Sorry about that Bernie, not being able to use a short name is my fault, I made it a requirement for usernames to have at least 5 characters. The reason I choose this number of characters was to increase the likelihood of someone using a real name people could relate to, it also makes it easier to remember/spell etc when replying to someone. I find it makes the community a little more friendly if people use real names rather than just handles. Yes I know my username isn't strictly my name either but I've used that name for nearly 10 years now and Andy is my name anyhow
It's also my fault that the CAPTCHA's are a little hard to read, I had to do this because there are spam bots now that can read these registration processes if you make them too easy and I hope you agree that anything to keep spam out of the forum has got to be a good thing.