There are three interesting things on this page: An “interactive brute force search space calculator” for passwords, which you can play with to get a good idea how easily a brute-force attack would find YOUR passwords. Some comments further down the page on mathematical entropy, and how it doesn’t affect password strength (despite common wisdom [...]
Archive of posts filed under the Memory category.
“Boffins place living creature under control of brain chip”
Hm… could the world of Darrell Bain’s The Pet Plague be far behind? Or more seriously, the brain enhancements of Peter F. Hamilton’s Night’s Dawn trilogy, or any of a dozen similar science fiction works? Scary stuff, but ooh so exciting, too.
“Secrets of a Memory Champion”
You might have seen this guy, he was a guest on a lot of shows after he won the US Memory Championship earlier this year. Memory training is a topic that’s near and dear to my heart. I really think that schools should have one mandatory class every year devoted to it. Of course, it’ll [...]
“Little kids and memory”
What’s your earliest memory? It has always struck me as curious that no one remembers anything from when they were really young. I have vivid memories from when I was six years old on, but only a handful from before that, most tied to strong emotions or discomfort, or (strangely enough) the layouts of the [...]
Useful Memory Tricks
I’ve mentioned the memory tricks that I use before, a couple times. Yesterday I had a rare chance to really put them to the test. I’d used those tricks to remember the combination to a lock that I’d put on our shed, maybe six or seven years ago. The lock was on there for less [...]
“Use MD5 Hashes and Your Favorite Site for a Secure Password”
I was discussing our password security schemes with Ploni over (encrypted) e-mail recently, which reminded me of a post I recently saw on the subject that uses a different take: an MD5 hash of a file or phrase as the core. (Interesting idea, though not as convenient as simply learning to remember secure passwords.)
“Brain Is a Co-Conspirator in a Vicious Stress Loop”
Neat information.
“Can We Increase Our Intelligence?”
I’m fascinated by this kind of stuff, and thought I’d share it. There’s also another article by the same people that’s just as interesting, on the interaction of genetic disposition and environment in producing behaviors.
Foul-Mouth Passwords
I stumbled over an interesting article, from a couple years ago, on passwords. The most interesting part, to me, was a pair of statements buried in the text: *Cuss words were very popular. Boy, there’s a lot of aggression out there. *I was surprised about how many Christian-sounding — for example, “Ilovejesus” — log-on names [...]
“Bruce Schneier Blazes Through Your Questions”
Interesting interview with one of my favorite computer security writers, especially (to me) the part about how he handles passwords: Q: How do you remember all of your passwords? A: I can’t. No one can; there are simply too many. But I have a few strategies. One, I choose the same password for all low-security [...]