Yeah yeah yeah.
I just stumbled on a Yahoo! article (in Indonesian) calling all internet users to arms, with a strong password as their weapon.

So, all along the article, they beat around the 'please do not use 123456 as a password' theme and leave it at that. Good one, Yahoo! I still have friends who never ever remember their passwords.

Chosing a strong password is good, but how the heck are you supposed to remember " h4Xxx0|2l337fgalFUb@r30" ?
Hint: you're not.

But here, I am going to give you a trick that will make you feel like you have some sort of super power:
I am going to make you remember D4nFr&&Bl0g11.

Just follow the rules:

1. Pick a name you're sure to remember, nickname or pet name : Dan
2. Pick your family name, or a second nickname in relation with the first one: DanFr
3. Pick a random separator: DanFr&& (and)
4. Pick a word that has someting to do with the site you're using: DanFr&&Blog
5. Add the date (birhday, year of creation, last 2 or 3 digits): DanFr&&Blog11
6. Replace all vocals with numbers: D4nFr&&Bl0g11

Why you will remember?

Because the password is separated is two parts: your name, and the context. You won't forget your name unless you had that many beers, and the context will be pretty obvious. Now, if you're not an used to the technique yet, you can still write down the template somewhere safe: NameOtherNameANDx2ContextYear.
Oh and yes, you can actually read it aloud: Dan Efer And Blog Eleven :)

I know it looks a bit complex, so here is another way to make your passwords hard to guess for both machines and humans alike, with passwords such as: donkey123&&098yeknod

1. Pick a word you like: donkey
2. Add the 3 first digits on the second keyboard row: donkey123
3. Pick a random separators: donkey123&&
4. Add the 3 last digit on the second keyboad row, backward: donkey123&&098
5. Add the word you just picked, backward: donkey123&&098yeknod

Why you will remember?

Because the password is symmetrical. You type the same thing twice, but after the separator, you type it backward ;)

Why are these passwords safe?

• You can create your own rules and rely on the templates
• They mix lower case, upper case, numbers and special characters (neither machines nor humans are good at guessing all that)
• They use words that don't exist, limiting dictionnary based attacks
• They are long enough to discourage even a computer

You're still desperate?

If you're in search for the simplest solution... try that: &wakeupgrababrushandputalittlemakeup&.
These are the lyrics of a song you love, plus a couple of special character to frame them, like a nice picture in your mind.
It's not as strong as the first two methods, but that can do for an emergency ;)

Keep safe!

(picture source: http://www.worldofantiques.net/74.jpg)