No frills Spyware/Adware removal tool

Recently my home PC started behaving weirdly - throwing up unwanted pop-ups intermittently. When I checked up with running processes, there were few suspicious ones which were sending across my browsing pattern to some server in some remote corner of the WWW.

I already have Spybot installed on my machine and so I immediately ran a scan. "No threats found" is what it reported after scanning my machine for about 15 minutes. Okay, my fault, the definitions were not updated. Now, next logical step was to connect to the update server and get the latest definitions. By the time Spybot was updated, I helped myself with a cup a hot tea. Now I needed to run the scan again and I complied. Roughly 20 minutes of scanning reported some 15 problems. The thought that my browsing pattern will be private again once I hit the "Fix Now" button made me happy. But as they say, don't count your chickens before they hatch. Spybot said that since some processes were holding up few files, I will have to allow Spybot to run after the system reboots. Fair enough. Here you go.

After reboot, Spybot was smart enough to launch itself before any other program and start the scan. Another 20 minutes and again the same recommendation - "Please allow Spybot to run at next restart". By this time, I was already out of patience and started to look out for some tool that actually will clean my system rather than sitting there and scanning my system 10 times without actually fixing the problem.

My search ended with a tool called "FreeFixer". It was a small download and I was not expecting it to do much. To add to my skepticism, it completed the scan in less than 3 minutes. And then asked me whether I would allow it to delete few registry keys/executables. I complied again and it said, since few executables are locked by running processes, I need to run the tool again after restart. Not again, I said and then reluctantly rebooted my system and ran the tool again. It deleted the files which were locked earlier and said that my system is now clean. And to my surprise, it "actually fixed" the problem :-).

FreeFixer is worth downloading and a must-have on your system.

Consumer Apps v/s Enterprise Apps - II

Continuing on my thoughts on Consumer and Enterprise Apps, here is some more food for thought...

I have been a big fan of desktop/client applications and over last few weeks I have been thinking on similar lines - as to what can be a valid case to have a desktop/client application? Or rather a non-web application?

While trying to find some space for non-web apps, it occurred to me that though web apps have been all over the place, they are yet to find user-base when it comes to enterprise applications.

Like, Google Maps is a cool app and it has a huge user-base but, at the same time, will Google Docs be able to match up to the user-base that MS-Office or for that matter Star-Office enjoys? I doubt.

Is it that web apps are for consumer and non-web for enterprise? Well - there will surely be enterprise apps that will move over to the web sooner or later, but at this point of time, I find it hard to visualize web apps taking over non-web ones, at least in case of enterprise apps.

An ideal piece of software...

Last few days I have been thinking upon what can be classified as an ideal piece of software. Even my previous blog post was indirectly related to the same topic.

Over last 6.5 years, I have been writing code (professionally I mean). Some of it has been used only by a bunch of people or probably never used and some of the code has been used by quite a few people (or so I think). I guess, for any serious software developer, the most satisfying piece of software or the ideal piece of software would be one that affects quite a few people and leaves a positive impact. There is no bigger pleasure than to know that the piece of code that you have written is being used by masses. People are actually paying to get hands on your work.

I wish I could write some more code which probably is being used by masses rather than churning up a website which probably will come and go by the time you blink your eyes...

Consumer Apps v/s Enterprise Apps - I

A friend of mine forwarded me this blog post by a MSFT employee who choose to come back to Microsoft after working with Google for about an year.

While explaining the reason for his comeback to MSFT, the author, has provided some very good insights on how development at Google is poles apart from that at Microsoft. While reading this comparison, I could not resist thinking that Microsoft fits more into enterprise application development model while Google on the other hand, is more of a consumer application oriented organization.

If you ask me, both Google and Microsoft have their distinct positions in the Software industry. Neither, however, should try and barge into the space that does not belong to them. This is because if Microsoft starts writing the so-called “free” software, it will hurt their revenues badly as they are yet to develop that culture of churning out smaller applications at a faster pace. Also, as pointed out in the blog link that you sent, Google is not capable yet to churn out enterprise applications – probably because that requires a lot of planning and Google can be best described as ad-hoc software development organization (and I guess that is also not bad for them).

