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| − | {{comic
| + | A character named Rob was chatting with a "Lisa" over the a few months, how would mention particular products every now and then, so he suspects she is really a bot engaged in product placement. This is a marketing practice of integrating brand names into non-advertising content in order pass the message while having the addressee's attention. While the recipient has a choice to ignore overt advertisementsignoring product placement messages would be tantamount to ignoring all the content they are embedded in. (Strangly, Wikipedia articles on product placement are only German, Romanian and Italian?) |
| − | | number = 632
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| − | | date = September 4, 2009
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| − | | title = Suspicion
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| − | | image = suspicion.png
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| − | | titletext = Fine, walk away. I'm gonna go cry into a pint of Ben&Jerry's Brownie Batter(tm) ice cream [link], then take out my frustration on a variety of great flash games from PopCap Games(r) [link]
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| − | ==Explanation==
| + | So he wants to clarify "she" is human by presenting her a problem that is hard for computers to solve, but easy for a human with average sight abilities. Specifically, it is extracting text information out of an image, and the text is often distorted and embedded in graphical noise. These are known as Completely Automatic Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart, or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA CAPTCHA] for short. |
| − | [[Rob]] is having online chats with what appears at first glance to be a woman. However, he grows suspicious at the apparent consumerism dedication of the "woman" - and perhaps of the perfection of the online connection, touching on the stereotypical nerd fear that any relationship going well must contain some secret flaw - and so requests that they both "get tested". The woman on the other end of the computer does not pass a {{w|CAPTCHA}} test and is unable to prove she is a human.
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| − | In using the phrase "get tested", the comic is making a joke that refers both to the CAPTCHA test above and the {{w|Sexually transmitted disease|STD or VD}} test that couples will take to make sure they are physically free of communicable diseases.
| + | CAPTCHAs introduce problems on their own: e.g. if blind users are presented only a picture, they have (by definition) no way to convert it into a format they can process. Furthermore, due to progress in both algortihms and hardware, while bots can solve more and more CAPTCHAs, this is most certainly not true for humans. By the way, explainXKCD: these reCAPTCHAs sometimes give me a really hard time! I am a less-than-30-year-old, I believe my near sight view is good, I sit in front of a 14" SXGA screen (so single pixels are relatively large) and I only try one in four pictures so I keep my failure rate relatively low. I think they are overkill. |
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| − | A {{w|spambot}} is an automated program (comparable in many ways to a robot) that sends out emails or links (such as in the title text) to simulate a human's writing but contains advertising. The test that Rob and "Lisa" take is called "VK", a reference to the Voight-Kampff empathy tests from the novel ''{{w|Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep}}'' and film ''{{w|Blade Runner}}''. The test in these works is intended to distinguish real humans from very realistic humanoid robots called "replicants". Both CAPTCHAs and the Voight-Kampff test are related to the {{w|Turing test}}, a way to measure the degree to which a computer can successfully imitate a human.
| + | "Lisa" however is unable to answer, and fails to explain why that should be the case, and just resorts to pleads that "their love was real". Before disconnecting, she mentions two more brands and provides links to them, as depicted in the image text. |
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| − | The name "Lisa" may be an allusion to {{w|ELIZA}}, one of the first chatbots, written in 1966. According to its (her?) creator, people became "quickly and deeply emotionally involved with the computer program" during the chat. "Lisa" may also reference the computer girlfriend Lisa from the 1985 movie {{w|Weird Science (film)|Weird Science}}, or the {{w|Apple Lisa}}.
| + | It is very strange, however, that she prevailed the illusion over several months. |
| − | | + | --[[Special:Contributions/46.142.61.98|46.142.61.98]] 10:08, 3 September 2012 (UTC)madd |
| − | The title text is the spambot's last sad goodbye — it includes lots of product advertisements and links, such as an online advertiser may insert into a search results page.
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| − | [[329: Turing Test]] is another comic dealing with Turing tests/CAPTCHAs. | |
| − | | |
| − | ==Transcript==
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| − | :[Rob is sitting at a computer, typing.]
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| − | :Rob: I've loved our online chats these past few months, Lisa.
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| − | :Computer: Me too. I really like you, Rob.
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| − | | |
| − | :[Rob continues to type.]
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| − | :Rob: It's just... now and then you mention products you like, and... I worry.
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| − | :Computer: What? Honey...
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| − | :[Rob types.]
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| − | :Rob: Before this goes any further, I think we should go get tested. You know, together. | |
| − | :Computer: You don't trust me?
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| − | :Rob: I just want to be sure.
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| − | | |
| − | :[A web browser is open.]
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| − | :VK Couples Testing
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| − | :Test ID: 21871138
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| − | :Waiting...Partner connected.
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| − | :(A pair of CAPTCHA images)
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| − | :[You] Library
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| − | :[Partner] Kittens
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| − | :Rob: Okay, mine says "library". Yours?
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| − | :Computer: I... uh...
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| − | :Rob: Oh god.
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| − | :Computer: I'm more than a spambot! Our love was real!
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| − | :Rob: Goodbye, Lisa.
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| − | {{comic discussion}}
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| − | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
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| − | [[Category:Comics featuring Rob]]
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| − | [[Category:Romance]]
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| − | [[Category:CAPTCHA]]
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| − | [[Category:Robots]]
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| − | [[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]
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