• meeezer (unregistered) in reply to bass-ackward

    ya, me tooo...

    racecar dad mom madam im adam etc

    captcha: stinky ... yes, this joke is very stinky - how'd it know?

  • (cs) in reply to Disgruntled DBA

    Personally, I wish they would allow passwords of up to 80 characters. Then you could pick some nice phrase that would be easy to remember, but simply too long to write down. Perhaps something like:

    Voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir?

    What the F--- could be better than Worse Than Failure?

    <seven dirty words you can never say on television>
  • Princess Vespa (unregistered) in reply to Top Cod3r
    Top Cod3r:
    My password is the same as Dark Helmet's...

    1-2-3-4-5

    That wasn't Dark Helmet's password, it was President Skroob's.

    Some people...

  • Reaver (unregistered) in reply to Princess Vespa
    Princess Vespa:
    Top Cod3r:
    My password is the same as Dark Helmet's...

    1-2-3-4-5

    That wasn't Dark Helmet's password, it was President Skroob's.

    Some people...

    heheh, it was the password to the Air Shield on Druidia and the password to Pres. Skroob's luggage!

  • Sgt. Preston (unregistered) in reply to clevershark

    Yes, stick it to the underside of your keyboard, but also stick an expired password to the edge of your monitor. People will think you just never got around to replacing the sticky note on the monitor and stop looking.

  • (cs)

    The disclaimer reminds me of the classic SNL commercial parody "Happy Fun Ball"...

    http://www.happyfunball.com/hfb.html

  • Reaver (unregistered)

    My Favorite all time SNL line has always been:

    "Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball."

    even above the other greats from the 70's like "Jane, you ignorant slut", "I'm Gumby dammit" and Buckwheat's greatest hits "O-tay"

    sorry, have to jump back from 30 years ago...

  • Top Cod3r (unregistered) in reply to Reaver
    Reaver:
    Princess Vespa:
    Top Cod3r:
    My password is the same as Dark Helmet's...

    1-2-3-4-5

    That wasn't Dark Helmet's password, it was President Skroob's.

    Some people...

    heheh, it was the password to the Air Shield on Druidia and the password to Pres. Skroob's luggage!

    Just checking if you guys are awake out there!

  • (cs) in reply to snoofle
    snoofle:
    Personally, I wish they would allow passwords of up to 80 characters. Then you could pick some nice phrase that would be easy to remember, but simply too long to write down.
    This is a great way to get relatively effective passwords. Just use the first/last/whatever letter of each word in the phrase, maybe add a number or two onto the beginning/end, and voila.
  • Sgt. Preston (unregistered)

    "Don't enter your password on a computer you don't trust."

    That's good advice. I think my laptop's been conspiring against me with my DVD player.

  • (cs) in reply to sir_flexalot
    sir_flexalot:
    they forgot the parentheses, it should read "do NOT (make your password too simple AND write down in safe place)."
    Doesn't that evaluate to: "do NOT make your password too simple OR NOT write your password down in a safe place"?

    Then aren't all these things are OK?

    make it too simple AND NOT write it down, NOT make it too simple AND write it down, NOT make it too simple AND NOT write it down.

    Probably should be "do NOT( make your password too simple OR write your password in a safe place )".

  • crackhead (unregistered) in reply to mkb
    mkb:
    Give him the stick! NO DON'T GIVE HIM THE STICK!

    (who gets that reference?)

    Help computer...

  • (cs)

    I tattoo my password to my backside. Impossible to lose and always with me.

    Makes it a real pain in the ass to get it changed though.

  • d3matt (unregistered) in reply to meeezer
    meeezer:
                              ___-----------___
                    __--~~                 ~~--__
                _-~~                             ~~-_
             _-~                                     ~-_
            /                                           \
           |                                             |
          |                                               |
          |                                               |
         |                                                 |
         |                                                 |
         |                                                 |
          |                                               |
          |  |    _-------_               _-------_    |  |
          |  |  /~         ~\           /~         ~\  |  |
           ||  |             |         |             |  ||
           || |               |       |               | ||
           || |              |         |              | ||
           |   \_           /           \           _/   |
          |      ~~--_____-~    /~V~\    ~-_____--~~      |
          |                    |     |                    |
         |                    |       |                    |
         |                    |  /^\  |                    |
          |                    ~~   ~~                    |
           \_         _                       _         _/
             ~--____-~ ~\                   /~ ~-____--~
                  \     /\                 /\     /
                   \    | ( ,           , ) |    /
                    |   | (~(__(  |  )__)~) |   |
                     |   \/ (  (~~|~~)  ) \/   |
                      |   |  [ [  |  ] ]  /   |
                       |                     |         
                        \                   /
                         ~-_             _-~
                            ~--___-___--~

    That is now in my /etc/motd file

    captcha: riaa (YES!!!)

