My system for making a excellent and unforgettable password.
They say you shouldn\'t write down your password, but you can write down a clue to your password. I have a list of password clues in my wallet that no one could crack.
Here\'s my system to make a new password with an easy clue I can keep written down.
In light of recent events, I think Jay Leno is an asshole.
My new password is: assholeleno2010. My clue is \"Tonight Show\" because that\'s all I need to remind me of the password.
I might have the clue \"capita\" for the password \"fellatio.\" Get it? it works.

A long random combination of letters and numbers, mixed case, and other characters such as punctuation makes a very strong password. A random sequence of words found in the dictionary can often be cracked fairly quickly.
To remember my random passwords, I use a free encryption service, www.nolost.info.

At work, each PC on the network has a password assigned by the boss, usually a simple word associated with products or company history. If you know anything about the company, you can probably guess at least some of the passwords. But we\'re not allowed to change the passwords. How\'s that for security?
I have over 30 email accounts, 5 FTP accounts and untold forum and e-tailer accounts. None of them have the same password and none of my passwords are real words, thus not vulnerable to dictionary attacks. They may be only \"moderately\" strong by Imperva standards, but I still doubt anyone will guess them.

I wish I had a better system for generating passwords. After a time you do not have a clue what a password for a particular group/newspaper/forum was...or better still that you already registered. I know.... indecent exposure on my part here but hey, if you registered once in lifetime for a particular obscure article that you could not finish reading unless you became a \"free subscriber\" to even more obscure blog/periodical...this is the issue in my view. I am really annoyed that I need to register only to finish reading a thing and similar. Mnemonics (suggested above) are tricky and you can confuse them more than easily if \"Tonight Show\" happened some eight months ago. I better not expand on what wild associations I can have with the latter one. Good password I have. Perhaps too strong an expression but not as strong as a password though...

A friend of mine has to thank this kind of behaviour \'cause he could \"stole\" the internet connection of a neighbour. in this case the password was the name of the girlfriend.

Thats remind me of Twitter\'s password, when one employee used the same password for her Gmail. Thanks

I read about a method that sounded pretty good once, but haven\'t tried it as of yet. You memorize a short string, such as \"f9$\" or something. You then memorize a number, like \"3\". From then on all the passwords you need you write down a string for them and keep it findable, or make them something you can associate with the location very easily. An example might be \"coolstuff\" for thinkgeek or \"technews\" for Gizmag. Also a complex written string, such as \"Odw0^l!1d\" written on a post-it note taped to the monitor for your login. The final step is that the real password either inserts or replaces the written/super easy string with the one memorized starting at the location number memorized. so \"coolstuff\" becomes either \"cof9$tuff\" or \"cof9$olstuff\" depending on your method and alloted space. With this method you could have a notebook filled with passwords that didn\'t work, without your \"private key.\"

just put 2 or 3 words together cap the first letter DuckHelpWall. very hard to crack Obviously numbers, symbols help but still. Obviosly you can make all \"o\" 0 and \"e\" 3 instead of \"i\" use \"!\".
If your passwords are so complex that you need to write them down, then you screwed up.

easy way . . use a keyscrambler

@CeridianMN I have posted my own formula a couple times... similar to what you describe. Pick a favorite, but personal, \'key\' and combine it with something obvious at each site you visit... the passwords will be all different/unique, and somewhat rememberable for each site.
For example... Make up your own short \'key\' (onetime), something meaningful to you that you can remember... composed of caps, lowercase, number and special character if you want... ....maybe initials or first letters of your favorite phrase, with a favorite number... and, well, pick a favorite \'special character\', like ! or @ or & , etc... (onetime).
Then you\'ll have a personal key, for example: JSxxx4!
...then, for every site you need a password, pick the most obvious thing that springs to mind, like \'ford\' for Ford.com, or \'chevy\' for Chevrolet.com, and... ...combine them at those websites for a password there.
Such as... JSxxx4!ford at ford.com, and JSxxx4!chevy at chevrolet.com...
...that way you have a key you can remember and a different password for every website, that you should be able to guess, and not have to write down. Just don\'t always use the site name to combine with... words that spring to mind are good.
For CNN.com.... JSxxx4!news For DowJonesNews.com... JSxxx4!djn Etc.
Just never give out, or write down your key... remember it only, it\'s only one \'word\'.
By the way, if your password is simply any word in the dictionary, or even any \'mangled\' word like d1n0saur, or se7en ...it\'s EASILY crackable with software designed for that purpose. Don\'t use \'readable\' mangled words... the crackers have programmed lists of those... or ways to generate them. Computers do character substitutions -really- fast.
One caveat to my formula is that some websites only allow alphanumeric passwords, just letters and numbers. Some demand special characters, etc. So you\'ll occasionally need to be ready with some alternative to your \'key\'... ...like dropping the ! from JSxxx4! to get just JSxxx for those sites that want only letters and numbers. JSxxx(websiteword)
You can still use one of the encrypting password programs to store a list of them too... and there\'s usually a \"Forgot password\" link on most websites, anyway. What can be harder... is remembering your username! Sometimes it\'s email address, sometimes not... and sometimes someone else already has your choice for username. So the smart websites will send your username along with password, when you click \"Forgot password\"... or they -may- have a \"Forgot username\" link as well.