CAPTCHAS, Hate at First Sight

So the other day I ran into this CAPTCHA (I'll use lower case from now on so it doesn't seem like I'm shouting) while trying to purchase a part for my mountain bike:

Seemed simple enough. I typed 899634 and hit Enter. Oops. Fail. I soon realized that in my rush to submit the form I had missed the photo portion of the captcha.

Here is the new captcha I was presented with:

Yikes. It seems the photographer must have failed to notice the tree in front of the numbers? After careful scrutiny one could deduce the numbers as "201"; but I was in a hurry so I just hit the refresh button.

Next captcha:

Huh? I have NO idea what that first word is. Still don't. Ok. Try again:

Hmmm... is that an "r" or an "i" after the first "e"? After a few more retries I finally found one that I could read without hesitation; but that got me to thinking..."Why doesn't someone come up with a user friendly and effective alternative to the dreaded and hated captcha?"

Coming soon. A not-so-great captcha alternative.