h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Of course, the next stage would be to work out someone's personality from their password... I'll bet you find a LOT more about the hidden personas of people from that...

Not only that but you can then start accessing their hard drives and see all the stuff they REALLY want to hide!

If It's all the same to you I'll keep mine to myself (not that I have anything to hide, mind you.) I will say that it is a string of numbers. Is that enough to go on?

Clive

there are always passwords people have used, then discarded, though (you DO change your passwords, don't you? ). I'll save my discards though - they give away rather too much about me, and I'm not THAT self-exposing...

Myre

I DO change them, yes. But I have one extra special one which I only use for certain things. This is not it:

"Smurfinablender".

But it was one of my former passwords. (This was, I might add, when I was still at school.)

I had a friend whose password was "IncorrectPleaseTryAgain" So that when he could not remember it or got it wrong he was given a crafty reminder. I now tend towards something essentially random and memorise it. Best not to stick to proper words, isn't there something called a DictionaryBomb which bombards computers with all the words out of a dictionary until it finds the password. I suppose that any combination is crackable that way if you were perpared to test all possible sequences.

Clive

Interesting notion -- but beyond my skills of interpretation. I'll tell you why: whereas names are like signboards, meant to be seen and therefore interpret-able (what do we reveal even when we're attempting to be discrete or deceptive? etc), passwords aren't usually seen. So they are (in my opinion) a bit like random numbers -- and as many people have noted before this, randomness is amongst most potent types of secret code (though of course it could be made to yield to the DictionaryBomb approach)

I wrote a brief essay on the subject of secrets and passwords at another web-site. You've reminded me of it, so I'm going to post it as a Guide Entry! I suggested to members at that site that it might be interesting for members to share,not their passwords, but their password strategies (to the extent possible without jeopardising security) -- like you two have done here -- but only one person responded! Maybe h2g2 Researchers might like to be a little more forthcoming ... ?

One way of defusing a DictionaryBomb is to use -- as I have for my dial-up code -- a word from an exotic language source

My favourite strategy is pretty recent - I now use a Dvorak keyboard layout (ie, instead of qwerty). So I just pick a normal(ish) word and type it on my dvorak keyboard is if it was a qwerty keyboard, or vica versa. EG - "fred" goes to "yodh" or "up.e" - fairly incomprehensible.

Would you like any help constructing the 'Secrets and Passwords' entry? I already co-written an entry before with Buff (A smooth shade of Yellow) and this is really interesting and I would only be to glad to lend a hand.

Clive

Sure, that sounds neat. Here's a link to the entry as it now is: http://www.h2g2.com/A342622. Tell me what you think about it and we can build on the ideas/thoughts that grow out of the discussion -- I see that MyRedDice has already posted a password strategy -- and a very interesting one it is too! This might grow into a fascinating database

I'm posting the address of the PASSWORD STRATEGIES list here: http://www.h2g2.com/forumframe.cgi?forum=42458&thread=54578 -- I'll also create a link there to this thread. Working hard, aren't I?

Wow! i've only just got up and the forum has grown! Working very hard, yes. I'l be back in amoment I'm just going to go and follow those links you've put up.

Clive

Clive, hi -- this is a voice from the past, as it were -- I'm just starting to come back to life (maybe ....) from what feels like years of absence from these friendly shores. My time is still rather occupied with events and activities which cut into my valuable browse-abilities. But I think I may be more available for password-processing and other noble duties. I haven't been over to your site yet to see what you've got involved in all this time ... guilt-ridden and time-strapped ... but I WILL, soon ......... (voice Doppler-shifts out) ...... (leaving only a Cheshire-cat of itself)

The thing that has kept me really busy is a fascinating post over on Ask H2G2. It is a wandering story, you know the sort, where someone writes an instalment with a cliff-hanger and them someone else comes in and completes it and so on, over and over as the story starts to take shape. It's called H2G2 Storytime. Here is the link for that: http://www.h2g2.com/F19585?thread=75612 Also, I've become senior lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Life. Come and see what I'll be starting work on soon: http:www.h2g2.comA429482 I *guilt* haven't done....much work *guilt* on the Passwords project. To be honest I wasn't writing very well. We can take another crack at it if you like. Hope the book turned out all right. See you later. Clive :-)

Delighted to hear that you're as mired in guilt as me! I will go take a look at Passwords and your other links tomorrow, as right now I was just browsing through in a hopeful way, not expecting to stop for any length of time. The book(s) are doing well -- there were two, one prose, one comics. I am feeling reasonably relieved and thinking about my next projects. Life goes on. See ya! mag

Welcome back Magnolia... Don't be guilty - there's no time limit...

You might want to check your username analysis page - couple of people have asked for a reading, and I'm sure they'd appreciate your expert opinion...

ignore me - I see you found it...