New Zealand programmer humbles US software giant

By ADAM GIFFORD

New Zealander Govind Pillai is making waves across the Tasman for implementing Microsoft Site Server on Windows 2000 - a feat Microsoft said could not be done.

The work came about as part of the work experience 18-year-old Mr Pillai was required to do as part of his university course.

He approached systems integrator Volante Group, the largest Australian-owned IT firm, and secured a six-month internship with subsidiary Netbridge Systems Integration.

After a month programming, he was promoted to consultant status and was asked to help an import-export firm.

The firm wanted to give its branches across Australia remote information access across a wide area virtual private network without upgrading its hardware or standardising its software - a different version of the Windows operating system in each office.

"There were a lot of compatibility issues," Mr Pillai said. His solution, Site Server on Windows 2000, was one Microsoft claimed was impossible.

"I was sure there was a way to do it, and was prepared to put the effort in.

"The main challenge was there wasn't a lot of documentation about it."

Mr Pillai completed the task on his own, and said Microsoft now had a team of people working on extending his achievement.

It also brought him the the attention of the Who's Who Historical Society, an American company which publishes the International Who's Who of IT, a networking tool for achievers in the IT industry.

Mr Pillai will be the youngest person to appear in the 2001 edition.

Not content with that, Mr Pillai is seeking a New Zealand patent for technology which allows users to compose and read text in alphabets not supported by computer operating systems.

He developed the program, called Aksharam, so he could e-mail his parents in Dunedin in the language of their native Kerala, a state at the southern tip of India.

It is a project he has worked on since leaving Dunedin two years ago to study, first at Auckland University and now at the Sydney University of Technology.

"You type the message phonetically using the English alphabet on the bottom part of the screen.

"It goes through a Java applet which transcribes it into a proprietary file format, and you can see the message you are sending at the top of the screen in the way it will appear to the reader," Mr Pillai said.

While the prototype is in Malayalam, the language of Kerala, Aksharam has been designed in a modular way so it can be quickly adapted for other languages.

"Once the patent is through I hope to market it in India," he said.

He is patenting it in New Zealand because "that's where home is, that's where my parents live and that's where I hope to return."

He still does website work for New Zealand clients, including the Masters Games.

Links


Who's Who Historical Society

Masters Games