So he's preparing a list for his heirs, including his accounts, safe combinations, even computer passwords.

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Another software feature, called "keychain, " allows users to enter a single password into their machine, which automatically activates all other passwords stored in the computer.

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The next honorable thing, and probably the toughest will be to explain if he gave up his passwords or access to his computer to this lady.

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In fact, all of the devices in Darby's home -- from the biometric mouse that has his computer reading fingerprints instead of asking for passwords to the media center in his lounge -- are available for ordinary consumers to buy in shops.

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Hence the single sign-on approach, in which either the user's computer or the Web site "remembers" passwords.

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The inventors speculate that eventually people will be identified to a computer by the gestures they make as well as by supplying the correct passwords.

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Computer security is a chain with many weak links, of which only one is the use of passwords.

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Nothing about how long your computer can be inactive before if automatically logs you off, nothing about how often you have to change your passwords and certainly nothing about all those other things we so often claims it makes us do.

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