Changing to a new Android Phone

Written by B. J. Potter on 2013-10-08.
Tags: Android

Transitioning to a new cell phone has gotten a lot easier since the days when I wrote all the numbers I had stored in my Nokia's memory on a sheet of paper only to enter them in again by hand on the new phone. However, there are still some ...

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Generating an English word list from Google ngrams

Written by B. J. Potter on 2013-07-15.
Tags: Programming Python Passwords

I wrote a program that generates passphrases. Passphrases are a better alternative to commonly-used, hard-to-remember but easy-to-guess passwords ('eyebrow favor advancing homeland' versus 'Tr0ub4dor&3'). The python program randomly picks four common English words to make the passphrase. A key consideration is the list of words the program chooses from ...

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Passphrases

Written by B. J. Potter on 2013-04-09.
Tags: Programming Python Passwords Security

The xkcd comic criticizing the state of passwords made sense to me. Why are we subject to password requirements that point us toward hard-to-remember and less secure passwords? Why don't we optimize for memorability and security?

xkcd: Password Strength

Problems

Requiring a mix of punctuation, capital letters, and lowercase letters has become ...

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