• a light red frame replaces the light blue one to indicate that the notes you are looking at will be locked when you hit "save".
• if you save locked notes and you get back that "garbled" text, a prompt is automatically displayed to unlock it.
• if you lock or unlock big texts, your browser may become impatient and display some irritating warning messages. shrib.com will now give you an alert if your notes are more than 4000 characters long. Even though it takes less than a second to pronounce "lock", it refers to a pretty complex process of encrypting your notes.
  • Remember it will take the FBI or your competitor many years to unlock it without your password!
  • Note that on very slow PCs, browser warnings may even occur for smaller texts. Just "OK" them away.
• if you hit "view notes" at the bottom of the page, you get a different (read-only) view of your notes. Just hit "continue editing" to get back to the normal view.
  • It will make links (starting with http or https) clickable. This lets you maintain link lists on shrib.com.
  • It will stow away all clutter so you could print the page more nicely.

All these effects require Javascript.

Also, this blog has been moved to http://blog.shrib.com.

Have fun!

Here's another treat for the ubiquitous internet user: you can now lock your notes! This new feature widens the range of applications for this web tool.

Locking your notes provides you with the following benefits:

• your notes are encrypted with the AES CBC algorithm. The encryption code is not only open source, but can actually be looked at right in your browser by viewing the page source code - it is entirely written in Javascript.
• depending on the length of your password, it can take someone else up to years to unlock your text
• neither your password nor your text content are visible to anyone outside your PC. The password as well as your (readable) text only exist in your PC's memory. The only thing transmitted over the internet to save is the locked (encrypted) text.

• the locking feature is only available in Javascript-enabled browsers. Specifically, notes saved with a Javascript-enabled browser will never be readable with a browser without Javascript support!
• All previously available features are still Javascript-independent.
• Remember your password! Losing your password is equivalent to losing your data.
• This website is still just a non-profit personal website, so use this service at your own risk. No guarantees are given on anything. Especially:
• Note that the above claims become invalid if your browser or PC is altered in any adverse way. E.g., if you have a key logger, root kit, manipulated browser, other concurrently open malicious javascript pages, or other malicious software on the PC you are using, your "secrets" may become compromised. However, the data sent to the shrib.com server is encrypted and as safe as the strength of your password.

I pride myself to have incorporated this very powerful feature into this tool in a very sleek way, but all respect and honor should go to John Walker who has brought us JavaScrypt, the basis of this implementation!

Thank you John.

More thanks for personal advice and enlightenment go to the crypto masters Dominik Raub and Ueli Maurer at the ETH in Zurich. Thank you for patiently explaining the bare minimum about symmetric encryption to the layman!

And by the way: I also changed the layout a bit, with the intention to improve it.

Please make comments, send me your feedback, and shrib away!

In the heat of a remote PC support emergency by phone, I realized how shrib.com can be used as a ultra-simple chat/communication/data exchange tool.

To improve that use of this simple tool, I have added the "reload page" link at the top.

Technical reasoning for the nerds: if I write something into the note and save it, then the other person saves something new, and then I reload the page with CTRL-R, it resends my save to the note - overwriting the other person's addition! The "reload" link, by contrast, actually reloads the new content of the page.

Though I am one of those nerdy early adopters and loved all those AJAX-apps the moment they started showing up, it is evident that it is essential for shrib.com to require as little as possible.

Therefore, it uses HTML only.

Update (November 2^nd, 2007): note that the locking mechanism relies on Javascript. You can only lock and unlock notes if you have a browser with Javascript enabled.

• when you work on a note with previously saved or backed up versions, you can now retrieve those through links at the bottom of the page. For now, the list is limited to the 5 most recent saves or backups, respectively (if you need more: contact me!).
• when a new user saves a note under an existing name, the previous content is automatically backed up.

Other services I recommend, and that are of similar simplicity, are tasktoy.com and tempinbox.com.

Big Sisters of shrib.com are cl1p.net, paste.frubar.net, and writely.com.

Go there if you are looking for authentication, access restriction, permanent storage, formatting etc.

shrib.com is the basics, with no hassles, no javascript, no limits!

Hello there!

We are excited to make this simple tiny little tool available to you.

shrib.com is your online piece of paper

• to jot down your ideas,
• to copy-and-paste that one long UNIX command over from your PC to that new one that is not yet configured with your favorite chat client
• to keep your freeform todo list
• to share any piece of text with any number of people anywhere in the world

The name is derived from the Swiss German word for "write!", and needed to be as short as possible to be adequate for its use.

Though it is intended to be as evident as possible (tell me how to improve if it isn't!), here are a few comments on how to use the app:

Your first time:

• come to http://shrib.com
• type in or copy and paste the text you want to store
• hit "save notes"
• bookmark the page that is returned
• use that link for future editing and sharing of the notes

• you can customize your page address: let's say you want to call your notes "stuff" (note that this one is case sensitive, i.e. "stuff" is not the same as "Stuff"!)
  • option 1: go directly to http://shrib.com/stuff, and you are all set!
  • option 2: on http://shrib.com, enter a custom name in the form field at the very top before hitting "save notes".
• once you start using notes, you can backup previous versions, or save a permanent copy of the current version of your notes by clicking on the corresponding check boxes next to the "save notes" button
  • "Backup" means that in addition to the new version being saved, the previous version of the notes is stored as well. The following page will contain a link to the backup at the bottom. Copy that link for subsequent retrieval!
  • "Saving a copy" means that in addition to the new version being saved in its default file - which will be overwritten the next time anyone saves anything to it -, it is stored in a permanent location as well. The following page will contain a link to the copy at the bottom. Copy that link for subsequent retrieval!

• access and authentification: did you notice there is no "login" required anywhere? That is very intentional! We don't want you to be slowed down by any kind of login hassles. This app really is that piece of paper swirling around on your desk. Your colleague may see what it says, may use it for her own notes, or the cleaning guy may even throw it away! So please note: your notes may be viewed and edited by anyone!
• your data on our server: we are just starting off with this app. We can not make any guarantees for your data. All we will say, is that your backups will be stored for a minimum of one week, and your notes and saved copies for one month - unless there are any surprises like huge notes or suspicious contents. We are aware that you could store and share your cracked and mime encoded vista in a note - and we reserve the right to delete it if we realize you do!
• contents of notes: evidently, there is no link whatsoever between us and the contents of these notes. If you notice any disturbing or suspicious content in any notes, please let us know immediately!
• contact: please use comments on this blog to contact us.
• outlook: tell us what you think or need and let us improve the app!