New google captcha?

Google is trying a new captcha sytem in which the user has to rotate the image so that it is oriented upright.

In case you didn't know, a captcha is any sort of system that is intended to keep bots (computers) from automatically signing up for things. The need for captcha systems increases as smarty-pants people like Chinese and Russians figure out ways to get through captchas like grungy looking letters and numbers.

The captcha seems pretty nice, as it would not require any text entry, and only requires one stroke of the mouse to complete. Criticism includes some people complaining about the fact that blind people won't be able to use the captcha. (lol).

I just had to say this - one particulary retarded commenter at the original article here said that the Federal government should ban private companies from using this type of captcha because it will limit the usability for the seeing-impaired. Where do these people come from..? Seriously?

Google thinks Paddington bear is more important than Columbus Day.

Today Google reached a new low by putting a cutesy logo of the Paddington Bear in celebration of his 50th birthday, which lands on Columbus Day... maybe they didn't know? Right.

This is reminiscent of June 6th when they put up a logo for the Spanish painter Diego Velazquez rather than remembering the 64th anniversary of D-day


I guess we want to avoid offending extreme leftists by omitting anything slightly patriotic. Liberals.

Best April Fool's tech prank: Super Pii Pii Brothers

Wii + Pee + whack-a-mole = Super Pii Pii Brothers! ThinkGeek says, "Sounds easy eh? Well the toilets open and close whack-a-mole style and occasionally the stray cat or other cute critter pops up. Spray a cat for extra points. Get too much pee on the ground and your game is over. With realistic fluid dynamics for the pee and over 100 different bathrooms from bars and palaces to automatic Japanese style toilets you'll be entertained for hours. And wait until your friends see the multi-player mode with dueling pee streams..."


Given Japan's frequently strange products, this is actually fairly believable, despite it being an April Fool's joke. I bet some Japanese company will come along and actually make the game now.
April fools runner up (because it had me fooled for a second): Geeks.com's retinal scanner (no website, sorry, it was in their newsletter):





Google's April Fool's joke this time around was pretty lame. "Virgle: the adventure of many lifetimes", a Mars colony, is being established because we evil humans have filled every "nook, cranny, and subdivision" of earth, while "raising skyscrapers and atmospheric CO2 levels." (Apparently so much so that the earth is completely uninhabitable [gasp!]) Sorry Google, but the environmentalist nutjobbery kind of diminished the humor.