• The man across the table waited for my answer.  His steely glare, his finger poised to finish its inevitable move.  Sweat dripped down my brow.  The correct response would set me free; the wrong word and my day would be over.  "Really, do I have to tell you now?"  I asked in a shaky voice, my fear was obvious.  "Yes" he snarled "Tell me now and it will be over quickly."  "OK, ah…MARLOW1972" I blurted out and waited.  "No that one doesn't work either" he said sounding like he'd rather be pushing pencils into his ears (or maybe mine).  "I know, only the M and L are capitalized!"  I offered.  "Too late, that was our third try, now we have to wait an hour to try again."  The Cell Phone salesperson got up and poured himself another cup of coffee; he didn't offer me one.
• My new "smart" phone had decided one day that I really didn't need to be able to sync (synchronize) my work calendar on my computer with the calendar on my phone.  Why should I be able to check for my next meeting on my phone, I just wasn't that important apparently?  I had stopped into the place where they had been warm and friendly when I bought the phone two months before; I was hoping that their charity would continue.  To be honest, they did try and help - for hours - talking to "support" in some far-away land of digital knowledge.  And, had I been able to remember the password to the on-line account for the email and calendar that I had to create 64 and a half days ago we could have been done in a short time.  But, alas, since I had not bothered that password in the interim I could not remember it if my life had depended upon it. 
• I can see the value in passwords for sites where you keep valuable data; your

(Continued on page 4)