How do you make tripcodes appear?

I've been posting on 4chan for about a year, and I could never see tripcode beside my names, whereas others have them when they post.

Is this normal? If so, how do you make them appear? or how do you figure out what your tripcode is?

Thanks a lot.

while on the topic...
how do I get a secure tripcode?
you know, like "name!tripcode!!secure"