Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | about this site Pssst, Computer Users . . . Want Some Candy? (25 Apr 2004) And yet that often brings people right back to the fundamental tension that exists between Everyman and machine. Those factors that go into making strong passwords are what make them so hard to remember, said Jakob Nielsen, a computer scientist who for years has been pushing for an alternative to password-secured systems. "Biologically, humans weren't built to remember long strings of unassociated characters," he said. And of course, the harder a password is to remember, the more likely we are to keep it somewhere handy, and the more likely these invaluable keys to various facets of our life are treated as if they were nothing but a decoration sprucing up our cubicle. Article URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/25/weekinreview/25rivi.html?ex=1398225600&en=74efc4fcca62ad4b&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND Read 20 more articles from New York Times sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: Wave Goodbye to the Ordinary User Interface This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy