MilliLock Plans and Pans

As is fitting for the author, I use MilliLock all the time.  And it hasn’t needed much by way of changes in a long time.  The desktop and phone software sync well, both work well, and the phone software runs beautifully on Motorola and Nokia S60 handsets.

So this update is pretty minor.  The phone software just fixes a problem with sync’ing the last file listed alphabetically, and tries to correctly guess the desired file so you don’t even need to select it.  The desktop software is now Macintosh compatible, having been broken by the failure to get a full JRE1.6 on the Mac.  (Worked fine on Linux and Windows.)

If you have any enhancement requests, please send them.

Long time no post.

If you’re wondering why comments are moderated and I don’t get to them quickly… in the last 10 days 85% of the emails I’ve received were spam.  And several others weren’t suitable for public posting.

Anyhow, the MilliLock Desktop binary was updated a while ago with one that is more Mac- and Linux-friendly.  I should have caught that earlier, but our other Mac is in constant use by SWMBO.  I only discovered it because I bought a MacBook rather than a PC laptop recently when I decided to avoid Vista.  Amazingly, the dual-core MacBook boots Leopard, Parallels and XP into Office all together faster than the faster quad-core boots Vista into Office.  When Vista doesn’t crash.

The Desktop was updated again more recently with some U.I. tweaks and fixes, including better password processing when your path is wrong or your password is wrong.

The J2ME (cellphone) app has a few tweaks also, but those are only on GetJar right now.   Look for version 2.1.  In addition, now that I have an S60 phone and have discovered the joys of Nokia softkey madness, there is an S60 version compiled with the Nokia SDK.

One tip on S60 devices.  The Nokia drivers appear to be astonishingly slow with their cards and virtual cards.  MilliLock will run slowly in sync mode if you install to “memory card”.  So I suggest you install to “Phone Memory”.  The difference is huge.  But for reads (i.e. once you’ve imported everything via FTP or MilliServer, if you don’t edit on the phone), the card speed is okay.  A bit pokey but usable.

Per request, I will begin on a file import version… but this will probably not be usable for people who buy their phones from AT&T/Rogers/T-Mobile/Verizon/etc because those carriers remove the necessary JSR functionality.

If you don’t have the tech-savvy or available servers/IP Addresses to install your own MilliServer, I will provide you an account for a year for a small PayPal donation.  Your data is fully encrypted (as long as you set an encryption password), so I can’t get at it.

Happy New Year!

The blog spammers (autobots that post meaningless comments with commercial links) have been going wild over the last three months, so I’ve gotten pretty desensitived to the “comments for moderation” emails.  But a few of you wrote in asking about the server.  I was surprised to see I hadn’t uploaded it.  It’s here now, at http://www.millilock.com/MilliBinaries/MilliLockServer.zip

MilliLock itself has not changed in about six months.  I use it very heavily.  To use the desktop version on a portable drive (e.g. USB drive, memory card accessible via USB on your cell phone or your iPod’s drive), manually edit the MilliDesk.Properties file to set DataDir=. or .. or ..\data or whereever you are copying your .ssd files.

I am pained to have to do this, but the sheer quantity of blog comment spam that has been coming in awaiting moderation has me worn down.  You now must register to post a comment.  And if I’ve missed your comments in the fields of spam, please do so and re-post.  Anyone can register, it just takes a few more steps.

Completely unrelated, another project of mine, also in Java, has resulted in a teleprompt program which is available free at  PicoVision Productions.  While you’re there, take a look at some of the video podcasts using it.

MilliLock Version 2.0 has been uploaded, along with a new format of the web page and a new manual.

The big differences are:

• A new MilliLock Server mode that allows uploading and downloading of data from/to the phone.
• The ability to select files for sync from a list.
• Some bug fixes
• Recent changes such as smaller list fonts as an option
• Copy-and-Paste of records in the Desktop
• Notes on the phone no longer require a description, making it easier to use as a shopping list
• Improved reliability of data transfer
• Added tracking of modification flags and dates; can sort based on modification order on the Desktop (but not the phone)

See the manuals for a more comprehensive list.

