where to store your passwords ?

[applePi]

in a file ? it may be deleted or your hard disk damaged.
in the web ? it may be hacked and changed or stolen
on a CD / DVD ? the worst untrusted media, better than that on an external hard disk.
on a paper ? it may be lost

i suggest to write the passwords inside a thick big dictionary from page 1000 and up
or better in a room walls which are free from moisture, write it with a fixed law, suppose the password 1234, just attach 4 number before and after it such as 345612349845
the important passwords write it higher on the wall or even on the ceiling, you can use a telescope to look at it when needed. thats it only a strong earthquake can erase your passwords
last word: is to not use o or 0 and if you want to write L write it as capital, also be carefull from small g and 8 ...
a collection of electronic and written passwords support each other. and the last rescue is from the passwords carved on your wall.

[PB]

http://www.passwordcard.org

Solves all the problems you mentioned at the start of your post,
because you can get all your passwords back at any time just
by visiting the website from any PC/Mac/phone and entering
your card's unique code.

[davido]

@PB

Looks very interesting. Thank you.

[PB]

The source code for it is available, and there's an app for iPhone too.
There's really no downsides to it. It's a foolproof password system.

[applePi]

thanks PB for the link, it is the strangest password generator, but still i need to remember the symbol_color combinations, such as this

in my case (heart_green) , but the bizarre nature of the idea deserve to try.
some people may prefer to replace the symbols with english letters if they don't know the names of some symbols.

[BorisTheOld]

This is all too complicated for me -- I just remember all mine.

[PB]

It's an awesome concept, because it's fully impossible to crack.
It uses your mind only, which nobody can read or hack. As an
example, I could also use Heart_Green as the starting point for
my own password, but instead of moving right as in your example,
my own path might be a step pattern going down to the right.
Nobody is going to be able to guess that I've done that.

[IdeasVacuum]

The principle is a good idea. I suggest that if you want to do this, then write your own app to make your own card rather than trust a website you never heard of before maintained by someone you don't know...........

[PB]

> rather than trust a website you never heard of
> before maintained by someone you don't know

That's why I specifically mentioned it's open-source
and can be used without the website itself.

But, your comment shows you're misunderstanding the
concept. It can't be hacked or misused by anyone at all.
It solely uses your brain, not technical implemenation.
You can have your 5-year-old kids make a card for you
with their own pen and paper to get the same product.

[applePi]

i think it is possible with spider basic to write something like this or better, or with purebasic with its image /canvas/ color facilities. also if we choose a place near the end of the password card by 3 numbers we can continue our 8+ length password from the beginning to complete the 8+ , ie we imagine the card as 3D cylinder card.
if i write Heart_Green_45 on my room wall or keeping 45 in my memory then it is diagonal like PB picture, the intruder needs to have the picture first, then the length of the password, and worst the direction
i can see that PB have not used my picture but he generated it again using my hexadecimal card number f8e2887ede0d31e but without checking the Option "check this for an area with only digits" , i though first that it is an erroneous program result.

[PB]

> or with purebasic with its image /canvas/ color facilities

Don't even need color; the rows are numbered. It's just a grid.

> the intruder needs to have the picture first, then the length
> of the password, and worst the direction

Yep, that's why it's unhackable. The "key" is in your brain.
Directions don't even have to be straight lines; you could
use a swirl or spiral or anything that is memorable to you.
Even the shape of the letter "E" for your email password.

> he generated it again using my hexadecimal card number

Yes, I did it quickly just to demonstrate. I even started the
red line in the wrong column due to rushing it.

[BorisTheOld]

> the intruder needs to have the picture first, then the length
> of the password, and worst the direction

Yep, that's why it's unhackable. The "key" is in your brain.

So now, instead of just remembering the passwords, it's necessary to remember a bunch of rules for each of the passwords, and which set of rules is used for each situation.

One would hope that, as programmers, we could remember a few simple character sequences.

Of course, I must confess that my eidetic memory, hyperthymesia, and spatial sequence synesthesia, are useful aids.

[Kuron]

This is all too complicated for me -- I just remember all mine.

I try to do the same. Of course in my old age, my memory keeps failing some parity checks on boot up.

[netmaestro]

If you store your passwords in plaintext and someone finds them, you're compromised. If you store your passwords on a card like this and someone finds it, you're just as compromised. Breaching only takes a bit longer. The list of possible passwords on a card like this is just not that long because there are no permutations. You're always reading sequentially in one of eight directions starting from no more than 256 possible origins. A dictionary created from the card containing less than 10k entries would contain all your passwords.

[Otrebor]

on a paper ? it may be lost

Well...i still use it