1 Reply by LSW

(7 replies, posted in Open Forum)

OK, to be fair, when the school was built it was not listed that way... but it is now. This is the first year I have been here where we have had no avalanches, just a mud slide... of course this year we have only had about 20 inches of snow compared to 199.7 inches in 2006. Average is around 90 inches of rain and 110 in of snow.

Gorgeous? Yes although the city itself is rather squished and ugly... it is from the 1800 and was once the home to Wyatt Erp and was the home of the "Byrd man of Alcatraz" (Killed his lover and a friend here, sentenced to Seattle prison, tried to escape and landed in Alcatraz for his crime here).

Volcanos? Well Alaska has 43 active volcanos, something like 104 total. The borough of Juneau includes Douglas island right across the channel from us. A fault line goes through the channel and according to this... we do have a volcano here.

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2 Reply by LSW

(1 replies, posted in Open Forum)

It is now official, Lance Mackey just won his 4th Iditarod in a row, even without his prize lead dog Larry (who he loaned to Newton). 1,150 miles in 10 days across mountain ranges, frozen rivers, dense forests, desolate tundra and windswept coastline 2nd & 3rd place have not yet arrived in Nome. Newton is 48th & will likely not make Nome until Thursday at the earliest.

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3 Reply by LSW

(7 replies, posted in Open Forum)

I guess it was too specialized a joke.

Palin has been quoted as saying she could see Russia from her house. Not really what she said, her point was however that she is the governor of Alaska. Alaska includes a little island called "Little Diomedes" with one town and around 50 live there. Little Diomedes (and the town) is 2 miles from Big Diomedes, which is Russian and in fact has a large Russian Garrison, it is a reinforced Russian forward base.

So you can see Russia from Alaska & she argued that more or less made her a person with international experience. I think it may have been Sarurday Night Live and Tina Fey that started the "I can see Russia from my house".

Juneau is below the Juneau Ice Field, the Alaskan/Canadian border runs through the Juneau Ice Field. I live 2 miles from the face of the Mendenhall Glacier, some 20 miles from that border. The story is told here that a team firing a 105 MM Howitzer  from Douglas Island at the Avalanche zones above Juneau overshot many years ago and the round impacted over the Canadian border on the ice field so the Governor of the time had to call Canada. Our highschool actually sits at the bottom of what is considered the most dangerous avalanche schute in the entire world.

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4 Topic by LSW

(7 replies, posted in Open Forum)

OK, so I have been busy, never gotten it posted during.

Sports - Bah Humbug!

But you Canucks Rock in your opening ceremonies! Anyone catch it? Bloody awesome it was... and that from someone in Alaska who watches whales and salmon runs every year... the ice breaking up effect, the killer whales "under water" and the salmon run... Brilliant! I also like the woods and totem poles and the Aurora... I just did not care much for the end when the center piece was a mountain. But the rest was great, not to mention doing it last so the athletes could enjoy it. Well done!

But that was just a feast for the eyes... what I found best were the 1st Nations involvement. For those not in the know, 1st Nations are the major Native American... flavors. They are in turn broken down to the better knows individual tribes.

Just last month I was told the Canadians treat natives worse than US Americans do. I do not pay attention to the Olympics, just watched because my wife and daughter wanted to, so I may be wrong... but I do not think any US Olympics focused so much on the native culture. Once the official gabble was over, representatives of all nations came out and drummed and danced as the athletes were announced. Every thing from the natives closer related to ours in the lower 48 and my own Patawatomie (Great lakes area), as well as those from British Columbia who are closely related to our local Tlingit and Haida in SE Alaska and those from the far north related to the Aleuts (Eskimos). It blew me away that so much was done to represent our native peoples.

It is a shame that this grand show was tainted by the death of an athlete and the failure of one section of the torch to rise. I am afraid the death will mark this Olympics more than the wonderful opening ceremonies.

My only complaint was the French, OK I know, French Canadians and all... but it was in the English section and honestly English as the official languages should have been spoke first. But that is a minor issue considering.

