j2s 1.2
The new version is out and you should be able to download it from www.download.com any time soon. I would like to thank all those who sent me commentary emails on J2S and how it can be made better. This version addresses some of those improvement comments I received from you, while others are still "in a safe can" until I get time for them; some of which are:
- Publishing J2S in an Arabic interface
- Making J2S handle interactive user Arabic input (not simply ASCII, but UNICODE)
- Processing ultimately large files .Currently, I tried J2S with files files up to 16 MB of size and it runs fine, but of course, there should be no limit on input file size; this should be fixed soon, I promise.
Now for the list of improvement incorporated in J2S 1.2. These are:
- [Improvement #1] Internal code is made more efficient and faster at processing input files.
- [Improvement #2] After loading files for encrypting/decrypting, a message to the right of the "Show me the file" appears to confirm the success of the loading operation.
- [Improvement #3] Textual tooltips appear everywhere on the GUI for assistance.
- [Improvement #4] Action buttons are deactivated and activated accordingly until their operation becomes allowed.
- [Improvement #5] An "About..." button is added to the GUI at the bottom-right corner.
As per the bugs fixed, these are:
- [Fix #1] When processing files with large names, they would run off the GUI and cause the frame to expand out-of-control. This is fixed by checking the length of the file name and replacing the middle characters with "..." to fit the name in the GUI.
- [Fix #2] If the "j2s" file is corrupted, J2S 1.0.1 wouldn't catch that and would not return useful messages to the user. When a "j2s" file is generated, it should not be opened or tampered with but with J2S itself. For example, even opening a "j2s" using MS WordPad and clicking save will upset the internal file structure, because it is BINARY dear users, so don't fiddle with it. Now, if the file is corrupted in any way, J2S 1.2 will take total liberty in telling you "no deal: file is corrupted".
- [Fix #3] Flipping between modes (i.e., encrypt and decrypt modes) now clears user input in text fields and text areas as should be.
The J2S tutorial given below is still as sharp as can be.
Again, all my development are done in Netbeans on top of Java (can you do develop any other way? Convert, now). So, what I distribute is executable jar files wrapped up in an installer I scavenge somewhere off the Internet. To run executable jars, you must have a JRE installed on your machine. So, if after installing the software and clicking the shortcut of the executable jar file and it gives you errors such as "can't find main class", or "failed to load main class", or "select a software to open the application", these are all indications that you either don't have a JRE, you have an old JRE, or you have a JRE but the PATH of which is not properly added to your system settings, or something you could tell me about! All you need to do to remedy this is to download the latest JRE from the Java SE Downloads pages and give it an explicit install (currently, the latest version is JRE 6 Update 6). Clicking on executable JRE's will be a breeze after that.
j2s 1.0.1
Bugs fixed:
- [Fixed] When switching between modes on the GUI, frame dimensions unpleasantly changes. Download link is provided below.
j2s 1.0.0
just the two of us: Encryption/Decryption Software
Just the two of us is a Java package, written using Netbeans 6.0 over Java 6.0 and uses one of the most sophisticated encryption algorithms. It allows the user to safely transmit sensitive files on email or by means of any electronic media after encrypting them. While encrypting, you post a question and one or more answers that also get encrypted with the original file data. When decrypting the file, the question gets posted to your recipients. Once a correct answer is provided, the data is decrypted and the original file is restored on your recipient's machine.
Why J2S?
Suppose you want to transfer files securely to some intended recipients and on the way, your files get eStolen! With J2S, the eThiefs still have to answer some hard, personal questions that only your intended recipients can answer. J2S allows you to not bother with sending the key or answer on the phone or a separate email or an SMS message, the answer (i.e., key) is embedded in the complex, encrypted structure that is resolved and compared against recipient input only in the CPU registers. This means that taking a peek at the encrypted file structure or even taking core-dumps of the RAM when J2S is running to look for any answers or clues will prove useless. So, it is safe.
J2S Tutorial
The GUI on J2S is self-explanitory. Just press buttons in order and you are OK. Some GUI components have text-tips to guide you into correct usage. What kind of questions can you post? Well, whatever your recipients (and only your recipients) should be able to answer. Here is a sample set of questions to be posted with some context.
- From a loving husband to his wife:
What is the name of the hotel we stayed at during our vacation in Hawaii? - From a professor to his colleague(s):
What is the name of the first city we met at? - From a father to his daughter:
How much money did I send last month?
Let's take a look at some sample answers, respectively.
- How about this hotel: Ohana Islander.
- Here, suppose that the professor wants to send the sensitive file to two colleagues, one of whom he met in Victoria, and the other he met in Dearborn, then he can actually provide both answers with the question he would post. And, indeed, either answer will cause J2S to decrypt the data correctly.
- Here, the daughter should be able to provide for an answer either of 3500, $3500, $3,500, three thousand five hundred, thirty five hundred, or thirty-five hundred ... How about that eh?
So, let's show what J2S looks like using the third scenario. Suppose Daddy wants to send his daughter on campus the new account details so that she keeps feeding on him. He can encrypt the file (say it is called newAccount.txt) together with some message to her using j2S as shown in the Figure 2. When she receives the file, she runs J2S in decrypt mode. She answers the question, and she is home free.
Figure 1: Startup screen
Figure 2: What daddy should and provide see when encrypting the file
Figure 3: What daughter should see and answer to claim her winnings
Files are generated in the same place from wherever input files are read from.
About this version: J2S 1.0.0
This is a beta version implemented in just a week. Don't try to flex your muscles on it trying to crash it because you should be able to if you misuse it (but you can not crack encrypted files though). It is good for decent use and will even go a long way in reporting bad file operations, bad file formats, problems with encryption/decryption, incorrect answers, etc. It will process files of any, any type for you (txt, PDF, images, zips, you name it). It would crash on files that are about 15 MB or more! So, it is really suited for just a few megabyte documents or so.
Next Release: J2S 1.?.?
Here is the plan for the next release(s) (after coming back from my vacation by January 2nd, 2008). They are mostly non-functional requirements:
- Unlimited file size handling. Will accomplish this by manipulating files in chunks a.o.t. processing the whole stream in RAM.
- Give the package a nice installation icon
- In addition to encryption/decryption, apply compression/decompression to the file during processing.
- Do more testing, provide code documentation.
- Enhance the GUI with images and rollover affects a.o.t. just buttons.
- Others? Would you like to contribute? Let me know on mohsenmadi@gmail.com.
Hey, don't blame me!
Something went wrong? I hereby relief myself from any blame or sadness that J2S may cause you, and so should you. Basically, make sure you can decrypt files yourself before emailing them to your intended recipients.
Download & Install
J2S can be downloaded from www.download.com (if the link doesn't work, search for it therein using the string "j2s"). I wrapped up the whole shebang using the Advanced Installer 6.1 of Caphyon; many thanks to them. J2S is tested on Windows only. If it doesn't run on your platform, let me know and I will send you what you need. J2S only requires that you have a pretty up-to-date release of Jave's JRE with default installation parameters.
Contact Me
If you have problems running the software, if you are a Java developer and would like to contribute to it, if you would like to make it work using Arabic or French input, or if you have any ideas to make it better, I would love to hear from you. Reach me on mmadi@intellaren.com.
You can always reach me on my email on mmadi@intellaren.com.