Therefore, I decided to have a go at writing the software myself, and make it open-source and free for anyone to use (why would you trust any cryptographic software for which you don't have the source code???).
If you haven't read Cryptonomicon yet I thoroughly recommend it, particularly if you are into hacktivism & stuff like that:
". . . free of governmental interference. Randy can’t believe he’s hearing this. If the sultan was a scruffy hacker talking to a room full of crypto anarchists, that’d be one thing. But the sultan is a government, for god’s sake, and the room is full of card-carrying Establishment types."
Webu is a program that monitors web sites and RSS or Atom feeds for particular keywords, and alerts you by popping up a notification window if a particular keyword is found. It also learns about the kind of news articles that interest you and informs you when it finds something it thinks you might find interesting. Click here for more details.
A chat program with utterly paranoid levels of encryption. Allows 2 parties to connect over TCP/IP, automatically generate/exchange keys & start chatting. No central server, no key management hassle, very simple interface - all the difficult stuff happens automatically. Uses a combination of high-strength RSA and AES. It also allows file transfer over the encrypted connection. There are 2 versions, a Windows version and a Java version, both versions include the full source code.
This is a program that allows you to have a secure VOIP conversation with another party using your PC's microphone and speakers. The audio is encrypted using 256-bit AES. Here's the software and Delphi source code
A cryptographic text-editor inspired by OrdoEmacs, for the truly paranoid. Edit files without ever writing a single byte of plaintext to disk. As well as being a text-editor you can also use Crypto Text to encrypt text to and from the clipboard. Uses 256-bit AES for maximum security. Here's the software and Delphi source code. Includes anti-keylogging techniques to prevent your typing from being recorded without your knowledge.
Move Action monitors your webcam and can take some action when movement is detected. The action could be to lock your PC (requiring a password to reactive it), save a JPG image to disk or run an external application. It checks the webcam at particular intervals and compares the current image with the previous one. If there is a significant change detected between images the program will take the configured action(s). Here's the program and Delphi source code
Sound Capture monitors the sounds from your microphone and automatically records the sounds to a wav or mp3 file when the volume exceeds a certain level. Here's the program and Delphi source
Blue Lock scans for a particular Bluetooth device (e.g. the phone in your pocket) to detect when you are near your desk and locks your system if you move away. Here's the program and full Delphi source code.
Log This! is designed to offer some protection against keyloggers and should work with most Windows applications. It can prevent your typing from being captured by tricking the keylogging software into capturing fake keys. Here's the program and full Delphi source code.
Is cryptography illegal in your country? Steganography to the rescue - hide your message within an innocent-looking picture! There are other programs available that do this, but how many come with AES encryption, all the source code and a detailed explanation of how it works? Here's my version and full Delphi source code.
This is a small utility that I use to automatically switch eMule into unlimited bandwith mode when my PC is idle, and to lower its bandwidth when I start using it again. here's the program and source code.
Are you trying to run Skype, eMule, LimeWire etc. on your laptop but finding your over-zealous system administrator has prevented Windows from allowing these programs to run using Software Restriction Policies ? I had the same problem, so here's how to defeat it and run the programs you want.
Here's my attempt at creating a true random number generator in Delphi, suitable for generating encryption keys. Here's the details and Delphi source code.
This can be quite useful if you want to automatically shut down Windows at some future point, say at the end of a batch file. This program shuts down windows but gives you a grace period to cancel it. I use it when I want to rip a DVD movie overnight and don't need my computer running all night when the rip has finished. If you run it with no parameters the grace period is 60 seconds, but you can pass any number of seconds on the command line, e.g. shutdownwindows 300, or you can configure the default in the file "shutdownwindows.conf" (you can also configure a total shutdown or just a reboot). Here's the program. Full Delphi source code is provided.
Your Windows swap file may contain traces of private information left behind in your computer's memory. By default, Windows does not wipe this information, but there is a configuration setting that tells Windows to wipe the swap file when you shut down. this program allows you to easily configure this setting. Note that I have only tested this on Windows XP, it will probably work on other versions of Windows and is unlikely to cause any damage, but use this at your own risk.
Here's a little program I wrote that can be used to monitor your network connection or a remote server. It pings a particular i.p. address or host name at regular intervals and sounds an alarm if the server has not responded after a particular time. You can optionally have it launch an external program when the alarm fires as well - here is the program and Delphi source code.. Configure all the details by editing the file nopingalert.conf
Memory Monitor allows you to find out how much memory a particular program consumes when a particular operation is carried out. When you start the program it displays a continuously updating window showing the current amount of free memory and swap space. You can take a snapshot of the current memory space, execute your program and then ask it to display a comparison between the amount of free memory there is now and the amount of free memory when you took the snap shot. here is the program and Delphi source code..
Let's suppose there is a program you want to run, but you want the program to start up with the system clock set to a particular date. You can manually set the clock but this is a pain, and you have to manually reset it back to the correct date afterwards. Fool Date allows you to automatically set the system clock to any date you like, launch your program and then after a preconfigured delay reset the system clock back to the correct time. here is the program and Delphi source code.. Have a look at the file "test.bat" which gives an example.
These are a couple of Delphi components based on TEdit and TMemo that can provide some protection against keystroke loggers, here are the details, the source code and a demo program.
It is actually possible to build all of my software using the free version of Turbo Delphi. Strictly speaking, it shouldn't be possible to do this as the free version doesn't permit you to load VCL components into the IDE, but various people have found a way to do this and published the technique on the web. I'm reluctant to put the details and necessary files on this site as I'm not sure whether this would be in breach of copyright, but if you search hard enough you should be able to find out how to do it. Please only do this if you are a hard-up hobbyist programmer like me - if you are planning to use Delphi in a commercial environment please support Borland and buy a legal copy. To build some of the programs on this site you will need these additional components
If you have any questions or want to report a bug please drop me a line at