Oh, and you Canadian type people, please accept my apologies for the once more embarrassing, not thought through, brainless comments uttered by our (thankfully) former Governor. Even many of her former followers here in Alaska are just shaking their heads about her comments on Canadian health care... especially as she admitted her family went to Canada for health care when she was a kid. She may have lived here but not all Alaskans like to admit it.

And I can almost throw a rock into Canada from my house!   LOL

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5 Topic by LSW

(1 replies, posted in Open Forum)

Remember “Cool Running”? When the Jamaican’s entered Olympic Bobsled?

Jamaican Newton Marshall will be taking part in the 38th Iditarod dog sled race. He has been trainined by the defending Champion Lance Mackey who is so confident in his abilities that he is lending him one of his prized and popular lead dogs “Larry”, the team being lead by Larry will be made up of Mackey’s younger dogs. Here in Alaska as well as Iditarod fans in general, the dogs are as well known and loved as their drivers.

“Marshall took up the sport on a Caribbean island where it never snows. Singer Jimmy Buffett is his main sponsor. In other words, Hollywood might as well start casting the movie now.” - Anchorage Daily News

Now this should be interesting… Keep your eye open for the TV show as well. The last Iditarod was filmed as crews followed the lead names in the race and was shown in weekly segments. There is more to it than you might think.

http://www.adn.com/2009/11/29/1033589/j … tarod.html

http://www.ktuu.com/global/story.asp?s=12067070

http://www.iditarod.com/race/musherprofiles/musherbio_336.htm

www.jamaicadogsled.com

(new article)http://www.northernlightmedia.com/2429/2010-iditarod-larry-newton/

Good Luck to Larry and Newton


PS - This was written to my family before the race started, it has been running almost a week now.

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6 Reply by LSW

(4 replies, posted in Open Forum)

I have my classic examples:

  • Challenger explosion - reporters asked about president Regan's reaction... "He stood in stunned silence"... did he say anything?... "He stood in stunned silence"... What did he do?... "He stood in stunned silence!" HELLOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! what part of "He stood in stunned silence" is there not to understand, but different reporters still asked the same things in different ways over and over again. Hats off to the press speaker for not loosing his temper. Then of course there were the cameramen zooming in on familie's faces in the  bleachers...

  • Two F-16's collide over Germany - The Armed Forces Newspaper of all people uses a front page photo of one of the Piolt's helmets that was ripped of his head in the crash hanging in a tree, the name visible. Really a great photo, wrenching and testifying to the violence of the collision... it could have won awards... but first page in a Military paper? One as it turns out that was delivered to the family every morning? Luckily friends intercepted it. Imagine you learn of the death of your husband, lousy night sleep and likely crying, get up. get a coffee and open the paper to a photo of your husbands helmet hanging in a tree? A helmet you know would have been securely strapped to his head?

  • The Marines landing I believe in Somalia - they dig in as they are taught, cover in case of enemy fire... it gets dark... and cameramen and reporters surround this your Marine and actually set up spot lights around him so they have light for their photos. I can well imagine his feelings, taught to blend in for protection and then spotlighted like a deer for any sniper or fanatic with a gun.

All because they feel we th4e people have the right to know. Yes I have a right to know we invaded! But a couple days after the fact is fine... I do not need to know where a Marines position is... he and his family has the right to his life.

Then there are the untruths made truth.

  • Troops in Vietnam cut of VC & NVA ears and wore then as necklaces - No, the press arrived AFTER a major battle up a hill, the battle weary troops were on their way back down... not much of a shot eh? So a feeble minded Public Affairs soldier had the brainstorm and asked a soldier to cut off a body's ear, the soldier did so and dramatic shots were made and a untruth went world wide.

