Okay, I feel really good! =) I just made my first captcha script! (Well, to be fair, I just completed a tutorial that took me step-by-step to make it.)

It needs some serious tweaking, because I have trouble reading some of the strings it produces. I wonder if there’s a way to put like little onigiri or other Japanese-cartoony type icons behind the text and make it a font that isn’t so HUGE. (400kb)

This is called a “captcha script.” It’s a little visual confirmation code that forces someone to input what they see before they’ll be allowed to register etc. Now that I have it creating the code and the matching image, all I have to do is have the archive compare the answer which is stored in a session (meaning, it becomes outdated fairly quickly) with what the person wrote.

The idea is to stop spammers from using a computer program (a “bot”) from registering on a web site.

It’s not foolproof, some programs can read it, plus they can always register manually. It also keeps the visually impaired from registering and may be too difficult for regular folks too.

Anyway, just had to share my little success. Sadly, I must now go back to my (real) homework.

*salutes*