By Brandon Bailey - Mercury News

Your dog's name. Random nouns. And who could forget blm457yfp?

Most people who use the Internet know the difficulty of remembering all the passwords they need to check e-mail, chat online, download music and transfer funds. Experts advise against using the same password for multiple accounts, in case it falls into the wrong hands. But all those different sign-ons are hard to keep straight and, even with password-manager software to help, they can be hard to keep secure.

Software makers have come up with several alternatives that you're likely to hear more about in coming months. Already, you can sign on to several sites with a single "OpenID" that you've registered with one provider. You can use your mobile phone to generate a digital "key" that you don't need to remember. You can even click on an encrypted "information card" that might one day replace your passwords altogether.

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