As I think of all the passwords that I have been asked to create for various things since I started using computers, I wish I had known I would have been running into this need to keep thinking up new passwords from the start. "Different" passwords are hard to remember, and somewhat unsafe to write down. The idea came to me to suggest to my children to offer my grandchildren an idea to help them with this. Find a way to have a string of related passwords.
There are 66 books of the Bible. Each book can be given a three letter abbreviation. Good passwords require numbers, upper and lowercase letters, and symbols. One could start this string of passwords with: !12GenAB@
Begin and end with an exclamation point and @ sign for every password, each of these being followed by the first two numbers (1 & 2) and the first two capital letters of the alphabet (A & B). These 6 items would be used for every password and always in these positions (or choose your own substitutes to always be used instead). The only thing that would change is the three letter abbreviation in the middle. That is a string of 66 passwords. If one didn't want to use books of the Bible, one might want to use one of the phonetic codes for the alphabet: Alpha, beta, charlie, delta, etc. etc. That would be a string of 26.
One could find any long string of words or names that they want that they can memorize for this purpose: Sports team names, Disney Characters, movie stars. What ever the interest might be. Starting this early in life, or even latter could be a benefit in remembering passwords. If you don't want to use this idea yourself, you still might consider cutting and pasting this and passing it on to others that might.
Greg Merrill
There are 66 books of the Bible. Each book can be given a three letter abbreviation. Good passwords require numbers, upper and lowercase letters, and symbols. One could start this string of passwords with: !12GenAB@
Begin and end with an exclamation point and @ sign for every password, each of these being followed by the first two numbers (1 & 2) and the first two capital letters of the alphabet (A & B). These 6 items would be used for every password and always in these positions (or choose your own substitutes to always be used instead). The only thing that would change is the three letter abbreviation in the middle. That is a string of 66 passwords. If one didn't want to use books of the Bible, one might want to use one of the phonetic codes for the alphabet: Alpha, beta, charlie, delta, etc. etc. That would be a string of 26.
One could find any long string of words or names that they want that they can memorize for this purpose: Sports team names, Disney Characters, movie stars. What ever the interest might be. Starting this early in life, or even latter could be a benefit in remembering passwords. If you don't want to use this idea yourself, you still might consider cutting and pasting this and passing it on to others that might.
Greg Merrill
