When You Type Your Password Wrong
(Paul W. 05/18/07)

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      Don't you love all the passwords you have to remember now-a-days? (Was that a collective groan I heard?) Here's a tip that might help a little bit. When you start to type a password and realize that you typed something wrong, instead of trying to backspace and figure out which dot or which star you have to change, just backspace over the whole thing and start fresh. You are less likely to make a mistake by just starting fresh than trying to figure out which dot or star to fix. That way you are also less likely to lock out a password that gets locked after a certain number of failed attempts. You may think you can save more time by just fixing the one character real quick, but it you goof it up, that's one failed attempt. If you fail again later in the day with another system that uses this same account/password, that'll be two attempts. Now if your friend is talking to you while you're unlocking your screen saver and you make a typo or type the wrong password ... Bingo! You've just locked yourself out.
      If you make it a practice to start fresh each time you know you've made a typo, you'll probably save more time in the long run.