Working in an office means one is constantly faced with a problem: passwords. A monthly email tells us to make sure all our passwords are different and that they are not obvious. For example you cannot use your own name as part of the password, nor can you repeat previous passwords. Most systems require new passwords every month or two and they must have 6 or 8 letters and include a capital and a number.

I use three PCs (3 passwords). Two of these PCs have single systems on them (2 more). The other one has a plethora of systems but daily I'll use five of them (5). Then there are the various intranet sites that require passwords and logins. In addition there's the personal ones like the PIN, internet banking, security codes and so on. Not to mention those for the blogs. It leads to a mess of logins and passwords and is more than any human can remember.

So I do what everyone does. I write them on a piece of paper. Direct contravention of the security policy but what the hell else can I do? We're also not meant to share passwords. Anyone who works in a team has to share passowrds so an absent team member can be covered or certain files can be accessed.

There must be a better way. A much better way. Fingerprint readers? Iris scans? I know they aren't perfect but they are far better than the current mess we deal with.

In the meantime I need to keep having kids just so I can have passwords. Just so long as their names are six letters or more.