Back when I used Dvorak, I made passwords that were the same in both layouts. Obviously, this is even easier in Colemak since not only AM but QWAHZXCVBM (I didn't miss any I hope?) are now stationary between layouts. (On a side note, I won't use Norwegian punctuation in passwords since I occasionally stumble upon a keyboard set to a US layout - if that won't happen to you then feel free! Same with much of the punctuation.)
The number row is there for you too, and much of the punctuation. You can substitute letters with numbers to produce words that are easier to remember. Much like +#4+ (0|\||=0051|\|6 13375p34k (that's "that confusing leetspeak", for the readers who haven't met and befriended hardcore net geeks in a few years). I've used the "+" sign as a "T" in passwords, for instance.
Getting advanced, the whole number row can become letters: tnmRSbVkgl is the coding I use (courtesy of Kurt Bai, the memory wizard) but that particular conversion takes a little twisting to recognize and remember because the row is consonants only (the "0" becoming a loop-script minuscle "l" is worst I guess, or "4" being an "R"; also loopy). The reason I learnt that was the reverse problem: How to remember a lot of digits by converting them to letters and then making words and finally a story out of them. I learnt 100 decimals of Pi with that trick, just to see if I could. :)
You can also do like the rune writers of old had to, substituting similar letters for those you don't have. In old runes, "konung" had to be written "kunuk" because they didn't have the rest of those letters as runes (yet). So that's what they did. Y -> I -> 1 or | is an example for our use; or U -> O -> 0.
So now, if you want to use... say... CHRYSANTHEMUM as a password, you'll end up with something along the lines of ch4|5a2+h3m0m which is Colemak-QWERTY invariant, not at all easy for outsiders to figure out even if they happen to see you typing it in, containing several categories of characters for further increased security (letters, numbers, punctuation) and still possible for you to remember because it is a word. Nice, huh?
(Yeah, you may not be after such a long password. Just a high-security example there. And for the hackers out there: No, I haven't and will not ever use ch4|5a2+h3m0m as a password since I posted it here, so don't even think of it. Hehe.)
Last edited by DreymaR (30-Apr-2007 14:22:09)