After basically being forced to experience how easy it is to install and run third-party applications on my Palm, I began to search the Internet for other Palm programs. There turned out to be quite a number of such apps available for the Palm computing platform, and new applications seemed to appear (and still do) at a dizzying rate. I eventually found a number of useful programs that shared several positive features: they were easy to install, easy to use, and did not hog large chunks of my Pro's single megabyte of RAM. Some of the programs were free, while most of the rest each cost $20 or less to register.

Of all these programs, perhaps the most generally useful is Hackmaster, a quiet, unassuming shareware application that does nothing but provide a standard platform for installing, enabling, and disabling system-level extensions that are not part of the Palm operating system. These capabilities - called "hacks" in the Pilot community - are available separately from various sources and perform a wide range of functions. Among the hacks I work with frequently are ClipHack, which effectively expands the size of the Palm clipboard past the default size permitted by the Palm OS, and CyrHack, which permits me to write and view text in Russian using a Cyrillic font and Graffiti strokes.

Hackmaster is published by Daggerware, and is available at http://www.daggerware.com (among other sources). Its shareware registration is $5, and individual hacks vary in price from free to $20 or so.

Enabling or disabling a hack is as simple as tapping a checkbox on the main Hackmaster screen. Experience shows that it's best not to enable a large collection of hacks at the same time, as it is possible for different hacks to "step on" each other, resulting in various unpleasant outcomes, such as unit resets.

Of all the hacks on my Palm, perhaps the most valuable to me is ReadThis!, which offers a convenient way to securely encrypt text information in memos, notes, and fields. The key word in the previous sentence is "securely," since the privacy feature built-into the Palm provides, alas, a deterrent to casual attackers only.

What I mean is this: when you mark a record as "private" on your Palm, the information in the record is not encrypted, but merely made unavailable for display (assuming your unit is set to hide private records). Backing up your Palm, however, creates files that can be read by anyone who knows how to use common file-viewing utilities. In this respect, data on your Palm is as vulnerable to snoops as is data on any paper-based planner. But ReadThis! changes all of this.

When installed and activated, ReadThis! works with any editable text on the screen, in any application. Text is encrypted and decrypted in place, without having to copy it anywhere, such as to the clipboard. Since encryption increases the size of text by about 25% (at least when using the IDEA encryption algorithm), attempts to encrypt text are flagged when the size of the encrypted text will overflow the Palm's 4-KB limit on memos.

Placing your stylus in the upper right corner of the screen and dragging the tip toward the center activates ReadThis! Available options include encryption of all text, all but the first line of text, or selected portions of text that are marked with special delimiters (leaving the rest of the text unencrypted). Encrypted fields are protected, so you can't accidentally edit encrypted data and make it unrestorable. You can even set up ReadThis! to encrypt text automatically upon entering or (my favorite) exiting a view.

The life span of the key used to encrypt and decrypt data can be adjusted from an unlimited amount of time to just a few seconds; alternately, key expiration can be forced using a special stylus stroke. Once a key expires, you have to reenter it to encrypt or decrypt text.

The product offers a built-in encryption "engine" that employs a binary XOR operation that, frankly, is not very secure. A separate (and free) engine that implements the industrial-strength IDEA encryption algorithm is available, and is the one I recommend. Other third-party encryption modules may be used as well (though I'm not currently aware of any). Thankfully, should your Palm be lost overboard or crushed beneath the wheels of an oncoming locomotive, a desktop program is available that will restore encrypted information upon entry of the appropriate key.

At this writing, ReadThis! 2.52 is the latest version. The product is accompanied by a 30-KB manual (in HTML format) and is available, with constituent files obligingly PGP-signed, in .zip format from http://members.xoom.com/PixIL/Pilot/readthis.htm. ReadThis! is shareware, and costs $15. The publisher provides for a 30-day evaluation period, after which data may be decrypted, but no longer encrypted without entry of a registration code.

Myself, I've been following the evolution of this product over the past year or so, and I've yet to have any major problems with the past couple of releases. Among other uses, ReadThis! secures the memo on my Palm that contains all of my login names and passwords. With ReadThis! (and, natch, Hackmaster), I'm able to keep private information on my Palm truly private, and that's the way I like it.

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