  • Vietnam, a naked half burned child stumbling down a rode from a burning village, remember that one? - Granted it was part North Vietnamese propaganda, but the press ran with it and the truth never really made the papers even after the war. Story: Young girl, part naked and burned by napalm leaves her burning village after the US Airforce Napalms and innocent village killing her family. Truth: Young naked girl stumbles out of A burning village burned by napalm after a SOUTH VIETNAMESE Air Force attacked the village and two distant releatives she did not really know were killed. She was a great propaganda tool for the North.
    NOTE: She now lives in Canada where she immigrated as soon as she was old enough and the North no longer needed her. The SV pilot who dropped the bomb now lives in Canada and they have met and she forgave him. The Vietnam Vet who proclaimed to have planned the mission had a mental problem and a guilt complex and was moved to making the claim after seeing her tell her story. There was no US involvement at all, it was all SV planned and executed with their weapons. Yes the napalm and planes were produced in the US, but sold to SV.

  • WWII did not end in 1945, it ended in 1990. Berlin Germany was until then an occupied city, occupation is an act of war, not peace. I and anyone serving there were awarded the Army Medal of Occupation. I am awarded the rights of WWII vets, for instance joining the VFW. I am, technically speaking, a veteran of WWII having been born in 1964 and served in the Berlin Brigade from 1982-1986 & 1989-1992. Our occupation ended with the fall of the wall and German Unification. As an occupation soldier I had the right to demand identification and/or detain or arrest any German citizen in Berlin. Berlin only had it's own government because our commanding Generals allowed it. But again it was a technicality... by the 70's we were more just stationed there as occupying the city and that fact died away from both Brigade and Populace conscience. By my time in the 80's the first protests were beginning and being allowed.

Well Krillz, welcome to LSW's soapbox History 101, the reverand has spoken.  tongue

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7 Topic by LSW

(4 replies, posted in Open Forum)

"May" is not a word any reporter should use... at least in a headline. It is sensationalism. Reporters are meant to report facts or at best mention speculation.

What I am on about is this headline "Wolves may have killed village teacher" ...or maybe not? Sub title "CHIGNIK: Police unsure whether death happened before, after bite." So why are they reporting it rather than the simple death? The woman died... more details as available. Simple as that, there is enough from family and friends to make a article.

Yet read further, the troopers admit that the damage may have been done after she had died. Yes there have been wolf attacks as stated in the article, but note how many were habituated wolves or rabid ones. More people are killed by dogs every year, or bears... in 200 years there has been one supposed wolf death, the one mentioned in the article... the one many still question due to the attack itself which many experts found unlike wolf behavior and more like bear. But a wolf was seen in the area so it was the attacker and 3 or 4 were killed in the days following. For instance as I recall the TV show I saw on the attack, the body was dragged... uncommon for wolves and common for bears... same thing here.

As I predicted on Gordon Haber's death, it is open season on wolves. We are scared of them and believe all the bad things we were incorrectly caught. Fish and Game officials are those hired by a former governor and are all his hunting buddies, the wolves kill what they want to kill. They slaughter the wolves in Alaska because they kill game animals the outlying native villages need to survive... like moose it is said... Ha! Wolf packs rarely kill moose as it takes many to do so and the likelyhood of serious injury is high, an injured animal in the wild is a dead animal. But wolves it might be said are special, if an animal is to in inured to hunt, it will be brought food by the pack and not left or killed like other animals.

If you read the comments you will see the issue here that Alaskans are very much split on wolves. Some want them wiped out and others want them protected. Even Germany protects their wolves and when wild wolves recently made a re-appearance the press went wild and the country was happy about it. Northern Michigan has 1 or more wild North American lions wandering around now and we are happy about it. But in Alaska, every chance is taken to kill wolves when bears are far more dangerous. I live near the Mendenhall Glacier on the edge of the National Park. I have seen our local wolf "Romeo" close up and black bears on my street as well as at the glacier. I am less worried about myself, me daughter or my dogs around the wolf than around the bears.

This is also not about Predator Control as claimed, they do not have arial hunting of bears... only wolves. They only have a bounty on wolf heads and not bear heads. This is not about thinning the population every few years like with deer... this is every year and it is a wholesale slaughter that wipes out entire packs like Romeo's. The Denali wolves do not register Human borders, so they are killed when they are 20 feet outside of Denali... killed by the dozens.

