Kevin Drum, writing in his excellent Political Animal blog, says, “I’m really tired of registering with online newspapers. Apparently Knight Ridder recently decided to require registration, and you have to register separately with every single one of their papers. What’s more, a slew of other newspapers have also decided to require registration within the past week or two. Is it something in the water?”
Don’t know about the water, but I have noticed the same thing. Two responses:
A comment on the entry points to Bug Me Not, where you can enter the URL of the padlocked page and view a list of accounts that others have created for anonymous access. The entries for the NY Times Web site are, um, creative.
I use AI RoboForm, a wonderful (and spyware-free) product that keeps track of logins and passwords. It can remember details of multiple identities and fill in Web-based forms with a single click. It also manages credit card data for use with online merchants. I’ve set up one alternate persona expressly for sites that insist on asking me for personal information even when they have no legitimate need for it. Using RoboForm’s password generator, I can enter a completely random password and not have to worry about remembering it or be concerned that I’ve used that password somewhere else.
The RoboForm data files and passwords fit on a USB memory keychain for security and can themselves be password-protected and encrypted. I’ve backed up the data files (in encrypted format) and saved them in online storage.
This is a great program. The free version offers a 30-day trial, after which you lose some features. I think the $30 license fee for the Pro edition, which stores an unlimited number of passwords and identities, is a tremendous bargain.
Ed Bott 