I get it people; spammers are more annoying than Lamb Chop's "This is the song that doesn't end..." (For a reminder of just how annoying that is, click the Video tab) There are millions of robots and internet viruses that are out to hack into every possible thing within their reach, probably with some really great message like "I have a huge crush on you and a really hot body. Go to my site and we'll talk all night long." Those messages are really annoying when they do pop up, but a little thing called CAPTCHA is starting to annoy me more than the repetitive ramblings of hacking computers.

CAPTCHA used to just be reserved for a few secure websites that required you to enter in personal information about yourself, but that simplicity is long gone. You are now required to type in lengthy and warped digits to check e-mail, post comments, ask people to be your friend, join a new site, etc. - all of which is used to determine whether you're a computer or a homosapien.

At least the CAPTCHA here at ToastedRav elicits entries like "Wind Morton" and "Greenstein Decay." (And from my understanding, it's pretty understanding of a wrong letter or two.) I can handle being amused by a random pairing of words.

But when the words/letters/numbers get so jumbled up and warped in front of some crazy background that it gets to the point where I have to enter it five or six times before I can post a comment, I want to punch my computer screen. Are you kidding me? If the "o" is next to an "l" and the letters have all been made to look like a flowing stream, how the heck am I supposed to know that it's not a "d?" And don't even get me started on whether or not the case of the letters counts. Some CAPTCHA is case sensitive, but others are not, even though they use both cases in their crazy little security measure.

I'll be the first to admit that I know absolutely nothing about what goes into making a site secure for its users. If the internet is becoming so swamped with robots and the like that we now need CAPTCHA to perform practically every function while online, so be it. I might just have to get used to this necessary evil. But if you're going to make people tediously sit in front of their computers and type in "Te9#fdolQwBb76YePPa8St5@ytMmNOkj86Y543+BccaR57$Yuf" before they can do something as simple as send an e-mail (which they've already signed into with a password), at least put some thought into how accessible your CAPTCHA is in the first place. I'm thinking about boycotting the sites that I have to CAPTCHA more than once or twice.

Am I the only one who has to refresh the page eight times to figure out the cryptic CAPTCHA password?