I favor doing things online. I haven't gotten to the point where a virtual meal seems as good as actually putting food in my mouth and using my teeth. But having a computer failure or being unable to access a web page has been lots less trouble and expense (so far) than having a tire go flat on a cold, wind-swept Wisconsin road.
There are trials and difficulties online, too. As you may know, male humans carry both X and Y genes while female bodies carry only X genes. Thus, the new Geno 2.0 kits from the National Geographic Society's Genographic Project are better used by men, since their results shed light on both their male and female ancestors. I just got my 2.0 results completed. No big surprises, in a way, although the male line is quite jerky, with 11 spots where it branches off, compared to only 4 in the female line. The results are extensive and include many web pages so being able to go back to the site matters. That means that having a usable username and password matter.
I spent at least an hour of my usual impatience trying to be clear what the username and password I myself created actually are. I finally was able to get straight and much of the problem, beyond typos I didn't realize I was making, seems to have been the letter "I", you know the letter after H and before J. An upper case i, a lower case L and the first of the counting numerals, one, are not easy to distinguish. Years ago, the password field was coded to show asterisks when the password characters are typed. Thus, an error in typing cannot be detected. Probably someone knows a fundamental way to change the ***** string to characters but I don't.
So far, I haven't had the experience of trying to convince a helpdesk person to allow me to reset the username or password but with the number of users there are, there has got to be a call for arrangements that allow that. These attempts to verify, identify and persuade are what led to several publicized incursions by vandals or thieves to gain entry to accounts of others. One way that some organizations have attempted to heighten security while not locking out legitimate problems and users is to send a link to re-set a password to whatever email account was provided at the creation of the account. So far, I have not abandoned any accounts but I can imagine the day when the email company goes out of business or I have forgotten or abandoned the related email.
I can imagine the twists and turns that very senior citizens will experience with failing eyesight, memory lapses and trembling hands. The use of computers by seniors is steadily growing, partly no doubt because those who have used computers for decades are aging. Some computers are equipped with fingerprint recognition and maybe retinal recognition of the vein patterns in one's eye.
The incursions into someone's account that I have read about mentioned chains of accounts, where the username of one account helped gain entry to another one. Because human agency is more dramatic than electronic accidents and huge damaging storms, I tend to forget about various mechanical, weather-related and other sources of online confusion and obstacles.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
