What are these little plastic clips for?

Just recently, I created some markers that cling to the outer rim of a SphinxGadget.  I put a few on the outer edge of the gadget in this picture.  You should get a half dozen white clips in your package.  NOTE: I've decided to discontinue the colored ones until people cry out for them, as they don't have as much staying power as the white "Tough" PLA.

This is a bit of an experiment.  I expect improvements in the future.  Also, WARNING!  They could be a choking hazard for young children.

They are intended to mark password rotation points, or special rules that you might need to apply to a particular password.  You can write on these clips with an indelible Sharpie marker.  I am considering covering them with stickers you can write on, or providing stickers you can apply yourself.

Let's say, your bank at "bankofamerica.com" just forced you to change your password, or maybe you just feel like changing it up.  You align your side characters to BANK, as usual, except now you rotate the viewfinder one additional click clockwise so that the letters read "CANK".  Mark a white tab with the letters "BANK" (I write them in a little square), and clip it onto the C position on the viewfinder.  Now, next time you need to retrieve "BANK", you can just align "ANK" with your tab labeled "BANK".  If you like, just move the tab around to any old position.. that's your rotated password.

Ok, maybe you don't want to write "BANK" on anything.  You feel like that's giving too much away to somebody that finds your Sphinx.  You could just mark the tab with a $, and remember it that way.  The more obscure you are though, the more likely you will forget, so don't challenge yourself any more than you're willing to remember.

Next, I suggest using these tabs to modify the password characters in case there is an exception that a particular site puts on you.  For example, there are sites that force you to use a small set of special characters.  You can use a tab to force you to remember to convert any special characters in your SphinxGadget fragment to a period, or @ symbol.  For Bank of America, for instance, I write BANK on the tab, and in the middle, I put a little plus sign.  All special characters are converted to plus signs.

You could use colored marker to indicate that your password is only 12 characters long, or that you are going to read the viewfinder slightly differently.  It's up to you.  The tab mechanism is there to use as you need.  I wouldn't get too fancy with it, however.

So far, I've found they cling pretty well as long as you don't move them around too much.  There is definitely some fatigue that builds up that could cause them to fall off eventually.  I will probably wind up selling extras very affordably, and include colored tabs again if people give me some feedback about them being useful.  Also, I will publish STL files and gcode for folks who have access to a 3D printer.  Make as many as you want!

Let me know what you think of this solution, or what other uses you might have for these little tabs in the comments below!

--Ken G