Thursday, April 12, 2007

I Am Getting Old - Part Nine

I am getting old because user ID's password/pin numbers and clutter are becoming an issue for me. One of the first rules we taught our users, was never to write your passwords down for people to see. We would find them on sticky notes attached to their monitors. Well guess what, now I am doing the same sort of thing. Only I made a list, which is conveniently, located right next to my computer. Not smart. I made a list because each website I want to dig deep into to see what it is about, requires a user ID and password. I try to use the same ID and password all the time, it is just easier that way. My preferred ID is 2feeleys (my son used that when he setup my email account).

Imagine my surprise when I get a message from a website that 2feeleys is taken. First, there are not that many people with the last name Feeley, or at least I could not find many other that my husband’s family. Second, I know I never registered there before so it cannot be me. Some sites have a feature that tells you how “strong” your selected password is. So far, the one I use is “strong” and the best part is I can remember it easily.

For email and banking, the password I use is very long and weird. (Our home network got “attacked” by “worms” and “hackers”.) I panicked and made that password weird so it would be harder to steal. Several mornings, before my first cup of coffee, I have started to login and forgot the new one. I have to wait until the coffee is done and I can get my eyes open and brain working before I can remember the password I made up. For this one, I used good sense and did not write it down. I hope “worms” and “hackers” have the same problem when they do whatever it is they do.

Pin numbers do not really give me a problem as long as I can start it with 0. I never figured out why some places that assign a pin number will not let you use 0 as the first number. Looks like a perfectly good number to me.

Clutter, now this does give me a problem. I have been this way for a long time so I do not think aging has anything to do with it. When I am writing and using the computer, I make notes on scraps of paper, sticky notes and anything else handy. I lay pencils, pens, notebooks and all sorts of things down anywhere I can reach. All of sudden I realize I cannot find anything I am looking for and then I panic. It is time to stop and get myself organized. It usually takes about 3 or 4 days to make the mess, but I am fast at getting it cleaned up and organized. I use File 13 for most of the notes, because by this time, I have forgotten why I made it in the first place. The feeling I get while sitting amidst the clutter is like, well imagine all the thoughts that you have in your mind becoming like a whirlwind, swirling round and round. Then they start to fly in all different directions and you cannot get them back together again. I had an attack yesterday, so for the time being, I am in good shape, except I just spilled “caffeine free diet Pepsi” all over my favorite writing tablet.

That about covers all I have to say on these topics, so I will start to look around for the next thing on which I want to expound. Until later, this is 2feeleys signing off
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4 comments:

Gene Bach said...

It makes it even better when you are on a system that requires a password change every 60-90 days. LOL!

Sylvia said...

We had those on the "Mainframe" computer at work years ago. It is frustrating to dream up passwords that often so most people used the current month and year. Being in IT we knew their ID's and could usually log in as anyone we wanted to. lol

ArahMan7 said...

Thank you for emailing with me the other day. Hope we can do it again soon.

A question. How do I know when a hacker is in my network? Trying to steal my things/info.

Anonymous said...

Good laughs!
Peace,
Scout
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