The Joys Of Two-Step Verification

Last Saturday afternoon, I began uploading a video to YouTube having spent much of the previous evening and the small hours working on it. It was half-uploaded when I lost connection. I will spare the reader the painful details of what I thought initially was an external problem beyond my control. A while ago, my ISP decided in its infinite wisdom to connect my telephone through my computer’s hub, so I was unable to phone the helpline, being one of a decreasingly small number of individuals who does not own a mobile phone, like on planet Earth.

I was therefore in the unhappy position of having to trundle down to Sydenham Road where there is actually a working public phone box. The guy I spoke to was helpful though ultimately useless, but having extracted some information from him I went along to my local Internet caff to surf a phone number or two and upload my video.

I was unable to do this because some time ago I added two-step verification to my Google account, so when I sign in from a different location, a code is sent to my landline, thus, even if it had been working I would not have been able to access it from there.

If I owned a mobile phone, that problem would be solved, but I would be loathe to use it for two-step verification in any case. Leaving aside the industrial scale theft of these infernal instruments, they are far easier to hack than my humble desktop.