Question2Answer Number Captcha

I’ve been using Question2Answer for a number of years now to power Ask Planet Kubb. I like Question2Answer because it is simple to run, uses a standard PHP + MySQL setup and can even be used in a multi-site farm configuration easy enough. However, I’ve been frustrated by it’s ability to manage spam registrations.

Question2Answer has built in support for ReCaptcha and it has a plugin method to use other anti-spam measures. I’ve used ReCaptcha for a while, but it results in 4 to 10 spam registrations a day. I tried switching to the Q2A Logical Captcha by amiyasahu which uses Text Captcha. I even submitted a pull request to properly salt the captchas. But this resulted in 3-4 times the spam registrations as ReCaptcha! Ouch!

I decided to apply the same type of spam defense I’ve successfully used for MediaWiki and early results are great. It uses the Numbers_Words PHP package to spell out a number of nine digits and then ask the user to identify the number in a specific position. The question looks like this:

screenshot

This works really well. You can grab q2a-number-captcha and git clone it for your own use.

AWS re:Play

AWS re:Invent re:Play event! Containers?

Large illuminated cube structures glowing blue and purple fill a darkened event venue as attendees walk among them under sweeping stage lights.

Big beat! 🎧

Performer silhouetted on stage raises arm before a crowd, large LED screens behind display colorful cartoon monkeys, red stage lighting Concert stage bathed in red light with a performer at a DJ booth surrounded by dramatic white and purple beam lights above a dark crowd

Awesome to hear SPS Commerce won Tekne Awards this evening! Missing event due to AWS re:Invent. Shout out to #TeamSPS!

AWS re:Invent - Day 2

Excited for Werner Vogels AWS re:Invent keynote!

Large conference keynote with a speaker on stage in front of a projected slide reading Werner Vogels Chief Technology Officer Amazon.com

Great groove!

Awesome! AWS container service!

AWS is first cloud platform with container support. Yes?

Some CLI geekdom in the AWS re:Invent keynote. Nice!

Large conference hall audience watching a dark presentation slide showing command-line interface text on a big screen, with illuminated pillars and stage lighting visible.

Impressive Docker AWS container demo at re:Invent!

AWS Lambda announced! AWS Lambda has big potential for #TeamSPS!

Skrillex performing at re:Play!

Expecting a packed Lambda breakout session at re:Invent!

Packed conference room audience seated in chairs facing a stage with AWS re:Invent branding and a slide reading Getting Started with AWS Lambda

AWS #reinvent should hand out copies of Strucuture of Computer Programs to celebrate Lambda.

Book cover of Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs Second Edition by Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman with Julie Sussman

Love AWS Lambda bringing cloud scale to functional workloads. Opens up amazing potentials.

Lots of buzz in conversations about Lambda.

Wonder how long until social feeds like Gnip allow connecting AWS Lambda functions. Seems obvious.

Line for AWS ECS session is insane.

At the most in-demand re:Invent session of AWS Container Service. Packed!

Packed conference ballroom at AWS re:Invent with rows of attendees facing a stage showing Amazon EC2 Container Service slides on two large screens.

Every session at re:Invent touching on containers or Docker have been completely full with lines out the door.

When did “fleet” overtake the term “farm”. Tertiary impact of all this container talk?

The Container Service slides seem to have gone without review from the AWS brand managers. 🙂 Refreshing actually.

“Server farm” v “server fleet”. Fleet sounds bigger. Better to be transportation system than farmers?

Very cool elastic container service demo.

AWS re:Invent - Day 1

Seated for AWS re:Invent keynote!

Large conference hall packed with attendees facing a stage and two large screens showing an AWS re:Invent presentation with a tweet about Amazon Cloud

Andy Jassy “Cloud has become the new normal.” True for many!

Large conference keynote slide reading Cloud Has Become the New Normal surrounded by white cloud illustrations on a dark background, with a seated crowd in silhouette below.

“shower cycles”? New term to me.

Amazon Aurora looks compelling.

Impressed by first day keynote and all the work going on!

At the re:Invent Security Keynote. AWS capabilities for security has radically changed and improved in recent years. AWS has 5 to 7 thousand instances running continual security tests against internal systems constantly.

Lunch for 9,500.

Large convention hall with rows of round tables covered in white linens and red banquet chairs, partially filled with attendees eating lunch.

You will not miss Michael Ducy. Very sparkly!

Smiling bearded man wearing a shiny silver metallic zip-up hoodie at a tech conference expo hall with Cisco and Imperva booths visible behind him.

Nice demo of Datadog.

Attending impressive session on Key Management in AWS with Amy Patton. Wishing Milinda Rambel Stone, our security leader for #TeamSPS, was here too!

AWS re:Invent - Day 0

Looking forward to connecting with the rest of #TeamSPS at #reinvent!

68 °F and the cab driver had the heat on. Opened window. #vegas

Hotel is pretty full so got upgraded to a suite. Nice digs.

Spacious luxury hotel suite at night with a king bed, red bench, gray suitcase, marble bar, and city lights through the window.

“These Days” by Foo Fighters really cannot be too loud.

Social is all neat and silly, but I still ♥ my RSS reader the most. (I use Feedbin by the way)

Yard is ready for snow with 15 minutes of daylight to spare.

Being able to AirDrop from my iPhone to my MacBook is surprisingly useful.