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Your password will expire in 372 days... would you like to change it now?

Hey... you know... you know that thing on the computer that you have for a Windows computer where when it's part of a network (that's computers that are all plugged into each other using a complicated plug so each computer has about one-thousand cables coming out of it to plug into all the other computers) how you have a password?

OK.

So what it is confusing me and this is something that has been confused to me for many years now yes since I was just a young contractor but what I'm talking about is how you have a password, OK?

OK.

You have this password and then sometimes the network administrators (those are the people who act really angry all the time because they don't like it when people ask them questions about computers because they don't actually know anything about computers they just know how to eat pizza and say "The problem must be on your end" and try to make everybody else feel like a computard) but you know how they make you have a password and sometimes they want you to change the password because they think that it's safer for you to have fifty sticky notes on your monitor with your passwords written on them so that you can remember all your passwords that you have to have because of the network administrators and they think that's safer than just letting you use the password "dog" for all times which is good and has worked for me all these years and I sure can't complain, but.

My point is that when you have these passwords then sometimes the computer makes a "window" at you and the window is all "Your password that you have is the going to expire in 47 days and I the Computer says that you should think about changing it now" and then you look the computer square in the eyeballs and you say to it with human language:

WHAT'S THE POINT OF AXING ME FOR CHANGING ME MY PASSWORD EVERY 120 DAYS IF YOU'RE GOING TO START PESTERING ME TO CHANGE IT 100 DAYS BEFORE THE PASSWORD EXPIRES? WHY CAN'T YOU JUST START WARNING ME, LIKE, 3 DAYS IN ADVANCE OR SOMETHING INSTEAD? DID YOU EVER DID THE MATH HERE? IS IT YOU CAN'T SEE THE PROBLEMS THAT IS STARING YOU RIGHT IN YOUR NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR FACES?

HEY NETWORK ADMINISTRATORS - I'M TALKING AT YOU - HOW DO YOU NETWORK ADMINISTRATORS BELIEVE YOU WOULD FIND THE JOY IN IT IF THE GRIM REAPER CAME TO YOU IN HIS CARRIAGE AND WAS ALL LIKE "YOU'RE GOING TO DIE IN 2,845 DAYS BUT WOULD YOU MAYBE LIKE TO DIE NOW INSTEAD?" AND THEN YOU'LL BE ALL "NO GRIM REAPER I WANTS TO DIE IN 2,845 DAYS" BUT THEN THE GRIM REAPER COMES BACK THE NEXT DAY AND THE NEXT DAY AND THE NEXT DAY AND KEEPS ON AXING YOU THAT STUPID QUESTION AND YOU'RE ALL TIRED OF IT BECUASE YOU'RE SCRATCHING YOUR DANDRUFF HEAD AND THINKING TO YOU, "WHY ISN'T IT THAT THE GRIM REAPER COULD JUST COME AND GET ME WHEN I'M THE DEAD OR AT LEAST, OH, THREE DAYS FROM MY DEAD?"

YEAH. PONDER ON THAT CHUMP CHANGE NETWORK ADMINISTRATORS.

OR MAYBE YOU RENTED YOUR FAVORITE HOLLYWOOD FILM AT THE BLOCKBUSTER VIDEO AND YOUR FAVORITE FILM IS THE MATRIX BECAUSE IT'S YOUR NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR WET DREAM TO WEAR GOTHY LEATHER COATS AND SHOOT IN SLOW MOTION AND THEN WHEN YOU ARE SITTING DOWN WITH THE LOVELY WIFE AND YOUR POPCORN THEN BLOCKBUSTER CALLS YOU UP AND IT SAYS, "HI DAVE (IF YOUR NAME ISN'T DAVE THEN IMAGINE A DIFFERENT NAME HERE LIKE MIKE OR HANK) YOUR VIDEOS THAT YOU LIKE ARE DUE IN ONE WEEKS BUT MAYBE YOU COULD THINK ABOUT BRINGING THEM HOME TO BLOCKBUSTER EARLY OK?" AND YOU ARE ALL "NO I DON'T THINK SO I HAVE TO WATCH THE MATRIX AND THEN GO ON SLASHDOT AND TALK ABOUT HOW I'M ALL DOING SETI@HOME AND FINDING THE ALIENS AU REVOIR JERK."

