Don't force random passwords on people!

[charles at utastro.UUCP]

At the risk of legitimizing opinions like this which are 
based on false assumptions, I offer the following:

The program "randpasswd" was offered as an fairly interesting
exercise in using random(3) and as a useful tool in coming
up with new passwords that were not obvious to the casual user.

No one at my site forces anyone to use any particular password, whether
or not it was produced by "randpasswd".

In reply to Mr. Wolffs vehement article, I have this to say:

1) If someone writes their password on a piece of paper, that piece
	of paper is then their responsibility, whether or not that
	password was produced by a password-generating-program.
	Neither I nor the program can be blamed for losing pieces of
	paper.

2) If you object to using password-generating programs, (and to do so
	is a personal and reasonable decision) don't use them
	and discourage your users from using them.

3) The users at my site are, in fact, not actively
	encouraged to use "randpasswd".
	In announcing its availability, it was only announced that
	it was available; no praises or guarantees of any kind were
	included, either explicitly or implied.

4) Some people, in fact, *do* find it useful, and use it all due
	caution.
-- 

                     *>> Charles Sandel <<*
     uucp:  {ut-sally, ut-ngp, noao, charm}!utastro!charles
arpa:  charles at utastro.UTEXAS.ARPA   charles at ut-sally.UTEXAS.ARPA
                   at&t:  (512) 471-4461 x439