Last week we asked you about the future of brick and mortar stores. It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen such a consensus in a poll, with more than 60% of the votes going to one answer. Which one was it? Read on to find out.
Out of 244 votes in total, 63% think there will always be a demand for brick and mortar stores, 29.5% think real stores will stay around only if they offer an online option, 5% think brick and mortar stores are heading for extinction, and 2.5% voted “other” and chose to elaborate in the comments.
Full results and this week’s poll after the jump.
Judging from the comments, most of you believe in brick and mortar stores and will continue using them to buy food, clothes, shoes and more, at least until a better option presents itself.
This week’s poll question is: How Do You Handle Passwords?
Last year we had a similar poll revolving around the best password manager. Today we want to find out if you even use one. With the boom of online services requiring registration, we all have to choose between risking our privacy with only one password, or using some kind of tracking method for multiple passwords. How do you choose to handle your passwords?
Is there a brilliant method we failed to mention? Tell us in the comments how you manage your passwords, which password manager you prefer (if you use one), and any others related tips you may have,
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I use the same password for accounts that aren’t important, like most of the forums, but for important things (like paypal, steam, or google) i use different accounts for each one, so i just have to remember five or six passwords.
I do absolutely the same thing. The accounts that you are worried about stay safe, the rest you have a common password so you won’t forget about them even though you haven’t used them in 6 months, and nobody can steal actual important data about you if they figure out your one common password.
me too! but I have a habit of Adding eg:For Facebook FB+MainPassword+ExtraCharacters for the new passwords I make! XD
Lol me too
F. All of the above –
I use a standalone password manager. (In case of a brain fart.)
My browser saves my passwords for me. (On my own machine for speed and convenience)
I make my own list in a text editor. (In a safe place as easily readable backup)
I remember all my passwords. (I have a password system that allows me to typically remember them all)
I use the same password for almost everything. (Part of my passwords are the same and another part is unique, I only need to remember the unique part.)
Wow, that’s pretty amazing! I do a little of several of these myself, but doing all of them.. nice!
KeePass & DropBox. I can access my database from anywhere, and keepass has great encryption. I also use KeePass’ password generator for making most passwords excluding just a couple of passwords (email & primary bank).
I use the exact same system. :)
Except for when a password is really not important, and then I don’t even bother with KeePass. But that’s rare.
Keepass all the way. I like the mobility of Lastpass and how it works anywhere but I just can’t bring myself to trust some company with my passwords.
You can use KeePass with Dropbox, and then you can access it anywhere too. It’s very useful.
Yea, there are a few KeePass apps for iPhone that look interesting. Maybe I’ll work that out tomorrow.
Lastpass has an option for saving an encrypted backup of your passwords on your hard drive using the local client app “Lastpass Pocket”.
I love Lastpass because of the multi-factor authentication with a YubiKey, and also because of the auto fill on login forms. I just hate typing passwords over and over again.
I love LastPass so, so much.
Everyone should use a password manager of some sort — even if it’s a local one like KeePass — the convenience is life-changing.
I agree. Can’t even imagined how I handled everything before I started using KeePass.
I use KeePass on my flash drive, along with using my browsers on my flash drive (Firefox Portable, Opera USB, Waterfox portable, and Chrome portable) to not leave any tracks on any computer I use, Hide My IP portable to protect my location, CCleaner portable and Glary Utilities portable to erase my tracks, if any left over on the computer, and True Crypt on my flash drive to keep my flash drive safe. I keep backups of my flash drive in multiple storage solutions including cloud services, also encrypted with True Crypt. Extreme? Maybe, but at least I know my information is safe on my end.
Sounds safe indeed! :)
Yes, exactly; True Crypt is one of the few safe protection mechanisms.
Lastpass here.
Lastpass does it for me, tried Roboform but didnt get on much with that.
Anyone who prefers KeePass over LastPass, or viceversa, and why? Just curious!
