Passwords: does size matter, what characters?

[Dan Jenkins]

Jon maddog Hall wrote:

>  I use a technique for passwords that I have not seen anyone mention.
>  I use the first letters of a phrase that is simple to remember (for
>  me) that relates to the site. This makes a "word" that is not in any
>  dictionary, and is typically long enough. The truly paranoid could
>  put a digit or special symbol between the letters also.

A friend of mine has been using this for about ten years now. I'd never 
heard of it before, but it does work really well.
The Weapon Shops of Isher by A E Van Vogt (tWSoIbAEVV) makes for a 
pretty good password that was easy to associate with the online arms 
dealer. Of course, I'll have to change it now. ;-)

Of course, my friend has lots of ones like wtfitpa (What the f- is that 
password again) and yasptr (Yet another stupid password to remember), so 
I'm not sure it works quite as well for her. :-D
-- 
Dan Jenkins (dan at rastech.com)
Rastech Inc., Bedford, NH, USA --- 1-603-206-9951
*** Technical Support for over a Quarter Century