I don't know about you, but I object to the fact that whenever I'm given a captcha code to fill out during my daily online meanderings, not only am I verifying my true identity as a human being rather than a robot, cyborg or a breakfast TV presenter... I'm also helping boffins decipher old texts.
A lot of those wavy captcha texts (particularly the ones you struggle to decipher and often end up keying in the wrong word and having to pick an alternative) are taken straight from digitised books, magazines and sacred scrolls... and because computers are too dumbass to read them properly, us human lackeys are being made to do their job - for free!
I object to this on two fronts: firstly, now I'm self-employed, I want paying for my work as a translator - I reckon five quid per captcha isn't too much to ask; and secondly... this all feels a little Dan Brown to me. Not only do I not want anyone to mistake me for Tom Hanks... but what if I accidentally decipher a captcha that foretells the end of the world... 40 days of rain (or worse, 40 days of frog rain)... or that Homebase will be closing early next Sunday?
How can I live with that kind of responsibility?
So in future, no more captcha codes for me. Apart from the one in the comments section on this blog. I promise there's no hidden text deciphering involved there.
Speaking of hidden codes - this week's thoughtballoons character is The Riddler (my choice), so do pop over to the thoughtballoons site and check out our 1-page scripts. My own offering, "Wise Men Fold", started the week... and there's more head-scratchers to come...
