How I'd Hack Your Passwords

Here's an interesting bit on password security.

Pay particular attention to the difference between using only lowercase characters and using all possible characters (uppercase, lowercase, and special characters – like @#$%^&*). Adding just one capital letter and one asterisk would change the processing time for an 8 character password from 2.4 days to 2.1 centuries.

There are lots of simple pointers to make your passwords several orders of magnitude more difficult to hack, and plenty of reasons to apply these pointers. I won't say anything about my own passwords; I have my own system for generating, and more importantly, remembering the danged things. But I'm pleasantly surprised by their apparent strength.