User Naming Practices?

Kymermosst asks: "Recently, this post was made to comp.sys.sun.misc, and sparked a large debate on the subject of usernames. What standardized user-naming schemes are used out in the 'real world,' if any? Has any company's scheme become a security risk due to its predictability? Were any benefits gained by using any particular system?"

Comments

Security risk?

[bconway]

No way. However, the IT group was kinda surprised that Steve Lutz insisted on keeping with the first letter + last name naming scheme. I shit you not.

Re:Security risk?

[watchmaker1]

My first name is Chris, My last initial is T. In the entire several hundred person staff full of people with first name last initial, I was the only one with a different username, as the ultra religious sysadmin manager refused to create me the login "christ".

Re:Security risk?

[jo42]

Once we had a guy named Bob O. I didn't set him up as "bobo@"...

Re:the age old debate ...

[alphaseven]

Jedi names, that's works well with me and most people i know too... where did you get that nameing scheme from?

How NOT to do it

[Dimwit]

When I was working in Europe for a while, we had an IT director who assumed that he knew everything possible about Unix. (It should go without saying that he didn't.)

When I was hired on, I promulgated the first initial+last name standard. Considering this company was around thirty people, and was never expected to grow past about forty-five, this scheme seemed to work well.

However, he threatened to fire anyone who didn't use his standard: first letter of first name + second letter of first name + first letter of last name!

Now, with my scheme, we had zero collisions. With his, we had about four. His solution?

first letter of first name + third letter of first name + first letter of last name! And so on...

Never work for these people, they're insane...

Re:How NOT to do it

[bluestar]

I kinda like this idea. Except I'd make it first two letters of first name + first two letters of last name.

And then I'd change my name to Robert O'Toole.

Just...

[Tom7]

Just use a 128-bit hash of the person. That way, user ids are unique, easy to calculate, but hard to guess.

Re:Just...

[Trinn]

What...you mean you can't do 128-bit hashing in your head? What kind of geek are you???

Re:Just...

[schon]

you mean you can't do 128-bit hashing in your head? What kind of geek are you?

The married kind :o)

Christ

[yamla]

My first name is Christopher but I normally go by 'Chris'. And my last name begins with the letter, 'T'. At both my current job and my previous job, that worked out to an email address of 'Christ'.

I am rather amused by this.

SSNs!

[anthony_dipierro]

I like using social security numbers. Everyone in the world has them and they're 100% unique. Plus you can use the fact that someone knows their SSN to prove that they are who they say they are.

Apparently real e-mail addresses

[GregWebb]

This was doing the rounds a while back. Whether it's at all true I don't know but hey, it's funny ;-)

--------------

Many colleges and business's tend to strip the last name down to 6 characters and add the first and last initial to either the beginning or end
to make up an e-mail address. For example, Mary L. Ferguson = mlfergus or fergusml. They are just now
beginning to realize the problems that may happen when you have a large and diverse pool of people to choose from. Add to that a large database of
company/college Acronyms and you have some very funny addresses. Probably not funny to the individual involved, however:

TOP TEN Actual E-mail Addresses
10. Helen Thomas Eatons (Duke University) - eatonsht (at) dku.edu
9. Mary Ellen Dickinson (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) - dickinme (at) iup.edu
8. Francis Kevin Kissinger (Las Verdes University) - kissinfk (at) lvu.edu
7. Amanda Sue Pickering (Purdue University) - aspicker (at) pu.edu
6. Ida Beatrice Ballinger (Ball State University) - ibballin (at) bsu.edu
5. Bradley Thomas Kissering (Brady Electrical, Northern Division, Overton
Canada) - btkisser (at) bendover.com
4. Isabelle Haydon Adcock (Toys "R" Us) - ihadcock (at) tru.com
3. Martha Elizibeth Cummins (Fresno University) - cumminme (at) fu.edu
2. George David Blowmer (Drop Front Drawers & Cabinets Inc.) - blowmegd (at) dropdrawers.com

..but at No 1, it had to be...

1. Barbara Joan Beeranger (Myplace Home Decorating) - beeranbj (at) myplace.com