I think CAPTCHAs are annoying…these are the little images with characters on them that are meant to prevent spammers from automating responses to blog posts, site registrations, etc. In order to prove you’re not a machine or spammer, you need to enter these random strings you see.

Word from CNN is that CMU is working on a way to use the CAPTCHA system to actually digitize real books rather than translate meaningless strings of text:

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have discovered a way to enlist people across the globe to help digitize books every time they solve the simple distorted word puzzles commonly used to register at Web sites or buy things online. …

“Humanity is wasting 150,000 hours every day on these,” said Luis von Ahn, an assistant professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon. He helped develop the CAPTCHAs about seven years ago. “Is there any way in which we can use this human time for something good for humanity, do 10 seconds of useful work for humanity?”

I’d love to put those seconds to better use!