Unusual uses of spaced repetition: memorizing passwords

[Gwern Branwen]

"Towards Reliable Storage of 56-bit Secrets in Human Memory", Bonneau
& Schechter http://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/usenixsecurity14/sec14-paper-bonneau.pdf

> Challenging the conventional wisdom that users cannot remember cryptographically-strong secrets, we test the hypothesis that users can learn randomly-assigned 56-bit codes (encoded as either 6 words or 12 characters) through *spaced repetition*. We asked remote research participants to perform a distractor task that required logging into a website 90 times, over up to two weeks, with a password of their choosing. After they entered their chosen password correctly we displayed a short code (4 letters or 2 words, 18.8 bits) that we required them to type. For subsequent logins we added an increasing delay prior to displaying the code, which participants could avoid by typing the code from memory. As participants learned, we added two more codes to comprise a 56.4-bit secret. Overall, 94% of participants eventually typed their entire secret from memory, learning it after a median of 36 logins. The learning component of our system added a median delay of just 6.9 s per login and a total of less than 12 minutes over an average of ten days. 88% were able to recall their codes exactly when asked at least three days later, with only 21% reporting having written their secret down. As one participant wrote with surprise, “the words are branded into my brain.”

--
gwern
http://www.gwern.net

[abaku...@arcor.de]

Hi Peter,

there is a conflict, when I try to sync the database on my android phone (python version of mnemosyne) with database on my PC. I have not done any repetitions on the PC since the last sync. The statistics for the last four days are missing. Now, my smart phone asks me, if I want to fetch the remote version. Which one is the remote version? On my PC or on the smart phone? How does the sync work at all? Why do I get this error message? Ok, the Mnemosyne version on the phone is not up to date, but it worked just fine during the last few weeks.

Bug:

- Mnemosyne doesn't find all duplicates in all cards. Suddenly it worked, but I can't reproduce it right now. I've done something like this, when it worked: I've sorted the cards of those two selected tags in the cards browser alphabetically, and Mnemosyne found all duplicates. :)

Feature requests:

- It would be great, if you could choose "active cards" from the drop-down menus in the statistics window (right below "all cards").
- a way to export the statistics to a tab-separated text file

Question:

Could you send me a text file with all the tips of the day? I'd like to create card set from this file and share it on the Menmosyne website.

Thank you and have a nice day!

Greetings,

Abakus

[Peter Bienstman]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mnemosyne-...@googlegroups.com [mailto:mnemosyne-
> proj-...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of abaku...@arcor.de
> Sent: 17 September 2014 14:51
> To: mnemosyne-...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: [mnemosyne-proj-users] Conflict syncing data bases, bug, feature
> requests...
>
> Hi Peter,
>
> there is a conflict, when I try to sync the database on my android phone
> (python version of mnemosyne) with database on my PC. I have not done
> any repetitions on the PC since the last sync. The statistics for the last
four
> days are missing. Now, my smart phone asks me, if I want to fetch the
> remote version. Which one is the remote version? On my PC or on the smart
> phone? How does the sync work at all? Why do I get this error message? Ok,
> the Mnemosyne version on the phone is not up to date, but it worked just
> fine during the last few weeks.

'Remote' means 'not near you', so in this case the PC. 'Local' means 'near
you', so in this case the phone. Are you 100% you didn't touch the PC?
Sometimes, for safety reasons, you also get a message like this if the
previous sync was interrupted.

> Bug:
>
> - Mnemosyne doesn't find all duplicates in all cards. Suddenly it worked,
but I
> can't reproduce it right now. I've done something like this, when it
worked:
> I've sorted the cards of those two selected tags in the cards browser
> alphabetically, and Mnemosyne found all duplicates. :)

Without concrete steps to reproduce this, I cannot really comment, apart
from saying that duplicates are only detected inside a given card type. So,
a 'house - maison' card in French is not considered a duplicate of a 'house
- casa' card in Spanish.

> Feature requests:
>
> - It would be great, if you could choose "active cards" from the drop-down
> menus in the statistics window (right below "all cards").
> - a way to export the statistics to a tab-separated text file

Feel free to submit this to uservoice, so that people can vote for it.

> Question:
>
> Could you send me a text file with all the tips of the day? I'd like to
create
> card set from this file and share it on the Menmosyne website.

http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~peter-bienstman/mnemosyne-proj/trunk/view/head:
/mnemosyne/mnemosyne/pyqt_ui/tip_dlg.py

Cheers,

Peter

[abaku...@arcor.de]

Hello Peter,

I let Mnemosyne upload the PC version of the database. Now, I have 151 cards on shedule for today and a gap of four days in my statistics. ^^ Quite a few cards to go for one day.

>Are you 100% you didn't touch the PC?

I probably did edit some cards and maybe added one or two cards. I don't close Mnemosyne during synchronization. I normally just put my phone on the table and wait until it's done.

> Sometimes, for safety reasons, you also get a message like this if the
> previous sync was interrupted.

This might be an explanation, but I don't remember Mnemosyne crash and I did not close it, not even by accident. It could be, that I've closed the client on my smart phone by accident.

> Without concrete steps to reproduce this, I cannot really comment, apart
> from saying that duplicates are only detected inside a given card type. So,
> a 'house - maison' card in French is not considered a duplicate of a 'house
> - casa' card in Spanish.

What I have done:

1. find an already existing "front-to-back and back-to-front" card with a tag like "Turkish::House, XX::Turkish" and put in the question field "ansansör", and copy the contents to another card, which has the tag "TestA::TestLevelTwo" or "TestA". -> Mnemosyne won't find any duplicate. Even though it's a duplicate.

2. Now, add another duplicate with the tag "TestB::STest24". -> Mnemosyne will find the duplicate.

I've attached an example: Two screenshots. I've tried to find the duplicates in both cases after adding the new cards.

My first guess, it has something to do with special characters like "ü", "ö" and "ä". I can reproduce this with all cards containing these special characters. But it seems to occur, with other cards too. For example the word "avlu" (see attachment).

Happy debugging! ;)

> > Question:
> >
> > Could you send me a text file with all the tips of the day? I'd like to
> create
> > card set from this file and share it on the Menmosyne website.
>
> http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~peter-bienstman/mnemosyne-proj/trunk/view/head:
>
> /mnemosyne/mnemosyne/pyqt_ui/tip_dlg.py

Thank you!

Greetings,

Abakus

[Peter Bienstman]

Strange, I'll look into this when I get back.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mnemosyne-...@googlegroups.com [mailto:mnemosyne-
> proj-...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of abaku...@arcor.de
> Sent: 17 September 2014 22:09
> To: mnemosyne-...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Aw: RE: [mnemosyne-proj-users] Conflict syncing data bases, bug,
> feature requests...
>

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[Peter Bienstman]

Hi,

I'm having a hard time replicating the problems you describe. Can you
privately mail me the database where you observe this problem?

Or better still, a new small test database which shows the problem?

With respect to syncing, if you edit a card on one machine and review the
same card on another machine, that is classified as a sync conflict for the
moment.

Cheers,

Peter

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mnemosyne-...@googlegroups.com [mailto:mnemosyne-
> proj-...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of abaku...@arcor.de
> Sent: 17 September 2014 22:09
> To: mnemosyne-...@googlegroups.com
> Subject: Aw: RE: [mnemosyne-proj-users] Conflict syncing data bases, bug,
> feature requests...
>