Oh, I remember the day! I remember back when one of the most popular questions I was asked was, “How do I remove the password from Windows 98?” And, by gum, I told people how to do it. Shame on me.

Of course, passwords weren’t a big deal back in 1998. Even on the Pre-OS X Macintosh, you didn’t need to type a password. But today, passwords are necessary and vital to your computer’s security. Avoid them at your own peril. In fact, I recommend using a strong password.

I refer to un-strong passwords as silly passwords. Examples are 1, a, none, and the all-time most silly password: password. People use those passwords because they’re easy to remember. Heck, I even used “none” for a spell. But today you want to use a strong password.

To qualify for a password weight-lifting medal your password must fit any of the following criteria:

1. The password must be at least 8 characters long.
2. The password must contain both letters and numbers.
3. The password must contain both upper case and lower case letters.

If allowed, strong passwords may also contain special symbols: underline, hyphen, and other characters, though it’s difficult to determine which characters are allowed (other than by trial and error). Windows Vista, for example, allows a hyphen in your main logon password but many web sites do not allow the hyphen. (You can guess why I know this.)

As with non-strong passwords, avoid using something obvious. This includes passwords consisting of your name and birthday, dog’s name, the digits 007, or even passwords with the last four digits of your Social Security number.

A good password hint is to use two separate but unrelated words in a silly manner, separated by numbers. For example Smart86Fool or Ugly33babY.

The best password hint I have was to write the password down. Obviously, don’t put the password on a sticky note and apply it to your monitor. Instead, hide it someplace handy, what they call “concealed in plain site.” For example, write the password down in your address book or in a recipe file — or maybe even in the margin of one of my books. The bad guys would never look there!

Apple Does It Again Dept. Apple recently announced a new, 16GB iPhone. For only $499. That’s still $101 less than the 8GB model debuted for about 7 months ago. Question: How many weeks until Apple A) lowers the price of the 16GB iPhone or B) introduces the 32GB iPhone?

Is It Just Me? Dept. Is anyone else fed up with the over-use of the phrase “all eyes,” as in “all eyes are on Wall Street” or “all eyes turn to Iowa”? It was a good phrase, but the media is abusing it to death. Hey media: Hire some writers!

This past week I got a call from a charitable organization. Officially it’s a “non-profit” organization, or one that can phone you up despite your being on various do-not-call lists. The organization was legit and had a well-meant purpose. But I did not donate.

The reason why I declined them was that I visited the Charity Navigator. It’s a web site that profiles various charitable organizations. While the guy was giving me the pitch, I looked up his organization. I was quickly able to determine that his outfit spends 2/3rd of its income on fund raising. That’s outrageous.

Yes, it’s legal for a “charity” to spend money on fund raising. What the Charity Navigator does is to help folks like you and me determine whether we’re giving money to a charity or just giving money to the guy making the cold call.

The way I use the Charity navigator is to determine how much money the organization uses for fundraising. In my opinion, a good charitable organization spends less than 15 percent of its money getting money. For example, the American Red cross spends only 2.5 percent of its income on fund raising. That’s one of the best charities, a “four star” ranking by Charity Navigator. The March of Dimes ranks only two stars; they spend 15 percent on fund raising. (I’ve given to both charities.) By putting things into perspective, you can easily see why I declined to donate to the Charity-Without-A-Name that phoned me last week.

There are other tools you can use in the Charity Navigator to determine whether or not to give to a certain outfit. Another one is executive compensation. The issue isn’t now much the CEO is being paid, but rather how the agency discloses that information. Good executives do cost money, but when the organization tries to cloak that value from you, it’s a red flag.

Relevant Link: Charity Navigator.

Microsoft Dept. Last week Microsoft made a $44 billion offer to consume Yahoo. New York Times columnist Steve Lohr has an excellent take on this hostile take-over. Google has a rather different take.

Obligatory Super Bowl link. You’ll find those commercials here.

How do you tell someone you know and like that they’re being a pest?

I’m speaking, of course, about those annoying forwarded e-mails. Stuff that someone else things is funny, or sentimental, or political. Those people must believe that they’re doing the rest of us a favor by forwarding along messages. They think that they’re keeping in touch. But it can be a damn pain.

First let me address those of you who forward junk: Basically, STOP.

Second, if you’re going to forward an e-mail, for goodness sake please clean it up! Remove those endless forwards, the lists of e-mail names, and all the indents. Just get to the meat of the matter.

I got an e-mail message yesterday that was 200 lines long. At the very end, after reading hundreds of forwards and carbon copies, I finally got to the one pitiful link being forwarded. I didn’t even bother clicking it.

Finally, if you perpetuate this type of e-mail bomb on your “friends,” then do us all a favor. Ask us if we really want to keep getting your crap — I mean stuff. Unlike advertising or e-mail lists, there is no way for us to “unsubscribe” without fear of hurting your feelings or offending you somehow. (I’m speaking from experience here.)

I’m certain that those who abuse our inboxes with forwarded crap aren’t sending those messages with the intent to annoy us. But just in case: Every so often when you spam (yes, it’s spam) out your friends another message, why not just ask them if they still want to be on your little list?

For example, “jbyrd” who e-mails me often, occasionally asks if I want to keep receiving stuff. I said it was okay, as he cleans up the messages and sends stuff that I don’t find sappy or that hasn’t been floating around the Internet since Moses. Thank you.

To the rest of you: someday I’ll get the nerve up to ask you to remove me from your list. Or else I can just chicken out like others have, and change my e-mail address without telling you.