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Yet another completely ineffectual captcha that completely misses the point. http://scr.im/test http://scr.im/test Are you joking? There is a 1 in 9 chance of

Yet another completely ineffectual captcha that completely misses the point. http://scr.im/test http://scr.im/test Are you joking? There is a 1 in 9 chance of getting the captcha right if you pick completely randomly. If I was writing a program to scrape these addresses your entire captcha system might add 2 minutes of programming time to the job.

olalonde 16y ago
How about coining it "cargo cult captcha"[1] :) It seems there are lots of futile CAPTCHAs popping out these days. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult
maushu 16y ago
He explains it in the FAQ.
- TomasSedovic 16y ago
  The explanation (CAPTCHAs should be simple for humans; we don't say it's unbreakable) still doesn't address the underlying problem. It is too easy. I have no idea how to do image recognition and yet I could use this to scrape the addresses. Moreover, this service has a great potential to use real human language and context to protect the addresses and provide easy and accessible test. Just let me type a freeform question and an expected answer. If I posted the link here and it asked you to enter the city I live in, everyone reading this comment here on Hacker News could easily figure it out. Breaking this solution in general would be infeasible for bots.
- mike-cardwell 16y ago
  A captcha is something which can tell the difference between a human and a computer. What he's using is something other than a captcha. Not sure what it is, but it isn't a captcha. What it definitely is though is a massive waste of time.
gregschlom 16y ago
Quoting their FAQ: " The Captcha (humanity check) is way too simple, I can bruteforce it with a script! It's exactly how it should be. It's not an unbreakable locker. We prefer simple captchas, ease of use and convenience over undecypherable and cumbersome enigmas. " Not convinced...
- mapleoin 16y ago
  Yeah, I don't understand how that helps with the goal of protecting my email...
  - mike-cardwell 16y ago
    If anything, it will do the opposite. https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=http://scr.im/ https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=http://scr.im/ 95,000 results. Easily scriptable. Any spammers out there want a list of email addresses of people who are interested in spam protection?
    - tankrim 16y ago
      Quickly scanning a few randomly selected search result pages revealed exactly zero links to email addresses protected by scr.im.
      - lrm242 16y ago
        First two pages of results: http://scr.im/yuri http://scr.im/yuri http://scr.im/john http://scr.im/john http://scr.im/stevie http://scr.im/stevie http://scr.im/palmynthteu http://scr.im/palmynthteu http://scr.im/mrintech http://scr.im/mrintech http://scr.im/jffcrmr http://scr.im/jffcrmr
      - mike-cardwell 16y ago
        You didn't look very hard then, there's loads.
- olalonde 16y ago

olalonde 16y ago

How about coining it "cargo cult captcha"[1] :) It seems there are lots of futile CAPTCHAs popping out these days. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult

maushu 16y ago

He explains it in the FAQ.

TomasSedovic 16y ago
The explanation (CAPTCHAs should be simple for humans; we don't say it's unbreakable) still doesn't address the underlying problem. It is too easy. I have no idea how to do image recognition and yet I could use this to scrape the addresses. Moreover, this service has a great potential to use real human language and context to protect the addresses and provide easy and accessible test. Just let me type a freeform question and an expected answer. If I posted the link here and it asked you to enter the city I live in, everyone reading this comment here on Hacker News could easily figure it out. Breaking this solution in general would be infeasible for bots.
mike-cardwell 16y ago
A captcha is something which can tell the difference between a human and a computer. What he's using is something other than a captcha. Not sure what it is, but it isn't a captcha. What it definitely is though is a massive waste of time.

gregschlom 16y ago

Quoting their FAQ: " The Captcha (humanity check) is way too simple, I can bruteforce it with a script! It's exactly how it should be. It's not an unbreakable locker. We prefer simple captchas, ease of use and convenience over undecypherable and cumbersome enigmas. " Not convinced...

mapleoin 16y ago
Yeah, I don't understand how that helps with the goal of protecting my email...
- mike-cardwell 16y ago
  If anything, it will do the opposite. https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=http://scr.im/ https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=http://scr.im/ 95,000 results. Easily scriptable. Any spammers out there want a list of email addresses of people who are interested in spam protection?
  - tankrim 16y ago
    Quickly scanning a few randomly selected search result pages revealed exactly zero links to email addresses protected by scr.im.
    - lrm242 16y ago
      First two pages of results: http://scr.im/yuri http://scr.im/yuri http://scr.im/john http://scr.im/john http://scr.im/stevie http://scr.im/stevie http://scr.im/palmynthteu http://scr.im/palmynthteu http://scr.im/mrintech http://scr.im/mrintech http://scr.im/jffcrmr http://scr.im/jffcrmr
    - mike-cardwell 16y ago
      You didn't look very hard then, there's loads.
olalonde 16y ago