I am using LastPass for a while, quite happy with it, but always interested in other parties and experiences.
regards
I’ve never actually used LastPass, but I like KeePass because it’s all local and my passwords are not saved in a company’s cloud. Having said that, I do put KeePass in Dropbox for access everywhere, so it’s still stored in a cloud, but behind my own passphrase.
It isn’t too difficult to remember passwords if you use them frequently, just like years ago you could actually remember other peoples phone numbers. lol
Lastpass for me but I also keep an Axcrypt text file around with most of the important combos.
ah, had to comment, none of the options totally fit in :p
so i classify my passwords as important & non-important.
The non-important ones are that i sort of make on every site i visit to download stuff or comment or query. For all of them i have a single user ID and pass coz i dont care if anyone hacks or misuses those accounts.
This can be all file sharing sites (i’m just a downloader not an uploader), meme sites, media releases etc.
While for important i use almost same user id but different passwords that constitue of lower case + upper case+ numbers.
And i generate them from here
http://www.pctools.com/guides/password/
After generating i write them all down in a notepad file that i always keep in my pc way deep and also in my dropbox for emergency use. Though i have pretty much memorized the main ones like Google, FB, Rediff, Hotmail, XDA etc.
Nice! Sounds like a cool setup. Why do you prefer a notepad file over an actual manager?
no installations needed on all my devices to sync, almost 0 size, can be carried simply in my phone as well.
& for pc & laptop sync, just have to drop in my dropbox.
I use a stand alone password database/oubliette. I use very long alpha numeric passwords, with non standard characters et al.. I will never use a package that is integrated into the browser, nor will I use a ‘cloud’ package. I want the tightest control possible over my data. When I travel the password software and database are kept in a True Crypt container, for added comfort. The password for the True Crypt container is 32 characters long, and kept in my head.
Sounds like you got security covered! Thanks for sharing.
There are many “password” methods, and many of them do not rely on you remembering anything about your password.
Say, that is new, the “remembering” part, isn’t it.
I just go to the newspaper and choose a word, any word that is 8 or more characters long.
EG difference
now you can remember this word eh!
So, now munch it up a bit,
d1ff$r3NCe, now you see that the first and last letters are the same as the original, so you would remember the name, and within a short while you can remember this password. Then in about 3 months, start all over again.
This is my most favourite system, as I have not had to try another system, so I am sticking with this one. try it, you might like it, regards d*V1d
Cool system! That’s a great way to generate passwords you can actually remember, but how many of them can you remember at any given moment? Do you repeat the same password for several services?
I’ve been using LastPass for years
I use the same password for almost everything, except for things that need a more secure password (like my online banking).
I was going to try out KeePass, but I thought it would be too much of an inconvenience to not remember all my passwords. What if I need to type them in on my phone or on a public computer?
I place KeePass in Dropbox. That way, I can access it on my phone no matter where I am.
I use a password protected excel file.
http://www.ensode.net/ensode/xls-crack.jsf
You can also find free ware password crackers for the MS suite.
I use this to hold my passwords:
http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/pins.html
It has 448 bit Blowfish encoding, which sits nicely in my True Crypt container. It will generate passwords as well as save them, plus a few other handy tricks.
Dear Friends
I use ROBOFORM which is an add on to my browsers (IE, Chrome). I can save any login data (my decision). I can then either load the page from ROBOFORM or it loads my login when I browse to that page.It is secure (because it can be password protected).
It is not only used for passwords. It stores your info such as emails, addresses, personal data, etc., even credit card information which I do not use). Anytime you hit a page with endlress fields (registration, addresses, etc.), it offers to fill them up for you.
Another beautiful use: I have several computers. This means by synchronizing the folder where ROBOFORM places its data, I can have the same behavior on each PC.
It can save its data on my PC or in the CLOUD. So far, I have used my PC.
I have been using it for the last 7 years without any problem. It is unobtrusive, fast and robust. (And I am NOT a shareholder in the company that develops it).
All the best
Thank you!
