Annoyances

I do know that effect only too well.It reminds me of another interesting phenomenon that rates highly on my piss-me-off meter. I've often wondered if there exists some kind of magnetic anomaly that may occur in very localised points, that cause some people to momentarily lose their orientation or bearings. The prescence of this effect particularly came to my attention when people, normally right in front of me on an escalator, get to the end and take one step off the moving part, and just stand there not knowing where to go (like away from the escalator would be a good place to start to prevent all the people behind from crashing into one another in a cartoonish-slapstick manner). These mysterious anomalies have also been seen to occur at places such as busy doorways and exits of lifts.

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On the 7th day, God was arrested.

Yes, word peeves could be a whole topic in itself. yes, hit the nail on the head, that's been one of my personal favourites for some time. Another one is the American practice of dropping the second "i" in Aluminium. No disrespect intended to our American friends. But they don't say Calcum, Magnesum or Strontum, so why pick on Aluminium??

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On the 7th day, God was arrested.

I can't give a sugesstion for the password itself. However, a degree in mathematics may be of assistance in working out future passwords.Or a more drastic idea, find a job in another company where you don't need to be a Rhodes Scholar to think of a usable password.

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On the 7th day, God was arrested.

While on the subject, for anyone who might be interested, here are a few guidelines for making usable good passwds.Use two or more words put together in an unusual way. Then substitute numbers for some of the letters.some examples:
saleboat (good) and sal3b0at (better)brownbare (good) and br0wnb3ar (better)burdbath (good) and burdba7h (better)

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Thanks for the password generation suggestions, but the biggest problem, at least for me, is remembering the passwords. Keep in mind I've been at the company for 14 years, and passwords change every 70 days. We've only had this policy for the past 12 years, though, beginning when a board member expressed concern about security. That means I've had around 60 passwords.So while the creation of new passwords presents some challenges, no one I talk to at work finds this a significant problem. The real problem is that the weird passwords combined with the frequent changing of the password makes remembering them very difficult. Until 5 years ago words in the dictionary could be legal passwords, and one friend created new passwords from objects in his office, like pencils and notepad. But today almost everyone writes their password down somewhere. For those with white keyboards, the bottom of the keyboard is a common place. Little sticky notes are also common. One group at my site rebels against the password policy by all using the same password and posting it prominently on a bulletin board in the hallway.I remember my password. I have a simple system that makes the generation and memorization of the next password easy, but anyone who figured out my system would be able to guess my next password till the end of time. I've complained to our computer services group that their approach forces people to either write passwords down or develop systems that, if figured out, make password guessing a breeze. I suggested fingerprint readers some years ago, but they felt the technology wasn't really there to use in a production environment (I know we're only producing software, but that's what we call it), and given the failure of fingerprint readers to catch on I think they were right. Retinal scan has similar issues. We're now using SecureID when logging in using VPN over the Internet, and it might be a good idea to somehow adopt SecureID to the normal access process that requests username and password.But I'm probably in favor of anything that would eliminate this incessant password changing.--Percy

Good point. I always thought YOU guys were weird but you're probably right. It IS "aluminium" isn't it? Maybe that would help all the poor souls who get tongue-twisted and end up saying ALUNAMUN. Or maybe not.

One thing I sometimes do is to take a quote that I like, and use the initial letters of the words. If you want, you can capitalize some, and then throw in some numbers.

I got a good password generation tool I read one time. Take a password that's easy to remember, it can even be obvious.Say I choose the password "America".Now, type the keys directly above and to the left of "America" and you get "Qj348dq". Presto! Instant wierd ass password All you have to do is remember "America" and your done.

Lots of the government organizations I work with use a combination of password,username and identification number.All users are giving a little device (the same of a small flashdrive) with an LCD display - when you log-on you put in your username, your password and then press the button on the device and it gives you a 10 digit number than is good for that minute.

Getting nuggets from McDonalds only to get shafted on the barbecue sauce. The sauce is all I really wanted!! )(*#%)(*%# the nuggets!People saying "I didn't evolve from no ape man!". We share a common ancestor, idiot!People claiming to be gamers that have no comprehension of what a "real" gamer truly is. See: Yu-Gi-Oh or modern day console gaming.\_33+ 2p34kThe lack of Americans in physics/math graduate school. Uhg, the next few years are going to be heck...Drunk drivers. If you feel like being an idiot, the more mainstream method of voting in a horrible administration is a little less traumatic in the short-term.

Heh."u r 73h 5u|Somehow, making people's eyes bleed is "cool." On a similar note, how about the percentage of American's who didn't pay any attention at all in science class in highschool? Every time a fundy breaks the laws of thermodynamics, Isaac Newton kills a kitten.

The misuse of apostrophes is my all-time biggest pet peeve and it is epidemic. I think the internet has made it worse. It used to be that you'd find people occasionally sticking an apostrophe in the possessive "its" where it doesn't belong any more than it belongs in "his" or "hers," but now you find simple nonpossessive plurals abused in the same way. I looked through this thread and found only one abuse, however, the plural "Americans" misrendered as "American's." I have to work hard not to think less of people who put a welcome sign at their entrance saying "The Webster's" to indicate a family of Websters.Another pet peeve is the mispelling of "caramelized" by a few on this very thread, a case of the common error of saying "carmel" for the browned-sugar candy when "caramel" is meant. Carmel is a mountain in Samaria and also a seacoast town in California. It is not browned sugar. But "caramel" is.There, now a few of the ways I restrain myself from being a pedant hundreds of times a day are expressed where it should be acceptable.This message has been edited by Faith, 08-07-2005 02:34 PM

spelling "a lot" as "alot."

Is that one common? It seems to have escaped my pedantic eye if so.

yes. But what I really dislike is overblown prose: Using a lot of exotic words in an attempt to impress. And usually what is said is not a precise thought at all. It is possible to express any idea, no matter how complicated, in a clear manner.This message has been edited by robinrohan, 08-07-2005 03:47 PM