  • ibiwan (unregistered) in reply to snoofle
    snoofle:
    You want a secure password? Here's how:
    1. Open up 10 windows at random
    2. Hit print-screen (or *nix equivalent)
    3. Calculate random x-y point on screen
    4. Calculate random number (n) in range: 6..13
    5. Take ASCII equivalent of n bytes from x-y index into screen dump
    6. Convert to md5 hash
    7. Use the hash itself as the password of the day
    8. Carefully write the hash down on a Post-It
    9. Put the Post-It on the computer NEXT TO yours Voila!

    For extra security, take picture of Post-It on computer on wooden table...

    I've come up with my own XML-based implementation of this scheme... Brillant!

  • (cs) in reply to d3matt
    d3matt:
    meeezer:
    Sniped ASCII skull art!

    That is now in my /etc/motd file

    While I do think this is a cool piece of ASCII art I think mister meezer thinks that by simply posting a message with this he becomes some 1337 H4X0R. I'd love to have his IP address and see just how many worms he has opening ports on his own box unknown to him.

    I bet I'd find his passwords saved in a text file on his desktop just in case he forgets his login. Of course he would have to login to get to it.

  • Zygo (unregistered) in reply to Jon
    Jon:
    They are obviously proponents of quantum security - they want you to be in the superposition of both writing your password down and not writing it down. You'll only know which it is when you check to see if you did actually write it down or not (so don't do that!) ;-)

    But, if anyone observes the password you've written down, the password will change due to the observation, and then nobody will know what it is.

  • Jake Cohen (unregistered)

    The problem with sticky notes is that they can fall off and get lost. I just set a scrolling marquee screen saver with my password as the message.

    Captcha: dubya (no, I didn't get this idea from him)

  • Mithras (unregistered) in reply to Great
    Great:

    Whoops, crap, I think I changed it to 'demodemo'. Sorry.

  • (cs) in reply to KattMan
    KattMan:
    d3matt:
    meeezer:
    Sniped ASCII skull art!

    That is now in my /etc/motd file

    While I do think this is a cool piece of ASCII art I think mister meezer thinks that by simply posting a message with this he becomes some 1337 H4X0R. I'd love to have his IP address and see just how many worms he has opening ports on his own box unknown to him.

    I bet I'd find his passwords saved in a text file on his desktop just in case he forgets his login. Of course he would have to login to get to it.

    Disclaimer: putting ascii art in the motd only makes you appear to be l33t. It does not in any way make your box more secure.

  • (cs)

    At my workplace, passwords are required to be at least 10 characters long, must contain at least 2 digits and 2 punctuation characters, and must be changed every 60 days, with no repeats allowed.

    I swear to god, it's like they WANT people to write their passwords down.

  • Anonymous commie (unregistered) in reply to KattMan
    KattMan:
    d3matt:
    meeezer:
    Sniped ASCII skull art!

    That is now in my /etc/motd file

    While I do think this is a cool piece of ASCII art I think mister meezer thinks that by simply posting a message with this he becomes some 1337 H4X0R. I'd love to have his IP address and see just how many worms he has opening ports on his own box unknown to him.

    I bet I'd find his passwords saved in a text file on his desktop just in case he forgets his login. Of course he would have to login to get to it.

    Well, I bet that wasn't ASCII art that he posted, that was his password.
  • hexatron (unregistered) in reply to Zylon
    Zylon:
    At my workplace, passwords are required to be at least 10 characters long, must contain at least 2 digits and 2 punctuation characters, and must be changed every 60 days, with no repeats allowed.

    I swear to god, it's like they WANT people to write their passwords down.