If you can’t download from this page to your phone, try the GetJar.com page. From your phone, go to http://wap.getjar.com and enter code 7956.This site is hosted on GoDaddy and after a lot of attempts with their support team, the conclusion is that while they do a great job with most hosting issues, they just don’t understand MIME types. At all. Oh well, GetJar does.

I finally got a better phone, after giving up on the Nokia N75.  How Nokia can delay their phones by that much is beyond me.  It does mean that currently they have a single solitairy carrier (Cingular) carrying a single solitairy model (the E62, vaguely a Treo clone) as their entire U.S. SmartPhone line-up, and only a few other phones in the the U.S. total… half (the CDMA phones carried by AllTel, Sprint, etc.) not even being designed or manufactured by Nokia!

Version 1.1 adds some fixes, the ability to change the list font size (which looked silly on my new phone) and tries even more to prevent passwords from entering the phone dictionary.  Some phones just ignore the commands.

This version also implements some location and datestamps, which will be used in a future release for optional uploads back to the P.C.

A new desktop version is in the binaries area. The phone version hasn’t been uploaded yet because there are only a few minor fixes, what with the Nokia N75 having been delayed six months or longer. But soon I hope to get a new faster phone and implement record uploads from the phone to the desktop.

Desktop Change List:

• Fixed Note Set - deletion of entire set - to refresh list upon successful deletion of set. (This had previously made it necessary to exit the note set to see the changes in the top list.)
• Desktop now also checks up-level from app-dir for config.
• Desktop main window location now persists between executions
• Note List location lands on main menu on first run of each execution, remembers location subsequently.
• Notes ask for confirmation on Cancel if text has changed.
• Added Escape key support for exiting from Notes/PW/Address record zooms
• Cleaned up tab orders.
• Added a border on active component on desktop, so ctrl-tab is easier to use. Improved key handling, such as with context menu.
• Fixed resizing of components on desktop to be more consistent. Also improved resizing of password and address screens. Size and location of Main window and of Edit windows are stored and restored at start. (All edits use same location, different sizes.)
• Password Editor now has a title.
• The main command list now will bring up the notes selector on double-click in addition to on value changed.
• Added configurable delete confirmation, when deleting by hitting the delete key on the main list. Fixed deleting via Delete key (wasn’t saving if there were no subsequent adds/edits previously.)
• Added as a selection mechanism on the Notes List Selector.
• Added modification date support for records. (These aren’t visible; they will be used for synchronization with other computers or with the phone.)
• Added support for to behave the same as regular backspace.
• Added support for to act as “Save” button when inside a text-box in a record editor. May need debugging.
• Added search (find) using Ctrl-F and Ctrl-G to currently-open list. Added to Context menu, which also sets focus if needed.
• Added sorting of Addresses - by First, Last or Company name.

Version 1.0.5 of MilliLock for the Phone is out. In theory, it’s available at GetJar.com already, but in reality they seem to have updated their web page without updating the binaries quite yet. Anyhow, major changes are:

• Changed phone maximum password size from 6 to 16.
• Fixed Note Set - deletion of entire set - to refresh list upon successful deletion of set. (This had made it necessary to exit the note set to see the changes in the top list.)
• Fixed password cache not updating when the password name is changed. The data was saved correctly, but the list cache was not being updated.
• Changed context menues to being mixed-case per user request.
• Fixed a bug preventing passwords without UserID from saving on the phone. (These could always be created in the Desktop and exported over.)

Rather than a typical forum, I’ve decided to start MilliLock off with a development blog.  This will list news, issues, releases and plans.

For starters,
MilliLock is available here and at GetJar.com

I may add HTTP sync of data from the phone to the P.C., but this requires more hosting capabilities than the current PC to Phone sync does because there’s no http upload in J2ME.  I can possibly make it Post in HTML.  Also, GoDaddy is my preferred commodity domain provider (although I run my own servers also, the point is that any user can get a GoDaddy account cheap to host their own pages and sync), and GoDaddy charges a lot more for Java capabilities.

And no, they don’t sponsor me.  Other than as a paying customer, GoDaddy isn’t aware I exist.