When it comes down to it, they do not know if it was a healthy wolf,  if it was a wolf at all or if she was dead first. But we will annouce that it MAY have been a wolf in a state that is splitting down the center due to Mining, Wolves and Polar Bears. That is money making reporting for you.

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8 Reply by LSW

(4 replies, posted in Web Design News)

Do not ignore meta keywords... the policy spoken of here was put in place a few years ago & it was stated at that time that this is a usual change to keep spammers off balance. In the future , maybe near future as it has been a while, they will once again change their code once more and it MAY include meta keywords again. So add them so they are there if needed rather than have to add them later when you finally catch on at some point that they are used once more.

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9 Reply by LSW

(3 replies, posted in Beginners Web Design)

Airmobile HooHaa!

I was 5/502 Airmobile in West Berlin in the Mid 80's to early 90's. No combat time, though I am a Veteran of WWII!  roll (An occupation is an act of war, so WWII did not end until the occupation of West Berlin ended when Germany unified). So we all were awarded the Army of Occupation Medal making us WWII vets in technicality, then there is the Gulf War medal thing just about everyone got, I have it and I spent the war in Germany in a Hospital bed (shattered my leg in a training accident preparing for my transfer to Desert Shield)... Ah the Army & their Medals! You get the silly ones and not the earned ones. My Grandfather fought with the Michigan troops sent to Archangel to fight the Red Russians in the Russian Civil War and then finally reaching France he ran wire across the trenches of WWI for years and survived... but never got his silver star because his officer was killed after it was written up but before it was signed. Then there are our 4 legged brothers, the Vietnam era war dogs who were mostly Euthanized when the war ended. Good thing the K9 units today are considered FBI agents, or Cops etc.

Anyways, Cheers Bro.

Although not necessarily wrong, it is not really right either... Gray area I guess.

First most designers feel that the H1 is to specify the heading for that page, so if that page alone is Skytroopers then OK. You can look at it like a chapter title. Usually there is only one and it is specified by the page content.

A small number of designers feel that the Navigation bar is it's own and separate from the page and use an H1 for that too. So you can have two, but one is more common.

Multiple H2's, H3's etc are fine as long as they are in order The H3's belong inside the H2's, H4's in H3's etc.

However the"H" tags are headers... they head content. They are like sub chapters or sections in chapters. So The H1 is the tip off what the page is about, with or without it's own content. Then more detail is added with H2's and as needed H'3s etc.

So the more correct form from the specifications view:

  • Skytroopers is the site name so should be a <Title> tag as the title of the web site. The sub text you use H Tags for, I would not as they have no content. The look you can get using <Span> Tags.

  • What is the most important thing on the page? That would be the H1... Problem is they are about equal I think. The site is about the AirCav, but also about Vietnam specifically, so the Cav history could be the main and the "1st Cavalry Division" the H1. Bit the Vietnam Tour of Duty is really what the site is and the 1st Cav business just a quick history, so one could say that the Cav should be H2. The web site title stuff clarifies Vietnam so I would say make the 1st Cav the H1 so people have a background for the rest of the site. The bit about Vietnam and medals I would suggest you place in a highlight box. A separate container with a different background color and an H2 tag as it comes across more like a thought or quote and less actual content. I think the highlight would work well. If it is a quote, place some blockquote tags around it with maybe a quote graphic to make it visually interesting.

Then your H1 tags would basically be based on the Navigation, Reunion would be a H1, Vietnam Wife would be a H1 for the page etc.

Consider that many Vets who may visit may have failing eyesight or be blind, I know a Vet in Anchorage I met at the VA Hospital who was blind from possible Agent Orange. Vision impaired will use H tags as their primary form of navigating a site... so it is important to do it right.

Thanks for you service. Soldiers do not fight for countries or Flags, they may go to war for those things, but they fight wars for each other, their brothers, so that as many as possible may go home again.

