Take a look at what Bombay Times had to say about us in the 14th December, 1998 edition...

How many Microsoft engineers does it take to change a light bulb ?
None, Bill Gates will just redefine Darkness(tm) as the new industry standard.

Does it really matter what MS or anybody else is up to on the Net ? For 20-year-old Vikram Vaswani and 21-year-old Harish Kamath, it does. Otherwise the above joke wouldn't appear as 'coitus interruptus' in their email based fortnightly newsletter, The HITG Report.

Vaswani is an economics and statistics graduate from St. Xavier's College, while his partner Kamath is currently studying advanced telecommunications engineering at MGM College in Kalamboli.

The duo launched The HITG Report, a free online newsletter dealing with a different aspect of the Internet every two weeks recently. "It's not just another newsletter", says Vaswani, dressed in his trademark black shirt and Levis, "besides some extremely well-written articles that accounts for its success, each issue also features quotes, jokes, Internet statistics and logic puzzles. And let's not forget the price - subscription is completely free of charge."

Their first edition talked about free email services on the Net and there wasn't even a mention of Hotmail. As Vaswani puts it, "That's because of three simple reasons: firstly, enough has already been written about Hotmail, secondly, it doesn't have any mail forwarding service and thirdly, it doesn't have POP3 access which allows the user to download messages on the local PC and read and write mail at one's leisure."

Likewise, each edition involves detailed information about websites pertaining to specific subjects. According to Vaswani, the idea is to provide the latest "info" about the "coolest" sites and software applications on the Net in an interesting and humourous format. Though the subject is dry, it is the simple and at times, hilarious takes on technology, that makes the letter interesting and fun to read.

Another feature to look out for is "LSD for the brain", which spells out a logical problem (mind-twisting, but "that's what's it's supposed to do") for readers to solve. The Report, which started barely a few weeks ago, already has a large number of subscribers from the United States, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia, in addition to most of Mumbai's student population. Those interested can email on hitg@usa.net with the words "SUBSCRIBE HITG" or "INFO HITG" as the subject, to start receiving the newsletter.