I use the browser for non-essential pw required sites. But in all cases, I also have an offline card file with user names, pw’s and any other info that I may need. I have tried most of the available pw managers and have not been happy with them for various reasons. I keep trying though :-)
Chuck
in fact for non-essential stuff use some crappy password but always the same and for other stuff (importandt) i use passwords that are real and complicated….
And how do you remember them?
there is only a few of those passwords…. so i can still remember some :)
I remember all my passwords because I created them using an algorithm inspired by this article: http://safeandsavvy.f-secure.com/2010/03/15/how-to-create-and-remember-strong-passwords/
Also, for my own comfort, I use browser’s password manager.
I do a similar thing. Change the last 4 on the “main” password.
I use Lastpass for all my semi-important passwords. All the important ones I remember (email, banking). All of the passwords for unimportant sites such as forums are the same password.
I use a favorite phrase. One i like but rarely say or use. I take the first letter of each word in the phrase and then append the name of the site to that. I substitute numbers as needed.
For example I might use “For God So Loved the World” as my phrase so passwords would start with “fgsltw” and for makeuseof I might go “fgsltwmu0″ as my password.
Just so you all know, neither the phrase or password above are the ones I use but e4xamples.
Nice system, love it! I would use that if I weren’t so used to KeePass by now.
1password on pc & iphone in combination with dropbox.
Important passwords are all 15+ characters (alphanumeric + special signs, usually some unusual ones like §)
I store my passwords in a password protected Excel spreadsheet which is only saved on a secure USB flash dis.
surprised how many people use a stand alone manager.
Why? What do you use?
No, i use a dashlane, its a standalone; but i thought more people would still be using the same password for everything. Guess I’m wrong.
I’m a Dashlane user too!
i use last pass ,, it works for me , sometimes i have to fiddle about with it ,,but on the whole it works good,,,,
I create a list of passwords that I change every month, for every account I have.
I simply note them down for each account.
But I keep them in a way that they can’t be guessed.
I tend to let Lastpass auto generate passwords for the “money” sites, and a set of
“regular’ passwords for the rest. the regulars also go to a different e-mail account.
I use a 14 character schema that uses specific elements from the domain that I am using combined with a unique numeric element, punctuation, upper and lower case characters. Sounds hard at first, but every site gets a unique password and all I have to remember is the “formula.”
I use KeePass Password Safe.
I have a set of numbers and letters which I remember and use in conjunction with a formula derived from site urls, which I also remember I fail to get the second set if I haven’t used the url in a long time but I can get it in three tries,because of the way I set it up.
I have a set of letters and numbers which change according to a formula used on information from the site.
HaHa ..
Nice pol..
I ll do the following things..
i am using passphrase technique..
Remember all my passwords..
not all of my passwords are same ..
write it in notepad and will save with .dll extension
use dropbox ..
all my passwords will have all alphabets ..
Lastpass or keepass are good options
I have a PAPER notebook by my computer! I write down the company and my passwords in it, and update the list periodically so it’s easier to use. No one can ever hack into my computer and find a master list of passwords. I do have one standard password I use for unimportant sites, but for more crucial ones, like my bank account, I use about 5 others that appeal to me, and change the capitalization, combinations and ending numbers – and I write those down. I always let my imagination float as I’m thinking of a new password and I always choose ones that delight me.
I use 6 different 7 letter base words that are common to my work, changing capitalizations and adding number sequences. Very easy to remember.
I use passpack
Use a combination of the options. The more secure I want the website (bank, email, etc) I remember them. Product websites I use the same one or have browser remember. Websites ordered from have variations of the same password.
My browser saves the newer ones.
But most I have in 2 little notebooks I keep at the desk.
I also made a WORD document with the name of the site, which email I use, nickname (if needed) and the password, then printed it out.
Granted there are some I haven’t written down especially if they are just product/company and forums sites that I’m not too worried about someone getting into. They also mostly have the same password for those type of sites.
I have to write them where I can look at them. I pay most bills online, and passwords need to be changed every few weeks. I do use the same password for unimportant things. I wish there were an easier; ie, safer and more convenient way.
What about a password manager? Are those not convenient for you? They’re much safer than notebooks.