Posts Tagged ‘Things I Don’t Like’

Posted on June 18, 2009 - by Justin Hartman

CAPTCHA – A sure-fire way to lose customers

A CAPTCHA is a type of challenge-response test used in computing to ensure that the response is not generated by a computer. The process usually involves one computer (a server) asking a user to complete a simple test which the computer is able to generate and grade. Because other computers are unable to solve the CAPTCHA, any user entering a correct solution is presumed to be human. (via Wikipedia)

I really do consider myself an intelligent human being yet despite my own personal beliefs other websites simply don’t agree. For a long time I’ve struggled with CAPTCHA’s implemented on websites. Either I’m really dumb or the technology is flawed – I lean towards to later.

Let’s look at my latest example. Last night I went to Register.com to look for available domain names. Now I normally use GoDaddy for domain name squatting hunting but alas the last few days their search results have not been working properly so I decided to use the other giant.

When I tried to access the WHOIS details for a particular domain I was presented with a CAPTCHA – I guess in an effort to determine if I was a robot or a real human being – but after twenty unsuccessful attempts I simply had to give up the challenge-response test and succumb to the notion that I must be a robot/spammer/computer and not human after all.

After the first ten or so failures I decided to screenshot all my responses to the CAPTCHA images presented to me because I have to prove to myself that I am not a robot by getting your help on the matter. Here are my results.

Please can someone tell me where I went wrong…….?

The net-result is that Register.com will not be seeing any of my money any time soon and I can’t tell you how often this exact thing happens with CAPTCHA. I realise why a site like Register.com uses it, GoDaddy uses it too, but surely it could be easier for real people to pass the challenge-response test?

In 2005 the W3C Working Group wrote a paper on the Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA and there were some interesting findings. Most importantly they discovered that many of the CAPTCHA systems can be defeated by computers with between 88% and 100% accuracy and that all CAPTCHA effectively does is give site owners a false sense of security.

So if you implement a CAPTCHA system and are only able to achieve at best a 12% success rate in avoiding abuse of your system, then surely it’s time to implement other human verification methods?

 

Posted on March 5, 2009 - by Justin Hartman

Temperature in Cape Town

I know everyone in Cape Town is talking about the heat wave we’re experiencing but I just had to share this with people who aren’t here right now.

This is the time in Cape Town:

And this was the temperature in the City:

Now I’m not a big fan of heat but I don’t think I’ve ever been in a place where the temperature was more than 35 degrees. 40.5 degrees is something that is well and truly stifling. There has been a thick haze of smoke all over the city from all the fires and I haven’t been able to see the sea or mountain since 9am.

Come to think of it, without the sea and mountain it kind of feels a lot like Jo’burg!

 

Posted on January 9, 2009 - by Justin Hartman

Gaza: Why I think Israel is right

Writing about the middle-east is about as wise as walking into a pub filled with Harley-Davidson bikers and telling them that only babies drive their crap bikes – However, here I am.

Let me state firstly that this post is not meant to piss people off (yet I’m sure it will) nor do I want to create a war on my personal blog however there are things about the whole middle-east conflict that I’d like to get off my chest.

Secondly I’d like to make a point that this middle-east crisis is as a result of a small quota of militant Palestinian militia who have continuously tried to disrupt peace in the region. I don’t believe that innocent Palestinians deserve to die nor do I believe that Muslims are the cause of the problem.

While it is easy to look at the current fact that Israel have killed 750 Palestinians in just 13 days of attacks we are all quick to forget the history, and ultimately the reasons, that lead to Operation Cast Lead. Let’s look at some of the facts.

Iran-backed Hamas Rocket and Mortar Attacks

• 9,400+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since 2003. [1]
• 3,200+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza in 2008 alone. [2]
• 6,500+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. [3]
• 543+ rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israeli territory during the ceasefire from June 19 to Dec. 19, 2008. [4]
• 28 deaths caused by rockets and mortars fired from Gaza into Israel since 2001. The dead include Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers. [5]
• 1,000+ people in Israel injured from rockets and mortars fired from Gaza since 2001, including Israelis, Palestinians and foreign workers. Since the ceasefire, 44 Israelis have been injured and 200 have been treated for shock. [6]

The critical point here is that despite a ceasefire militants continued their onslaught and in my mind it is impossible for any country, not just Israel, to continue avoiding attacks on your people when a handful of extremists keep disregarding the peace.

