Today I went through my monthly ordeal of paying bills.  Since I opt out of getting paper bills, this process includes lots of logging into various sites to find out what I owe.  Needless to say the ‘forgot password’ link gets used practically every time.  

I try to use the same few passwords or similar combinations of them, but it seems all these sites are out to get me with their ridiculous requirements that are exclusive only to their site.  I recently went bonkers when my standard 9 digit alphanumeric password was rejected by a site that required 10 characters.  

Seriously?  10 characters?  WHY DO YOU HATE ME!?

I know i’m far from the only one that has this problem.  I frequently walk through our software remotely with customers where they have to log into three different places(our software and the two applications we are integrating).  What do most people do while i’m sitting there looking at their screen via remote screen sharing?  They open up a word or excel document titled ‘Passwords,’ retrieve the information they need and plug it in.

What’s the point of all these secure requirements when people just bypass them?

I’d like to see a web application that allowed me to store the URLs of all the apps and sites I use on the web along with their passwords safely and securely.  To access my gas bill, I log into this new site and click on the link to my gas company.  I’m then redirected to the gas company’s site and am automatically logged in then left alone.  

It’s 2010, is this possible or am I asking for a flying car?