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 An interview with Alex Shovkoplyas, creator of Net Vampire.  Downloading files from the Web can be a real headache at times. There are few things more frustrating than spending several hours downloading a 50 megabyte file, only to have your connection abruptly cut off. A marvelous, free ad-supported program, Net Vampire is specifically designed to make downloading files not such a pain in the neck. Net Vampire lets you download files in batches and it resumes broken connections and restarts downloads. It's also specially designed to deal successfully with noisy servers and unreliable links. In this interview, TheFreeSite.com talks to Net Vampire's creator, Alex Shovkoplyas. Question: For those visitors of ours who are unfamiliar with Net Vampire, please describe this program and what it does. Answer: Net Vampire automates your downloads. You just create a new task and let the program run - Net Vampire will make as many attempts as necessary, automatically resuming when your connection fails. You can leave the task overnight, or stop it and continue the next day. Q: People can do downloads, just using their browser. What advantage does Net Vampire offer, over using your browser to do downloads? A: The main advantage is reliability. When you use a download manager, you don't have to watch your downloads, you don't have to worry about broken connections and busy servers. In addition, Net Vampire provides you with many functions that help you manage downloaded files. For example, you can view the contents of a ZIP file, even when the file is being downloaded, or list all links on the downloaded web page. Q: Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from? Tell us about your background. A: I was born in Ukraine. After graduating from the university, I worked as engineer of electronics for several years, developing embedded microprocessor-based systems. These systems required control programs, and I developed these programs as well. Very soon I understood that programming is much more exciting than electronic circuits, and switched to pure programming. Q: What inspired you to create Net Vampire? Was it a difficult program to write? A: When I first connected to the Internet in 1997, I was overwhelmed with its potential. Tons of progarms, images, documentation - all these were available on the Net, mostly for free. There was one problem, though. The phone lines. My connection speed rarely reached 200 bytes/s, and due to the frequent connection failures, it was impossible to download something bigger than a megabyte. Not surprisingly, I started writing my own automatic downloader. I didn't plan to release the program to the public at that time, it was just a solution to my own problems. It was my wife who suggested uploading the program to the Internet. She also gave a name to the baby, Net Vampire. After I submitted my downloader to TuCows, I started receiving messages from the users who liked the program, one user from Marshall islands even sent me a T-shirt. Inspired with the success of Net Vampire, I started working on the next version of this utility and continued my work after moving to Canada. It took me more than a year to write Net Vampire 3. Q: Tell us how you go about writing your programs? What type of programming language(s) do you use? What programming software do you use? Describe your computer. A: Net Vampire is written with Delphi. This is an excellent programming tool. When I first tried it back in 1995, I was sold on its power and ease of use. I quickly finished all my C++ projects and switched to Delphi. I have never used C++ since that. My computer is Pentium 166. Since I don't play 3-D games, I don't need a super-fast processor and all these bells and whistles included in the modern systems. My old work horse does a good job for me. Q: When you're not working on Net Vampire, what other activities do you enjoy? What are your hobbies? A: I like reading and travelling. My special hobby is amateur radio, I have been on air since 1980. Here in Canada I don't have a radio station at home, but I am going to obtain a Canadian short wave license in the near future. Q: How do you make money with Net Vampire? Has this project been a financial success? A: Net Vampire started as a freeware product. I released it simply because I wanted to help other people to download files reliably. Since version 3.0, Net Vampire is ad-ware. This means that the program is still free to the users, but it displays an ad banner, and the revenue from advertisements helps me cover the development expenses. The revenue grows as more and more people are installing Net Vampire on their systems. Recently I started a software development company, Afreet Software Inc., and I hope one day I will be able to quit my full time job and devote my time entirely to my own projects. Q: Describe the current programming scene in Russia. It seems like a lot of very talented programmers have emerged from that country in recent years. Why is this? A: The situation with software development in Russia is very similar to that in Ukraine. The education standards have always been high in these countries, and Computer Sciences was not an exception. The quality of life, however, is very low, and now that the economy in these countries is in a deep crisis, many highly professional software engineers cannot make living through programming. Some of them change their occupation, others start writing shareware in their free time (just visit http://www.download.ru to see what they develop), and there are some who decide to move to another country to find a full time job in the IT industry there --- I am one of them. Q: We sometimes get feedback from visitors who would like to try their hand at programming. What advice would you offer someone who is hoping to get into programming for the first time? A: Software development is exciting, and the people who are learning programming are doing a right thing. I would suggest Delphi as a programming tool for novices. You can develop your first Delphi application without writing a single line of code due to the powerful visual designer and numerous wizards available in Delphi. More important, however, is the fact that you will not have to change your tool when you acquire experience and start programming professionally. Delphi is a multi-layer system, and behind the Rapid Application Development interface there is a solid basis of true object-oriented language that makes the tool a choice of professionals. You may download your free copy of Net Vampire at Alex's Web site. Check out our other Freebie Features:
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