Condemned by South Africa

Closer to home though I am extremely upset with the ANC and SACP who have outright condemned the attacks by Israel. They’ve setup meetings with Israeli ministers to try and get them to stop and just yesterday former Congress of South African Trade Unions president and Congress of the People National Executive Committee member, Willy Madisha, has called on the government to condemn Israel over the ongoing war in Palestine.

The SABC reports that:

Madisha says Israel has for decades been killing thousands of Palestinians in a war that has been condemned internationally. He says hundreds of people are being killed, children are being stopped from going to school and people have no food at all.

“This is a major problem and we are calling the government of South Africa to rise and say to Israel that this is wrong and that it has got to be stopped. South Africa should echo other countries’ sentiments so that the Israeli onslaught on Gaza should cease,” Madisha said.

Now the only reason all of this upsets me is because our leaders are quick to jump on this political band-wagon while they’ve done absolutely nothing about the bigger problem just outside our borders – Zimbabwe. Why they’ve chosen to pick sides in this conflict and done nothing about the epidemic in Zimbabwe baffles me.

Fair and Just?

While I can see the facts and merits of Israel’s motivation to protect their nation I’m still undecided as to whether or not Operation Cast Lead is actually the right way of executing their rights.

Either way, let’s not forget that the middle-east is not unique in this scenario as all around the world we have Muslim extremists causing havoc and inflicting Holy Wars. There really is no place in the world for people like this.

