Passwords - a rant.

Oh, I suppose we have to have passwords.

I can even see why passwords shouldn't actually be words (because they can be guessed more easily by a pesky hacker).

And of course we should have a different password for each site we use: except what's the chance of our remembering that toothpaste-ordering password from six months ago, or that wallpaper-choosing site from 2003?


If a site decides to choose a password for you it's always something like: sjP1*hg?n4.

Ha! And then they say don't write it down...

But these are old injuries. I've really got over them. Lately, however, my bank has begun to inflict a new password torture on me. Instead of asking for the whole password they ask for just a few of the letters of it. The third, eighth and tenth, say.

And what do I have to do?

I have to take this password from my memory, write it down on a piece of scrap paper, carefully underline the required letters, type it in...

...and then, of course, I have to eat the piece of paper.

Word To Use Today: a password. Literary passwords are fun: 2Bornot2B for Shakespearians, or 3bm3bm (Three blind mice...) for lovers of Nursery Rhymes.

Or any variation on D0LetMe1n works very well for the simply desperate.