oh, and the matrix sucked... RE: [extropy-chat-test] Intelligent Spammers (was FW: [>Htech] Stealing Cycles from Human s (fwd from kra at mon key.org))

[Emlyn O'regan]

>From the url below...

"As he sees it, the "Matrix" movies have it all wrong. Machines would never
tap people as an energy source, because people actually consume energy. But
they might well tap people for cognitive abilities that machines can't
duplicate."

Totally out of context, but I couldn't resist it. What a stupid movie.

Emlyn
(but I really liked Keanu's leather jacket)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Emlyn O'regan [mailto:oregan.emlyn at healthsolve.com.au]
> Sent: Monday, 20 October 2003 6:26 PM
> To: 'extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org'
> Subject: [extropy-chat-test] Intelligent Spammers (was FW: [>Htech]
> Stealing Cycles from Human s (fwd from kra at monkey.org))
> 
> 
> Eugene posted this to Transhumantech today. The article is 
> interesting, but
> the last paragraph below really show how intelligent spammers 
> can be - it's
> lateral thinking at its best. Don't think that any simple 
> technique is going
> to finish them for good!
> 
> Emlyn
> 
> > From: Karl Anderson <kra at monkey.org>
> > Date: 20 Oct 2003 00:23:32 -0700
> > To: fork at xent.com
> > Subject: Stealing Cycles from Humans
> > Organization: Ape Mgt.
> > User-Agent: Gnus/5.0802 (Gnus v5.8.2) Emacs/20.7
> > 
> > 
> > http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/03278/228349.stm
> > 
> > 
> > "The players may not realize it, but the lists of descriptive 
> > words that they're generating could eventually be used by 
> > search engines such as Google to improve Internet searches 
> for images.
> > 
> > They also are doing something that no computer program has 
> > ever managed to accomplish: analyzing an image and accurately 
> > describing it in words.
> > 
> > In effect, what von Ahn is creating with his game is a giant, 
> > special-purpose supercomputer that uses human brains to do 
> > the computing. And the 24-year-old von Ahn, a graduate 
> > student in computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, 
> > says this approach, which he calls "Stealing Cycles from 
> > Humans," could be applied to a wide variety of problems that 
> > are too great for any individual but also beyond the 
> > capabilities of conventional computers."
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > "The CAPTCHA tests are simple for humans to pass, but hard 
> > for computers. A typical test features a word with fuzzy or 
> > distorted letters, or words overlapping each other, or a word 
> > superimposed on a complex background; visitors to the site 
> > are asked to type a word they see. Yahoo began using the 
> > CAPTCHAs on its Web registration form several years ago; 
> > other Web sites quickly copied the idea.
> > 
> > But at least one potential spammer managed to crack the 
> > CAPTCHA test. Someone designed a software robot that would 
> > fill out a registration form and, when confronted with a 
> > CAPTCHA test, would post it on a free porn site. Visitors to 
> > the porn site would be asked to complete the test before they 
> > could view more pornography, and the software robot would use 
> > their answer to complete the e-mail registration."
> > 
> > -- 
> > Karl Anderson      kra at monkey.org           http://monkey.org/~kra/
> > _______________________________________________
> > FoRK mailing list
> > http://xent.com/mailman/listinfo/fork
> > 
> 
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