The Dreaded Captcha

Hey again, SighFye here.

Being a web developer I am constantly looking for ways to stop bots from registering to my sites or filling out forms. However, just because I am a web developer it does not mean I like captchas. No no, the truth is, I despise them. Most of them are ridiculously hard, and even when you DO write in what it says, it denies you access thinking you are a bot.

I mean seriously what do some of these even say. It may as well be something like this.

At least this one is readable.

A few years back Bel and I built a website for a gaming community we ran called Forsaken Crusade. I really did not want the members to be subject to such an abomination of the internet, so I did my research to find something a little more user friendly.

The first thing I came across was what is known as honey pots. Basically this is placing a hidden field in the form that a user can not see. A bot however will see the field, and fill it in. Then all you need to do is check whether the field was entered.

I liked this approach a lot as the members were not bothered in any manner. They were totally unaware that I had even checked for bots. But it didn't take long to figure out this was not fool proof. I was still getting new members who turned out to be bot or contact forms being filled out with ad information. So the research began again.

That's when I stumbled upon Are You A Human captcha. These captchas took the stupidity out of captchas and made them more fun. Instead of trying to read some text all you needed to do was play a small game.

This was the answer to captchas I had always wanted. Its not hard for the normal person and it a small way it was enjoyable. So I started using them.

Recently I have been working on a new project which need captchas, so without delay I went straight to areyouahuman.com. This time though something had changed. Yes, they are still games and yes they are still easy, but now, you are presented with an advert within the game.

Try it out here

Try it here

Now don't get me wrong, I don't think people should provide things for free if they don't want to, and I do think this is a very clever way to have an ad and make a little cash from it. However, this is just no longer a solution I want to use. It just no longer feels right. If you do like this idea then click here to start using them.

So I did a little more research and found a new captcha from the iron giants, Google. In my opinion this is the best captcha I have ever seen. There is no game, there are no unreadable words to rewrite. All you need to do is click a checkbox and you are done.

From my understanding the check-box is made using JavaScript and undetectable by bots. I am a little concerned its a little too easy to be true but my faith in the reliability of Google's products make me feel safe to use it.

So fear not web surfers. The days of reading distorted letters to stop internet spammers should be over soon.

Until next time Happy Captcha-ing

SighFye

Computer Build Heartache

Hello readers SighFye here.

A while ago my soon to be brother in law, Da-rryl,  was trying to enter the gaming world. He bought himself a PC that he thought was promising. It was missing a graphics card so he bought himself one and the computer rejected it. He was told it was because the computer was using shared graphics and you have to update the bios in order to get a new graphics card. To him that was in the to hard basket so he stripped it down and handed me the remainder parts so I could start a build.

As you all know I have been on a laptop with not such good specs for sometime. In the Call of Duty range I can play as high as World at War (On lowest settings) but anything higher and the lappy crashes. The shell Da-rryl gave me had a motherboard and a CPU inside a case. I had no idea what either of them were but thought if things weren't strong enough for games I can always upgrade them.

The other day I went out and bought and Seagate 2TB HDD and Strontium 8GB 1600 DDR3 RAM. I also bought windows 7. I didn't see the need for a dvd drive as I have window 7 on a usb stick. I only needed a new product key.

I install all the parts, plug in my usb and boot up the pc. The fans start up giving that old familiar hum of a desktop pc. The light create a glow of anticipation as I wait for the screen to start up. I wait. I wait. I wait so more. Nothing!!?

The screen won't turn on. I check all the plugs and try other monitors and cables but nothing. I open the case and check all the plugs. Everything is plugged in fine. Nothing. By this point I was getting a little worried. Was the motherboard broken? I decided to try another slot of the RAM. This time, the screen started. So...

Lesson 1: RAM has a set spot that it must be in, not just any of the RAM spots.

Now the excitement starts again. The computer boots up to this screen. It wouldn't boot from the USB.

I go to the bios and setup to boot from USB. I restart the pc and get the same screen. Ok, so its not going to boot from USB. I take Bel's DVD drive out of her PC and place it in mine to boot from that. This takes us to the next stage of my computer build heartache.

Oh My Fucking God... Now What!!!??

After extensive research I find that HP computers are installed with windows and the windows signature is stored in bios to prevent another version of windows being installed. This ranks up there in the most stupid and useless features of a computer I have come across. I found a solution that told me to turn off secure boot in computer security setup in bios.

This did fix my problem and windows installed nicely. Now the excitements started up again. I installed steam, downloaded a few games I knew worked on my laptop. To my surprise I got an error. D:

At this point I was sure it was to do with my pc. I went and did the Windows Experience Index to see how this computer would perform. The scores for graphics and 3d graphics were 1. This pc had no graphic power at all.

So now I am stuck with a pc that needs a GPU and may not be able to get one. I did, in my research, find that HP computers tend to lock the computer to HP parts only so there is a glimmer of light. I do have my laptop to play some games and build mobile apps.

So until I can get a new GPU, happy gaming for you guys, not me D:

SighFye

Dead Run, Living Play!

Here guys SighFye here.

I just wanted to let you guys know about this mobile app I have made for Android. Its called Dead Run and its yet another zombie shooting game. Dead Run is a top down shooter. You run down the road while zombies try to catch you, collect coins and spend those coins on much needed upgrades.

The game first started as a TAFE project while I was studying my CERT 4 in IT (Programming). The task was to create a functioning mobile app. I was paired with Jackson Tempra and since we were both programmers before taking the course we decided to run with it and make a game. Jackson has since removed himself from production for unknown reasons but Dead Run lives on.

