<p>What are you guys planning on choosing as your usernames? Matt McGann has some advice at his blog [url=<a href="http://blogs.mit.edu/madmatt/posts/11853.aspx%5Dhere%5B/url">http://blogs.mit.edu/madmatt/posts/11853.aspx]here[/url</a>].</p>
<p>What are you going to use?</p>
<p>I think I'm going to use just my first name. A quick search of the MIT directory revealed no one using it, so hopefully I'll get it. :)</p>
<p>I'm gonna use my first name as well. I doubt it's taken..</p>
<p>I'm going to use my first initial, last name. My parents thought using a British name would be cool; they forgot that it can be spelled Ian, Iain, Eain, or, if you are a fellow American and don't know how to spell, Eon, Ean, Ion, Ee-enn, etc. Going with the first initial makes things so much simpler.</p>
<p>I don't know if you've all already chosen usernames or not, but there are a couple of things not mentioned so far in this thread that you might want to think about.</p>
<p>After you graduate, your @mit.edu account will expire and you'll be given an Infinite Connection (@alum.mit.edu) account. You can actually sign up for this account immediately as soon as you can get MIT certificates. This gives you access to the online alumni directory. Just go to <a href="https://alum.mit.edu/authentication.vhtml%5B/url%5D">https://alum.mit.edu/authentication.vhtml</a> and click on "student registration form."</p>
<p>The username you choose for your @alum account is totally independent of what you choose for your @mit account. However, a lot of people choose the same thing, so that anyone who knows your username while you're at MIT will easily be able to contact you after you graduate by assuming you kept the same username for your alum account.</p>
<p>The problem is that just because a kerberos ID is available, does not mean the corresponding @alum username will also be available. If your name is Jane Public and you decide to be jpublic@mit, you may end up having to pick something else for @alum, and if you go with something very similar such as j.public@alum, you can be guaranteed people will get confused and will accidentally send email to whoever has jpublic@alum instead of you.</p>
<p>Another consideration is that if you want to use your last name or initial in your username, think long and hard about whether you will end up getting married at some point and want to change your last name. You can request to have your alum account username changed in this case, but it's best to avoid having to do that by choosing wisely in the first place.</p>
<p>EDIT: I'm not an '09 person, so is it a no-no for me to post in this forum? If so, I'm really sorry!</p>
<p>of course not! we welcome everyone! :)</p>
<p>Remember you can also create a mailing list which allows for longer than 8 digits. I did this recently for my entire last name (and for "moneyman").</p>
<p>Don't pick anything you'd be embarrased putting on your resume ;)</p>