Small town boy reboots Microsoft

Hindustan Times ^ | August 6, 2006 | GC Shekhar

[nickcarraway]

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.

[nickcarraway]

ping

[RFC_Gal]

I think they may be overstating things just a little. The multiple errors in the article don't help matters either.

[ShadowAce]

[KoRn]

This kid will probably be richer than God in the next 3 years or so, if that long.

[Egon]

...whose father is a retired peon.

Ah, to be a retired peon someday.

[Kaylee Frye]

You saw that too - I was laughing!!

[tubebender]

Ah, to be a retired peon someday.

Did you call?

[tubebender]

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.

I hope he writes this for the Mac OS. My connections have become way sloooow with Cox Cable and I have given up on FireFox with the constant FReeze ups. I have no FReeze ups with Camino...

[phantomworker]

LOL!!!!

[stainlessbanner]

it can also display properties of all the drives in the computer simultaneously.

Just like Linux

[Revelation 911]

"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,"

translation

ten techies got caught scrwing off when a student from a rural background accomplished in five months, what theyve been milking for years

[rzeznikj at stout]

LOL

[Echo Talon]

it can also display properties of all the drives in the computer simultaneously.

Here is my comupter right now... PCLinuxOS 0.93A MiniME

[contemplator]

Not intending to take detract from any significance of the stats your screenshot showed, it didn't show the properties of all of drives in your computer simultaneously. I must not be following the point you were making.

[garyhope]

Speaking of peon's,........that reminds me that I should schedule a visit with my urologist soon.

Rimshot! Badda boom!

[snowsislander]

I have done some searching, and since this story doesn't seem to be anywhere except in a small portion of the Indian media, I wonder if this is another "ISD"-type hoax (which also appeared here on Free Republic at Indian village boy tops NASA talent search .)

To see some of the debunking of that article, look at the last entry in that thread, and in this posting I made.

[Richard Kimball]

I think you're correct. In any event, here's a screenshot from my computer:

I can open the tabs and reveal any info I want, but I'd rather not display my drive info on the web for everyone to see.

I think this is just another scam. Wonder how long it will go before someone calls him on it? Man, Indian newspapers must be as easy to get on with as Reuters.

[snowsislander]

I think this is just another scam. Wonder how long it will go before someone calls him on it? Man, Indian newspapers must be as easy to get on with as Reuters.

I have been looking at the web page for a "Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli", which I assume is the one referenced in the article.

It seems to me to be a very odd sort of university. Not only is the spelling quite spotty (for instance, "alumni" is often spelled as "alumini"), but apparently it claims to have 50,000 students with 100 full-time faculty members.

As far as I can see, the website only mentions graduate programs from what I can find --- if it is truly only a university offering graduate programs, it's very hard for me to seriously credit such a 500-to-1 ratio. And where it seems to be pointing toward lists of classes, it seems to instead list programs (which apparently are under some sort of "choice-based" system.)