Change your password! And try f.lux.
Apr. 12th, 2013 08:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
In the last few weeks, several of my friends and clients have had their email accounts hacked. This is your friendly reminder to create a password that is not easy to hack. There are a lot of complicated rules in every article about creating passwords. But. I have not had my email account hacked (ever, yet, in my life, knock wood), and here is how I create my passwords:
First, I take a phrase that I can remember. For example, a lyric from a pop song I enjoy. I love the band Empires, so I might take my favorite line from my favorite Empires song, "Hold On":
"They might try to poison my heart"
Then I will condense it down to just the first letter of each word:
Tmttpmh
Then I'll add a number, because I like numbers. I saw 13 Empires concerts in 2012, so I'd probably add 13. And I like symbols in my passwords, so I might do an exclamation point instead of a 1 in the number.
The password would ultimately be: Tmttpmh!3
It looks like gibberish, but it's totally easy for me to remember.
(Note: If you are worried: this is not actually one of my passwords.)
While I am here, I also want to note that f.lux is one of the greatest programs I've ever used, and I install it on every computer I use regularly. It adapts the color of the glow of your screen to the time of day, so when it's ten pm, the glow of the screen is more orange than blue. My eyes appreciate this a whole ton. (I do tend to turn it off if I'm doing any graphics editing, for color purposes.) It's free, and available for Windows, iOS, and Linux.
First, I take a phrase that I can remember. For example, a lyric from a pop song I enjoy. I love the band Empires, so I might take my favorite line from my favorite Empires song, "Hold On":
"They might try to poison my heart"
Then I will condense it down to just the first letter of each word:
Tmttpmh
Then I'll add a number, because I like numbers. I saw 13 Empires concerts in 2012, so I'd probably add 13. And I like symbols in my passwords, so I might do an exclamation point instead of a 1 in the number.
The password would ultimately be: Tmttpmh!3
It looks like gibberish, but it's totally easy for me to remember.
(Note: If you are worried: this is not actually one of my passwords.)
While I am here, I also want to note that f.lux is one of the greatest programs I've ever used, and I install it on every computer I use regularly. It adapts the color of the glow of your screen to the time of day, so when it's ten pm, the glow of the screen is more orange than blue. My eyes appreciate this a whole ton. (I do tend to turn it off if I'm doing any graphics editing, for color purposes.) It's free, and available for Windows, iOS, and Linux.