Right, I’ve had my say, and I thought that I’d like to end with this cool comic I found which I believe sums the whole situation up.

~~~ Footnotes: ~~~

[1] IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, Dec. 19, 2008; “Iran-backed Terrorists in Gaza Kill 3, Wound Others in Continuing Rocket Attacks on Israel,” The Israel Project press release, Dec. 29, 2008; Barzak, Ibrahim and Friedman, Matti, “Israel rejects truce call, pursues bombing Gaza,” Associated Press, Dec. 31, 2008

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] “Presentation to Military Attaches,” Israel Ministry of Defense, Dec. 2008

[5] “Rocket and Mortar Fatalities in Israel,” The Israel Project backgrounder; Kershner, Isabel, “Despite Strikes, Israelis Vow to Soldier On,” The New York Times, Dec. 30, 2008, “Iran-backed Terrorists in Gaza Kill 3, Wound Others in Continuing Rocket Attacks on Israel,” The Israel Project press release, Dec. 29, 2008

[6] “Rocket and Mortar Fatalities in Israel,” The Israel Project backgrounder, Israeli Police Spokesman in a conversation with The Israel Project, Dec. 31, 2008

For more stats please view this post.

 

Posted on December 4, 2008 - by Justin Hartman

A small matter of R461,500 – the Quality Vacation Club farce

I’ve been following the Quality Vacation Club’s (QVC) attempt to sue local blogger Donn Edwards very closely after Donn himself left a comment on my blog.

Now I, along with many others I suspect, have been lured to a marketing sales pitch for time share by QVC under the guise that I’ve won a massive prize. In the last five years alone I have had at least five separate attempts from QVC and guys like QVC to try and get me to go and listen to their pitch. On all occasions, except the first of course, I had declined to go.

I recall our last incident when I received a call from a QVC-type company to inform me that I’d won a 42″ flat screen TV and that I should come and collect it from their office. I told them to get lost and they then phoned my wife to tell her that I said they should make arrangements with her to come and collect the TV.

In my mind this form of sales is the lowest common denominator. You trick people into believing they’ve actually won something and then you steal there money on timeshare that most simply don’t need. Then, when someone like Donn calls your bluff you sue him. Come on guys.

You can cut this any which way you like but what QVC are doing is simply a scam. This might well get me a lawsuit as well but to be honest I don’t care. It’s about time we all started to speak up about this because these guys are persistent buggers that refuse to give up.

In the UK there is a thing called the Do Not Call list which marketers have to adhere to. This is a great initiative with a high penalty for those who ignore the list and recently a similar DNC list has appeared in SA.

My name is on that list although I’m not sure if marketers in SA actually adhere to the local DNC list. That said, every one of you should add your name so that we can prevent crap like this happening over and over again.

To Donn, all I can say is that I’m truly sorry you’re going through this. QVC need to get a grip and let off the small guys. They must know that their efforts are tricky and if not then they’re really out of touch with reality.

 

Posted on October 21, 2008 - by Justin Hartman

SAA – extortion at its best

It’s Luke’s birthday in November and as a special birthday gift Colette and I have decided to fly his grandfather and my sister (his aunt) down from Jo’burg to spend some time with him over this time. We figured that he could use a little familiarity what with us relocating to Cape Town so today I set off to book two plane tickets online.

My first choice would have been British Airways (R4,000) but they seemed way too expensive and I couldn’t see much difference between Mango (R3,100), Kulula (R3,200) or SAA (R3,477) so I decided to opt for an airline that was trusted to arrive on time and booked my two tickets with SAA.

When I received the confirmation of the booking via email I noticed that my father-in-law’s surname was not correct and had been replaced with my full name. So, it looked a little like this ROBERT JUSTINHARTMAN on the confirmation slip. I immediately called the SAA call center to have this surname changed.

To cut a very long story short SAA do not change surnames on tickets that have been paid for. Had I not paid my ticket straight way I would have been able to edit these details but being a good customer is actually a negative thing in SAA’s opinion.

The error allegedly occurred as a result of me adding in my own frequent flyer number in the booking form at the time of booking. By doing so the SAA booking system automatically updated the surname in my father-in-law’s text box with my full name and as a result I now had a ticket that was totally and utterly useless.

The result: I have to cancel the old ticket and rebook a new ticket under his real name.

The caveat: I have to pay again and I’ll only be refunded the airport tax from the original ticket – SAA keep the airline fee.

I fought with two different consultants and their supervisor for a little over two hours. The bottom line. I’m screwed. SAA refuse to back down even though their system is flawed.

I gave up at the time and just booked a new ticket. This means that instead of R3,477 I have now paid R5,352 less my airport tax refund of R895.00 for this system error and I’ve lost just short of R1,000 in the process.

I feel robbed by these twits and totally helpless but the more I’ve thought about the events that transpired the more I realise that I need to stand up for my rights. I personally wouldn’t do business like this so why should I stand for it? This is simply consumer extortion.

As of this morning a letter of complaint, demanding a full refund of my original ticket purchase price, has been sent to Dr. Khaya Ngqula – CEO of SAA and the customer service department. I’ve only ever written one other complaint before which was to BMW and I had success with it so I’m hoping for much of the same.

Having said that though I’m not optimistic for a positive outcome. Unlike BMW I have come to realise that SAA couldn’t give a flying **** about their customers and I can’t see them doing a turn-around now.

 

