Friday, September 15, 2006
I-M-N
A-CRO-NYM
...overload!
Say that like you are reading a line from Dr. Seuss!
I have been slammed by a barage of military acronymns in my new mileu...the VA. But, that isn't really what has fried my last remaining brain cells... It is all the PAIRED private sign-on monikers and verify codes that I am having to remember, keep straight, and type flawlessly in to NUMEROUS different applications a bazillion times a day. I can't keep straight which pair to use with what...not to mention which sign-on names go with which verify codes. I like to keep life simple...one code for EVERYTHING in the world...be it my personal computer, my e-mail accounts (there are three of them here at home, in addition to two at work, now), my e-bay code, my Sonlight curriculum ordering code, the site meter codes on both my blogs, etc, etc, etc.
Even at my former workplace, I used my well-worn, used for everything "secret word" to sign on to the software there and sign into the medication vending machine (not its technical name!). They encouraged us to "use at least one number and symbol and a mixture of capital letters and lower case letters to create a SECURE password". Forget it! I am into creating a password I can always remember...which is the one word I have used the last umpteen jillion years for EVERYTHING that requires a password. Simplicity in a world determined to be complicated.
My old workplace's software wasn't smart enough to detect if I chose to ignore the instructions on how to create a more secure password...just as it was also not smart enough to recognize that I used the same password for over six years even though we have to change them every 90 days. (You just change your password (as instructed!), but, then, promptly call the IT Help Desk and ask the technician who answers the phone if you can change your password. He establishes you are who you say you are, and then does something magically on his computer that resets your password to a word like, "happiness"...then you enter back into the system with that word and are immediately prompted to create a new user password...at which point, you can type in the same one you have been using for six years. The system is happy. You changed your password to something different when prompted at the 90 day interval. Then immediately called the Help Desk so you could change it once more. The system doesn't recognize that the FOURTH (and final) password is identical to the FIRST password that it, only moments earlier, insisted you get rid of!) Yes! A simple life. All is well. All is good. Passwords are never forgotten...they become familiar, old friends. Ahhh...those were the days.
And they are passed.
The VA's system KNOWS if I don't use at least 8 characters with symbols and numbers mixed in. I am instructed not to use any words that appear in the dictionary. And, 'lest I simplify my life and try to use one set of characters for EVERYTHING, they construct it so that I can't even use the same USER NAME in my many pairs of User Names/Verify Codes....aarggg! The other morning, on the way into work, I counted it up...I have TWELVE different user names and verify codes JUST FOR WORK, now. I can hardly figure out how to log on to anything (CPRS, KanVISTA, BCMA, PIXIS, Metaframe, the VA Internet Educational site...) because, even if I DO remember my various user names and passwords, I can't remember which ones fit together...and, even after I remember which ones are paired, I can't recall which pair goes with what program! Then, every door on our unit (not to mention every door on the OTHER units I float to) have locks that you must key in numbered squences in order to open...all different from each other, of course! I can understand the MED CARTS being locked...but, why do I have to know a sequential code just to open the door that guards the ICE MACHINE????!!! (There isn't ANYTHING in that closet sized room EXCEPT an ice machine and a water faucett that barely trickles the water out. But, we MUST keep it locked!!! An unathorized person might try to access our ice machine, after all!)
If I lose my hold on sanity, just chalk it up to acronym/password overload!
¶ 9/15/2006 07:34:00 PM
A-CRO-NYM
...overload!
Say that like you are reading a line from Dr. Seuss!
I have been slammed by a barage of military acronymns in my new mileu...the VA. But, that isn't really what has fried my last remaining brain cells... It is all the PAIRED private sign-on monikers and verify codes that I am having to remember, keep straight, and type flawlessly in to NUMEROUS different applications a bazillion times a day. I can't keep straight which pair to use with what...not to mention which sign-on names go with which verify codes. I like to keep life simple...one code for EVERYTHING in the world...be it my personal computer, my e-mail accounts (there are three of them here at home, in addition to two at work, now), my e-bay code, my Sonlight curriculum ordering code, the site meter codes on both my blogs, etc, etc, etc.
Even at my former workplace, I used my well-worn, used for everything "secret word" to sign on to the software there and sign into the medication vending machine (not its technical name!). They encouraged us to "use at least one number and symbol and a mixture of capital letters and lower case letters to create a SECURE password". Forget it! I am into creating a password I can always remember...which is the one word I have used the last umpteen jillion years for EVERYTHING that requires a password. Simplicity in a world determined to be complicated.
My old workplace's software wasn't smart enough to detect if I chose to ignore the instructions on how to create a more secure password...just as it was also not smart enough to recognize that I used the same password for over six years even though we have to change them every 90 days. (You just change your password (as instructed!), but, then, promptly call the IT Help Desk and ask the technician who answers the phone if you can change your password. He establishes you are who you say you are, and then does something magically on his computer that resets your password to a word like, "happiness"...then you enter back into the system with that word and are immediately prompted to create a new user password...at which point, you can type in the same one you have been using for six years. The system is happy. You changed your password to something different when prompted at the 90 day interval. Then immediately called the Help Desk so you could change it once more. The system doesn't recognize that the FOURTH (and final) password is identical to the FIRST password that it, only moments earlier, insisted you get rid of!) Yes! A simple life. All is well. All is good. Passwords are never forgotten...they become familiar, old friends. Ahhh...those were the days.
And they are passed.
The VA's system KNOWS if I don't use at least 8 characters with symbols and numbers mixed in. I am instructed not to use any words that appear in the dictionary. And, 'lest I simplify my life and try to use one set of characters for EVERYTHING, they construct it so that I can't even use the same USER NAME in my many pairs of User Names/Verify Codes....aarggg! The other morning, on the way into work, I counted it up...I have TWELVE different user names and verify codes JUST FOR WORK, now. I can hardly figure out how to log on to anything (CPRS, KanVISTA, BCMA, PIXIS, Metaframe, the VA Internet Educational site...) because, even if I DO remember my various user names and passwords, I can't remember which ones fit together...and, even after I remember which ones are paired, I can't recall which pair goes with what program! Then, every door on our unit (not to mention every door on the OTHER units I float to) have locks that you must key in numbered squences in order to open...all different from each other, of course! I can understand the MED CARTS being locked...but, why do I have to know a sequential code just to open the door that guards the ICE MACHINE????!!! (There isn't ANYTHING in that closet sized room EXCEPT an ice machine and a water faucett that barely trickles the water out. But, we MUST keep it locked!!! An unathorized person might try to access our ice machine, after all!)
If I lose my hold on sanity, just chalk it up to acronym/password overload!
¶ 9/15/2006 07:34:00 PM
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Monica! other countries know americans can't survive without ice! you are our first defence against terrorists!
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