Remembering to remember

[015] ... [Trends], [Technology]

Barring the recently generation born ten to fifteen years ago, we all have moved on from the landline phones. The good old instrument, that like the typewriter needed to physically press the keys. It had a sense of intimacy where you remembered most of the contacts' numbers off-hand. In most phones there were no caller identity feature, the little LCD panel that displayed the incoming number. Built-in address book that held a limited numbers came in later, and most as I know didn't change over, comfortable with what originally came with, making out the other end through the sheer familiar voice. It was a different world, with limited number of free calls prompting to dial carefully, uttering a curt wrong number and putting down the receiver noisily as a daily routine as some exchanges somehow unfailingly cross-connected.

Mobile phones, no wonder the path breaking invention that has changed our lives made storing numbers a breeze, but has turned the need to remember passe, except of course the Contact's name. We no longer seem to recall other's ten digits except our own, that we keep giving away at billing counters or enter without errors online.

But come to think of it, remembering one has disappeared, only to make way for another, may be much more complex. I mean the passwords or passcodes without which we are cut off from sites and services. Banks, e-wallets, e-mail, most apps, subscriptions, and your own phone or computer that you paid for dearly don't think twice and bar you out mercilessly on a wrong entry. There are ways to remember the sacred code for each of such. Some prefer to memorize, some never remember, and most these days have found solace in the password managers. There's of course using the forgot password mode, but that's another kind of rebirth when in a hurry--checking mail for that one-time link, answering those secret questions that you confidently answered when setting up the account (but don't recall when needed), making up yet another string of characters in a hurry to get in quickly (only to forget it again).

The other day I was just glancing through some blogs, and the author was quite furious at those sites that require entering username on the first screen, after verifying which the password part appears separately. The fury seemed from the point of those password managers which seemingly can't take on the break, having been designed to do it in one shot.

I don't know about you, personally I prefer to have it on mind than rely on an external aid that no doubt automates but robs you off the habit to remember. Each has his way to set and recall those pesky but much required codes. Not sure if you like suggestions, but I take the liberty in offering an easier yet impersonally personal way to make things fairly easy. Cook-up a brief string for each service, say ILNY! (if you love New York) for the email accounts, and combine with a part of your username and part of particular service, with each of the three units separated by a special character or number. Say jd25-ILNY!-gm or gm-jd25@ILNY! or ILNY! jd25.gm (that's jd25 for user Jon Doe--who else? and gm for GMail). May be have IL$s for the bank related. Just another method of remembering, though you never asked for it, let alone planning to adapt...