Here are a few screenshots of the game...

Main Menu

Weapons To Buy And Upgrade

Secondaries to distract zombies

World Wide Top Ten

We have zombies of course

And Sumo zombies

But watch out, they explode!!

 If you like killing zombies or just wanna kill time, Dead Run is great for both. Be aware there is a zombie I have not shown here. Enjoy.

Check it out on Google Play

Geek & Proud!

SighFye

A Spark From An Old Flame

SighFye here...

It's been a while since I could play any big scale games so I have started playing smaller games I come across. Recently, you may have read I bought a bundle from bundlestars which had a few games in it. You can read that post here.

So the first game I played was Fortix 2.

This game is a more modern version of a game I played when I was a kid called Frenzy.This game was from when I was about 7. A REALLY long time ago.

Frenzy

The object of the game was to take control of the areas by drawing a line from one part of the border to the other. If you make it you take control of that area. There are things bouncing around and if they touch you or your line, well you lose a life.

Fortix takes this to the next level. The idea is to take control of towers and bases. There are cannons and dragons flying around. This version of it has a much harder aim than its ancestor. There are walls to block you, keys to open doors, different types of dragons and an ogre. I enjoyed the game a lot and found it challenging. But my question is, did I enjoy it as it was a remake of an old flame? Would I have enjoyed it if I stumbled across it? That is something you guys are going to have to answer for me. The only issue I had was the game was a little short, well a lot short.

For $1.99 on steam, I would recommend this game to you for sure. Give it a whirl and see what you think. Post your comment below.

The next game I've been playing is Vector. I will post my thoughts on it when I have had a decent enough play.

And remember, if you like what you are reading here, don't forget to follow and recommend the blog.

SighFye

Hot Weather = Game Day

So it's still only Sunday morning and we've had quite the gaming weekend already! Yesterday was 37 degrees Celsius so we spent the day indoors playin' games. It was Toasty!

While the kiddies played on their DS', we played a little of everything. We got out the old school Super Nintendo and relaxed in the aircon! We played:

Mortal Kombat 3

SighFye Kicked my butt!

Super Mario World

I <3 Yoshi! =^_^=

 

Super Mario Kart

I kept running off the road like a noob! lol!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

When games weren't skill based, but spam based. :P

I also played my Draenei Hunter in World of Warcraft on Friday night and picked up a helm in one of the Pandarian dungeons as I'm still leveling her.

Check me out and my bad self lol

I did the boring task of sorting out my bags a little, blergh! I also figured I'd take a screeny of my HUD

Click to open the image

That damn wolf took me 2 weeks of flying around the area it spawns.

Skoll is an exotic rare, he has 3 potential spawn points in Storm Peaks:

And he spawns every 16 hours...

So basically I spent every night just sat flying around the area on my mount... or was it running? I don't know, I just remember it was crap, I was obviously committed! 

One night, I was sat waiting for it just chatting in Guild, I got tired so headed to bed early but then couldn't sleep. So I got back up and decided to jump back on WoW. Another Hunter in the Guild asked me where I'd gone so I explained, she said she saw Skoll, the wolf I had been wanting, searching for hooooouuurs.... for daaaays! I asked her where it was and whether it was still there... Her reply: "I killed it" :|

This captures my reaction perfectly

I understand that people who are not hunters in WoW kill exotic rares, but seriously, omg when you are a hunter you understand the pain of finding these rares.

Even though I wasn't online she should have called out in General chat for any hunters or at least left it alone. Bah!

We also managed to get in a few games of Black Ops, although I raged at some points due to internet lag. I was on the phone to m y net provider the other day and the internet was behaving so I just looked like an idiot, I need to actually call when I'm getting 500 ping! :( We are looking to move to an area that should have NBN available in about 6 months or so... excitement!

Anywho... What are you playing this weekend?
Let us know in the comments below and don't forget to follow me on Twitter ;)

Stay Geeky!

~Bellistik

A Bundle Of Joy

Hey guys, SighFye here.

Have any of you ever wanted more games but didn't want to spend heaps? A few years back, I found game bundles. Basically, they are a bundle of games and you pay what you want for them. The minimum payment is the average of all the payments before you. The money is raised for charity and it also helps indie game developers get their games out.

Yesterday I bought a bundle called Reboot Bundle 8.0 for $1.99 USD. It consisted of 10 indie games most of which will run on my shitty shitbox. The games ranged from racing, to puzzle, to Mario style fan made games. I have only managed to play 2 of them and with those two alone it was well worth the purchase.

 

 The games (with their normal steam price) included were...

8bit Boy - $3.99

Fortix 2 - $1.99

 Residue: Final Cut - $5.99

 Ignite - $9.99

  Jet Car Stunts - $6.99

 Rush For Glory - $14.99 (SCORE)

 SOL: Exodus - $7.99

 Space Farmers - $9.99

 Vector - $6.99

Xotic - $9.99

That's $78.90 value for $1.99. There was once a bundle I bought which had Battlefield 3, Mirrors Edge, Left For Dead 2, FEAR 1, 2 and 3, Dead Space 1 & 3 & Burnout Paradise. I paid less than $10 for all those games :D. The bundles only last for a short time so you have to keep your eye on them.

Here's three of the bundle sites I use.

Bundle Stars

Humble Bundle <-- This is where I got the really good games.

Indie Gala

Go get some cheap games :D

SighFye

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