A system I've used happily for many years is as follows:
I have a function which is easily computable by hand but uses information only known to myself, which converts the website into a pseudo-random password.
Obviously I can't tell you the actual function I use as this would reveal all my passwords, but for example, you could use ROT13 on odd numbered characters in the domain name and then add a fixed string to make up the password length.
I still use the browser password store with non-critical websites for speed, but can still get into any site where I have an account from any machine by re-calculating the password in my head.
Of course, this isn't secure enough if you're someone who might be individually targeted by hackers (eg: if you work at a large company or in government) - if they obtained a few of your passwords, they could reverse engineer your password function and get into the rest of your accounts. You can mitigate this by separating the sites you use into different 'security clearance' levels (eg: those with access to your money, those with access to your personal info, etc) and having different password functions for each level.
I have a function which is easily computable by hand but uses information only known to myself, which converts the website into a pseudo-random password.
Obviously I can't tell you the actual function I use as this would reveal all my passwords, but for example, you could use ROT13 on odd numbered characters in the domain name and then add a fixed string to make up the password length.
I still use the browser password store with non-critical websites for speed, but can still get into any site where I have an account from any machine by re-calculating the password in my head.
Of course, this isn't secure enough if you're someone who might be individually targeted by hackers (eg: if you work at a large company or in government) - if they obtained a few of your passwords, they could reverse engineer your password function and get into the rest of your accounts. You can mitigate this by separating the sites you use into different 'security clearance' levels (eg: those with access to your money, those with access to your personal info, etc) and having different password functions for each level.