
Show HN: Send zip archives on GMail by converting to words - dosycorp
https://textonly.github.io/txtmode/
======
dosycorp
Hey I did a write up of this here:

[https://medium.com/@dosy/sending-forbidden-files-on-gmail-
us...](https://medium.com/@dosy/sending-forbidden-files-on-gmail-using-
dictionary-encoding-9c886f297398)

Please excuse the tone I'm using. I'm just working out my style, and so on.
Not an excuse. Just asking for kindness while I work out a writing voice.

Anyway I can summarize here:

\- try to send many file types on GMail, get blocked for security reasons

\- convert the file to a text file using
[https://textonly.github.io/txtmode](https://textonly.github.io/txtmode)

\- attach the text file to the email and send it no problemo

\- use the same link to convert the text file back to the archive

\- congratulations you just used GMail to send a file GMail ( in its infinite
wisdom ) did not want you to send

I'm not making this as a hack and I hope no one uses it to do bad stuff
obviously, this is just to get over the poorly implemented "threat scan" GMail
currently uses, which blocks plenty of useful and harmless files, and which
disingenuously forces the "workaround" of uploading to GDrive.

This tool is hosted on GitHub pages. You can view the source code here:
[https://github.com/textonly/txtmode](https://github.com/textonly/txtmode)

~~~
O1111OOO
Commenting on style since you were concerned about that.

> Please excuse the tone I'm using. I'm just working out my style, and so on.
> Not an excuse. Just asking for kindness while I work out a writing voice.

I enjoyed the style. Lots of people aren't able to pull it off but I thought
it worked well. It was fun enough to read that I made it through to the end:)
It did end on a bit of a sour note - clashing with all the above:

> if you really have some major issue and couldn't be bothered to fix it
> yourself but believe I could be bothered to fix it

You went from very approachable (fun read, open source, caring about the work
you do) to the opposite of that (and not caring about the product once it was
completed).

Also, great solution to a gmail annoyance. I had one concern which was
answered on the page itself: " _any files for download here will not persist
beyond page reload_ "

~~~
dosycorp
Thanks for your feedback. I’ll think about that last paragraph.

------
jpl56
I tried it with a 323-Kb picture that was transformed into a 2,8 Mb txt file.
It worked the other side, but I had a warning regarding the filesize and
potential memory problems. Wouldn't it also work with UUENCODE ?

~~~
WhiteOwlLion
uuencode and uudecode - why do we have yet another tool for an obsolete tool
that existed decades ago for binary files?

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Aditya_Garg
Very cool!

~~~
dosycorp
Thanks