SEE? WOULD YOU BE LIKING THAT? NO I WASN'T THINKING SO.

SO MAYBE YOU SHOULD BEGIN TO THINK UPON WHY YOU WOULD INFECT US USERS WITH A FATE OF THE PASSWORD EXPIRATION THAT IS VERY SIMILAR TO WHAT YOU DID WITH THE GRIM REAPER AND ALSO THE MATRIX EXCEPT THAT I'M NOT AS MUCH OF A DORK AS YOU ARE.

YOU ARE SO POANED.

Published Wednesday, June 13, 2007 3:01 PM by Rory

Filed Under: ,

Comments

 

Jason Cox said:

And tomorrow Rory gets added to the group that has to change their passwords daily...
:-P
June 13, 2007 3:43 PM
 

eric said:

They are lazy network admins.  As a network admin I know this, because I'm quite lazy.  My computer has been doing quite the same thing recently.  There is a 'simple' windows domain setting where they can change the amount of days before it notifies you to think about maybe sometime soon changing your password.  

I don't make my users change their passwords, I'm lucky they can find their office in the morning.  If they manage to turn the computer on it's a surprise and wonder.  I'm the ONLY one who gets this message because I'm the only one I force to change their password.  So I either really hate myself or I'm just too damn lazy to take the 15 mins to find that Group Policy setting.. I haven't really decided which one it is yet.
June 13, 2007 4:07 PM
 

Zack said:

Sounds like Microsoft also has those sort of IT Admins.
June 13, 2007 4:17 PM
 

Larry said:

Hey.... I like gothy leather coats and shooting in slow motion....
June 13, 2007 5:24 PM
 

Dick said:

I'd pay money for a simple app that monitors my screen, and when that nag screen appears does three things:

1.  Clicks the "hell no" selection
2.  Sends email to the Network Admin, His Boss, and His Boss's Boss thanking the effusivley for the opportunity to improve security, but respectfully declining, and asking them if they'd like to buy your kid's girl scout cookies.  Or donate to "save the worms" or join your downline.
3.  Repeat #2 at random intervals throughout the day.
June 13, 2007 7:20 PM
 

mVPstar said:

I remember when I would confront that on a weekly basis.

I usually just changed it on the spot to the same password.


BTW Rory, I think you blinded me for a sec with ALL CAPS.
June 13, 2007 7:30 PM
 

Massif said:

I feel your pain, we have to change our passwords every 40 days or so, and get bugged two weeks in advance. I think the idea is that they don't want people going on holiday and having their password expire while they're away. So instead they change them before going on holiday.

Neatly replacing all the "My password expired while I was away" phone calls with "I had to change my password before i went, and now I can't remember what it is" calls. Excellent.

Plus we can't reuse anything from the last 20 passwords, they all have to be a mix of letters numbers and different case, and have to be a certain number of characters long etc... etc... Mine are generally all insulting to anyone who can read them.

Reminds me of the company who had to change their passwords monthly... Can you guess what 90% of the office had as their password?

January, February...

All this bypasses the fact that if anyone actually gets to a desktop if they really want to steal our data they're just going to boot off a live CD or an external drive and swipe everything anyway. Ah well.
June 14, 2007 12:41 AM
 

punky said:

Re: "YOU'RE GOING TO DIE IN 2,845 DAYS BUT WOULD YOU MAYBE LIKE TO DIE NOW INSTEAD?"

I'll be chuckling about this all day.

Check punky status at noon? Chuckling.

At dinner? Trying to avoid choking while chuckling.

In the evening? Still chuckling.

At night? Tee-heeing in his sleep.
June 14, 2007 12:51 AM
 

anonymouse said:

ALSO, YOU CANNOT USE THE SAME PASSWORD THAT YOU USED 14 YEARS AGO, AT A DIFFERENT COMPANY, AND THERE ARE RULES ABOUT YOUR PASSWORD THAT WE WONT TELL YOU UNTIL YOU BREAK THEM. AND WHEN YOU BREAK THEM, YOU USUALLY END UP BREAKING THEM ALL, AND FINDING THEM ONE AT A TIME.

Hugs and Kisses,

THE NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR
June 14, 2007 7:52 AM
 

bugnerd said:

What. . .just. . .happened. . .?
June 14, 2007 8:03 AM
 

Ian said:

I thought you guys were switching to pass phrases? still got to change them?

