i believe this is a good idea on a phone, but not on a computer screen. the problem is really that if you do this, then when someone is logging in with someone

i believe this is a good idea on a phone, but not on a computer screen. the problem is really that if you do this, then when someone is logging in with someone else with them - then they are out of options. it's easier to watch characters appear one at a time than it is to watch someone's hands on a keyboard. for example, i have a media center setup in my living room. sometimes people are over, or my housemate is down with me, and i need to sign into netflix so we can watch movies online -- or I'm shopping with someone and now I need to sign into newegg or amazon... I like the idea of the compromise with Jakob Nielsen's idea -- which is to have a button on the page that says like "hold down to reveal password", or "press to reveal password". i'm going to experiment between 'hold down to reveal' and 'press to reveal' next time i make a login page -- i like hold down, but maybe there's a problem with that i'm not realizing yet.