Brad Wardell's views about technology, politics, religion, world affairs, and all sorts of politically incorrect topics.
Published on February 8, 2012 By Draginol In Personal Computing

I have so many passwords.

And sites keep making the requirements more and more complex.  Mixed case, numbers, etc. 

I already use LastPass and such but still, I wish we could get to a point where there was some better way to verify identification.


Comments (Page 2)
2 Pages1 2 
on Feb 09, 2012

StevenAus
I don't know - smell is so intensive that in the animal world, only a maximum of 3-5 different smells can be detected by any organism at one time.  Even food critics aren't that much better.

Not to take you too seriously, but I was only thinking about a 1:1 relationship between hardware and user, not a life in the jungle context. And I figure we're much, much farther from a hardware judge on Iron Chef than we are from some reliable, cheap biometric login hardware, scent-based or otherwise. 

on Feb 09, 2012

Well, we actually have some lab equipment that, taken together, make a pretty convincing sense of smell. Anything that performs a chemical analysis is technically doing what olfactory nerves and taste buds do.

on Feb 09, 2012

Yes, good points.

on Feb 09, 2012

Island Dog
The future is Win8!!!!

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/12/16/signing-in-with-a-picture-password.aspx

 

 

I'm getting so old win8 wouldn't be able to keep up with my daily wrinkle changes. Would have to change my pic twice a week.

on Feb 09, 2012

Kamamura_CZ
http://xkcd.com/936/

 

Enough said
Something that neglects to mention, though, is if you do something sufficiently weird, a computer will never guess it. Such as, for example, using a character not represented on keyboards. ☺♥♠, ▲, ▬, or whatever.

on Feb 11, 2012

Cruxador
Something that neglects to mention, though, is if you do something sufficiently weird, a computer will never guess it. Such as, for example, using a character not represented on keyboards. ☺♥♠, ▲, ▬, or whatever.

 

Most password requirements tend to forbid stuff like that, though. You're lucky if passwords are allowed to contain punctuation marks.

 

Keeping one or a few passwords for all your stuff can be complicated by different organisations having requirements like "password must be at least 8 digits long, no numbers" and "pasword must be at most 7 digits long, at least 1 number and one letter".  (And yes, I'm registered at sites that have those exact requirements. Neither allows puntuation. They are large reputable organisations with lots of customers. My security sense weeps.)

on Feb 11, 2012

I'm sick of the sites that are making passwords "at least 7-8 digits, at least one number, at least one letter, a symbol, have at least one upper cased letter, can't be a previous password, can't include your name, can't be something common, can't include birthdates, can't use the letter R or Z, and you have to create it within seven seconds or the computer will self destruct". Then you need one of these passwords (not even addressing all the usernames and email accounts) for EVERY website, program, and even some files you use. I've been job hunting and this has been driving me insane with like +100 passwords... most slightly different from the rest.

Can't imagine dealing with this when I get older...

on Feb 12, 2012

Use LastPass.  That's fine for the moment.

on Feb 12, 2012

Tried Lastpass. Had to get rid of it because it dind't play nice with FF.

on Feb 12, 2012

Works fine with 32-bit Pale Moon 9.1 Portable on 64-bit & 32-bit Windows 7 Pro.

on Feb 12, 2012

Make a single password from a memorable phrase using upper case, lower case and numbers. But not this one...

7h3Quick8r0wnF0xJump50v3r7h3142yD0g

Tough to crack.

Or, have a memorable word and number and mix them together:-

M1e2m3o4a5b6l7e8

on Feb 12, 2012

Well look on the bright side, you don't have to remember combinations of six symbols drawn from a pool of 39 - or 36, depending on your area code.

on Feb 12, 2012

I hear you on that. My passwords have become so long and complex I need to write them down on paper... I used to just be able to memorize them. With all the brute force attacks I guess its become necessary. The days of simple passwords for any account, whether it has value or not are over.

2 Pages1 2