    I got the same crap (well, every 90 days) and my passwords are now stuff like 4444$Rrrr that are:

    1. Easy and fast to type (two handed). The shift key business makes it a little hard for a bystander to read.
    2. Easy to write down (4^4r^4, and remember the shift key stuff)
    3. Easy to vary (next one is 333#Eeee, same pattern shifted left)
  • (cs)

    The real WT... er, problem, is that passwords are a lousy security mechanism, and shouldn't be used for any system with decent resources and input mechanisms. Passphrases are somewhat better (and, by the way, the "password" mechanisms for a number of popular systems do allow reasonably-long passphrases), provided they're not encumbered with ridiculous complexity rules.

    Considering the wealth of security research that demonstrates that passwords are crap, you might think that the people who specify and implement security systems (who generally aren't security researchers) would have learned by now to stop using passwords. But of course they insist on reinventing the square wheel instead.

    -- Michael Wojcik

  • Annekat (unregistered)

    If you want a nice, secure, unguessable password, ,use a password grid. Just make a grid and put the alphabet in it and the numbers 0-9, etc., and then memorize a pattern. Like all the characters starting from the top, going straight down the middle.

  • Troy Mclure (unregistered) in reply to Zylon
    Zylon:
    At my workplace, passwords are required to be at least 10 characters long, must contain at least 2 digits and 2 punctuation characters, and must be changed every 60 days, with no repeats allowed.

    I swear to god, it's like they WANT people to write their passwords down.

    Even worse are the systems I work on that do not allow characters to be repeated in succession (c and s in this case if succession was my password), nor can you have a set of incremental characters (abc). Plus at least one symbol, one uppercase, one number.

    I swear it takes me 45 minutes to change my password. Oh and you cant have used that password within the last 10 password changes. Just to make it a little simpler.

    CAPTCHA - does anyone really give a fuck what I typed in?

  • (cs) in reply to clevershark
    clevershark:
    MX5Ringer:
    Write it on a 'post it' and stick it to the side of your screen like everyone else.

    If it's the password for a really secure system, write it on the back of the 'post it' so you can't see it whilst sitting at your desk.

    That's terrible advice! Everyone knows that the Post-its with the really secret passwords should be stuck to the underside of the keyboard at your desk, because no one would ever think of looking there!

    Excellent advice! We do the same at work. And to make the 90 day password rotation easier we rotate keyboards one cube to the left every 90 days. Just flip your new keyboard over and you have your new password.

  • (cs) in reply to codemoose

    cPanel is a WTF in itself, some of its coding (a lot of it is in Perl) is terrible :P. One of my favourite errors in cPanel is when you try to add a Mail Autoresponder, but forget to type in an email address to use. The response looks like this:

    Add Auto-responder

    Auto-responder Created

    You must specify an email address. Ignore any messages of success this can only result in failure! was successfully created.

    Another one: Some of the "[ Go Back ]" links are JavaScript, whereas some are links to a HTML page. This sometimes gets you stuck in an endless loop (the Go Back link on one page directs you somewhere, and the Go Back link on the page you're directed to uses JavaScript to redirect you to the original page!)

    codemoose:
    I always write down my password on the backside of a mobius strip.
    Hehe :D

    Addendum (2007-03-17 00:58): Oh, and the Real WTF (tm) is the choice it gives you in regards to the FTP server software used: [image] Now, looking at that chart, who would choose Proftpd? :P

  • s|k (unregistered)

    Bitching about the idiots still letting everyone know what their CAPTCHA, is starting to get old. Seriously. Stop whining about it. It's old already. It's beyond old to moan about it.

  • xand (unregistered) in reply to -
    -:
    Actually it can make sense. There are (have been) exploits for Windows where you can get access to a computer that's not password protected

    How is that an "exploit"?

  • rem (unregistered) in reply to codemoose
    codemoose:
    I always write down my password on the backside of a mobius strip.

    I always write down my passwords on my own backside. No one would ever look there! People look at me funny every time I log in though :(

    Captcha: waffles. Yum! Makes me hungry.

  • anon (unregistered) in reply to Mithras
    Mithras:
    Great:

    Whoops, crap, I think I changed it to 'demodemo'. Sorry.

    so wait what is the real one so I can write ... no wait ...

  • Ultimape (unregistered)

    john the ripper is a cool program... we ran it in lab to test how "crackable" secure passwords are.

