#ramreva

Let's face it. Passwords are a pain.

Especially for the majority of Internet users who have the need to maintain anywhere between 40 to 60 different passwords, some for work and some for personal use and not to mention the lover-passwords, and/or friends-passwords. The latter two are more like a set of shared passwords which friends and/or couples share. More like a sign of trust and faith. Great going!

So we all kinda know what we are talking about right now. You know what to expect out of this blogpost. "A password strategy" that will not be a pain on your memory neurons and at the same time does not compromise your online security and privacy. You are reading the right write-up.

What kind of Passwords do systems require these days?

Password requirements vary depending on what you intend to use the password for. Windows password can be a simple word. Whereas, a bank password should not be a simple word, or it could be the other wat if your Windows OS has all our crucial data, but the bank account has nothing-to-lose! So categorize your requirements and plan your unique ways in which you will put this three-level strategy to work.

First Level

A simple password. In short, anything that you can remember. This will be the 'word' on which the complexity will be added. Eg. loudspeaker : A simple non-guessable word.

Second Level

A password that requires atleast one caps(Uppercase alphabet), and one number. Eg."Loudspeaker5"

Third Level

This is becoming the standard slowly, and this is where you can be at your creative best. A password with atleast one caps, one numeral, and one special character!

Eg. "Loudspeaker5%" or "Loudspeaker5^". That is, any special character above/next to the number you choose to suffix.

So essentially, you use the same word, which now is the only thing you have to worry about now. Make sure other's can't guess it. Let it be not these:

"Mom / dad / girl's / pet's / bike's name Years which you think only you know about... You get the idea right?"

"Not guessable" is the keyword. "If guessable" it's not a password.

What if my employer/organization wants me to change password every 15 days??

Do this...

Loudspeaker5%

Loudspeaker6^

Loudspeaker7&

Loudspeaker8*

and keep re-cycling your password.

It would be far more efficient if you can also change the 'words' often. And they too must follow a pattern. A pattern, that you are comfortable remembering.

Eg.

Himalaya1!

Clipper2@

SilverStar3#

ClassicMilds4$ etc. 

Author note: The definition is stupid because it was defined long back, with insufficient knowledge. God needs to be redefined now and then like how a Wikipedia page is updated as and when the information is generated. In fact, the concept of God is more crucial than a Wikipedia page, simply because a majority incessantly refers to it, religiously. It needs to be filled with the correct information. Else, the concept of God would cease to exist, like how an outdated Wikipedia page would cease to exist, or worse, it would not be trusted anymore. What good is God the concept, if not trusted?

P: If you say God might/might not exist, then why do you go to temples and church? Q: I go there because temples and churches exist. Whether God lives there? I don't know. P: What does that mean? Q: Temples exist, churches exist, people exist, religions exist. All exist in a so far  fairly successful attempt to inject moral into humans, who are just a better evolved version of our animal ancestors. So I believe in them. P: Then why just not in the God? Q: I don't know. I am not convinced with the hype that concept/factor has been inflated to. Especially with the way the human's have designed that concept by personifying it and giving it myriad possibilities of characteristics and personalities. P: You say the generations of wisdom and the moral fiber is wrong? Q: I really don't understand why would the wise men who could contemplate the necessity for a strong framework that could hold the social animals from going berserk, choose the concept called God, to set up a moral constitution. It is just plain creative. Well, to that creativity that came up with the architecture of the churches, I pay my due respects. P: So what according to you is God? Q: The Least common Multiple of all the unique thinking patterns of the society. The beauty however is that the Least common multiple turns out to be 1. The concept of God. P: Why 1? Q: whatever the number you might have in mind, just multiply it with 1, and you will get what you had in mind. So you are never disappointed. So is the concept of God. You need it to save yourself of the mental burden and disappointments. A psychological refuge. P: That's plain maths...sounds silly to me. You cannot convince me. Try, if you can. Q: O.K. What if...I take away hunger and death and the need to reproduce away from you? Would you need the concept of God? P: Ah, blasphemy. Only God can do that. Q: Or worse, If I can make you immortal, would you accept me as the God? P: Stupidity. Q: Yes, that's what I say. The definition is stupid. -Ram.N www.about.me/nram

Success likes to serve the man, whose thoughts and actions are two parallel lines travelling in harmonious unperturbed synchronicity. - http://iqualia.tumblr.com/ 

It was the first day when the planet's very primitive forms of life finally evolved, being able to capture light and feed on it. It took a huge chunk of time for the non living chemicals living in synchronized harmony as the first living cells to realize that using light as the source of energy was a highly economic and brilliant idea.

He was called the "Sun catcher", by the other cells that had a sharp jealousy over the serendipitous spark of genius that this cell unwittingly possessed. He caught the light, photon by photon and employed them in his ceaseless factory, designed for survival. It was the kind of perfect industry, that the humans to come much later, could never ever duplicate with any match in efficiency. Yet, the sun catcher never knew his/her/its greatness.

The photon that got captured the very first day in this industry, had to loose it's energy unwillingly. For else, the photon would be left lingering in the space with no purpose and no end. It succumbed to it's fate. The photon was now a slave, a white slave. A slave stripped of all it's energies.

