What Red Read: Annoying thing that's actually really awesome for books

Monday, August 12, 2013

Annoying thing that's actually really awesome for books

I learned this little tidbit from a Cracked list (where I seem to get most of my knowledge) 500 years ago* and then thought I would share it here. Because when I shared it with Boyfriend+ he just laughed and shook his head. He does not appreciate the little (nerdy) things.

So you know those Captcha programs? Those almost-impossible-to-read words/letters/symbols that you have to type in to prove you're not a robot?

You know, this guy

Did you know the program reCaptcha is taking that annoyingness and making some good come out of it? Cos when you type in the words there, you're helping to translate old documents and newspapers onto computers who can't read the old text that's all slanty and smudged.

Believe it or not, people ARE smarter than computers. I mean, most of them anyway. So the website makes sure you're not a robot and you get to help digitize a bunch of books. HOW COOL IS THAT?

...Don't worry, I'll have a review post up soon. Native Son and The Kings and Queens of Roam are both on my radar.

*Internet time. Real world it was 2 years ago

Comments (24)

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readingrambo 112p · 605 weeks ago

HURRAYYYY MAKING A DIFFERENCE

This makes those hundreds of times I voted in that Once Upon a Time poll so much more meaningful.

1 reply · active 605 weeks ago

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What Red Read 121p · 605 weeks ago

Think of how many books you have helped translate to the computer world. FUTURE GENERATIONS SHOULD THANK YOU

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Anne · 605 weeks ago

Have you read Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore? This reminds me of that.

1 reply · active 605 weeks ago

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What Red Read 121p · 605 weeks ago

Ooo what do they do in there? I've heard of the book but have yet to read it

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Andi · 605 weeks ago

Whoa! I didn't realize.

1 reply · active 605 weeks ago

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What Red Read 121p · 605 weeks ago

Isn't this cool??? Plus I get less annoyed at having to fill these in when I see it's reCaptcha cos at least then I feel like I'm helping

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Sarah · 605 weeks ago

I never knew about this! So cool!

1 reply · active 605 weeks ago

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What Red Read 121p · 605 weeks ago

Right?? See, you get it. Boyfriend+ is in denial about how cool this is. You are my people

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Emily · 605 weeks ago

I learned this from a Google Guy presentation about three years ago, and while I thought it was pretty cool, taken en toto with everything else Google Guy said I got a little creeped out. By how much Google knows about me, about you, about all of these unscannable words in documents that they want to be part of the public domain, and about everything in general.

1 reply · active 605 weeks ago

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What Red Read 121p · 605 weeks ago

Yeah, it's scary how much Google knows. Like this conversation. I'm just happy I'm boring and I assume no one's actually paying that much attention to me.

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Laura · 605 weeks ago

That is very very coooool, get it together Boyfriend+!

1 reply · active 605 weeks ago

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What Red Read 121p · 605 weeks ago

He needs to get his priorities straight

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Meg · 605 weeks ago

This is pretty great news. PLUS the reCaptcha ones are much easier to read than some of the others.

1 reply · active 605 weeks ago

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What Red Read 121p · 605 weeks ago

That is ALSO why I like those. You can actually read it AND you're helping books. WIN WIN. Seriously, captcha sucks

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etudesque 73p · 604 weeks ago

mind is blown. o mein gott I had no idea, seriously. Captchas still make me nerd rage, though.

1 reply · active 604 weeks ago

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What Red Read 121p · 604 weeks ago

Yes on both the nerd rage and the mind blowing

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Ryan · 604 weeks ago

I love this but one question remains: If I get the reCaptcha is wrong, how does the computer know if they couldn't read it in the first place? Or are you always right? I feel like there is an easy answer to this that I'm missing.

1 reply · active 604 weeks ago

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What Red Read 121p · 604 weeks ago

OK so I think there are 2 parts to this.

1. You proving you're not a robot by answering correctly. Which would mean the system would need to know the answer. But the system doesn't know the answer, which is why they need us. I think the way it works is one word is the one the computer knows and the other is the smudged one you're filling in. You just have to answer 1 right to prove you're people.

2. What happens if you get the smudged word wrong? I wonder if a word has to be answered the same way by a certain number of people before the system counts it as a right answer.

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jennysbooks 89p · 604 weeks ago

I feel like I sort of knew this, but I did not know what particular program did its captchas this way. What a good idea! What a totally efficient thing for somebody to have come up with! (I admire efficiency very very much.)

1 reply · active 604 weeks ago

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What Red Read 121p · 604 weeks ago

Look at them killing two birds with one stone. Good stuff

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briefraser 73p · 604 weeks ago

I dunno...I think I'm with Boyfriend + on this one. Still seems like a lot of (unnecessary?) work on reCaptchas part. Because doesn't someone still have to assign the unrecognizable words AND add a word the computer already knows? Then again, I don't even really "get" how the whole internet thing works in the first place! ;)

1 reply · active 604 weeks ago

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What Red Read 121p · 604 weeks ago

Well I don't care so much if reCaptcha has to do the extra work to come up with a captcha word and a smudged one. I like that if I have to fill these things out, I'd rather it do some good

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tech spotpoint · 338 weeks ago

The information you have got in this weblog is so good that I wouldn’t thoughts paying to be able to get right of entry to it. But may want to you please do something about the junk mail right here. It prevents me from asking questions about the difficulty. Great useful resource, anyway. Shouldn’t be complaining. Thanks..

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