Take a look at what Education Times had to say about us on February 01, 1999 - and don't miss the picture!

When you bump into them (bright bandanas, carpel-tunnelled fingers et al) and stop shuddering at the thought of their link-up generated telephone bills (as Gayatri Jayaraman did), you'll probably hear a story that goes something like....

"Once upon a time, there were two guys who wanted to be rich, famous and loved. Until they looked into the mirror and realised love was not an option. So they decided to settle for just fame and money. HITG Inc was created to accomplish that goal..."

If you find purpose, the means will follow? These two certainly believe it. Vikram Vaswani, 20 years old, graduate of St Xavier's College and fundamentalist leftwing surfer, writer and designer of HITG Inc AND Harish Kamath, 21, student of telecom engineering, MGM College and head of undercover research operations.

Apart from the fact that they surf, surf, finish the latest in computer bestsellers, before they get back to surfing - they also write about what they surf and send pesky emails to everyone they know about it. Not really. HITG Inc, the 'company' that houses , flagged off in the thralls of boredom and currently their personal crown of geekdom is an online webzine and email newsletter, dedicated to the cause of explaining the wonders of the microchip. Available only by subscription (which is free). No spamming here.

"There are numerous magazines online that exist with scanty readership. Our aim was to explain everything about computers to students who really want to know in a manner that was simple and humourous. Most of the stuff online is either too technical or not informative enough, as they assume that students know a lot of things," explains Vikram. The Report is a fortnightly that's divided into two sections - the research section forms the body of the letter. "Every issue concentrates on a specific topic related to computers. We write extensively about it and also try to provide details like the top ten related websites, etc. Each newsletter is interspersed with quotes and one-liners, jokes, software reviews and ends with a logic puzzle, which readers are challenged to solve."

With sections like Coitus Interruptus (Good grief!), LSD for the Brain and Word Play framing otherwise highly technical concepts, it is scarcely surprising that the newsletter has netted over 600 subscribers from countries like USA, New Zealand, Africa and Singapore. Back issues are also accessible from their online archives.

The other section is FreeTr@de - an exchange counter where students can sell or exchange their stuff with each other. "Size no matter, price no bar".

Although the service, hosted at geocities.com, is currently free, Harish and Vikram are serious about converting this pleasant hobby into a full-time profession and working on bringing in some sponsors. "We have a tie-up with Hiro Music House to increase subscription, those who get us more subscribers get a free CD. Once we are able to build up a sizeable subscription base, we will be able to rope in advertisers. Then we can hire some more people to help-out and really get rolling," says Vikram, hatching chickens.

On the agenda are plans to generate computer-related, online, human-interest stories. Screech....say what? They explain, "things like the live telecast of child birth, Internet movies, job-hunting, online investments and e-commerce, you know".

All this despite full-time job/study. While Vikram works for a multimedia company, Harish is still studying. And what's more, the two have managed to bag prestigious freelancing contracts for top media companies. With regular columns on how to build your own website with HTML, top ranking sites in different categories, etc, in print every week, recognition has not been wanting.

"We've realised that since we have not let the lack of funds affect the quality of our research and our ability to meet deadlines, despite our inexperience, a lot of people are willing to give us our work's worth," points out Vikram. With that trademark optimism, they one-line us again, this time it's Starwars...

Luke: "I don't believe it" Yoda: "That, is why you fail."