These are a few of my favourite things

somebody was peeking over my shoulder as I was using my computer, admittedly not the most comfortable position to be in. I looked up and in my least accusatory voice, growled, "what do you want?" as it turned out, this particular lady wasn't really spying on secret documents (I have precious few, save for, well, can't tell you that now, can I?) she wanted to know what my favourite programmers were, any shortcuts I used and all that.

which got me thinking, yes, there are a few programmes out there that not all people have heard about, because they aren't made by companies with huge marketing budgets, and don't come pre-loaded on your pc. Here are a few I use all the time. Best of all, every one of these is free, and is not too big a download either. to start with, if there was ever a competition for the worst internet service provider in the world, my cable internet company, wincable would win it hands down, with vsnl coming a close second. I am on the phone with them all the time, if they ever pick it up that is, as my net connection is down more often than up and they initially refused to accept it was their fault. I was told my computer had a problem, their network was fine. Thankfully, a small free programme called netpersec nailed their bullshit. It accurately measures the actual bandwidth your machine is receiving. (Just so you know that icon currently in the bottom right-hand corner of your pc screen lies about the speed of your connection.) intersect works with regular dial up modems, cable internet and even office networks. you can go to http://www.zdnet.com or http://www.download.com and search for intersect to download it for phukkat. Another programme I swear by is called startupcop. If you've ever wondered why your computer takes so darn long to start up, there's a simple answer. It's because unscrupulous software companies microsoft is the best known among them to modify your pc without your permission to automatically load their programmes every time it starts up. Here's a simple test to see how badly off you are: start your computer up and when it's fully running, press the control, alt and delete keys simultaneously, once. You'll probably see a long list of programmes that are running even when you didn't ask them to. Frankly, there is absolutely no need for over half of them, including microsoft office or msn messenger or real player to run in the background all the time: you can always start them later when you want them. Getting rid of them isn't easy. The problem is that there are five or six places these programmes are commanded to be loaded from, and you can't just clear your startup folder. Enter startupcop another free utility from www.zdnet.com again, that shows you all the junk that is loaded when your computer starts up and allows you to shut down the ones you don't care for. Be careful and only cancel things you're sure you don't need all the time. You'll see a pretty radical difference in the way your computer responds after that. A couple more programmes have made my internet usage much more convenient. First, how do you even download programmes reliably when your net connection keeps shutting down? i've tried a lot of download helpers, but this one combines a couple of technologies that make downloads free of frustration and tears. download accelerator plus (also called dap, and maro-able for free at http://www.download.com allows you to pull four streams of a file simultaneously (which means it's usually quicker) and also resume broken downloads exactly from where they got cut off, so you don't have to start all over again just because vsnl felt like cutting you off. another download helps me search better. my favourite search engine, and that of millions others I'm sure, is at http://www.google.com. Earlier I had to go to the site and then do a search. Now I can download a little programme, called the google toolbar for free from the site, and search the internet right from my browser itself. The last programme is something I confess I helped design. I started instant messaging friends in 1996 and, ever since, have long lists of buddies on icq and msn messenger and yahoo messenger and america online. And when I wanted to chat to all of them my entire screen got filled up with windows. So with my friends at geodesic, a pretty hot bombay software developer, we came up with a piece of software that integrates all the messengers into one package and does a few hitherto impossible things, like get a hotmail buddy in conference with you and a yahoo buddy if you like. The programme is now being used by the web service of this newspaper, and can be downloaded from messenger.indiatimes.com.