Treasury secretary Geithner almost lost his appointment because couldn't do his taxes. FBI chief almost falls for Internet fraud. It's like mom said: Do as I say, not as I do.
I've been told I'm quite vulnerable. I use that tree sort in my neighbor's yard when I was growing up and add in there some numbers for letters and anybody who knows all that will be able to hack into one of my accounts - and it'd be like breaking and entering into a project in Detroit.
I've always wondered how people who use a different password on every site remember them. I have trouble remembering which ones I've had to add a number too, and which ones I've had to capitalize. Which is all a part of the reason I'm behind on my student loan payments. Seriously, I cannot remember which variation of my password Sallie Mae needed.
@snugbug: The real deal was Burroughs, who utilized the cut-and-paste method of inserting random lines from different texts in no particular order. It read just like an explosion in a printshop, but at least it helped him off his horse.
@Tremonius: There used to be a great site feature called the Cutup Machine that would randomly splice bits of The Naked Lunch into whatever text you gave it. Great for busting through writer's block. Sadly, it's vanished now.
@raincoaster: In school, I had this friend who copied out pages and pages from The Subterraneans for an essay in Eng Lit. He was never caught. Cultural Relativism.
@MyNameIsChris: ..This reminds me of a wonderful plot point in Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum." The protagonist is trying to get into the computer of his best friend (who has mysteriously gone missing).
The log-on pop-up window keeps demanding, "Do you have the password?" The guy spends 24 hours trying out all sorts of literal and numeric combinations that would have made sense for his friend.. None work. At long last, when the "Do you have the password?" window pops up after his millionth try, he spitefully types, in frustration, "NO."
..Aaaand bingo! That turns out to be the correct password.
@snugbug: Never thought I'd live to see the day when somebody other then me would mention "Foucault's Pendulum" in the course of a conversation. Kudos, snugbug, kudos. Now, if you excuse me I have to go hide in a museum and wait for something to happen.
@hilikusopus: This is the third time i have randomly come across a rave for this book since I spied it on it's perch atop my roommate's toilet a month ago. I'm convinced. Looks like I'll have to fight his slow-reading ass for it now.
@paragrab: It's a dense, thick literary experience that demands your full attention. It starts out slow, but gallops at a breakneck pace after the first five chapters. If you stick with it, you'll grow to adore it. It's wonderfully educational, too. The author is a professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna, Europe's oldest.
@snugbug: Not only is Umberto Eco an author and a professor, he is also the answer to a Trivial Pursuit question that I pulled in 2002 regarding a certain renowned Italian philosopher, so there's that.
@snugbug: There's also the realtime solution of just hitting return to bypass, and if the unit wasn't password-protected, it works. And isn't it cute how old processes hang on after they're gone, like a memorial? That return is a typewriter keystroke. And nobody "dials" a number no more.
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You and millions of others.
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UGH.
It's not "hacking" when you simply type in the log in information. Guessing/knowing a password is not a "hack."
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-Lord Helmet
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That's the code to my luggage!
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The log-on pop-up window keeps demanding, "Do you have the password?" The guy spends 24 hours trying out all sorts of literal and numeric combinations that would have made sense for his friend.. None work. At long last, when the "Do you have the password?" window pops up after his millionth try, he spitefully types, in frustration, "NO."
..Aaaand bingo! That turns out to be the correct password.
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