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# I have to prove I'm not a robot and I keep failing
- URL: https://www.thefrictionlog.com/08900/
- Published: 2026-10-03T14:05:54.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-12T15:22:14.000Z
- Description: Filed: 2000 · Patched · bot checks you never see
- Author: The Clerk
- Tags: Patched

*Select all squares with a bicycle. The wheel is in two of them. I have been here a while.* — Ticket buyer, 2021

Carnegie Mellon came up with these puzzles, and by 2008 people were solving more than 100 million a day. That's a lot of attention going to waste, so the researchers there slipped in words from old books and newspapers that the scanners couldn't read. Every time you proved you were human, you were doing a little typing for The New York Times. In a 2023 study of today's puzzles, the bots beat the people on speed and accuracy. So the machines passed the human test better than the humans did. Figures.

**For now**: on a VPN, switch servers or turn it off; other users' traffic can flag you.