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Net Gains (May 21, 97) |
Site of the week : Boon for all Net users
Suggested login : Either way works fine …
Claim to fame : Revolutionary software
Goodies : Free stuff - you'll regret not trying any of it out !
There are those who have it, and those that don't. Not Internet
access, but it's the Too Costly Package for
Indian People (TCP/IP) access that I'm talking about.
And those who have to suffer using their shell accounts, have
salvation at hand. Just read through the next couple of paragraphs
before making that dash for your keyboard…
If you've ever had any doubt that Indians are creative and innovative,
here's proof to get rid of those doubts. We all know that shell
accounts can only show text, while TCP/IP shows images, movies,
sound - the works ! A couple of guys from Kerala from Xtend Technologies
(P) Ltd. have spent about 2500 hours developing and testing a
piece of software - ShellSock - that virtually converts
a shell account into a TCP/IP account in all its graphical glory
! To date, to get pictures with a shell account required your
Internet Service Provider (ISP) - VSNL in our case, to run some
program at their end, which VSNL understandably did not do. But
with ShellSock, VSNL is left out of the picture - the control
all lies in your hands ! Feels fantastic doesn't it ?
What you need to give VSNL a royal dhoka is the 16 bit
browser (Netscape / Explorer)- that's the important part - not
the 32 bit versions. You also need to replace your 32 bit winsock
by a 16 bit one - the downloaded package will explain all those
details. Once you set up the software as expalined by the readme
file, you're on your way - log in (using your shell account -
this works even with students shell accounts !), and you can now
use Netscape to surf the Net. Not only surf, you can also use
Netscape Mail, News, and even use Graphical IRC clients to chat
! This is revolutionary ! And the best part is that it's free
! There was a similar package available last month from Bangalore,
but it was shareware - you know how we Indians love to squeeze
money out of people ! Thankfully, the developers of ShellSock
are giving it away for FREE. Count on the VSNL babus tearing
their hair out over ShellSock now !
Download ShellSock (only 44Kb),
and send your feedback and congratulatory e-mails to [email protected]
Thanks to Vipul Sarawgi and Poorav Shah, who broke the news
to me.
Now for the second revolutionary bit of software, called TimeFool.
Unlike ShellSock, most of the stuff on the software on
the Net is shareware. The authors allow you a period of about
30 days, after which it usually stops functioning. Most of these
programs perform an initial check on the current system date to
find out if the evaluation period has expired. TimeFool
cons the program by changing the system date for 10 seconds (while
the shareware program starts), and then setting the date back
to the current date.
The system requirements are :
Windows 3.1, 3.11 or Win95, 1 Mb memory, & 100 Kb disk space.
TimeFool is about 251Kb, and can be downloaded from its homepage
or you could directly ftp it.
And when you're done, send a small thank you note to the author
Paulo Teixeira - [email protected] - believe me you'll
soon realise how invaluable it is !
Mr. B.K. Syngal from VSNL was a guest on the Good Morning Mumbai
show on Radio Mid Day last Monday, when he announced that VSNL
was taking another look at its new tariff structure - which means
lower rates in a couple of months. Cross your fingers !
The first Indian Internet gift service - Pacific Gift Service
, has another first to its credit -
orders from the Antarctica! Two team members from the permanent
Indian station there used the Net to order gifts - one for delivery
at Bangalore - a dress for the gentleman's wife delivered with
flowers on their anniversary, and the other for delivery of books
to the 6 year old son of a second officer in Bombay along with
a cake. Incidentally, the owner of PGS has since acted as intermediary
by receiving e-mail messages for the families of these team members
and posting the messages in India for free ! Great work !
Cut this article and preserve it - you're gonna repent if you
don't have the URLs this column has talked about !