Archive for February, 2009

Passwords and typing timing

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

I type my 17-character password very fast. It’s a strictly automatic process, all muscle-memory.

The timing is very critical and synchronization problems happen a lot. There’s lots of hand-alternation; sometimes one hand is a decisecond early or late and I type a letter out of order. Sometimes I hit J instead of H because the “down” muscles are faster than the “left” muscles.

All these errors are compounded because I don’t actually know my password consciously. I’m not typing a word, I’m just activating a motor program. I don’t think “H”, I just put my finger “where it’s supposed to go next”. So all the error-correction in the cerebellum and motor cortex that I’ve built up from a decade of typing never has a chance to help.

Amusingly, I can type my ordinary and root passwords just fine under the influence of alcohol. So a complex password isn’t an IID for a computer.

On a darkly humorous note, many years from now, this may be an excellent stroke diagnostic. If I can’t type my password without concentrating, it’s time to call the paramedics.

It’s cool when your roommates study in your field

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

Rushi is reading a PDF textbook on his computer.

“Joe, do you have a physical copy of this?”

I glance at the page of text on the screen, reach over to the heap of junk piled on top of the coffee table, carefully rummage around for a moment, and pull out the book in question. He doesn’t need to tell me what book he’s reading: it haunts my dreams still

Of course, last quarter when I was in the undergrad algorithms course, I borrowed his copy of the Kleinberg, Tardos book