spam spam spam spam wonderful spam, lovely spam
We are constantly being told in the form of one survey or another how we spend our time.
You know the sort of thing. We spend 3 years of our lives at traffic lights, 6 months cutting our toenails, 7 years on the toilet, 62 years waiting for Currys to deliver a washing machine.
I could go on.
Well I want to add another increasingly intrusive daily routine that eats away at our valuable time which we should be spending actually doing some work perhaps: the practice of having to prove to a website that you are indeed human and not some sort of (I believe the term used is) "spambot".
To verify that you have a beating heart you have to enter (usually) two words in a box before the website will allow you to proceed with whatever it is you wanted to do in the first place. Not too onerous a task you would think.
But no.
The words are in fonts that look like they are reflected upside down and back to front in a hall of mirrors - twisted and distorted so they are unrecognisable as any form of human media. And if you make a mistake typing them in you have to repeat the exercise with a new set of "words".
You can request a fresh set of characters yourself in the forlorn hope that you might be able to decipher the hieroglyphics in front of you. Don't bother. You won't.
Earlier, I wanted to comment on my sister's blog (http://twentysevenfiftysix.blogspot.co.uk) and I was greeted with the usual display that a 2 year old child with a paintbrush would have been disappointed with.
I had to re-request these verification codes 18 (yes I counted - I've a lot of time on my hands) times before I was finally confident enough to have a stab at it.
I got it wrong.
At this stage I found shouting and banging my head against my laptop marvellously therapeutic.
I did eventually manage to post my comment but it took me 4 minutes (yes I timed it) before I could even begin typing anything.
Based on my sister writing say 250 blog entries in a year, this means that I will spend around 17 hours in that time kicking things around my room in a blind rage. Taking it further, and assuming I live to the average age for a male (around 80) that's a total of 510 hours - 11 days. And my sister's blog is not the only site I visit that has these requirements.
My conservative estimate is that we'll spend a whole year of our lives going through this pointless exercise.
And remember, 62.859% of statistics are made up.
You know the sort of thing. We spend 3 years of our lives at traffic lights, 6 months cutting our toenails, 7 years on the toilet, 62 years waiting for Currys to deliver a washing machine.
I could go on.
Well I want to add another increasingly intrusive daily routine that eats away at our valuable time which we should be spending actually doing some work perhaps: the practice of having to prove to a website that you are indeed human and not some sort of (I believe the term used is) "spambot".
To verify that you have a beating heart you have to enter (usually) two words in a box before the website will allow you to proceed with whatever it is you wanted to do in the first place. Not too onerous a task you would think.
But no.
The words are in fonts that look like they are reflected upside down and back to front in a hall of mirrors - twisted and distorted so they are unrecognisable as any form of human media. And if you make a mistake typing them in you have to repeat the exercise with a new set of "words".
You can request a fresh set of characters yourself in the forlorn hope that you might be able to decipher the hieroglyphics in front of you. Don't bother. You won't.
Earlier, I wanted to comment on my sister's blog (http://twentysevenfiftysix.blogspot.co.uk) and I was greeted with the usual display that a 2 year old child with a paintbrush would have been disappointed with.
I had to re-request these verification codes 18 (yes I counted - I've a lot of time on my hands) times before I was finally confident enough to have a stab at it.
I got it wrong.
At this stage I found shouting and banging my head against my laptop marvellously therapeutic.
I did eventually manage to post my comment but it took me 4 minutes (yes I timed it) before I could even begin typing anything.
Based on my sister writing say 250 blog entries in a year, this means that I will spend around 17 hours in that time kicking things around my room in a blind rage. Taking it further, and assuming I live to the average age for a male (around 80) that's a total of 510 hours - 11 days. And my sister's blog is not the only site I visit that has these requirements.
My conservative estimate is that we'll spend a whole year of our lives going through this pointless exercise.
And remember, 62.859% of statistics are made up.
I'm flattered :-)
ReplyDeleteMy friend, I've said it before & I'll say it again, you are a very clever & accomplished writer.
ReplyDeleteHe has always been good with words - sometimes too many :-)
Deleteand sometimes not always in the right order
DeleteOh. And my code to publish that was 192.
ReplyDeleteI find it ironic that you're complaining about something that YOU require us to do in order to comment here......... ;)
ReplyDeletestrangely Robin I don't have to validate the comments I make on your blog by typing in something like "yodelling gawdgebungle" yet I do on Corinne's. `it's bizarre.
DeleteIt's a setting sonewhere in Blogger. You can turn it off if you chose.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThank God Nicky, I thought I was suffering from some form of dyslexia. At least I'm not alone and from the replies on MacForums neither are you. You write very well you know.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Rod