Me too, although I'm pretty friendly with our local admin so sometimes my password renewal just 'goes away'. which is handy!
June 14, 2007 8:32 AM
 

miss sarah said:

For a specific program here that I seldom use I always end up forgetting my password, but at least I remember the answers to my Seven (yes, seven) security questions. The real joy is then choosing the new password. They give a list of ten guidelines to follow and usually by that point my brain is so numb that I just enter a random string of digits so I can get into the program before I forget what it was I was trying to do in the first place.

Next time I need to use it I simply repeat from Step One.

So why not just skip the security password and simply ask my seven security questions? You know, that could be a great way to go, actually. You could have a whole database of security questions that you answer when you first begin a job and they could be rotated through. I guess the drawback with that is that when you reach Question 383 and you're trying to figure out what your favorite song was on your first cassette tape that the whole thing might fall apart. But it could be fun up until then. ;)
June 14, 2007 10:05 AM
 

Josh Stodola said:

LMFAO I hate this more than you do, Rory.  Thankfully, our net admin has a great attitude.

The last time my password expired it literally took me 45 minutes to come up with another password to fit the ridiculous criteria.  I ended up sending emails to my boss, his boss, the net admin, and the CEO of the company telling them i just got paid an hours worth of my salary to figure out a new freakin password.  The very next day, I "accidentally" forgot my new password and wasted more time waiting for the help desk to reset it, yada yada yada.  Another email was sent outlining the issue of wasting my time.  I wasn't totally bothered by getting paid to do diddly squat, but it was annoying for sure.  And yes, I also had sticky notes surrounding the brim of my monitor with various "reset" passwords on them.  (What else could this ridiculous set of characters be?!)

That finally intrigued our gracious net admin to grant the IT department passwords that last 18 months (it was previously 3 months).  My colleagues gave me a standing ovation for my efforts and I was also given a key to the city.  We have locally labeled this particular style of rebellion "The Josh Effect"

Next annoyance to tackle:  WHY IN THE F*** CAN'T I LOGIN AT MORE THAN ONE MACHINE?!
June 14, 2007 10:28 AM
 

AdamKinney said:

Thanks for this.  This was a good one, in case, you hadn't figured it out yet...
June 15, 2007 11:12 AM
 

Rob said:

The worst password policy of all time, EVAR, is Intel's Developer Support password policy.

They make you change every six months, they track previous passwords so that you can't use an old one, and the policy is so restrictive that I"ve taken to generating GUID numbers and putting them in a sticky note on my MacBook so that I don't forget them since they also use fancy JavaScript to make sure the password never gets stored in the browser cache.

I complained to them at the last TechEd only to learn that their network admins don't care even more than Rory thinks they don't!

If only they'd attach their stuff to Windows Live I could use my MSDN login to get to their stuff. Alas, the world will never be that convenient!
June 18, 2007 10:52 AM
 

Worse than you said:

anonymouse, your network admins are benevolent to say the least.

This is (almost) verbatim from our rules:

YOUR PASSWORD MUST BE AT LEAST 289.3 CHARACTERS LONG, WITH A MIX OF UPPERCASE AND LOWERCASE LETTERS, SPACE, NUMBERS, CHINESE CHARACTERS, SANSKRIT, HIEROGLYPHS AND HANDWAVING. ANY NEW PASSWORD YOU ENTER WILL BE REJECTED IF IT DOES NOT CONTAIN ALL THE REQUIRED TYPES OF CHARACTERS, OR IF IT IS IDENTICAL TO A PREVIOUS PASSWORD, OR IF IT IS CONTAINS MORE THAN ONE CHARACTER FROM A PREVIOUS PASSWORD, OR IF WE RANDOMLY DECIDE TO REJECT IT.

We have this guy who haven't been able to work for 10 months. He just comes in early every day and tries to think up passwords. Still no luck.
June 21, 2007 5:34 PM
 

Greg Hughes said:

Hahahah... Thanks Rory, I needed that. :)
June 22, 2007 6:32 AM
 

juke said:

Step 1: Make friends with Network Admin
Step 2: Have Network Admin go to Active Directory, right click on Teh Ro-dawg, go to Properties, and say password never expires because Rory doesn't like it.
Step 3: PROFIT!!1
June 27, 2007 11:26 AM
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