Posted on October 16, 2008 - by Justin Hartman

This kind of thing makes me sick

Picked this up on Muti only moments ago. Read the tag highlighted in blue.

To be honest I just have no time for people like this. It’s disgraceful, inhumane and shows a total disrespect for human life. I know we live in a culture that still breeds this type of racism but really… doing this in a public forum is just not on.

Sick…

 

Posted on September 22, 2008 - by Justin Hartman

Zuma has the last laugh

The big news of the weekend is the resignation of Thabo Mbeki and I can’t help but feel that Zuma is sitting with a God-forsaken smile on his face right now at the irony of how he’s finally got his revenge.

I don’t think even Zapiro realised just how pertinent his cartoon of Zuma raping the justice system (below) would be in the days leading after its publication in the Sunday Times.

Our acquitted rapist, fraudster and down right dimwit has successfully managed to escape any prosecution and in turn flip the whole political situation on its head by having the ANC recall Mbeki. I guess it’s a case of he who laughs last?

I’ll state this outright – I hate Zuma and I despise anyone who supports him however, I do think this new political turmoil is very much needed in a country that has lived far too long under Mbeki’s denialist regime.

Mbeki is a clown. HIV/Aids never existed, Mugabe was never the problem in Zimbabwe and crime in our country was never an issue. These are just some of his insane beliefs we’ve been subjected to over the last few years and I’m happy we’ve seen the end of it.

While I really think Mbeki being ousted is a positive thing I’m deeply concerned about where we go to from here. I have no faith in Zuma or his political allies and I can’t see how the new regime is going to be any better – in fact, I think it’s going to get worse.

Overall I have to say these are troubled and uncertain times and I’m watching the political space in trepidation of what will happen next.

 

Posted on July 4, 2008 - by Justin Hartman

Regator.com steals our brand – coincidence?

I’m not sure how I feel about this.

Regator.com went into private beta today and I picked it up via this Techcrunch article. They’ve also got great exposure on ReadWriteWeb and even Mashable.

These guys are a blog aggregator that not only use the Afrigator crocodile, similar domain name and colour scheme and I have to feel this is a little more than a coincidence.

There is little doubt that Mike, Stii, Mark and myself will need to speak to our legal team to find out what action we can take on this.

What do you guys think?

UPDATE: I’ve had a long chat with Scott from Regator and I’m now convinced it was a coincidence. Please see my updated post here.

 

Posted on July 2, 2008 - by Justin Hartman

Kentucky Fried Cruelty

Over the weekend I learned about how KFC suppliers overpopulate birds in their factories, drug them and boil them alive to remove their feathers. I honestly couldn’t believe what I was hearing so I did some further investigation.

It turns out that PETA, an animal rights organisation, along with PETA activist Pamela Anderson have formed the Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign to help spread the word.

While this is not a new campaign I found the following statement on the Kentucky Fried Cruelty website truly shocking:

KFC’s own animal welfare advisors have asked the company to take steps to eliminate these abuses, but KFC refuses to do so.

I watched the video below and I’m not sure how I, or anyone who watches this, can ever eat KFC again.

Help spread the word guys!!!

 

Posted on June 23, 2008 - by Justin Hartman

Snow in the City, what a joke!

Mary Fitzgerald Square will be turned into a white winter wonderland …… all in the name of fun in the inner city.

Yeah right!

Yesterday we shipped off to Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown, Johannesburg where we’d hoped to share some moments like the one below.

To our dismay though the Snow in the City event, sponsored by Nando’s, The Star and JDA, turned out to be a miserable disaster.

When we heard on Radio 702 that the Johannesburg CBD was to be turned into a massive snow day we couldn’t resist taking Luke to play in some real snow.

We arrived shortly after 11:00 only to discover there was a massive queue for tickets. We stood in the line for nearly an hour and a half because Computicket only had two people issuing tickets at the event.

Entrance fee was R15 and for this cover price you were entitled to:

• 1 x 20 minute ice rink session
• 1 x bucket of snow
• 1 x snow drink
• 1 x free Nando’s crisps
• 5 x slides on the snow slope.

Luke is now super excited and is eager to hit the snow slope so I take him to wait in another long queue. Unfortunately for us the queue for the snow slope is about 900m long and there is no way either of us are prepared to stand for another hour just to go down the slope.

We decide that we’ll go ice skating. The queue for the ice rink is much shorter however as each skate is 20 minutes long the queue simply doesn’t move. To make matters worse I notice that the ice rink is not an ice rink at all, it’s a plastic mat that obviously simulates an ice rink.

No point in staying. We leave.

I’m utterly disgusted with the organisation of this event. The only real snow was on the snow slope and in the bucket you could get if you managed to brave the long queue. The ice rink was minute and was an insult to everyone.

There were far too many people to make this event viable and while I realise they were trying to raise money they should have limited numbers so that everyone could have a chance.

We were all expecting to see a massive ice rink (made from real ice) with a play area covered in snow but clearly the organisers of this event thought that a plastic mat and a bucket of ice would do the trick.

However, the biggest upset of this all was the very disappointed 4 year-old that never got to experience what we went there to do. Luke was so looking forward to playing in the snow and all he ended up with was the chance to throw some pieces of paper that somewhat resembled snow.