I hate it when an online system requires me to use a "hint," in case I forget my password. First, I don't need a hint. I know all my passwords. I do not lose my passwords. Second, if I did lose my passwords, you can be damned sure I would lose my hint too, because: Third, if I make my hint easy enough for me to remember without storing it somewhere, it would be far too easy for someone else to find out the answer. And if I am going to store it somewhere, why not just store the password instead?
... I'll be daring and let the world know that a hint for a low-security password of mine is EAR. You will never, ever guess the password from that hint. No one who knows me will ever guess the password from that hint. You can guess until the cows come home and you simply won't get it. And if you happened to learn my password, you wouldn't be able to figure out why the hint matches it.
Hints aren't as bad as you make them out to be, they just aren't used very carefully
Re:Because...
pudge on 2003-05-23T21:46:04
I'll be daring and let the world know that a hint for a low-security password of mine is EAR. You will never, ever guess the password from that hint. No one who knows me will ever guess the password from that hint.
I think you misunderstand me. What I am talking about are the hints that allow you to gain access to the account. "If you tell me what street you lived on when you were growing up, and your favorite actor's name, we will give you access, since you forgot your password."Re:Because...
vsergu on 2003-05-23T23:21:54
Why would that be called a hint? There doesn't seem to be any hinting involved. I also misinterpreted your rant, because "hint" to me means what it does to Ovid.Re:Because...
pudge on 2003-05-23T23:29:26
Why would that be called a hint?
How should *I* know?:-)
No kidding! It's one thing to let me specify a hint. It's another thing to make me, and another thing to only give me a few stupid easy questions to pick from. Why can't they email me my password (with or without resetting it) like everyone else?
Now, if they let me specify a PGP public key, that would be something I could go for.
Re:Hints
pudge on 2003-05-25T01:48:26
http://use.perl.org/comments.pl?sid=13147&cid=20491Re:Hints
trachtenberga on 2003-05-25T07:12:41
For all I know, you're a really big UConn basketball fan, Scotty.
