NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #16/NN_1992_16.iso/spool/sci/crypt/2728

Text File | 1992-07-23 | 2.8 KB | 63 lines

Newsgroups: sci.crypt
Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!hermes.chpc.utexas.edu!news.utdallas.edu!corpgate!bnrgate!stl!sbil!wet!spitws100!pbond
From: [e-mail] (Philip Bond)
Subject: Re: can people really have trouble memorizi
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: Salomon Brothers, Ltd.
References: <[e-mail]>
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 92 15:53:25 GMT
Lines: 50

In article [e-mail], [e-mail] (Larry Loen) writes:
>This is a pretty well-studied problem and the conclusions I have learned of
>back the long password haters.  As I recall, to memorize something, it has
>to pass from short-term to long term memory.  Short term memory holds between
>3 and 7 "things" (eg 3 to 7 letters and numbers).  In some cases, I think the
>7 can go all the way to nine.
>
>BUT, the more random the things, the fewer one can remember.  Recall, too, that
>passwords often change fairly frequently (at least, when the MIS department
>controls the sign on :-) ).
>
>The telephone company, I recall, was the first to study this and it is not an
>accident that a local phone number has seven digits.  (They are now proposing
>longer phone numbers anyway, but that is a different kettle of fish -- they
>claim the world is running out of telephone numbers).
>
>Anyway, how often have you forgotten a phone number between the time Information
>gave it to you and you had to dial it?  If you are me, it is more often than
>one would care to admit in a forum this public :-)  .
>
>
>--
>   Larry W. Loen        |  My Opinions are decidedly my own, so please
>                        |  do not attribute them to my employer


All true enough. Just out of curiosity, the World Record for memorising lists of
random digits is currently held by Dominic O'Brien who did 266 in 15 minutes
without error during the 1991 World Memory Championships. He is better known
for a feat in the Guinness Book of Records ; memorising 35 mixed packs of
cards at a single sighting. He only made 2 mistakes...
    The World Record for decimal places of PI is currently 40,000 and is
held by Hideaki Tomoyori of Japan.
    Finally, Creighton Carvello memorised the order of a single shuffled
pack of 52 cards in around 1 minute 50 seconds in early 1992 in front
of a live audience.
    All of these people can do a lot better in general. To get a World
Record you have to be closely invigilated and _must not_ make even a single
error { O'Briens' card performance was so far ahead of anything done before
they let the 2 mistakes pass ... } and so they tend to go slower in order
to avoid mistakes. Tomoyori quoted the 40000 places of PI in around 17
hours without a single mistake.
    Here are guys who don't have a problem with seven character passwords...

    Usual disclaimers of course,

    Phil.

    Phil.