualms about this, I really wonder how this would work on the internet. How many brands are generally recognized around the world? Fine, you can do some localization, but still.

    It seems that this will be either choosing between the logos of Coca Cola, Apple and Nike, or presenting me with an ad of the biggest, most famous mattress company in the whole US.

  20. Only when needed by Chompjil · · Score: 1

    Adblock and Hosts Files

    --
    People once told me 68K ram was all we needed,
  21. So what? by EngnrFrmrlyKnownAsAC · · Score: 1

    Multiply that by the millions and millions of verifications per day, and Web users as a whole are wasting years and years of their lives just trying to prove they're not actually computers.

    Web users as a whole are wasting years and years of their lives just trying to look at cute cat pictures. Does this mean we should embark upon the CATcha?

    Just another attempt to make viewing ads compulsory...

    --
    Howdy howdy howdy
  22. icky by jameshofo · · Score: 1

    I had an experience with one of these... Yikes, I hate companies that support annoying adds it was loud and had no volume control on the app >. Whatever un-named body of dark stagnant water the people that throw up the "Buy my terrible anti-virus program that will tell you when naughty cookies are downloaded, no no we don't fix it that's this other product we sell" captach. Your being paged back to you cesspool, please don't touch the white telephone.

    --
    Good leaders run toward problems, bad leaders hide from them.
  23. Shoad of lit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    shitload of it

  24. Was this really necessary /. by Stonefish · · Score: 1

    Mmmm it tastes just like butter, really??? Slashdot do you really need to place advertisments in this manner? Check the approval process for this piece of crap and you'll find someone taking kickbacks. If it wasn't deliberate ie a corporate decision then you have someone in the ranks getting kickbacks.

  25. Ads? haha! by boundary · · Score: 1

    If I have to use ads to view a service, that service can fuck right off.

  26. easily defeated by 1u3hr · · Score: 2
    How any logos are there that the average person could recognise? A few hundred? Say a thousand. Much easier to add these to the "OCR" library than the mangled text in captchas. There are only so many ads. And all the ads could be harvested and catalogued automatically, as they'd just reuse ones on other sites with identifying metadata.

    Complete bullshit. And you know for a fact that in no time we'd be having to answer questions about crap like "One weird secret for losing weight/Mom is 54 and looks 27". Then we'd have to watch a flash animation. And listen to a jingle....

    1. Re:easily defeated by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 1

      Yeah, that's the joke of these systems. They are completely insecure and utter failures at actually being CAPTCHAs. Common sense should be enough to determine this, but apparently it's not. Ad-based CAPTCHAs are one of the most ridiculous scams I've seen for a long time.

  27. But by YADoctor · · Score: 1

    Putting the money making aside (which if they do it well is an acceptable and novel idea), is it not a good thing to have clients stalled for quarter of a minute? An average of 14 seconds per thousands or millions of connections a day surely results in a GIANT saving in terms of CPU time. Right?

  28. I don't really recognise logos well by Gordonjcp · · Score: 1

    Another issue is that most people don't "see" adverts, and will skip over these.

    Video and audio adverts are the worst - one of the things that annoys me about Spotify is the adverts, which are so annoying they make me less likely to even pay for the service and just stick to playing my own music. Every three songs I get some guy quack-quack-quacking away in a foreign language, which surely makes no commercial sense.

    1. Re:I don't really recognise logos well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think the spotify adverts work wonder. Everyone I know that pays for spotify does it to get rid of the adverts because they are so annoying.

      Not buying the service because the ads in the free version is annoying seems very illogical.
      Not using the free service because of the ads I can understand, but saying you would buy it if it weren't for the ads in the free version seems like a copout. You just want an excuse to why you don't want to pay.

    2. Re:I don't really recognise logos well by Gordonjcp · · Score: 1

      Paying isn't hugely convenient (or, it *wasn't* - they've sorted their payment gateway now) because it required a credit card.

