Math Is Fun Forum

bobbym

bumpkin

From: Bumpkinland

Registered: 2009-04-12

Posts: 109,606

My favorite annoyance.

Begin Rant:

Okay, you see a nice, juicy forum. You want in. No problem you just have to register. How hard can that be? So you go down filling in each line.

1)

username: bobbym

password: 123456abc

Security question: What is your favorite shoe?

answer:  The one without the hole!

email (mandatory): bobbym@wailmail.com

.
.
.

Now comes that horrible captcha. You know the image with the tiny letters at crazy angles with big blobs of mustard on top of them. So you look at it.
I think that is a av26sd. Enter. Nope, not even close. Everything on the page resets to blank and you goto 1)

Now the same questionaire that was not smart enough to keep your fields intact is smart enough to remember your username and email and to inform you that they are in use already. Now you know that is wrong. You dig up new names and email addresses, same horrible captcha.
After you run out of email addresses and usernames you look around for someone to email about it. No such luck pal.

End Rant:

This just happened to me while trying to join a forum for a well known firewall. If their firewall is as tricky as their registration, hackers will never get in.

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In mathematics, you don't understand things. You just get used to them.
If it ain't broke, fix it until it is.
Always satisfy the Prime Directive of getting the right answer above all else.

mathsyperson

Moderator

Registered: 2005-06-22

Posts: 4,900

Re: My favorite annoyance.

Maybe you're a computer.

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Why did the vector cross the road?
It wanted to be normal.

bobbym

bumpkin

From: Bumpkinland

Registered: 2009-04-12

Posts: 109,606

Re: My favorite annoyance.

Nope.

But I have to admit I thought of that. It is well known that Borg nanoprobes can be anywhere ( see the book, "Nanoprobes, where are they and how do we stop them."
So to test the assertion that I am not a computer I drew some blood and subjected it to an electropheretic analysis.
It is a homebuilt unit but adequate. Nanoprobes react strongly to the microcurrents in the apparatus and will drift towards the anode.
I did not detect a single one. As the test is only 96.3% accurate, I sent it to 4 labs for confirmation.
So the chance that all five tests failed to detect that I am a computer is:

So there is about 1 chance in 14 400 000 that I am a computer.

---

In mathematics, you don't understand things. You just get used to them.
If it ain't broke, fix it until it is.
Always satisfy the Prime Directive of getting the right answer above all else.