These days, lots of people are communicating with each other via video conferencing, but it seems a number of popular video conferencing services are less than secure. Zoom, in particular, has come under a lot of fire recently because of the ease with which interlopers can get into ongoing meetings. You probably know that PassLok has had its own way to create secure chats for quite a while, but now it has been completely redesigned for version 2. This version works more reliably than before, and now includes the option to initiate Jitsi chats. Read More
Category: News
Doesn’t fit any category, but it’s relevant
VideoSkip Exchange started
One of the great things about VideoSkip is that the users themselves can edit movies and share their edits, via .skp files, with other users. I order to facilitate the process, I’ve started hosting a forum, entitled “VideoSkip Exchange” in order to do just that. You can find it at https://videoskip.org/exchange or https://prgomez.com/videoskip/exchange/
BTW, the extension version of VideoSkip is now live. You can install it in Chrome, Firefox, and their derivatives. Unlike the standalone version at https://prgomez.com/videoskip and other links (below), which edits videos that are downloaded to your computer or mobile gadget, the extensions can do the same for movies streaming from any online source.
Here are the links:
Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/videoskip/mlmifkfgafheljfcjlgoiggcfjenjeed
Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/videoskip/
Standalone app for computers: https://videoskip.org/app
Standalone app for mobile devices: https://videoskip.org/mobile
VideoSkip player released
With so many people staying at home these days due to the coronavirus pandemic, some are running out of movies to watch. Or, to put it another way, the movies that they or their children still haven’t watched contain objectionable material that they’d rather not see. This is why I have created the VideoSkip player, a browser app that gives users full control over what is shown or heard. The version just released works with videos that have been downloaded locally, and I’ve started work on an extension that will do the same with streaming content from any source. Here’s the link to the player:
If you want to contribute to its development, here’s the GitHub page:
Mobile-friendly PassLok released
It’s been a while since I looked into PassLok on mobile devices. Well, things have evolved and now smartphones and tablets are faster than they used to be, and can handle things they couldn’t handle before. So the newest version of PassLok (2.4.16) removes a number of old limitations placed when the code was running on a mobile platform. You can now insert images and files to be encrypted, and integration with the texting app is tighter.
One good way to run it is from a browser bookmark from one of these sources: PassLok.com, Autistici, Site44.
Read More
Calculators in 2020
I’m old enough to have seen the beginning of calculators, which had just replaced slide rules. Now, cell phones and tablets are about to replace calculators for good. They may have done it already. Or maybe calculators are here to stay. This article attempts to shed some light on this not-so-hot issue, and I do this by comparing pretty much everything available at the beginning of 2020. No one is safe. Read More
Fiction section started
You may not know this, but prgomez.com began as a promotion website for my fiction, under pen name PR Gomez. This aspect got rather buried over time, but it’s back. You’ll find a FICTION button on the header, which will take you to a sort of blog where you can download my fiction in epub, pdf, and kindle formats, so you can read it comfortably on your computer, tablet, or smart phone. I’m starting with some short fiction entirely for free. I hope you enjoy it and pass the word to others.
Here’s the link to the first item: a short-short story about what might happen to you when you click “I accept” on a software installation without reading the fine print.
PassLok Universal released
Here it is, the latest variation of my PassLok encryption app. PassLok Universal is a lot like PassLok for Email, with these few enhancements:
- It runs with just about any email service, not just Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook online
- It includes all the password management power of SynthPass
- It that weren’t enough, it also includes the page isolation functions of Page Cage
All of it launched by clicking a single icon. Which functions become active depend on what’s on the current page: encryption/decryption if that material is on the page or can be put into it, passwords if a login is visible, page security otherwise.
Here’s where you can get it for Chrome, or for Firefox. Read More
PassLok for Email updated to v. 0.5
It doesn’t look like much judging by the number, but this is a huge update, which deserves a special announcement. As usual, you can add it to your browser from these links:
Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/passlok-for-email/ehakihemolfjgbbfhkbjgahppbhecclh
Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/passlok-for-email/
FusionKey released
FusionKey, just released in the Chrome and Firefox web stores, packs into a single icon all the power of PassLok and SynthPass. It makes a high-security password when you want to fill a password. It decrypts an encrypted message if there is one, and makes a new encrypted reply. It integrates with every web mail service in existence. And, like all my other apps, FusionKey is free. Read More
UK citizens, use PassLok Chat!
UK’s GCQH is at it again. Now with a bold proposal to request Apple and other companies to build backdoors into their real-time chat apps, as this article reveals. And the weird things is, Apple and the bunch may be forced to comply since they are hosting those chats. But PassLok will fare quite a bit better, as the post explains. Read More