SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:
Starting today, there will be a whole new stream of content on Smithereens that is completely, 100% Top Secret and will show you how to make at least a quarter per quarter on your blog! (If you don't believe me, I can post AdSense screenshots!!!)
Want in? Of course you do! Well all you have to do to is decipher this simple CAPTCHA below and put it in the comments and you will gain INSTANT ACCESS.
Sorry, but we just need to know that you're not a computer. (Or a normal human being with regular sensory perception.):
P.S. Yes, that is the symbol formerly know as Prince in there. Well, are you a computer or not?
UPDATE:
File this one under "You can't make this stuff up." Despite the painstaking tedium I put in to create the above satirical CAPTCHA monstrosity yesterday, I still could not outdo the very real knee-slapper below, which was used by RapidShare, discovered by a Nordic Swedish blogger (not sure which language, sorry - if you know please let me know in the comments) over at CopyRiot, and delightfully brought to our attention by Linda in the comments.
If you can't read the print, RapidShare is asking you to "Only enter symbols attached to a cat." Yes, that's correct, attached to a cat, because how else can we screen out spam-bots these days? Come on! We're at war here, people!
The best part, as Linda points out, is that apparently only four of the characters are "attached to cats", prompting her to wonder about the species of the other 'attached animals.' You and me both.
Show me a computer that can bust through that Turing Test and I'll show you a RapidShare Premium Subscriber.
Just confirms my belief that they're now making captchas that are readable by neither human nor machine. Can't tell you how often my captcha-copying has been rejected (by a machine, of course!).
I'm sorry, mark david gerson, your letters do not match those shown in the image. You may now a) try again or b) pull your hair out in frustration.
Dear Computer,
Is there a third option? I can't afford to lose any more hair (even in such a good cause) and trying again will just make me want to pull my hair out...which brings us back to where we started (ie, nowhere).
Here is another one, apparently you are supposed to type in only the letters which are attached to a cat.
Attached to a cat - isn't that cruelty to animals? And blogger who found it tells it is supposed to be only four letters - so what species are the other creatures?
http://copyriot.se/bilder/rapidshare_turing.gif
... and yes, a Nordic language it is, as you noticed. The answer is Swedish. =)
/Linda
@Linda: Thanks for clarifying! I'll update the post.