      What prompted me to go for the paid service was the 30-day free trial. The adverts were deeply annoying and spoilt my enjoyment of the service to the extent that I just couldn't put up with it for more than a couple of songs. Having it for a month for free demonstrated that it actually works extremely well (modulo a few bugs in the Linux client) and it's well worth the money.

  29. Really? by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    "It's claimed that users are faster at responding to familiar logos..."

    I have no TV (but a 55" monitor to watch torrented stuff without ads), use adblockers everywhere, refuse ads in my mailbox, I wouldn't recognize a logo that I don't know from childhood and most of those have changed.

    " shortening the amount of time they spend proving that they are human."

    I wouldn't qualify ad-watchers as 'human'.

    1. Re:Really? by GWRedDragon · · Score: 1

      "It's claimed that users are faster at responding to familiar logos..."

      I have no TV (but a 55" monitor to watch torrented stuff without ads), use adblockers everywhere, refuse ads in my mailbox, I wouldn't recognize a logo that I don't know from childhood and most of those have changed.

      Do you also never go outside? Visit a store? Or purchase any products?

      I also block as many ads as I can, but I am still exposed to plenty of logos and such merely by going outside in any relatively urban area. Even interacting with any people you will see logos, since people wear all sorts of them on their clothing. There's also a logo on almost any product you can buy, even if you never go outside and never see any other people.

      If you don't know any logos, you must have been living under a rock. Say, did you know that 15 minutes could...

  30. Won't go by EmperorOfCanada · · Score: 2

    I don't care how good your information is I won't interact with an add that you have forced upon me. I'd even give up slashdot if tomorrow I went to log in and an ad-captcha popped up. This is exactly the sort of MBA type crap that is ruining so many companies. Some douche does a spreadsheet showing how they will make x cents per user logging in with the ad-captcha. First the spreadsheet doesn't show how many customers will soon flee and second you suddenly have a new incentive to start ad-captcha'ing all over the place. First you just log people out more (a great way to lose customers because they can't be bothered to retrieve their login) and then you start putting ad-captchas between the user and just about everything. At first this will look great on the bottom line as you will probably triple your ad revenue overnight but 2 years later you are laying off 90% of your staff because you only have 10% of your readers.

    The equivalent logic would apply to a grocery store putting all their prices up 20%. In the first week they would be rolling in profits due to customer inertia but by week 52 they are closed as there are so many other stores roughly 20% less.

    But the worst logic is that an ad-capcha takes less time. Again MBA logic; the user is taking less time but seething the for that time and for a while after. Also keep in mind that most people (we aren't most people) don't have a clue what captchas are about but it must be something technical. But an ad everybody can understand.

    So my prediction is that the best that ad-captcha sites can hope for will be that their growth will slow down; but my thinking is that most ad-captcha implementing sites will be taking it down and publicly saying that it was one of the worst decisions in the site's history.

    1. Re:Won't go by jiadran · · Score: 1

      Sorry, can't mod. But this is the best comment I've seen for this story! Thanks!

  31. Negative Turing Test by Errol+backfiring · · Score: 1

    So it is actually a negative Turing test. You must be as insensitive as a machine to be able to sit through the entire "captcha". Great!

    --
    Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
  32. Doesn't work by fa2k · · Score: 1

    This will not work for the same reason that image-based captchas, riddles and maths questions do not work: There is only a small number of logo/slogan combinations. It is trivial to construct a database (1:1 mapping) of these.

    The problem with captchas is to find a mapping which is easy for a computer to do one way, and difficult the other way. Initially, the ad-based captchas are a good idea, because it is impossible for a computer to derive the correct answer from the question. The problem is that computers are better at remembering things than humans, and they are more "patient"

  33. Issue a shell command by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you want an effective, easy, and unprofitable verification procedure - https://bbs.archlinux.org/register.php (look at the bottom).

    Basically, you have to issue a shell command, and copy the output into the text box.

    Another added bonus of this is, it keeps Windows users off of the internet.

  34. Naming rights by jodido · · Score: 0

    Maybe we could all find name sponsors for our web pages or even IP addresses: "Welcome to The [corporate name here] Jodido47 Web Site" or [corporate name here]192.168.1.1

  35. There isn't always a significant other provider by tepples · · Score: 1

    You claim that there will always be an alternative to providers that adopt the practice. I don't see how that'll be the case if major players totaling 90 percent of usage share decide to adopt the practice. Case in point: When video game consoles went closed in 1985, what was the alternative to video game consoles for gaming on a TV? Gamers sucked it up and accepted less choice. When home ISPs went capped, what was the alternative to cable and DSL? Home ISP customers sucked it up and accepted caps. So what'll happen when the major sites in certain categories will adopt these CAPTCHAs?

    1. Re:There isn't always a significant other provider by Nbrevu · · Score: 1

      I think that, given the nature of internet, is far easier to provide a website than a domestic gaming system or a telecommunications infrastructure. Although you may be right when it comes to very big sites.

  36. Geotargeting by tepples · · Score: 1

    Either A. they'd show you an ad for a different product sold in your country, or B. they'd block your IP the same way videos with music in them are blocked by GEMA on YouTube.

  37. Who remembers K5? by tepples · · Score: 2

    I haven't once seen us fork slashdot to only include (fewer?) high quality stories.

    Kuro5hin originally ran the SLASH software that powers Slashdot before Rusty rewrote it from the ground up to create Scoop.

  38. Waste of time? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was under the impression that by using re-captcha I was doing the world a service by helping to digitise books - http://www.ted.com/talks/luis_von_ahn_massive_scale_online_collaboration.html

  39. Infomercials hide the price until late by tepples · · Score: 1

    Not only are they still almost completely untargeted

    That's the fault of people using "do not track" and other similar privacy measures. I leave tracking on so that the ads I see are more likely to interest me. But it appears that a lot of advertisers don't care, as they continue to serve SWF ads that neither my laptop (which runs SWF in click-to-play) nor my tablet (which doesn't support SWF at all) can play.

    why not tell me the name of the product at the start of the video?

    For the same reason infomercials don't show you the price in minute one: the brand name might turn some people off. They want to show you the attributes to make you want the product, and then they tell you what product has those attributes.

    Why can't I click a "I want to see more"?

    That's called clicking the ad.

    Maybe there is some reason for ads sucking so much, maybe that's what makes them stick in my mind.

    Apart from the Super Bowl, ads that are actually well-produced entertainment would probably result in viewers being distracted by the production and remembering what happens in the ad rather than what product it was selling. Quick: Without using a search engine, which restaurant's commercial introduced the phrase "Where's the beef?"

    1. Re:Infomercials hide the price until late by grumbel · · Score: 1

      That's called clicking the ad.

      That only brings me to a webpage with a bigger version of the same ad or the companies webpage. In the days of the Internet I would expect it to bring me straight to Amazon where I can buy the product or to a price search engine that gives me the place with the lowest price. Or at least some place where I can get actual information on the product, reviews and such, a webforum, something, not just more marketing bullshit, I already clicked the ad, so don't bother me with even more of it, provide me with the info to actually give you money, easily. Also generally speaking most product webpages are complete junk, they simply don't provide the info I want about a product, they are vague and imprecise and not really helpful at all, a lot of products of our daily lives don't even have proper webpages, foot items for example rarely have any useful info about them. I don't just mean nutritional info, I want some history on the evolution of the product over the years, how it differs in different reasons and whatever. Product webpages should drown me in information like Wikipedia does, not just be the web version of a magazine ad.

      For the same reason infomercials don't show you the price in minute one: the brand name might turn some people off. They want to show you the attributes to make you want the product, and then they tell you what product has those attributes.

      That might have been true for TV, but on Youtube where I can skip ads after 5sec? What's the point of having an ad whose end I never see and thus never find out what the product is for?

      ads that are actually well-produced entertainment would probably result in viewers being distracted by the production

      Very true, but that is what I am complaining about. I can't remember what most ads are for because the ad has absolutely no relation to the actual product. You have 30sec of ad and then 2sec at the end where they actually show the product. It's like companies purposefully try to hide their product. At least give me a company logo in the corner so that I know what the ad is about or better yet make an actual informative video, not just some exercise in 30sec storytelling.

  40. Leaving dial-up users out on purpose by tepples · · Score: 1

    CAPCHAs fail to load over slower dialup connections

    That's called targeting. Dial-up tends to be popular among poor people and people living in rural areas where DSL and cable are not available. I'd guess a lot of advertisers prefer to target people with more disposable income in densely populated, easy-to-serve areas, not the dial-up demographic.

  41. Culturally dependent question as geotargeting by tepples · · Score: 1

    Identify which items are food: [Culturally dependent question]

    That's called targeting. Advertisers want to target people living in the country where they sell their products, not people halfway across the globe who have no reasonable chance of even encountering the product. Or a publisher might not have the license under copyright to display a given work in a given territory.

  42. Artificial limitation to net by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who cares if computers download files? Why does the Internet need this artificial limitation to the exchange of information? Why not let software download files automatically? I'd love to be able to batch up downloads in JDownloader and let them run overnight. I don't even mind a wait time between downloads as long as I don't have to physically do anything.

  43. Like the big 3 news agencies: Reuters, AP, AFP by tepples · · Score: 1

    Although you may be right when it comes to very big sites.

    Or very big providers of works that a lot of providers reprint. Consider what would happen if all sites that syndicated stories from Reuters, Associated Press, or Agence France-Presse were to adopt a particular method of access control.

  44. Advertising disguised as "Security" by AnalogDiehard · · Score: 2

    Back in 2000 I got so fed up with all the advertising on TV and radio and print, coupled with the poor quality of content and product placement, that I ceased listening to broadcast TV/radio and cancelled magazine subscriptions that are heavy in ads. I actively avoid ads and will not patronize chains that advertise movies (I'm talking to YOU, Burger King and Pizza Hut). Today I don't know the latest movie or TV show or any Lady GaGa songs, and I DON'T CARE. My personal life is so much better not being bombarded with ads.

    I really despised TV news broadcasts using movie advertisements disguised as "news", and this is an advertising gimmick disguised as "security". I won't recognize most brands today, will not waste my time researching them, and will move to another web resource without flinching. Ad-based CAPTCHAs is a big fail.

    --
    Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
    1. Re:Advertising disguised as "Security" by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1
      Area Man Constantly Mentioning He Doesn't Own A Television / Feb 9, 2000

      It's you, isn't it! Do you have a soul patch?

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  45. "We are NOT your enemies 'Banner'"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Try to THINK" -> http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3483769&cid=42979481

    (Especially about the points listed there in that link backed by documentation from reputable sources & making my point in the subject-line above & vs. your "points")

    Buddy, listen: That blade cuts BOTH ways, & moreso in favor of blocking adbanners on several grounds!

    * :)

    See subject-line above: YOU'RE OURS THOUGH, "MR. BANNER"...

    APK

    P.S.=> Banners COST YOU, in several ways (some only potentially via infected ads, but there nonetheless) - & it's not only the fact that:

    ---

    1.) Adbanners DO steal users' bandwidth users pay for monthly out-of-pocket to an ISP for online access (which has been mentioned & noted to YOU many times now).

    2.) Adbanners also make you download more & process it which steals CPU cycles, RAM, & other forms of I/O from a user also, + raises their ELECTRICITY BILLS in doing so as well!

    3.) Plus, Adbanners have done history stealing & privacy breaches onto users via adbanners as well (see link above, shows much of it, & that's only a PARTIAL LIST over time no less).

    4.) Lastly, Adbanners do INFEST YOU WITH MALICIOUS CODE (tons of THAT going on also, costing you yet again IF/WHEN you don't know how to remove it yourself, which IS MOST users (non-techs outnumber techs by far))...

    ... apk

  46. This is not going to help me by hkrish4 · · Score: 1

    I dont know If I can pass all this LOGO test any more. I am not good at remembering these LOGOS and associated Brand Name. This is sucky Idea and just helps ad based companies to earn money.

  47. That's what we do with Strongbox, one captcha ever by raymorris · · Score: 1

    That's what we do with the CAPTCHAS in our security system - you only have to do the CAPTCHA once, then never again for most people.
    In our case, we use the CAPTCHA to reduce brute force on a login-in system. Once you enter the CAPTCHA correctly once, you don't have to enter again as long as you enter your user name and password correctly. If you start entering incorrect user names and passwords, that could be a brute force attack, so you have to enter CAPTCHAS again.

  48. Cute how they think this simplifies anything... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Security is additive. Anything they add to the system to increase its security is going to compound the problem further. What next? Sign into Facebook, enter this CAPTCHA, now follow the e-mail we sent and solve this system of equations, now fill out the CAPTCHA for this page and we'll send you a text message...

    Blech. Computers can automate all of this to nearly nothing but that's not the point - we're trying to find something computers CAN'T do. CAPTCHAs are proving this list to be very very small.

  49. not more secure by Cyko_01 · · Score: 1

    Even the "google goggles" app on my phone can recognise logos

  50. You're on the right track, but we can ID computers by raymorris · · Score: 1

    We do identify computers pretty reliably. You mentioned five factors that can be used. You pointed out none of those five factors BY ITSELF is sufficient. But the COMBINATION of all five factors you mentioned plus a few you didn't mention works pretty darn well. I can't identify you by the first digit of your phone number, nor by the second digit, nor by the tenth. But if I look at all the digits together I can have pretty good idea of who it is.

    Add to that we're confirming that you are indeed who you claim to be, so we just need a yes/no answer, we don't have to figure out who you are. Lastly, in most practical scenarios, saying "it is probably the same person" or "it is probably not the same person" is sufficient - we don't have to 100% prove it. Credit / debit card fraud detection is a great example. I use my debit card daily. Out of thousands of transactions, I've received only about three calls from the fraud detection department to verify something - once when I was 1,000 miles from home and hadn't used my card on the way there, once 100 miles from home while buying expensive electronics, and one other time. The fraud detection works well by considering the strong combination of weak factors - location, type of store, amount of purchase, etc. are each weak in themselves. However, if my card is beng used in Florida, 1,000 miles from were I live AND it's the first time it's ever been used at a nail salon AND that comes 30 minutes after I used it in Texas AND that's the fifth transaction in the last 30 minutes, there may be something funny going on.

    CAPTCHAS and identifying computers are just like that, if done correctly. A system like Strongbox examines ALL available information and thereby does a good job of flagging something suspicious.

  51. In related news.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    An artical explains how captcha can be used to display images of products and require user to enter a check number of the bought product that was shown. It is claimed that this method improves user satisfaction by an order of magnitude

  52. "Rinse, Lather, & Repeat" troll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Trying to "hide" a post (w/out validly disproving it's points) -> http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3483769&cid=42979481

    ?

    * You FAIL, troll...

    I know it, YOU KNOW IT, & so does anyone else with 1/2 a brain reading here as well!

    (Since the "best you've got" = computing technically unjustifiable DOWNMODS vs. facts in that post in the link above I put out here...)

    New NEWS/NewsFlash/Clue - Others will see it anyhow despite your bogus downmod (since most here browse WELL BELOW the /. moderation level default!), & especially since I just posted beneath it dragging it back into view again once more, lol!

    APK

    P.S.=> That's tells me that the facts I listed in the link above are TOO MUCH for you & that you had to resort to "the last resort" of trolls!

    That being you applyied a bogus downmod to effetely & vainly TRY to hide that post & the facts I listed in it that you clearly cannot disprove VALIDLY with computing technical based data vs. those facts that I posted there (from reputable sources on the topic @ hand in the link above)...

    ... apk

  53. Cut the time in half? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Does that mean web users will go from wasting "years and years" to just wasting years?

  54. When you're Thor's hammer everything's a nail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Whoever downmodded my post unjustifiably got hammered -> http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3483769&cid=42979481 by the "Thor's Hammer" of FACTS I posted there!

    LMAO - Just like in the "video analogy" I used for it @ its termination, lol, here (vs. "Mr. Banner", who's "mo' money green", advertisers) -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=advsN-DfY2k who got EASILY "hammered" by the facts in the 1st link above I posted, which all my 'detractor/naysayer' has is a technically unjustifiable downmod & cannot disprove my facts listed there, validly!

    No, instead of validly disproving my points with counter facts, they instead *tried* to vainly & effetely "hide it" via bogus downmods!

    Weak...

    (Proving that the downmodder of my post clearly cannot validly disprove my points in the 1st link above, the very post I am replying to just to 'drag it back into view', & thus, the same downmodding TROLL cannot justify their bogus downmod of my post - period/fact!)...

    ---

    My 'hammer' vs.

    Adbanners

    Malicious threats online of all kinds such as botnet C&C servers, maliciously scripted websites + adbanners, phishers/spammers/trackers

    & more...?

    Well - I built it, myself, & it beats the HELL out of any other tool intended to be LIKE it, by a LONG shot & on many levels:

    ---

    APK Hosts File Engine 5.0++ 32/64-bit:

    http://www.start64.com/index.php?option=com_content&id=5851:apk-hosts-file-engine-64bit-version&Itemid=74

    ---

    Since custom hosts files provide added:

    ---

    1.) Speed (by blocking adbanners & hardcodes of fav. sites)

    2.) Security (by blocking adbanners, botnet C&C servers, malicious script on sites & in adbanners, malware serving sites, & other threats online galore)

    3.) Reliability (vs. threats noted above, downed or dns poisoned redirected DNS servers)

    4.) Even anonymity (to an extent vs. DNS request logs + DNSBL's you may not like too)!

    ---

    My program shown above also does all of that, which is more than competing 'solutions' do, & BETTER than:

    ---

    A.) AdBlock (crippled by default & hosts do 10 things it NEVER could also)

    B.) Ghostery (advertiser owned & tracks you, talk about a "Fox Guarding the Henhouse" since you'd have to be a REAL CLUCK to use it knowing that)

    C.) DNS servers (especially those setup locally wasting power & adding complexity over what a TIGHTLY INTEGRATED to the IP stack itself solution offers in custom hosts files!

    (Plus, my program populates from 12 valid reputable sources for custom hosts file data!)

    It helps DNS, by overcoming their shortcomings (especially via hardcodes which allow you to not have to use them, especially since they remain unpatched for 1/2 a decade++ now vs. the Kaminsky redirection security flaw, especially worst @ THE ISP LEVEL!) AND, also "lightens their load" for DNS server admins too - bonus!

    ---

    And, there ya go... you fail, bogusly downmodding trolls!

    APK

    P.S.=> Bottom-line: You FAIL, troll - since that's the "best you got" vs. facts I posted... & I know it, YOU KNOW IT, & anyone else reading here with 1/2 a brain does also - no questions asked!

    ... apk

  55. Accessibility? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Really disappointed in all the research on new visual CAPTCHAs when none are in the least bit accessible: http://www.sitepoint.com/captcha-inaccessible-to-everyone/

  56. My last post was downmodded, unjustifiably by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Adblock = INFERIOR to custom hosts files, on SEVERAL levels no less, was all I was trying to show you (& yet I was downmodded)...

    Take a read & be enlightened as to EXACTLY why vs. competing "solutions" in Adblock = crippled by default, Ghostery (owned by advertisers - talk about "foxes guarding the henhouse", you'd have to be a REAL 'cluck' to use it knowing that) & yes, even vs.DNS servers (which hosts can actually supplement as well as save complexity, CPU usage, RAM, & other forms of I/O they use, especially if setup as a separate system locally for home users, + thus electricity too)!

    Fact is - Custom Hosts files users benefit end users of them by gaining you added speed, security, reliability & even anonymity (to an extent in the latter) also!

    This is the tool I designed to generate them for you, easy as apple pie, from 12++ reputable sources for custom hosts file data, in both 32 or 64 bit form for Windows users:

    ---

    APK Hosts File Engine 5.0++ 32/64-bit:

    http://start64.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5851:apk-hosts-file-engine-64bit-version&catid=26:64bit-security-software&Itemid=74

    Which, if you read the list of what it can do for you as an end user of the resulting output it produces listed in the link above, you'll understand how/why...

    "It's as strong as steel, & a 3rd of the weight" - Howard Stark from the film "Captain America"

    ---

    Especially vs. competing alternate 'solutions', noted below in AdBlock/Ghostery & yes even DNS servers, next, as 'examples thereof'...

    Solutions that used to be good & I even recommended them in security guides I wrote up over the decades now -> http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbo=d&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=%22HOW+TO+SECURE+Windows+2000/XP%22&btnG=Submit&gbv=1&sei=ka3yUKzxB-6_0QHLroCQCA

    That did extremely well for myself (and users of them), for Windows users, for "layered-security"/"defense-in-depth" purposes - the BEST THING WE HAVE GOING vs. threats of all kinds, currently!

    (Not anymore though, & certainly NOT far as AdBlock's concerned especially, not after this):

    ---

    Adblock Plus To Offer 'Acceptable Ads' Option:

    http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/12/12/2213233/adblock-plus-to-offer-acceptable-ads-option

    (Meaning by default, which MOST USERS WON'T CHANGE, it doesn't block ALL ads - they "souled-out"... talk about "foxes guarding the henhouse")!

    ---

    Plus, Adblock CAN'T DO AS MUCH & not from a single file solution that runs in Ring 0/RPL 0/kernelmode via tcpip.sys, a driver (since it's part of the IP stack & tightly integrated into it) which is far, Far, FAR FASTER than ring 3/rpl 3/usermode apps like browsers, & addons slow them down (known issue in FireFox).

    To wit, 10++ things AdBlock can't do, hosts can:

    ---

    1.) Blocking rogue DNS servers malware makers use

    2.) Blocking known sites/servers that serve up malware... like known sites/servers/hosts-domains that serve up malicious scripts

    3.) Speeding up your FAVORITE SITES that hosts can speed up via hardcoded line item entries properly resolved by a reverse DNS ping

    4.) AdBlock works on Mozilla products (browser & email), hosts work on ANY webbound app AND are multiplatform.

    5.) AdBlock can't protect external to FireFox email programs, hosts can (think OUTLOOK, Eudora,

  57. "Rinse, Lather, & Repeat" (to "Mr. Banner") by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ads steal CPU cycles, RAM, & I/O from a user = electricity bills being higher AND stealing our bandwidth we pay for as well monthly to ISP's to be online, + infecting users with malicious code too (costing again if you don't know how to remove it yourself) -> http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3483769&cid=42979481

    ?

    * "WE ARE NOT YOUR ENEMIES BANNER - TRY TO THINK!" -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=advsN-DfY2k

    (However- per my original post? You certainly DO prove to be ours though... see links above, & the facts in the 1st one proving my points here!).

    ADDITIONALLY & IMPORTANT:

    Since you downmod my post of this nature unjustifiably & yet not disproving its facts extolled, here -> http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3483769&cid=42979855

    ?

    That only shows anyone reading, 1 thing:

    Every troll's a nail, & I have the "hammer" for the job (Thor's hammer -> http://www.start64.com/index.php?option=com_content&id=5851:apk-hosts-file-engine-64bit-version&Itemid=74 ), lmao!

    (Good video link above - I read that stuff as a kid & am amazed it's being made into multimillion dollar profiting films the past couple decades or so now - lol, helped me make a point above, by "video analogy" too decades later!)

    APK

    P.S.=> Bottom-line: YOU, have been "hammered", & "nailed" "Mr Banner" (all ca$h-money GREEN & all that, lol)...

    Nuked by truth & facts from documented reputable sources & myself in the links above (figureatively & by analogy in the YouTube one, "MR. BANNER" & by facts in the former, and here now also)...

    ... apk