CAPTCHAs
Posted by Graham Stratton Tue, 29 Aug 2006 15:19:31 GMT
Having got my account set up so that I can send text messages from software, I wondered what I could do with it!!
I thought that I could provide a form on my website so that people could text me. But I wouldn’t want any robots to be able to use it. Now I don’t imagine there are any robots which go around looking for text message forms, but this got me thinking about ways to avoid such problems.
The standard solution is to require the user to identify text in an image (and if the developer is feeling like making things accessible, providing an audio alternative). Such tests are known as CAPTCHAs. There is a python project pycaptcha, which generates images using PIL. I installed it, but it didn’t work due to the PIL being built without FREETYPE2 support. If I can actually think of a use for it, I’ll try it sometime.
I recommend fastsms.co.uk if you want to send text messages from software to recipients within the UK; it feels like they do most things right.
