I received an invitation for an IT security fair (https://www.it-sa.de/en).
They additionally delivered a password "Kryptonizer". That is a little card to hang on your keychain with the following (example values, my translation):
It is often too easy for hackers to acquire personal information. The reason: Passwords that we can easily remember aren't cryptic. They are often common names or words like "Snowden" or "Admin". This card tries to fix this by making easy to remember passwords crpytic.
Input Start ABC DEF GHI JKL MNO PQRS TUV WXYZ Output 4uR=? x 1 F 3 Y i # 9
Original version in german:
Hintergrund: Passwort-Hackern wird der Zugang zu persönlichen Daten im Internet häufig viel zu leicht gemacht. Der Grund liegt auf der Hand: Passwörter, die wir uns merken können, sind meistens nicht besonders kryptisch, sondern orientieren sich an gängigen Namen oder Wörtern wie "Snowden" oder "Admin".
Everything from the output is random for every single card (66 different characters to choose from). Now we have to choose an "easy" password (they recommend at least 8 characters):
Input: HELLOWORLD
Output: 4uR=?F133Y9Yi31
They also recommend to use this card for only one password and change it, if you lose the card.
Is this password scheme good? It comes from a big security fair with many experts.
My novice guess is, that you have a reduced entropy because of only 8 different characters (+ 1 start sequence), but as long as your card stays unknown, the attacker can't exploit this fact.
?jBl3Hoon3#o
is definitely a better password thanSnowden
. Please read my answer on why these cards exist, what their purpose is and what their drawbacks are. The entire point of the cards is that you remember a simple password, and you "get" a complex, seemingly random password.