Yojimbo

I came across this really cool little application and I am using it for one reason only. My userid/password list has grown out of control.

I suppose it all began innocently enough. I started with an email account at work. And then an online bulletin board, if you can remember that far back. You know, before the Internet became popular.

Since then, I’m not sure what happened. I have way too many email accounts: work, home, blackberry, gmail, website domains that I own, hotmail. Almost a dozen email accounts in total. Then there are voice mail accounts. Website accounts. LAN accounts. And on, and on.

I have well over one hundred userid/passwords. And, for low frequency access, I am starting to have trouble recalling the correct userid/password combination. I have tried to use a consistent userid handle and a consistent password strategy but the world of technology has made userid/passwords an absolute and complete farce. I’m not sure why some websites are so concerned about my security that they force me to create a userid/password just to download a demo of a package. Yet another userid/password.

Some of them are not worth remembering. But certain ones are. I have several Sympatico accounts. And I do not remember the specifics. Last time I changed my wife’s computer, I had to spend over an hour with technical support, most of that time spent waiting in a queue, to obtain her userid/password. Sympatico likes to use some bizarre userid naming scheme like b1yfrg72. What’s with that?

And so, much like organizing my digital photos, I have organized my digital identities. Over one hundred in all. And I used Yojimbo to help me out. Their password list is encrypted. And I have to use a password to gain access to my list of passwords.

Now if only I could remember that password!