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1. Embed this notice
   Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 02-May-2025 01:45:45 JST Paul Cantrell

   A story that’s a parable for…something:

   For months, I’d had trouble typing my laptop password. I’d have to retry 1 or 2 times, then 2 or 3. I wondering if my fingers or my brain were degrading with age or overwork or something. Then I realized that one of the keys on the keyboard — one in the password! — had started not registering unless it was pushed firmly, and was getting progressively worse. That whole time, the password entry had only worked when I got annoyed enough to hit the ailing key a little harder. Fixed the key, and suddenly I was typing my password on the first try again.

   What’s the moral of this story? I don’t know. Choose your own.

   • Embed this notice
     MrAlanCooper (mralancooper@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 02-May-2025 01:47:03 JST MrAlanCooper

     in reply to

     @inthehands I think the moral of this story is obvious: password fields should not obscure what you are typing.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 02-May-2025 03:23:01 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Jesse Morris

     @aubilenon
     I’ve wondered about that! I had two theories, which may both be correct:

     (1) Exactly what you said

     (2) The key was extra sticky after a period of non-use, and the password entry loosened it up enough to make it work reliably for a while after logging in.

   • Embed this notice
     Jesse Morris (aubilenon@peoplemaking.games)'s status on Friday, 02-May-2025 03:23:19 JST Jesse Morris

     in reply to

     @inthehands I find it interesting but not super surprising that this was probably happening for non-password stuff too but you didn't notice because you just automatically corrected stuff that you were typing that you can see.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 02-May-2025 03:24:09 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     I love the morals for the story that people are inventing in the replies.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 02-May-2025 06:22:51 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Shaula Evans

     @ShaulaEvans
     I don’t fully remember (long time ago), but I believe it involved prying the key off and cleaned underneath.

   • Embed this notice
     Shaula Evans (shaulaevans@zirk.us)'s status on Friday, 02-May-2025 06:22:52 JST Shaula Evans

     in reply to

     @inthehands I don't know what the moral to the story is but I'd love to know how you fixed the key because I'm going through the exact same thing with a key in a high-use password and none of my fixes have worked yet!

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 02-May-2025 06:23:48 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Jesse Morris

     @aubilenon
     I believe this was a pre-Touch-ID machine.

   • Embed this notice
     Jesse Morris (aubilenon@peoplemaking.games)'s status on Friday, 02-May-2025 06:23:49 JST Jesse Morris

     in reply to

     @inthehands Oh! That didn't occur to me that it would be a little self-healing. It feels weird that it wouldn't happen at all the rest of the time, but I guess possible. Do you usually use TouchID to unlock it so it's only relatively infrequent and especially after being locked for a while that you have to type the password?