I’ve been clicking the “remember my username and password” button for years, now. But it never matters, does it? Not on websites, not even on local files sometimes. Sure, there’s some things that work. AOL Instant Messenger. Steam. Yahoo Messenger.
But in all the years I’ve been using it, Yahoo Mail doesn’t actually remember a damn thing. Neither does MSN Passport, despite making sure I’ve got a username and password saved. Some sites remember. WordPress sites are good, Livejournal is good, and TVTropes bakes a fine cookie, but the vast majority of the internet never seems to remember what you tell it to. The button has been there for years, certainly, but not the function.
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Hm. Interesting. Yahoo mail always remembered me, even though I don’t go in very often. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed a site that doesn’t retain when I ask it. Though come to think of it, most of my info was in Firefox memory, rather than having the website itself remember.
Lately, though, I’ve started using the password management function in Norton Internet Security. At the beginning of a session (i.e., when I first open Firefox) and first come upon a page asking for a password, Norton asks me to log in. So if I don’t have the password for the passwords, so to speak, I don’t have the passwords. This feels safer to me. Anything can be cracked, but I use a 13-character password with varying cases and “at least one special character,” as they say.
Since I got my smartphone, my laptop doesn’t leave home very often–maybe once a month? For the most part, then, this is an unnecessary precaution. And the caveat is that if I leave home without closing Firefox, my lost or stolen machine would already have Norton logged in and would provide no security. I should be better about that.
As an aside, Norton’s memory must be browser specific. If I go into a site in IE, it doesn’t know my password even if I’ve saved it in Norton while using Firefox.
Instead of storing in page-related memory, the professor keeps her passwords in a passworded page in OneNote. The page is probably titled something innocuous like “future syllabus content” or something. That might be a good way to hide it, because someone would really have to be digging through your shit to come upon it, before even trying to break in. This allows her to easily have ridiculously secure passwords like gEt+t*^64ErQ because all she has to do is cut and paste them.
Many checkboxes are useless. Yesterday, I went in to get a first session of laser hair removal on my old lady furry chin. I had to fill out 5 pages of paperwork. Most was disclaimer stuff, but two pages were medical history and detailed dermatological information. The tech didn’t even look at them. She asked me a few questions–the ones that were most important before getting started, like whether I do artificial tanning or have been on certain drugs lately. I had checked a lot of boxes for nothing.
Also, one thing I had to sign was a full page of post-treatment instructions. I had to sign that I’d been told what these were so that they could keep a litigation prophylactic copy in my file. But after I gave it to them, I had to ask for a copy for myself. They acted like it hadn’t occurred to them to give one to me, and like no one had ever asked for one before. (They happily provided it.) While I’m a genius, I don’t think I can remember 12 or 15 points of information that I’ve skimmed once. These are the kinds of things you bitch about on your website, so I felt it appropriate to mention here.
Now I’ve wasted all my creativity and writing time on this stupid comment and I’ll have to do my own blog post later. Thanks a lot.
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