So would it be safe to say that while Google is for consumer apps, Microsoft is for enterprise apps? The advantage, that I guess, MS has is that it is easier to have a sound revenue model in case of enterprise applications while Google on the other hand will have to work hard to maintain their revenues as you cannot charge 100s or probably 1000s of $$s for a consumer app.

As a hard-core software developer, I would like a Google-like culture but as a Program Manager/Evangelist, I would prefer being at MS.

Or is there a place with mix of cultures? ;)

Windows Tips and Tricks

Have you ever felt the need to access your desktop when you are logged in using some different windows profile which has less privileges?

I have two users on my laptop (like most people), 1) Vivek 2) Others. These days my laptop is generally used with "Others" login for some reasons. And did I tell you that I hate logging off and logging in again, specially when I have around 10-20 programs running (one of which is a browser with around 15-20 tabs).

Now, what do I do when I have to access my desktop? Or some folder under "Documents And Settings\Vivek"?

I use "runas" command. I kill explorer.exe, and start "explorer.exe" again using "runas" (obviously with my credentials passed to it). This will instantly bring up my desktop and also allow me to access my personal folders.

Any better way of doing this?

Cheers,

Programming language with a difference

I like exploring different programming languages. Recently while
browsing for new languages, I hit upon a weird programming that
uses whitespaces as its syntax!!!

Check this out to believe it for yourself :-) 

An extract from the site:

"Most modern programming languages do not consider white space characters (spaces, tabs and newlines) syntax, ignoring them, as if they weren't there. We consider this to be a gross injustice to these perfectly friendly members of the character set. Should they be ignored, just because they are invisible? Whitespace is a language that seeks to redress the balance. Any non whitespace characters are ignored; only spaces, tabs and newlines are considered syntax."

Ruby on Rails...

Came across this amazing interactive tutorial for RoR.

RoR looks quite good. It is amazingly powerful and simple.
Check out for yourself. Will write more on RoR once I get a
little more hang of it.

Random thoughts on Google products

Off late I have noticed that I have been spending around 70-80%
of my online time on one of the Google products. Be it the search,
GTalk, news, picasa or socializing on orkut.

Orkut, I believe, is a wonderful product and I personally have been
able to get in touch with few of my old, long-lost friends.

Recently while discussing orkut with my friend, I thought of few more
additions or rather further integration of orkut with Gtalk/Gmail.

Here is my wish-list:

1. First of all, whenever you add a friend, there should be an option to add him/her to your Gtalk list.
   
2. Once you have done that, incorporate Gtalk with offline messaging. If you want to scrap someone, just leave an offline message and tell GTalk to publish it in recipient's scrap book.
   
3. Moving your mouse over any of your contacts in Gtalk should show a preview of their orkut profile (again customizable at both ends).
   
4. When you join a community in orkut, you should have an option to send/receive community posts using Gmail. If you select this option, orkut should offer to create a label/filter automatically for you in your Gmail (or obviously select an existing filter/label).
   

All these features will make orkut more widely available. Will specially
allow people to access posts on orkut even if their workplace does not
permit browsing social networking websites.

These are just some random thoughts, will add more if I "storm" my
brain :-)

Time's photo essays and life at Googleplex

Time magazine has a great series of photo essays on various 
current affairs and  miscellaneous topics.

Index of photo essays can be found here...
And here is one on life at Googleplex...

Using "dot" in your Gmail address

Was surprising to note that you can insert a "dot" anywhere in your 
gmail username and the mail will still come to your mail account.

What this means is if your gmail address is someone@gmail.com, any mails sent to some.one@gmail.com or s.omeone@gmail.com will come straight to your inbox.

A bug? Or a feature? Documented here

Windows Development Process

Came across this 3-part long article which gives a comprehensive
insight on the development/testing/deployment strategies Microsoft
used for their Windows 2003 operating system. Though a very long
article, it is worth a read for everyone. Gives an idea how difficult
it is to develop and deploy a successful software product.

To quote Mark Lucovsky (Windows Server Architect) from this article:
"There are 5000 developers on the Windows team generating over 50
million lines of code for Windows Server 2003. It's an enormous task,
the biggest software engineering task ever attempted. There are no
other software projects like this."

 

Back...

Am back... 

I started this blog way back in 2003 but didn't had anything to share. 
Have deleted my previous posts and will try to keep this place updated 
from now on...

Cheers,