ha, ha, my silly brain!
i recently adopted a new algorithm for creating passwords, and though it is not without problems, i like it quite well.
now, however, i run into this problem when i go visit sites that i haven’t logged in to for a while, because i don’t know whether i used the new approach when i created the password there or not, so i have to do some guesswork.
this often leads to frustration and failure, because i changed to the new strategy for a reason, so if i Didn’t use it, there is very little chance that i will succeed in remembering a password if i didn’t really care about the site that much to begin with, because my old strategy used to be, basically: if it’s important, use a stock password that you trust, otherwise free associate with the page name and use the first thing that comes to mind that is relatively obscure.
so today, i decide to go to the adobe website and download the trial version of flash because i need it for prototyping our project here at convivio, and i didn’t manage to get the mac version before i left home (grumble).
so i go to the site and they prompt me for a login. i go “oh yeah, i think i have a login from when i did the same thing with photoshop once upon a time, but i don’t remember it.” so i put in my email address, and sure enough, they send me my login.
i try the password as it would be in the new system. no dice. i don’t feel like blindly guessing, so i just click on “i forgot my password.” they give me a handy prompt, of my own design, which is “not adobe, but…”
i think for a second that i might have been telling myself that it had something to do with macromedia, before the merger, but that didn’t really make sense because i thought i had signed up because of photoshop, so i keep thinking.
then i have a little glimmer of memory.
i try my guess.
the doors open successfully before me.
i chuckle aloud at myself, both for the original association and because the prompt worked on the first try, which says something about my brain.
the answer was: stucco.
but i’ve gone and changed it now, so don’t get any ideas. ;)
August 21st, 2006 at 4:36 pm
Two thoughts:
1) That is a horrendously weak password
2) Why not use the same password for all of these sites? Do you really care if someone starts downloading things with your adobe account?
August 22nd, 2006 at 11:31 am
1) yes, of course it is! that is why i was driven to change my strategy. i was coming up with a whole bunch of totally ridiculous passwords that made me smack my forehead in dismay, but for some reason i kept coming up with them, so i needed to force my hand.
2) because some time, long ago, i decided that it was risky to use the same password in too many contexts, and since secure passwords tend to be harder to remember, i saved them for sites where i really cared about security, and came up with stupid ones the rest of the time. eventually i realized the fallacy in this approach, but i still had some residual discomfort with using the same password too many times. as i was coaching myself to get over this, i came up with a strategy that didn’t require me to, so… shrug
thanks for appearing from the ether to shake your finger at my password choices, but not to congratulate me on my safe trip over the ocean.
;p