{"id":1847,"date":"2025-01-14T21:34:26","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T21:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/?p=1847"},"modified":"2026-06-10T10:25:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T09:25:21","slug":"tips-and-astuces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/?p=1847","title":{"rendered":"Tips and Astuces"},"content":{"rendered":"

Where\u2019s that bit of paper?
\nHandy mnemonic\u00a0method for remembering passwords<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Charlie Gobbett MITI<\/p>\n

Following on from Paul Appleyard\u2019s informative Tips and Tools article in the last issue of Au Courant<\/em> about using a password manager, I thought it might be helpful to add my two centimes\u2019 worth.<\/p>\n

I second Paul\u2019s suggestion about using a dedicated program to store your passwords safely, but in addition you can use my handy (and almost<\/em> foolproof)\u00a0 method for storing a variety of commonly used passwords in your head, with no (or little) chance of forgetting them, which makes them instantly retrievable (unless you are unfortunate enough to be subject to a bout of amnesia). I have in the past asked two separate cybersecurity experts about this method and they gave it a thumbs-up, even though each password variant doesn\u2019t differ greatly from the others. That said, even though I have found this method works for me, I cannot guarantee that it is 100% secure, so caveat emptor! (or whatever the equivalent Latin phrase is).<\/p>\n

Step 1<\/strong>) Think of a line or two of your favourite poem, rhyme, song or Monty Python sketch (in my case) \u2013 one that instantly comes to mind but no one else could possibly guess, ever. It is helpful if the line(s) naturally include(s) numbers or capitalised words.<\/p>\n

Step\u00a02<\/strong>) Take the first letter of each word and the digits of the numbers in your instant-recall phrase.<\/p>\n

Example: the song Sylvia\u2019s Mother<\/em> by Dr Hook:<\/p>\n

[And the operator said] 40 cents more for the next three minutes
\nPlease, Mrs Avery, I just gotta talk to her
\nI’ll only keep her a while<\/em><\/p>\n

This produces a very long password that you can easily remember by singing that bit of the song to yourself (in your head \u2013 especially if you\u2019re on a train at the time):<\/p>\n

40cmftn3mpMAIjgtthIokhaw<\/strong><\/p>\n

Step 3<\/strong>) If you\u2019re feeling clever, you can further encrypt the password by changing (in this case) one or both of the capital \u201cIs\u201d to the figure \u201c1\u201d (and\/or any \u201co\u201ds to \u201c0\u201ds) to give:<\/p>\n

40cmftn3mpMA1jgtth1okhaw<\/strong><\/p>\n

Step 4-plus<\/strong>) The result can then be used multiple times for different passwords by adding a suffix: [special character]+[memorable shortcut]<\/p>\n

e.g. \u201c$ITI\u201d (for your ITI login password), or \u201c$WOB\u201d for your World of Books account, to give:<\/p>\n

40cmftn3mpMA1jgtth1okhaw$WOB<\/strong>,<\/p>\n

a 28-digit password that would take a brute-force attack a very long time to crack, I assume… (Any experts out there who can tell me how long?)<\/p>\n

And if all that seems long-winded, remember: after you\u2019ve entered the password a few times your muscle memory will help your fingers dash it off on the keyboard in a trice.<\/p>\n

Note<\/strong>: some accounts don\u2019t allow you to enter such a long password, and in that case, simply truncate your password in a memorable way, such as here:<\/p>\n

pMA1jgtth1okhaw$WOB<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is still a good idea to store these details and the relevant suffixes securely somewhere (and not, like Paul\u2019s dad, on a piece of paper stuck on your fridge door), just in case<\/em> you do forget them, but the idea is that nine times of ten (or 9too10) you won\u2019t need to log in somewhere to check because the phrase will trip along melodiously in your head!<\/p>\n

And always remember what Benjamin Franklin (or possibly someone else) once said: “Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Charlie Gobbett<\/a> is a commercial and literary translator, specialising in the environment, sustainability and cleantech, who\u2019s been doing the rounds for around 30 years and is certified Carbon Literate by the Carbon Literacy Project. Three of his translated plays have been performed on UK stages. He would love to make a living from theatre translation but is not sure anyone actually does. In 2023 he was awarded the CTG Vicky Lane Trophy for Dramatic Achievement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Where\u2019s that bit of paper? Handy mnemonic\u00a0method for remembering passwords By Charlie Gobbett MITI Following on from Paul Appleyard\u2019s informative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2295,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1847"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1892,"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1847\/revisions\/1892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iti-frenchnetwork.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}