Since most of us can’t even be relied on not to use a stupid password, most of the internet relies on Captcha to ensure they don’t get buried by spambots or ripped off by Eastern Bloc teenagers. The problem, of course, is sometimes Captcha is poorly conceived and can, in fact, be beaten by a robot. Just not, perhaps, the robot they were expecting.
A video from Matt Unsworth is fairly simple. There’s a robotic arm, a stylus, and a website that demands you check off a box to prove you’re not a robot. One press, and admittedly some fumbling of the stylus later:
The good news is this doesn’t mean we’re about to see even more spam from people claiming their aunt made $1167 a day with this one simple trick on the internet. What they mean by “robots” is automated scripts that sign up for thousands of accounts and then bring in the auntie bait. So this robot doesn’t have to worry that he’ll have to get a job or start paying taxes, he’s just useful for sticking it to lazy design. But he is like people in the sense that he can get a smug satisfaction from gaming a poorly designed system. And really, isn’t that the most important measure of humanity?
(via Digg)