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10 Topic by LSW

(1 replies, posted in Open Forum)

Now if you have surfed for any real length of time you have become aware of Google and it"s sometimes daily changing Logos. Many of us look forward to them, many get a brief smile when we stumble over them and I think we all will agree it was a whopper of an idea.

In case you were not aware, Google has a section with all their different logos posted back to 1998 and up to the 2010 winter Olympics as well as a brief history on how their Doodles came about.

Enjoy...

http://www.google.com/logos/index.html

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11 Topic by LSW

(2 replies, posted in Open Forum)

From our local news web site KINY:

Gov. Parnell not in favor of Alaska seceding from U.S.
Governor Sean Parnell says he does not support the state of Alaska seceding from the United States.

While a guest on KJNO's Action Line with host Murray Walsh yesterday (Wednesday) a caller from Sitka told the governor that she's been hearing more and more talk lately about the state seceding from the union.

The caller said she was interested in Alaska leaving the union because she has $1,500 in unpaid parking tickets in Colorado and, because of that, she can't get a driver's license in Alaska.

The governor did not mentioned her predicament specifically, but did say he would like to see much less federal encroachment on state's right's.

Parnell said he does not support Alaska leaving the union.

The Governor said he's sworn to uphold and "will live and die" by the state and federal constitutions.

Parnell said there are many avenues to fight federal encroachment including legislation, litigation, the regulatory environment and the power of the ballot box.

lol Ohhhh my, ever see the series "Tougher in Alaska" where the fellow shows how much harder life is here (like firefighters in Fairbanks trying to put out fires in -50 temperatures)? Well finding intelligent life is tougher in Alaska! big_smile

Oh this made my day!

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12 Reply by LSW

(5 replies, posted in Blogs and CMS)

Never heard of the two mentioned... then again the article is from 2008 so they may not have existed then.

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13 Reply by LSW

(3 replies, posted in Flash)

I bet everyone is just waiting for me to reply to this... etche betch... not gonna...  tongue

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14 Reply by LSW

(5 replies, posted in Beginners Web Design)

Most likely DW. Dreamweaver is an editor, it may try to act like a browser but it is not and so shows things one off. The only trustworthy way to test is to do so on the browsers that will use it.

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15 Reply by LSW

(33 replies, posted in Web Design News)

centered effect wrote:

Anything that is not helping the web continue to be an open format that everyone can develop and access, shouldn't be used or supported.  Period.

Good point

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16 Reply by LSW

(33 replies, posted in Web Design News)

I am guessing that those sites are in fact automatically sending the user to  a separate version for the Mobile market. That is not wrong in and of itself. I was thinking more in the area that they have special mobile site for mobile media. I don't know the details but they sometimes offer the movies in something non-flash. Nor is Flash wide spread in mobile units. New media ones like Droid etc. may support it as well as those with true operating systems like that Microsoft hand held thing. Bot most of the average telephones do not support Flash either.

Versions should be offered, better media than the whole site... but RealPlayer, Quicktime, Flash... should be offered so I can watch it on MY chosen media Player as well as the standard speed versioning. High Speed High Dev for Broadband users and smaller low & medium band for other lowe bandwidth users.

The whole issue is worth keeping an eye on.

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17 Reply by LSW

(33 replies, posted in Web Design News)

You use "will" to often. iPhone does not now nor has it supported Flash, so this is nothing new... just a continuing situation. I often come across sites with Flash so all I see is a little blue box icon in the middle. I have honestly as of yet... 6-8 months, not found a Flash web site/or a flash web site without text versions.

Granted Juneau only has had 3G since the beginning of the year, so my surfing was limited to near the library at lunch and at home on my wi-fi. I can surf all day long now so odds are better I will come across a real issue. But there are so many sites out there... if I cannot use the one with Flash, I go to the next until I fgiond what I want not in Flash.

Those who will really be sweating are the adult sites that offer video (Hey, like them or not, they are big money and a large user base so they tend to be at the top of current trends and tools... great way to keep up with current trends... or if you like to read the articles  tongue ). There are some who have specialized iPhone and/or mobile content optimized for mobile units.