    Dictionary passwords were cracked in a few seconds to a few minutes. We are still running a crack on on a "secure" password, it's been 3 weeks...

  • (cs) in reply to Zylon
    Zylon:
    At my workplace, passwords are required to be at least 10 characters long, must contain at least 2 digits and 2 punctuation characters, and must be changed every 60 days, with no repeats allowed.

    I swear to god, it's like they WANT people to write their passwords down.

    The rule at my workplace it that it is absolutely forbidden to write down passwords. It says nothing though about storing them on mobiles and/or organizers ....

  • Watson (unregistered) in reply to Troy Mclure
    Troy Mclure:
    I swear it takes me 45 minutes to change my password. Oh and you cant have used that password within the last 10 password changes. Just to make it a little simpler.

    And of course, after trying for 45 minutes to find something that does meet all the necessary criteria (which I swear changes every few attempts) - attempt, confirm, rejected; attempt, confirm, rejected; attempt, confirm, rejected; attempt, confirm, rejected; attempt, confirm, rejected; attemptconfirm rejected; attemptconfirm rejected; attemptconfirm rejected; attemptconfirm accepted; att-- wait, what did I just type?

  • Awesome (unregistered) in reply to Top Cod3r
    Top Cod3r:
    My password is the same as Dark Helmet's...

    1-2-3-4-5

    Dark Helmet: It worked, sir. We have the combination.

    President Skroob: Great. Now we can take every last breath of fresh air from planet Druidia. What's the combination?

    Dark Helmet: 1 2 3 4 5.

    President Skroob: 1 2 3 4 5? That's amazing! I've got the same combination on my luggage! Prepare Spaceball 1 for immediate departure!

    Dark Helmet: Yes, sir!

    President Skroob: And change the combination on my luggage!

  • (cs) in reply to Karl von L.
    Karl von L.:
    When the previous Visual SourceSafe admin left the company, I took over that role by default.
    Wow! You actually used VSS? It kept mangling its data at least weekly when we evaluated it. It was the crappiest code control software we ever saw.
  • (cs) in reply to KattMan
    KattMan:
    I tattoo my password to my backside. Impossible to lose and always with me.

    Makes it a real pain in the ass to get it changed though.

    A bit awkward to refresh your memory on Monday without attracting attention.

  • (cs) in reply to s|k
    s|k:
    Bitching about the idiots still letting everyone know what their CAPTCHA, is starting to get old. Seriously. Stop whining about it. It's old already. It's beyond old to moan about it.
    Let me be the first to whine about those who are bitching about the idiots still letting everyone know what their CAPTCHA was. Sort of a meta-whine for 2007.
  • Ebs2002 (unregistered) in reply to crackhead
    crackhead:
    mkb:
    Give him the stick! NO DON'T GIVE HIM THE STICK!

    (who gets that reference?)

    Help computer...

    No, I don't waaaaaaaant a pickle. I just wanna ride my mooooooootersickle!

  • iNFiNiTyLoOp (unregistered) in reply to Annekat

    I already do this, but I use the qwerty layout for my 'grid'.

  • hairymonkeymanthing (unregistered)

    for passwords i use "password" as my password. which i don't write down because I have superb memory chip built in called the brain that memorised this unique conbination of letters forever....

  • (cs)

    The Real WTF Here (c)(tm) is that someone is using cPanel in the first place...

    :-p

  • tendrel (unregistered)

    OMG - this one is just killing me. First the original pic, which leaves me with tears streaming down my face and feeling like I have lost at least 15 IQ points... Then the comments, ahhhhh, show mercy...can't...breathe.....

  • robtown (unregistered)

    meh - I just use a fingerprint reader to log on

  • jordanwb (unregistered) in reply to Top Cod3r

    It wasn't Dark Helmet it was the king of the planet.

  • tharpa (unregistered) in reply to mkb
    mkb:
    Give him the stick! NO DON'T GIVE HIM THE STICK!

    (who gets that reference?)

    What is this? (Holding up a stick.) If you say it is a stick, I will hit you with it. If you say it is not a stick, I will hit you with it. What is it???!!!

    (Traditional Zen Koan)

  • jkl (unregistered)

    THIS IS THE BEST WAY!

    Explicit unrolled static conversion easily optimized by the compiler for best performance!

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