Comment by thedufer
12 days ago
> Can't log in when standing up
This reminds me of a recent issue I had. I had just gotten a new laptop from IT. While picking it up from them, I had generated myself a password, put it in my password manager on my phone, and then entered it twice to set it on the laptop. Everything worked great. But when I got back to my desk, the password didn't work! I tried a bunch of times, watched myself hit each key to eliminate typos, etc.
I went back to IT and they asked me to demonstrate. But this time it worked! I walked back to my desk, thoroughly embarrassed. But a couple hours later I had to log in again and once again could not.
After thinking about it for awhile, I realized that I was typing at IT while standing over a sitting-height desk. Sure enough, typing in that position fixed my issue. I carefully watched what I was doing this time - something about the exact layout of the keyboard and the weird angle I was typing at ensured that I was making a particular typo I typed in that position - just a single letter switched to another, every time. Sure enough, making that one substitution to my intended password got me in.
It's worth noting that sometimes (incorrect) keyboard maps can get in the way.
If it's a key that you may not often type and one that is often transposed between regions, the fact that the entered char is not shown can lead to frustration.
e.g. " and @ are in different positions in UK vs. US keyboards. So user thinks they are typing @, but " goes into the box.
One of the more annoying things I've found moving country is the unavailability of keyboards / laptops with the layout I grew up with. I find it especially annoying as the country I'm from uses a US layout which I naively assumed would be easily available everywhere (and it is available but not without a long delivery and a premium price)
Side note: helping my French housemate with his uni assignments was an experience, none of the symbols were where I expected them to be
Meh, takes you like some days to get used to another layout being visible on the keys, while your OS (and brain) actually using another layout.
I've used US keyboard layout since I started programming (my first mentor essentially forced me to switch to it, he was right about it being easier), but throughout the years been using Swedish, Norwegian, British, Spanish and French physical keyboards, never cleanly mapped to the actual layout I've used on the OS, and never been an issue.
The last part though, is a real one, trying to pair program with Spanish programmers always have at least one moment of holding Shift and sliding the finger across all numbers to see where that specific symbol actually is.
No, that is why passwords are alphanumerical, keep your #€{*\$<€$<¥]+]!,’ to yourself.
On other layouts that isn't enough. For example French keyboards are AZERTY, not QWERTY. and here in Sweden we have å, ä and ö next to the (tall) enter key, instead of the symbols US and UK have.
(Side note: those are not a and o with diacretics, they are entirely separate letters in the alphabets of the Nordic countries, with entirely different sounds.)
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Not all password policies allow you to ignore special characters.
I’ve done this before as well. It truly baffled me because of how much in undermined me sense of being totally aware of my body. I truly believed I was hitting the right keys (I know how to type after all) and I never noticed any issue when writing normally, but only when typing my password. But of course I couldn’t see my password as I typed, while in other cases I would subconsciously correct any resulting typos because I could see them. I had no reason to classify typos due to standing as any different than the regular errors I might make while typing.
Almost felt like a bug in error correction loop in my brain, or maybe more like an unconsidered edge case.
I somes subconsciously correct typos even when not looking at them. It drives me crazy when UI design breaks this, like fixed-length security code / PIN entry UIs that automatically submit when you enter the last character of the code.
I also tend to memorize long (8+ digit) PINs based on the physical layout of the keys, so if I need to enter a PIN set up on a phone-style keypad on a normal keyboard or numeric keypad, or vice versa, I need to visualize entering the PIN on the original input device to remember it.
This always frustrates the heck out of me when it is the same mechanical keyboards but different switches