The cell had the exploited energy in itself and used it for narcissistic sexual gratification. For the Gods saw no purpose as to why would the cell need to have a male and a female counterpart. The cells that lived then could never possibly sin, if sinning was to be defined in the words of the humans, who defined God and guessed what the God might not like on the basis of their limited mental faculties. The humans assumed they were right, for the animals were still too primitive to question them. And we humans who succeeded them, still carry the legacy of the animals, for we still haven't questioned anything.

The cells just could not sin. It was not in their design to sin. They just could have sex with themselves. The present day religions have classified that under sin too. So may be cells did sin afterall. But that was very long before Adam and Eve evolved, and much before they got named Adam and Eve, and became the characters of a book that would be read widely once humans learnt to read and write.

The poor photon was still nowhere to be seen. How can you see a being who has lost his identity. But the cell went on. She/he reproduced and went on and on. One fine day, death embraced them all. Earth had engulfed it all.

The photon, which was a miniscule mass of splattered blood of a distant star, was now deep withing the Earth's womb. Not strictly as a photon, as the physicists would love to disagree, but as an altered form of energy. Only this time with some mass and form.

Outside the womb, by then, on Earth's skin evolved a peculiar life form, resembling Adam and Eve, that was helplessly dependent on external energy sources ranging from petroleum to electricity. The ways to make these energy sources was invented by cells in the human's brain that never ever could talk to any photons.

Yet, the pains of the first few photons, somehow mysteriously got communicated to the cells in the human's brain. They invented ways to transform energy.The Earth's womb was poked in a key hole surgery, and the blood was sucked out. The coals were burnt to release heat, a distant cousin of the photons. Electricity was synthesized. Ironically enough, Man would die if he were to drink or eat this electricity. Yet, he couldn't live without it.

Metals have always had a place in this universe. They could burst stars in a matter of milliseconds, yet man could melt them and attach it to the hoofs of the animals he domesticated. They could let electricity pass through them, yet were not very friendly with light.

Hu-man ruled the planet by now. Neither the sun catcher, nor the first photon knew this.

Electricity was flowing through the metals. They ended up at a terminal, only to finally lose their identity and form. It was the end of a device humans called a "screen", and from the end was liberated the old white slave. The photon, having been enslaved for several million years now , finally saw the humans who have liberated him and helped him gain his identity again.

And he saw You, as you are reading this line from your "screen". In a grateful manner he hit your face with a photonic greeting and started his journey into the future.

The Premise... A daring attempt on writing a journal online, hoping for a better service+secrecy+eco-friendliness started on September 3rd and ended on September 4th! In lesser than 24 hours. The image below is the snapshot of the my twitter page, which almost captures the bitterness in its pure entirety.

The irony is when a paper pulp journal keeper is momentarily enthused in maintaining a journal online. Why would someone vacillate? Here are the reasons...

tagging your entries 

attaching pics

auto-save

secrecy:password protection

privacy:you can write everything you want, whose gonna read it anyways?

keeping certain entries Super-protected with passwords

printable, if need be

get the entries delivered to mailbox, at the frequency you choose

get a remainder to the inbox, replying to which you can update your journal

An android, i-phone app that can sync both your PC and Mobile app contents/entries

and so-on!

The Short Lived surprise... After the account was successfully created, without much of a form to be filled in. I learnt that these features are available to only pro-users. Almost 50% of the available options in the list above are for the pro users. SO...the screen below is probably the screen you would see often!

So, to make it a little easier on your eyes and the mind, I am re-writing the above list with colors; and with the colors pointing to the differences in the "free" and the "pro" versions...

tagging your entries 

attaching pics

auto-save

secrecy:password protection

privacy:you can write everything you want, whose gonna read it anyways?

keeping certain entries Super-protected with passwords

printable, if need be

get the entries delivered to mailbox, at the frequency you choose

get a remainder to the inbox, replying to which you can update your journal

An android, i-phone app that can sync both your PC and Mobile app contents/entries

and so-on! 

So..the solution?

I gave up on the idea of using a system that has been designed for online journal keeping. I mean, it all makes sense...why would it be free when the companies invest so much starting from the domain to the servers? The "pro" version is just justified.

I now have not given up on online journal keeping yet. But I prefer to use a faithful tool that has been there for as long as the Internet has existed : The E-mail.

How?

I just typed my entry for the day as an e-mail, attached the related pics, in fact one video as well (adding video in online journal keeping websites is still unavailable at large).

Our email accounts are no doubt private and secret. 

You can add pics and videos and also other file formats (ebook, podcasts, pdf, whatever etc)

you can color, bold, italicize the important words

auto-save and drafting, at times also future mail option comes in handy

one can also use the subject line: something like this : "Ram.N - Sep 4th - The Hangover Sunday"

So, if  need be, the mails can be searched, sorted and printed.

you could share it with anyone, if you want, to by just forwarding it

It's an email account. So you can use your phone of whichever OS, or a PC to update your day's entry

You can write your entry whenever you check mails. And for most of us, the "Whenever", is perhaps synonymous with "always"

Moral of the story

Lets not re-invent the wheel. The tools are all around us. Already dominant and efficient. Just a bit of lateral thinking, and there we are. "Web is what you make of it" ;)

Wish you a Happy online journal keeping. You already have an online journal by now don't you?!