GnuPG is a free and open implementation of the OpenPGP standard, and I'm using that in a project, to automatically send encrypted messages to one of our suppliers.
It is rather easy to implement actually: after downloading the Crypt::OpenPGP Perl module (and dozens of dependencies), the rest is quite simple.
After generating a suitable keypair, Crypt::OpenPGP can take a file and encrypt it to the key of the recipient.
In this specific case, the data flow is as follows: my client uses a small Win32 program which utilizes Curl to submit a file via secure HTTP to a web service. That service receives the data stream, encrypts it with GnuPG and sends the result off via SMTP to the intended recipient.
I was just listening to podcast with Fabrizio Copobianco who speaks on a high-level about the Funambol platform which is available for almost any mobile phone/PDA and BlackBerry devices.
Here is another podcast with him.
This Open Source software certainly sounds very interesting, both for small offices as well as for enterprises.
We've had five cases of the BlackBerry (MDS) Browser disappearing from BlackBerry devices; it happened on a 7290, an 8707 and an 8700. Not only is the icon removed from the home page, but the whole functionality is gone: a click on a URL in an email for example, has no effect whatsoever.
Resending service books from the BES doesn't help. Pushing out the IT policy doesn't help. Reverting to a default IT policy doesn't help either. The only cure I've found so far is to wipe the device and re-activate via enterprise activation.
This issue may or may not be related to a JVM error (200, 534) having occurred on the device shortly before the browser goes South.
Any ideas?
Update: I logged a call with the Vodafone BlackBerry support. It appears to be a known issue on devices with OS 4.1, and it is caused by service books misteriously disappearing. According to them, if you re-issue the service books from the BES to the device, the browser reappears. Perhaps I didn't wait long enough when I tried that on the weekend?
2006-09-04: according to Vodafone, there is currently no known method to solve the problem bar a total wipe of the device!
You may have noticed that I'm changing I've changed the look & feel of this site. Please hang in there with me while I fix the glitches.
Many years ago my mother put that question to a Spanish butcher, hoping to get some fresh eggs for a tortilla or something. I understand she got a bland facial expression from the chappie behind the counter.
It happened to me just now, when I drove to a petrol station in search of ingredients for a Kaiserschmarrn. My version was: Haben Sie Eier?. He'd apparently heard that question before and simply pointed to the refrigerator.
Having spent a good part of the day working with "webby" things such as markup, tags and categories, I was surprised and a bit confused to see an "Audi Service Tag" banner plastered along the side of a silver metallic Audi convertible this evening.
Until I realized that the "tag" was of course not English but rather the German "day". 
Apropos Spam: in the course of the last four months, I have had the pleasure of having exactly 12,248 messages being deposited in my corporate spambox. If I apply a bit of arithmetic, that makes 3,062 per month or just over 102 per day.
Long live both DSPAM and SpamAssassin.
The BlackBerry Java Development Environment (JDE) is a very valuable resource even if you are not (as I'm not at all) interested in Java development.
Why is it great? It allows a systems integrator to experiment with its functions including tests with a local (i.e. not live) Mobile Data Service (MDS) and email. It is like running your own minature BlackBerry Enterprise Server, without the wireless bits and pieces, and without having access to a live device!
You can save a bit of download by getting only the device simulators and the BlackBerry Email and MDS Services Simulator Package, but since the download sizes are quite large anyway, I recommend getting the whole BlackBerry JDE in one go, which does also give you the added development environment if you do find yourself needing it later.
I used the JDE in building and testing the PIN authorization technique described earlier. In fact you can use the BlackBerry browser to develop any kind of web page for the BlackBerry devices.
Thanks to the bundled MDS, you can also build push applications which run in your own testing environment, before taking them to your productional BES/MDS setup.
The bundled Email Server Simulator (ESS) enables the device simulator to pretend it is connected to an email environment. Not your Lotus Domino or Microsoft Exchange, mind you; much easier: an SMTP and POP3 server. If you don't readily have access to such an environment, and you are on Windows, you might have a look at the excellent Mercury Mail Transport System which is a breeze to set up for testing. Any old Linux box with an MTA and POP3 server will do the trick at least as well, of course.
All in all, and even though it is Java, a highly useful resource.
