undefined | Better HN

0 pointsddlatham14y ago0 comments

I've had the opposite experience, where I'm more likely to mistype passwords with mixed case letters and symbols holding the shift key down too long. With mobile devices, it gets worse, as common words are easy to type, but symbols and mixed case are a pain.

It is a good point, though, that for frequently typed passwords on a good keyboard, you can engage your muscle memory. That allows you to type short passwords very quickly, and even remember passwords with your fingers that you've lost from your conscious memory!

0 comments

2 comments · 2 top-level

singlow14y ago

Thats how I can remember 25 character passwords with symbols and mixed case. I am not thinking "43#gj(eO3%". I'm thinking "4-4-shift3-g-j-shift9-e-shifto-3-shift5". So basically you have about 47 keys with nice characters and they each have two of them.

Just use a random password generator with those 47 characters and type it 25 times into a notepad to pound it into your muscle memory. (and if you're paranoid, clean up your memory and swap file)

For the ones you don't use every few weeks, keep them in a password database like KeePass with 2 factor authentication and keep the key file on a thumb drive on your keychain.

gabaix14y ago

mmm You got me thinking. You're right, both look error prone. Typing errors increase as it gets longer or more complicated.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse