Sunday, August 6, 2006|02:12 IST

HindustanTimes.com » India » Story

Small town boy reboots Microsoft

GC Shekhar

Chennai, August 6, 2006

He'd wanted to be the next Dhanraj Pillai, but the vista that destiny opened up for A Mahesh led to greener pastures in the world of technology.
The 24-year-old from small town Tamil Nadu has created a software that will add considerable muscle to Vista, Microsoft's brand new operating system due for launch next year.
In all probability, Vista will incorporate Mahesh's creation, which is an image browser, image editor, web browser, system tools and disk manager rolled into one.
In fact, Microsoft has already validated and awarded the product BETA2 iBRO.NET a patent protection certificate.
This means anyone may make use of Mahesh's product using the validation key but would need to pay Microsoft a royalty a part of which would reach this shy lad from Palayamkottai in southern Tamil Nadu.
The first member of his family to reach the post-graduate level, Mahesh developed the BETA2 iBRO.NET as the fifth-year project for his integrated M Sc course in computer science. He chose Vista's developer platform, where individuals are invited to contribute features for Vista.
"For sheer conceptualisation and acumen, his creation shows enormous scope and maturity. It's a full fledged tool that would not only remove deficiencies in Vista but add never-seen features in the OS," explained Dr Krishnan, professor of computer science at Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, who helped fine tune Mahesh's creation.
For example, why a computer hangs remains a mystery to most. But Mahesh's product can display the reasons. It can also optimise the download speed of a broadband connection when needed.
Unlike other OS, it can also display properties of all the drives in the computer simultaneously. "Before Vista is launched, I plan to add more features to make my product more comprehensive," said Mahesh, whose father is a retired peon.
"Such a product would take a team of at least 10 people in a top IT company months to develop. But for a student from a rural background to do all this in just 5 months on his own is amazing," observed N Chokkan, a columnist on computer.
Mahesh, who will soon join IBM at Bangalore, is unfazed by the recognition and remains grateful to his parents and R Panneerselvam, chairman of his school who waived his fees for the five-year course.

I'm ready for Beta2. I've yet to be able to test any Vista build.

I'll postpone playing with Vista until the build right after (public) beta 2.

Beta 2 crap. Only morons with money will buy this abomination when it is released

Beta 2 crap. Only morons with money will buy this abomination when it is released
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Sooner or later you'll end up Vista too because you will have no choice. Of course there's always Linux or Mac; take your pick. And beta software isn't all that bad. It's test software, afterall.

noting several issues

Care to expand on that, or simply trolling?

As a MSDN Premium subscriber, I am quite annoyed that we don't get these itermin builds. The latest build on MSDN subscriber downloads is still 5308, and very buggy.

They want people to test the Vista x64 builds, yet as a current legitimate XP x64 user myself, we get denied access to this. :-(

beta2 will be public. DOn't worry, you'll get your builds. There's little point in working with these older builds, as they won't be like working with the gold version.

It is pretty ridiculous that we pay for MSDN access, but can't access all the builds for Vista.

Indeed, Beta 2 will be public, so any tom d*** or harry can download and test it.

You would hope paying MSDN members (over $1000 a year) would get something MORE than the free beta testers and general public get.

I would be really p1ssed off, if I had paid for my MSDN Premium subscription, and got treated like a 3rd class citizen...

but you still are a 3rd class citizen,.... just because you paid a few hundred bucks to a website doesnt mean you became High-class ....
Go to any fancy restaurant in your area and tell them you paid a 1000 $ for a subscription ... lets see how the threat you ..... lol ...

Because you never agreed to be "given" beta releases. If that is what you spent your money on, it's a waste.

Actually, I got given my MSDN Subscription, if it were my money, I would not have paid the fees. You get some betas, and advance previews, but not as many as joe bloggs down the street who was fortunate enough to get on the Vista beta, which seems ironic, as MSDN Subscribers really are the sort of people that MS would want onboard a beta, rather than some spotty 14yr old who got on the beta by chance, and who uses it to play games, and never bothers to raise bug reports..

I didn't pay for my MSDN sub, I got it free. If I had, I would be considerably more annoyed than I am. I feel I can't really get annoyed as it was a freebie.

actually is by playing games that most OS flaws arise ....
why do you think the x64 platform is not popular among gamers .... ???

DEEE-TEEEEE-DEEEEE

Actually i run x64 and i have as many bugs as i do with x32. Actually XP 64 runs more stable.

I do hope your joking. nVidia's x64 drivers still leave a lot to be desired, and ATi's were no better, the last time I tried them. As mentioned, gamers won't use x64.

I have to agree, I run x64 and the only thing I will point out about it, is it's more demanding on the hardware. You have a problem with your hardware you didnt know [i.e. cheap memory] it will point it out. But that is logical. Correct Hardware=Incredible Stability

omega drivers fix that for the most part, and man do they work nicely

Think my wife would notice if I installed Vista x64 on her new system? *grin*

I can see it now...

"Dear, why do all my windows look different? Did you install Windowblinds on my computer again??"

It would be a good way to see what the normal user thinks about Vista :)

followed by a nagging.....

"I don't like it, please put my old windows back" ....

( heard that sooooooo many times ..... )

Perhaps after the yelling died down a bit.

I think I'll wait until I upgrade my "break things" system to x64. Then I'll see how she likes it.

People fear change. (That, and the older versions of WB were slower than sh*t..haven't tried the new version on her yet...)

I know what you mean, but the speed was acceptable last time I used it.

A bigger problem I have is that the DLLs it injects into every process (even if you're not using a WB skin at the moment) can cause HUGE memory leaks in certain programs:

Google Desktop Search 2 - went from 11mb or whatever to 2gb+. Version 3 seems to be unaffected.
Desktop Sidebar - 32mb to 600/700mb.
Songbird - 38mb to 100mb.

The DLLs can be temporarily disabled with a tool like Sysinternal's Autoruns and then a reboot.

Anyone who would install a beta OS is not a "normal" user. ;)

Dude...

Pay attention:

I wondered aloud what my wife's reaction (her being a normal user) would be if I installed Vista on her system.

Still with me? Just a little more. I know you can do it...

Then Nate responded with the statement that it might be a good way to gauge a normal user's response to it.

Up to speed now?

Reading comprehension is your friend. Say it with me now...

see the problem with normal users is that 90% of functionality of the os will be wasted, which is also the same of any os out there, be it osx, xp, linux(although i think a "normal" user would sit there staring at some linux builds), or vista. although vista is supposed to be really user friendly....

Agreed.

But it would still be interesting to see what their impressions were, seeing as the only folks who have given opinions on it so far are anything *but* normal users.

*grin*