Applied Security;

Travis had given up using the Kawasaki unilaterally, and followed Bubba to the bowling alley in his pickup. Bubba was fond of watching the difficulty bowlers had in knocking over ALL the pins in a strike. He said it made him feel better when people looked up "Fat Man and Little Boy," in Brittanica. He himself rarely broke 100, but Travis had seen him complete a game with double strikes once, and stuck up for him whenever it came up that Bubba "couldn't bowl."

Bubba sniffed the anti-fungal shoe spray like a perfume as they walked up to their lane. "Bubba," Travis opened, "Ursula asked me a question I haven't had a conversation about. Given the five food groups, how do you pick the strongest password?"

Bubba keyed in the necessary data to keep score, and doffed his hat. "I guess to figure out how _strong_ a password is, I'd have to want to break into something," he answered. "One of your early improvements is to choose an opening character that puts the whole sequence away from beginning and end. By that I mean, if my key space is between 1 and 100, pick 30s to 80s... the cracker is either going to start at 1 and count up, or 100 and count down. Other than that, it's probably important to 'keep the defense honest.'" The game was progressing slowly, but without Beer it at least progressed some.

"Who's the defense, and what kind of... you mean like football?" Travis inquired. Bubba grinned. "Yep: Remember back when Jimmy Johnson's Cowboys had Michael Irving on one side and Alvin Harper on the other for wide receivers? The commentators all used to say 'all Troy has to do is throw it up there, and _somebody_ will come down with it?' Well, the fact of the matter is, that whenever the team had a long field, 60 to 80 yards, the offense would haul off and throw a long bomb early, willy nilly. The defense of the opposing team could never relax and say 'it's a running down.'" Travis took a moment to bowl a frame, and then replied wryly, "Makes sense if you're going to script the first half anyway. But can you bring it back and relate it _specifically_ to the problem of passwords now?"

Bubba knew that a little more football would not go amiss, and fleshed it out before explaining. "You script the first half for two reasons. 1. You can't get emotionally involved in outsmarting the opponent, and outsmart yourself that way. 2. If you take good notes, and observe how the opponent reacts to your enforced variety, you learn more about him than he wants you to, and that's the blood and guts of your second half strategy. Now then, about passwords..."

"If _I_ was cracking a password, I would HAVE to consider starting in the middle, just like tic-tac-toe. But if I _did_, would I count upwards, or downwards? To have a good order, it _still_ makes sense to start from one end or the other. The best way _I_ know to 'keep the defense honest,' is to use more than the minimum of a given food group. If you make a RULE that you ALWAYS use three numbers in EVERY password, then ALL passwords with only one or two numbers in them are 'off the menu.' The most convenient use of the fifth food group is also an excellent way to make a cracker's Coventry perdition; use it as the initial character. Just remember to mix it up with more than one now and then." Bubba paused, and decided that if there was more that needed to be said, Travis would have to bring it to his attention. As they finished the game, Travis teased him that he'd make a better motley, if his tennis shoes didn't match - they were incongruous with a Stetson!

"Just for that, I'm charging you Pizza for my explanation. It was raining locally when I left, and my Ball Cap was drip drying from the washer. You KNOW I wash them instead of worshiping the emblems!" It was Travis' turn to grin. "you get Supreme when the time comes... sausage is for Mussolini! Thanks for the conversation. See ya later?" "Sure thing," he spoke in answer. "Take care."