I guess I am not bothered by it for the same reasons I have harped on for years. Have alternative versions... text and other forms of media. There is no standard for mobile user agents. There is only one more widely used one, Opera has one but I have not had a phone yet I could put it on, Mozilla has not released their Firefox mini-browser for mobile units yet (I may have missed it of course) and iPhone only has Safri. So as far as mobile units go, the browser wars came back years ago and we have no more in the way of standards then we had in the 80's.

So this whole issue is nothing new, just a continuation of the way things currently stand. Most internet cell phones use their own house browser and in most cases you cannot change them. I think it less that no one has noticed as most simply say... Oh well, nothing new. I keep expecting an app to play flash... but it may not be possible.

That said, did you hear about the guy, I think from Alaska, who used his health app on his iPhone to save his life, giving himself 1st Aid after trapped in a building in Haiti? Dialed up the app and followed the directions for first aid for his injuries. Survived 60 hours or so. Yea, there is an app for that!   big_smile 

Also noticed no one has mentioned the existence of Silverlight which is a Microsoft product to battle Flash as a standard, so even on normal PC's there is a media "police action"... you, know, not a full blown war.  wink

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18 Reply by LSW

(33 replies, posted in Web Design News)

Good thing Cheney is out of office or they would be claiming Apple has software of mass destruction... then we need an alliance made up of Windows, All Linux brands, FreeBSD, Solaris... all storming Apple headquarters with pitch forks and torches...

(maybe I should sell the isea to a political cartoonist.   wink )

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19 Reply by LSW

(7 replies, posted in Blogs and CMS)

Actually it seems to have been the WP_Options table, the content of which I replaced with the old website's.

I truncated it, inserted the fresh install options and the page is back.

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20 Reply by LSW

(7 replies, posted in Blogs and CMS)

Ben, you may have it.

Stef - I originally tried just importing the tables, but it would not install thinking word press was in. I loaded table structure, same thing. So finally she installed it, but it would not import. So finally I went through the database file and ran each create and insert query separately. It seemed to be OK, so I truncated the WP tables and inserted our data so my wife has less to do... and that seems to have broken it.

But Ben may have it, I did all those plugin databases, and the plugin folders had been uploaded... but maybe it still has to be installed. OK, you gave me a few things to look at.

Thanks

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21 Reply by LSW

(7 replies, posted in Blogs and CMS)

I have an issue for you guys, my wife switched hosts and all we have is a database backup and all the folders she had saven on her PC. We installed the new wordpress and I created all the extra tables and inserted the data into those and the WP data into the WP tables that were installed.

Problem is now all we get is a blank page, I mean a blankpage as in not even rudementary HTML... nothing, zipp, nada.

Any thoughts?

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22 Reply by LSW

(8 replies, posted in CSS)

LOL - That should be the 11th commandment.

I generally break mine into blocks: Standard HTML, Navigation, Structure/General, Special.

If I want to edit a HTML tag, I go to that block. General &/or structure is ID's I created. Special is where I look for something used maybe only in one page. Navigation parts are in the nav block. It helps me find them quicker in the editor.

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23 Reply by LSW

(6 replies, posted in Open Forum)

LOL - Yea, same with my favorite games like Panzer General, I like the old pre-3d versions.

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24 Reply by LSW

(28 replies, posted in Blogs and CMS)

Between my wife and I, we are involved in 6 web sites with Word Press.

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25 Reply by LSW

(10 replies, posted in Open Forum)

You should offer multiple ways of doing it. I often have trouble reading those captcha codes, a blind user (and I am guessing much of your hotel has braille room numbers etc?) will not see the code and if you add as text then the robot has it.

In this case, a simple query is better. "What is 2 + 3?" That is good for most people and works for the blind. BUT.... people with cognitive issues may have problems with such things and prefer the typical image Captcha.

So you really need to consider using both types and let the user choose which.

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