Thursday 29 May 2008

Two things

1. This morning someone managed to hack into my paypal account and remove money from it. This is very annoying indeed. Paypal spotted it immediately and froze my account, and theoretically they should refund all the money, but I haven't heard back from them yet. Bloody internets. Four is about the most number of strong passwords I can remember; I could do more if they were weak, but then what's the point? I don't know how they got into the account; I haven't done anything stupid, but then it was a password I was using on some other accounts too, and I haven't changed it for ages, which I'm sure doesn't help. I knew I should have changed it a while back, but as an introvert I like to express myself through my passwords, and this one expressed me very well. Eala.

2. I've started watching the Wire, and I'm enjoying it like everyone does; more than I thought I would because I'm not usually very good with shouty things. I think I should be allowed to record the following though:
a. tough efficient cop woman is a lesbian
b. maverick cop man drinks too much and has trouble getting access to his kids
c. the baddies spend a lot of time in a strip club
d. post-coital conversation opener: 'You're an ass-hole, McNulty!'
Still, after the scene in the kitchen where, drawing heavily on the opening of Four Weddings and Funeral, the dialogue consisted of nothing but the f-word, I think maybe they do all this on purpose.

7 comments:

  1. Welcome to the Wire, Rebecca. Your comments are well made, but I reckon the ensemble makes up for the odd cliché. The swear-count rises at times to world record levels. I noticed myself gettin all potty-mouthed as a result of watching any more than one episode a night. You have been warned...

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  2. I'm not sure they're not having a bit of fun with it. I just watched another episode: "He's got this case in his gut like cancer".

    So as not to ruin my idiolect I am alternating The Wire with The Pickwick Papers. In fact it's probably good to have The Wire pulling my vocabulary in the opposite direction...

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  3. Passwords. Pick a single memorable MS shelfmark combining letters and numbers, e.g. Tib.c.6 and then vary it according to website: prefix PP for PayPal, Az for Amazon, and so on. Then change to a different password every year or so if you want to be extra safe.

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  4. A site-related element is a good idea. I do need an algorithm in my head for passwords. I tend to use the memorable phrases thing, and bung in some numbers, but even so I can only remember about four memorable phrases and where the numbers go at once. If I just had to memorise a rule and then apply it I might do rather better.

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  5. Also, how would I make a case-sensitive password from a Royal classmark? It's a minefield.

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  6. Not at all, just like this: Royal.12.B.vi

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