word verification

i dont like when you are doing something on the internet (buying tickets, posting comments on blogs, etc.) and you have to enter text that you see in an image to prove that you are a human and not some computer. i understand why this step exists (some googling led me to captcha) but it frustrates me. i especially hate when i can't decipher the letters. on the right is an example of difficult/confusing word verification.

Just some thoughts...

In middle school I had a teacher who called Wednesday’s Hump Day. At the time I thought it was hilarious because I thought any word that could be used to describe sex was funny. That was when I was about 12. Now I am 26 and I still feel the same way. I am physically unable to say the word box to a female and not crack up.
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I was checking up on some of my contributions on Wikipedia, and noticed that some new material has been added. I also got a companywide newsletter via email the other day and noticed some external links. I found it strange that all the links were to Wikipedia. I emailed the HR guy who writes the newsletter and asked him why he chose Wikipedia. He was unable to provide any good reason, and I just pointed out that those pages are editable. I am pretty sure he did not know that, which is why he was not hesitant to send a corporate email to thousands of people. I seriously considered going to the linked entry for ebay and editing the first sentence to say something about the guy.
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Due to some Country Music Awards, the Bachelor wasn’t on this week. If you missed any of the recent episodes check out the recaps.
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I have been hearing advertisements on the radio lately for HD Radio. I know very little about this product, but I assumed it meant High Definition Radio. After some brief wikipediation, I learned it actually means Hybrid Digital. Well that’s good to know I guess… in any case, I confirmed that it is a form of higher quality radio.

The problem with this concept for me is that I don’t really value sound quality that much when I am listening to the radio. If I wanted to listen to high quality music I would put in a CD. Pretty much the only time I listen to the radio is on my way to and from work. And my car, like most others, makes some noise while driving. Not to mention often times (much more than 50% of the time) I am driving with a passenger. I talk frequently and would usually rather chat it up than sit silently in the car listening to music. Unless maybe there were some powerful Josh Groban-style vocals on, in which case I would be singing along anyways (you are lying if say you can listen to You Raise Me Up and not want to belt it out along with him.) The only other times that I can think of using a radio is for background noise at a party or maybe while showering (if I had a shower radio.) Neither of these scenarios warrants me paying more for higher quality sound.

Which leads me to the other problem: HD Radio costs money. I need to go out and buy a new radio to listen. I am not a student of business but common sense tells me that sounds like a not sweet business model… take something that isn’t broke, reinvent it by adding features that are not valued by consumers, then hope they go out and pay money for it. I just have a hard time imagining it being successful. I don’t think your average consumer is going to out and buy a new radio. And if they did want to pay for radio they might consider satellite radio. So I think the best way for it to work would be to put the HD radios into all new home stereo receivers and cars. If eventually that became the standard and replaced normal style radios I might listen. But I wouldn’t go out and specifically trade my cash money for a HD Radio.

I know what you are thinking… what about HDTV? In my opinion that is not exactly the same thing. It is true that the shaky business model is the same, adding an unnecessary feature to an already good product and raising the price. But I think that people value watching TV much more than they do listening to the radio. They do it more and it gives them more enjoyment, so they are willing to pay more for it.

Note: I have never listened to HD Radio, so I could be totally wrong. Let me know if that is the case.

Good Times

Some baseball thoughts:

I think it would have been awesome if Clemens had been traded to the Red Sox.

David Ortiz is awesome.

If you like fun, I recommend that you check this out. I need to try to use these terms more often.