Duck Soup

Back in the early days of television Groucho Marx hosted a game show. One of the features of the show was the secret word. As Groucho interviewed the players, he tried to turn the conversation so that they would use the secret word which would then fall from above attached to a duck puppet.
Although I was too young to ever watch that show, for some reason the image of the duck dropping down has somehow made its way into my brain. I think about it occasionally for random reasons, but always when the subject of computer passwords or code numbers comes up. Most recently the subject came up while I was signing up for Twitter. Twitter claimed that my password just wasn't secure enough.
My password is not secure. I chose something that I could remember, and I always use the same one. I am absolutely certain that I do not require privacy for anything I do on my computer. If anyone wanted to hack into a Twitter account, I'm a sitting duck. No firewall stands between me and some evil genius posting who-knows-what in my name. So, reader beware, if you think I've written something, it just could be the thoughts of someone devious enough to figure out my one-size-fits-all password.
Same thing with combination locks. Like the Space Balls joke about the combination an idiot would use on their luggage, my combination lock is always set at 333. I figure that if someone is going to steal my luggage, they will just pick it up and walk away.
I never expect anyone to answer a cell phone message because I know there is a good chance that they can't get their messages because they don't remember their password. Lucky for them cell phones remember the last number called so they can just call back. But then, most cell phone messages I get just say 'call me back' anyway.
The days of privacy are long gone. Terrorism is used as the excuse, but in reality, it is corporations who have always been collecting information. Remember when the Bush Administration turned to telephone companies for intelligence reports? They got it too.
So when a computer program asks me to set up a secret password, I just say 'Quack.'
Nancy Sherer