About Me

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I live on the ocean, write women's fiction, love to read so much that it's an addiction rather than a hobby (I read an average of a book a day). I live on the wet west coast so it's a good thing that I like to walk in the rain.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Password hell...

Don't ask me why I did this, but I did and now I'm sorry I did it. I took some time today and counted up how many passwords I had. I have passwords for:
  • two ATM accounts
  • three banks
  • three email accounts
  • my blogs
  • my cellphone voicemail
  • my landline voicemail
  • a government password so I can do a couple of things online (like renew my passport and I'm SOOOO going to remember that password for five more years!)
  • various and sundry other accounts (to the tune of 11 other passwords)
  • miscellaneous other things that I try not to keep track of on a daily basis but might total another 10 or 12 passwords

Some of them need four letters, some need eight letters. Some need a combination of letters and numbers. Some are case sensitive, some aren't. Some include not just a password but other forms of identification - birth dates, a special code word (and who ever remembers those without the hidden clue), identification of a picture or a weird-as-hell combination of words.

I'm telling you, if I add a single new password, I'm scuppered. I'm going to have to start writing them on my arm in indelible ink and I know the same thing will happen to me that happens to Rimmer in Red Dwarf (one of my favorite British comedy series) when he's writing an exam. He puts all the answers on his arms and legs but when he pulls up his sleeve to read them, he blurs them all and can't read a word. He goes crazy - not that unusual, as Rimmer goes crazy pretty often, but this is the image I remember, maybe because it makes me think of all the things we have to remember every single day. This is the face he makes when it happens - and I swear there are days when I feel exactly the same.

How many passwords do you have? And what's your limit?



Kate

2 comments:

healingdolls said...

Kate
My name is Barb Kobe (www.barbkobe.com) and I tried emailing you today and it did not go through. What is your email address?
I have a question about your past posts on the Hero's Journey.

Anonymous said...

I can't imagine trying to figure out how many different passwords I have to remember - banks, the government, email, facebook (OK that one's my own fault), cellphone voicemail - GAK! It boggles the mind.

A program I use at work requires an exceptionally complicated password which must be changed every three months. I understand the need for security, but I'm the only staff member who doesn't have their password for this software on a sticky note somewhere on their computer desk! Security be damned. Better to use your cat's name and be done with it!