Congratulations, Microsoft, you've officially created a registration code that humans cannot read!
If you want to use MSN Messenger or MSN Spaces, you'll need a .NET Passport. Hotmail addresses automatically serve as one, but you can also register, for instance,
yourname@yourdomain.com as your login to the free MSN services. Now during the registration procedure, you will be asked to type the characters from a random generated picture "to ensure that a person —not an automated program— is completing the registration form."
According to Microsoft, this is important because "attackers use harmful programs to try to register large numbers of accounts with Web services such as Passport. Attackers can use these accounts to cause problems for other users, such as sending junk e-mail messages or slowing down the service by repeatedly signing in to multiple accounts simultaneously."
And in most cases, an automated registration program can't recognize the characters in the picture. But while creating a new .NET Passport myself this morning, I was the one that couldn't recognize the code. It took three tries before Microsoft verified me as "human", while they're the ones speaking the code out loud to me with a creepy robotic voice.
What's next, forced IQ tests? An obligatory game of Trivial Pursuit against Bill Gates? Urine samples?!