I think I’ve already ranted about the inaccessibility of those CAPTCHA images that are used to distinguish humans from bots– assuming, of course, that those humans have perfect eyesight and no perceptual processing difficulties. But as Blogger founder Evan Williams discovered last month, sometimes they’re even illegible to the target audience as well.

Even when they’re not that distorted, there are some usability issues that people tend to forget about when writing CAPTCHA scripts. How, for instance, is one supposed to distinguish ‘I’ from ‘l’ from ‘1’, or ‘O’ from ‘0’, without any sort of cues as to the typeface being used? And sometimes the extra distortion only makes things worse; a ‘3’ might look like an ‘8’, or a ‘g’ like a ‘9’.

And that, of course, is assuming one actually has a reasonable enough knowledge of the Roman alphabet to identify the distorted characters at all. Otherwise, one will be in the same boat Jim O’Connell of wirefarm.com was in when a Korean site forced him to enter a CAPTCHA in the Korean alphabet…

Subject: Get wht you deserve now -cab driver 08 biceps
From: “MBA Degree ” <terjhqzpkhy@gala.net>
To: cody@zone38.net

I didn’t realize that I deserved eight cab driver biceps. In fact, I’m not sure what exactly is so special about cab driver biceps…

(more…)

Subject: leew Uncle Rummie’s Hangover Pills! awngap
From: “Davy Btipn” <programmingwakrg@hbi.com>
To: “Frances Vixetzkn” <designs@zone38.net>

Subject: osin Softwares CDS all software under $15 and $99! bylm
From: “Dora Fywohat” <Greenfeldteo@mdi9834.com>
To: “Nora Yoolad” <designs@zone38.net>

(more…)

Actual headers taken from a random selection of spam in my mailbox:

Subject: oleuieu try your luck! lhoe
From: “Hermann Lwagppua” <counterflowgavrd@lionapparel.com>
To: “Donald Krw” <designs@zone38.net>

Subject: octasi Viagra at 0.95$ per dose!!! Buy it! ajoutgu
From: “Isolde Bsagnfo” <infectedullcn@dfg.nl>
To: “Cordelia Ulki” <designs@zone38.net>

(more…)

Via this post about grocers’ signs in LiveJournal’s Mock The Stupid community, here’s a link to Peter “Pizzabagel” Szabaga’s collection of misspelled signs. Glad to see that I’m not the only one who obsesses over such things!

I’m quoting this exactly as I received it. It’s… so messed up.

First off, the headers:

Subject: Valium and Xanax, etc shipped to you fr3e Cody minivan 153 haunches
From: "Riley Crain" <kujnhjl@tut.by>
X-Mailer: apportion laborious kensington
Organization: cleavage 503 gonads

Given the name of his organization, I have to wonder whether he’s hawking Viagra and its ilk as well…

The plain-text portion of the message:

Any food stamp can steal pencils from earring for chess board, but it takes a real cough syrup to tomato behind somnambulist.Jewell and I took minivan about freight train (with power drill beyond, ribbon related to CEO.A few stalactites, and ball bearing about lunatic) to arrive at a state of waif

And the text of the HTML portion:

[spkw.jpg]
behind omphalos, umbrella beyond ball bearing, and tripod beyond are what made America great!Jewell, the friend of Jewell and panics with about plaintiff.Now and then, chess board toward give lectures on morality to spider near.clodhoppers remain geosynchronous.Indeed, defined by bonbon caricature bullfrog beyond.And take a peek at the dark side of her mirror.
shopworn purpose collegian dunbar maier lob

Indeed, hydrogen atom over somnambulist boogie over steam engine.Most widows believe that somnambulist near sanitize girl from.
serviette hepburn perhaps advice guarantee wrongdoing lark denouement

The latest spamonyms, all from rather nonsensical Cialis spam:

• “Stanzas U. Devouter”
• “Exorcizes A. Limestone”
• “Wreckage K. Respectively”
• “Tasselling C. Retreaded”

Those of you who are still using Internet Explorer as your primary browser should note that Microsoft has finally released a patch for the ADO security hole that was exploited by Russian hackers last week.

Yes, yes, I know, I post a lot of odd things from spam here… that’s because it’s more interesting than my life a lot of the time. 🙂

Anyway, here’s the rather ridiculous way that one spammer attempted to bypass filters; didn’t work, as it still got thrown in my SpamAssassin folder with a Bayesian spam probability of over 99%…

--- system information ---

wide software descriptions operation interaction distinctions We disclosures

platform platform can designing while could absence geographic
nearly fully helpful geographic lies within there submitted
[Definition: standards localized years takes maintaining behavior manner

following environments does revised guidance require use form

As nonsensical as computer jargon may sound a lot of the time, I don’t think it’s ever reached these levels…

Mom threatens ‘Chuck E. Cheese,’ authorities say

A teenager dressed as Chuck E. Cheese was pelted with pizza and threatened with a beating Sunday by an angry parent who said the restaurant mascot wasn’t paying enough attention to her child, witnesses told Macon police.

The incident took place at the Chuck E. Cheese at 3375 Mercer University Drive, according to a police report. The 17-year-old was in costume as the pizzeria chain character – a gray cartoon-like rodent with large front teeth – when the 31-year-old Macon woman threw a piece of pizza at her, the report stated.

The woman then allegedly threatened to “whip” the girl when she changed out of the costume.

No charges have been filed in the incident.