Passw??ds

Don't get me wrong. I love the Web. The best proof of that is probably the fact that I spend about five hours a day surfing and swimming in the webbie world (but don't get concerned: most of that time is while at work). I love being able to instantly find important and trivial information alike with just a few clicks.

Of course, there is one problematic aspect about all of this: passwords. Yes, I admit that the fault for this is 100% me. I should have crafted some sort of system -- a simple tabular list, for example -- and hide the thing somewhere where I can pull it out anytime the Forget Password Virus strikes me. But I haven't. The closest I have come is to jot down passwords on some slip of paper that I promise I will store away in a safe place. This approach is not always successful. It tends to lead to one of the following situations:

1) I can't remember where I stored the slip of paper.
2) I find a slip of paper with a password on it, but I cannot remember what website it is for.
3) I find a slip of paper with a password on it, but it is the password to some other site than the one I want to access.
4) I remember the password, but I cannot remember my user name.
5) By the time I do find the right user name and password, I have forgotten what I wanted to look for (which is probably a good indication of just how important it was).
6) I remember my user name and the password, but the website is now defunct.
7) I remember two or more passwords, yet I cannot remember which site each of them is for.
8) Five minutes before I log on to my computer, the password to the site I want to visit is clearly in my head, but by the time I log on, I am drawing a blank for the password.
9) Each time any of the above happens, I swear that I am going to get myself a notebook to jot down all these passwords and PINs. Let's see: I have been regularly using computers in my daily life since 1984, and I still have not bought that notebook.
10) I go to the store to buy the aforementioned notebook, and I come away having bought an umbrella, deodorant, soap, and bath cloths and then make it halfway home before it occurs to me that I forgot the notebook. Well, at least I am dry, clean and I don't stink.
11) I find the slip of paper with the password on it, I remember my correct user name, but I then remember that I wrote the password using some sort of secret code so that nobody else could figure it out. Unfortunately, I have by now forgotten the secret code myself.
12) The website has terminated my account for lack of use.

Well, I figure a dozen's about enough