Will it be just as easy to remember other four-word combinations?
I think we’re more likely to remember “correct horse battery staple” for those reasons. But the strip itself is interesting, takes a lot of concentration to understand, and incorporates a visual aid. Sure, a lot of readers will probably have that phrase memorized for a while. The last panel claims that the reader has already memorized “correct horse battery staple”. It’s hard to be convinced about every detail in the strip, but it really had me thinking. In any case, you can view the JavaScript source code here.
This list doesn’t include “battery” or “staple”, so perhaps a better list is still possible. I scraped a list of 1949 words (close enough) from this site, which is based on the most frequent occurrences in newspapers. The xkcd strip suggests 11 “bits of entropy” per word, which can be achieved using a list of 211 = 2048 words. For example, “decimalisation contrapuntal assizes diabolism” is not particularly easy to remember, I’d say. That’s important, because the more unusual words are used, the harder the password will be to remember. Other generators have popped up online, but unlike most of those, this generator only uses common English words. In case you missed the strip, here it is: (But if you’re just signing up for a kitten video forum, you’re probably safe.) Use at your own peril! I’m not responsible for anything that happens as a result of your password choice. It’s a novel idea, but xkcd stops short of actually recommending such passwords, and so will I.
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