Boy, do I feel great. I've been working hard on the final touches to slimKEYS, so it can be called 1.0. slimLAUNCH is now extensible, and the file system portion of it has been moved to slimLAUNCH.FileSystem. A second slimLAUNCH plug-in is making his debuts: slimLAUNCH.Passwords. It lets you browse password lists exactly like you can browse applications and documents. Once who find your password entry, press Enter to copy the password in the clipboard, or Ctrl-U to copy the username, or Ctrl-E for the email, or even Ctrl-A to open the associated URL address.
Apart from slimLAUNCH.Passwords, many small adjustments and improvements have been made here and there. I'll let you read the release notes for the details.
The whole idea of leaving the safety of your precious passwords in the hands of a third party application is one that I have always felt uncomfortable with for many years. Before slimLAUNCH.Passwords, I was using Password Safe. Even though I did not myself check the code, the fact that it was an open source project helped convince myself it could not be flawed or dangerous.
And now, today, I'm telling you "Use my password management software, it's secure! It uses strong AES encryption, trust me!". Would I trust slimCODE Software if I wasn't slimCODE? Could I use another tool like Password Safe without knowing its inner workings have been scrupulously analyzed?
Because the answer is "no", I've decided to open up slimLAUNCH.Passwords. I'll most probably continue to compile my own signed version that comes with slimKEYS and the rest of the plug-ins, but I will publish an exact copy on CodePlex in the following days. Not only will knowledgeable people be able to analyze and propose fixes, but it will also serve as a good slimLAUNCH plug-in sample.
With this new release also comes another serious decision: slimKEYS won't be free... Wait! Don't leave! I did not mention its price yet. Ahhh, the price... What is THE price. What would be a good price? Good for me? Good for you? Each of you? One good price for one may be too expensive for the other.
Faced with this great dilemma, I've decided slimKEYS would be part of an experiment. When you're ready to purchase slimKEYS, you decide how much you would like to pay. The experiment would not be complete if I'd impose a minimum price, so there is no minimum. The only constraint I've left is to prevent prices from 0.01$ to 3.99$, because I'm paying a per transaction fee, and low amounts like these wouldn't make sense. When you enter 0$, you simply need to complete your purchase (*cough*) with your name and email, and you will receive your license. If you enter 4.00$ or more (Canadian dollars, so it's even less in US dollars), you are redirected to a secure order form.
Who says experiment says results. On the shopping pages, you will see some stats about the average, low and high prices and the percentage of people who think slimKEYS isn't worth at least 4$. Don't worry, if that's your case, I won't tell anybody about it.