Photograph by George Sakkestad
Peter Muller (left) and Scott Milener see a bright future for their new software product.
By Clarence Cromwell
A pair of Los Gatos entrepreneurs recently introduced software that uses high-powered Java programming language to help neophytes open world-class Web servers without writing a bit of computer code.
Their software, called JDesignerPro, might be the Next Big Thing in Java programming, and they're giving it away for free--sort of.
Microsoft Corp. has agreed to distribute JDesignerPro with a package of Java-related applications called "Visual Space J++," scheduled to roll off the assembly line in September. Anyone who buys the CD-ROM of Microsoft's new J++ software will receive a free copy of JDesignerPro on the same disk. J++ will be available at Fry's Electronics stores.
A number of clients, including the ABC television network, expressed interest in JDesignerPro software.
JDesignerPro lets anyone who can point and click create a site that pipes what appears to be an entire software program over the Internet to the user's computer, said Scott Milener and Peter Muller. The pair created the new software and plan to launch it from Muller's Spruce Hill Court Apartment under the banner of their 6-month-old high-tech startup, BulletProof.
The program creates sites modeled after Muller and Milener's WallStreetWeb service. Rather than the standard text and photos offered by most Web "pages," WallStreet Web appears as gray control panels with buttons and slide-switches, something like a Windows-based program on the viewer's computer.
The WallStreetWeb service lets the viewer ask for stock information from a huge database--it contains a year of information on all North American stock exchanges, updated every 15 minutes--and then graphs the information in a few seconds. The software makes up charts and graphs on the performance of a stock.
It's actually an applet--a tiny program that runs inside the viewer's Web browser (such as Netscape 2.0), as long as the program can read Java language. When the viewer leaves the Web site, WallStreetWeb is gone.
Milener and Muller wrote JDesignerPro to help organizations or companies with large databases set up services like WallStreetWeb. The program lets the database manager design presentation screens with mouse clicks; JDesignerPro creates the Java computer code to record the instructions.
Anyone interested can download JDesignerPro for free by setting their Web browser to: http://www.BulletProof.com/JDesignerPro/.
Setting up a database with JDesignerPro is also free, but BulletProof charges according to the number of people who use it.
After setting up the database, an organization must pay BulletProof to license a certain number of database users. Then BulletProof emails an encoded message to the organization's JDesignerPro administrator that tells the program to allow the appropriate number of users.
Nandu Vadakkath, ABC systems analyst, is setting up a system at his company's New York headquarters that will show ABC affiliates information needed for everyday business, such as a list of vendors approved by the company and a calendar of available programming slots.
Vadakath said JDesignerPro is easy to use and trouble-free so far.
"It really is the Java hype coming true. They've done a great job on it," he said.
Milener and Muller just released their WallStreetWeb service in January, and before that launched a service called MarketPage that sends alpha-numeric pager messages to keep clients updated on their stock prices.
Both are veterans of the high-tech trenches.
Milener, who handles the business end of BulletProof, figured in three other Silicon Valley startups, including Hydra, the maker of special cards that let PC-based computers run Mac-based software.
Muller, the technical side of the company, has been a programmer in Japan and Australia, his native country. After immigrating to the United States, in 1990 he contracted with Apple Computer to write code for company databases.
While programming for Apple, Muller developed software to make his computer phone him--and later to call his pager--when his stocks hit a certain price. Mountain biking with Milener one day, he showed off his stock quotes and the two started a conversation that launched MarketPage and BulletProof.
Milener and Muller started the company with $150,000. They have since built BulletProof into an operation recently appraised at $7.5 million, Milener said.
BulletProof currently seeks local high school and college students or recent graduates to add to its ranks.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, August 7, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved