The best one I've seen renders a series of characters graphically (a la TicketBastard) which the user (a human, of course) has to type into a text field on the comment form before their comment is accepted.
Sure, that's great for humans using a graphical browser, with images turned on, and 20/20 vision. But that doesn't cover all internet users. What about text browsers? What about screen readers?
This is the age of internet accessibility folks, and it's exactly why I refuse to use Captcha tests on my own blog - instead, I currently filter all comments and trackbacks through wp-spamassassin. Haven't had a single problem yet, although it's early days.
The rel="nofollow" trick sounds promising for killing off the PageRank cheats, but it won't stop humans clicking the links...
Sorry, but while people rave about "the blogging phenomenon", they generally forget to mention that most blogs are either dull as hell if they're lucky, or more likely just abandoned when the author got bored.
Sure, there are the few excellent ones that stand out, but 75% are just dead livejournals or blogspots with
Of course, I have one myself, so I'm hardly entitled to comment...:o)
Ok, most PCs come with Windows preinstalled. So Microsoft makes some money on the OEM license. Now, Windows ships with IE as the default (and only) browser, so most users will just use IE without even realising what a 'browser' is.
Because of this, lazy web developers, as well as Microsoft and their partners, will only develop their sites for IE - therefore lots of websites will only work with IE on Windows.
So people who want to use "the internets" will have no choice but to use IE on Windows. Which means more license fees for Microsoft...
Maybe someone should point out that Microsoft is battling dozens of patent-infringement lawsuits itself, and any user of Microsoft software (including governments) could also be sued?
Wow, these guys really are preying on your fears, aren't they?
Remember all the nutjobs who ran for the hills in the middle of all the Y2K panic? That was funny enough, but pushing this kind of place, on the vague premise that 'there hasn't been a virulent epidemic for a while now', is just silly...
In the UK, everyone wears uniform at high school, but I know what you mean.
What I was actually alluding to was the fact that modern 'hacker/geek' languages like Perl or Python will often let you solve problems more quickly than eg. Java with its strict typing.
Given that the competition is effectively a race against time, it's a shame that you don't seem to be allowed to use a language designed to help you accomplish these things more quickly.
And yes, interpreted languages will be slower than compiled ones, but with Java's JVM and.NET's sprawling mass of runtime libraries, the difference may be less than you think.
Because we won't be able to convince our non-techie friends and family to switch from the application that all their friends use!
It's a chain-of-chains problem - I need to use Y!IM because some of my friends use it. They won't switch because all their friends use it. And their friends won't switch because all *their* friends use it.
And as an aside, neither Trillian nor GAIM support any of the advanced features of AIM, MSN or Y!IM (webcam, voice chat etc), so I have to use all three clients instead of an all-in-one.
Oh, wouldn't it be nice if everything just worked...
That actually makes a lot of sense, if there was a way to deal with the obvious security concerns.
Some sort of distributed "grid" (ugh) of internet BOOTP/TFTP servers would not be too tricky to implement and would be useful today, eg. for installing various flavours of Linux.
We already have the "netinst" floppy and CD-images, why not skip the middle stage and boot the image straight from the internet?
Slashdot Mirror
Turgid.
adj 1: ostentatiously lofty in style; "a man given to large talk"; "tumid political prose" [syn: bombastic, declamatory, large, orotund, tumid]
Sure, that's great for humans using a graphical browser, with images turned on, and 20/20 vision. But that doesn't cover all internet users. What about text browsers? What about screen readers?
This is the age of internet accessibility folks, and it's exactly why I refuse to use Captcha tests on my own blog - instead, I currently filter all comments and trackbacks through wp-spamassassin. Haven't had a single problem yet, although it's early days.
The rel="nofollow" trick sounds promising for killing off the PageRank cheats, but it won't stop humans clicking the links...
Nonsense, Lloyds TSB's internet banking works perfectly across all major browsers and platforms.
Click here to find out how to use a mouse!
What? Eh? Oh.
Sorry, but while people rave about "the blogging phenomenon", they generally forget to mention that most blogs are either dull as hell if they're lucky, or more likely just abandoned when the author got bored.
:o)
Sure, there are the few excellent ones that stand out, but 75% are just dead livejournals or blogspots with
Of course, I have one myself, so I'm hardly entitled to comment...
Ok, most PCs come with Windows preinstalled. So Microsoft makes some money on the OEM license. Now, Windows ships with IE as the default (and only) browser, so most users will just use IE without even realising what a 'browser' is.
Because of this, lazy web developers, as well as Microsoft and their partners, will only develop their sites for IE - therefore lots of websites will only work with IE on Windows.
So people who want to use "the internets" will have no choice but to use IE on Windows. Which means more license fees for Microsoft...
Works great for me.
But not the apostrophe law, right?
> fried my mp3 collection [h4xx0r.co.uk] (and the rest of my data)
:(
It wasn't just the mp3 collection
You're right though, of course.
That's well timed - today I coincidentally fried my mp3 collection (and the rest of my data) anyway. Stupid hdparm...
Every cloud really does has a silver lining, I guess. It doesn't make me feel any better about it though!
Wow, these guys really are preying on your fears, aren't they? Remember all the nutjobs who ran for the hills in the middle of all the Y2K panic? That was funny enough, but pushing this kind of place, on the vague premise that 'there hasn't been a virulent epidemic for a while now', is just silly...
Ha.
.NET's sprawling mass of runtime libraries, the difference may be less than you think.
In the UK, everyone wears uniform at high school, but I know what you mean.
What I was actually alluding to was the fact that modern 'hacker/geek' languages like Perl or Python will often let you solve problems more quickly than eg. Java with its strict typing.
Given that the competition is effectively a race against time, it's a shame that you don't seem to be allowed to use a language designed to help you accomplish these things more quickly.
And yes, interpreted languages will be slower than compiled ones, but with Java's JVM and
No Perl?
No Python?
No ("cool" hacker language of the day)?
How many real geeks are they going to attract?
+5 Insightful?
I don't know whether to laugh or cry...
I think it's supposed to be parsed as:
(Instant-On TV) & (DVR)
Tried it.
Every other morning, I was faced with the choice "stay in nice comfy bed and sleep more" or "go outside and run around". Guess which option I chose?
I have no willpower when I wake up tired...
Never before, has your signature been so apt.
Because we won't be able to convince our non-techie friends and family to switch from the application that all their friends use!
It's a chain-of-chains problem - I need to use Y!IM because some of my friends use it. They won't switch because all their friends use it. And their friends won't switch because all *their* friends use it.
And as an aside, neither Trillian nor GAIM support any of the advanced features of AIM, MSN or Y!IM (webcam, voice chat etc), so I have to use all three clients instead of an all-in-one.
Oh, wouldn't it be nice if everything just worked...
That actually makes a lot of sense, if there was a way to deal with the obvious security concerns.
Some sort of distributed "grid" (ugh) of internet BOOTP/TFTP servers would not be too tricky to implement and would be useful today, eg. for installing various flavours of Linux.
We already have the "netinst" floppy and CD-images, why not skip the middle stage and boot the image straight from the internet?
Yeah, but videogames won't suck your cock...
Can somebody point out the insightful part of the parent post?
Thanks
Baz
Atheism is not a religion, it's an opinion.
Then there's the fine line between not believing in god, and believing there is no god... Topic for another day though, methinks.