Monday, January 20, 2020

I think one of Googles Captcha challenges should be - mountains or molehills.

2 comments:

  1. Capital of Texas RefugeeMonday, January 20, 2020 7:56:00 PM

    I came to realize that Google's captcha isn't actually meant to be for its stated purpose ...

    It's really a reverse intelligence test.

    Can you think like a profoundly stupid person?

    Here's a captcha for you to solve like a complete fucking idiot.

    YOU DON'T GET CREDIT FOR ACCURACY!

    Apparently Google likes punishing the smart people in class, because of course Google wants to pretend that it's already hired them all. :-)

    A few examples:

    "Crosswalks": one of the "crosswalks" that enough people selected was the top half of a pavement marker that said "ONLY", while another one was actually the "rumble strip" used to indicate that your vehicle's drifting off the side of the road. (An actual metered "zebra crossing" in the UK simply didn't register with most people as an extremely safety-enhanced form of "crosswalk", and so if you clicked it, you got to do another captcha challenge. Fun.)

    "Traffic lights": sometimes it includes the "WALK" and "DON'T WALK" sign, sometimes it doesn't, but it also never includes the lights from the next set of stop lights if they're in the picture, even if you can see them clearly, as well as any train signal lights if there are also stop lights in the picture.

    "Buses": apparently US Mail semi-trailers, UPS trucks, and long horse trailers are also buses, but short "dial-a-ride" and handicapped service buses often aren't. (Even Google gives the short bus kids a bunch of crap!)

    "Cars": apparently semi-trailers and cargo haulers are occasionally also cars.

    "Motorcycles": also sometimes includes bicycles and cars.

    "Churches": also includes synagogues and mosques inconsistently, but so far has not included Buddhist temples, and has also not included buildings with signs in many languages that indicate the bulilding is an "iglesia", "kyrka", etc. (Also includes at least one urban prison, with obvious bars and security features on all of the windows.)

    "Mountains": sometimes includes a small hill created as a berm for a limited-access highway of some type, and also sometimes includes mounds of dirt used by construction crews.

    "Palm trees": sometimes includes obviously camouflaged cell towers as well as trees that are quite clearly not palm trees.

    "Retail shop": sometimes includes churches that are clearly marked as churches in other languages, and has also included the local DMV, the local job seeker's assistance bureau, several medical clinics, and yet another urban prison.

    And my favorite of all ...

    "Bicycles": also includes the pavement markings for a bicycle lane as well as a metal sculpture in the general shape of a bicycle, but which is obviously not a bicycle.

    ...

    "Senator, welcome to our microphones ...
    Is there anything of yours that we can keep as a memento of this visit?"


    TAKE CALIFORNIA

    :-)

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