A few of you have noticed that there's also a freeware program called Shoot The Messenger from Steve Gibson's Gibson Research Corporation.
Sadly, even after doing due diligence, we didn't find out about Steve's program until after we launched our own Shoot The Messenger!
When preparing our product, we did a trademark search, searched various download sites like Tucows, and did the obligatory Google search. While Steve's product turns out to be buried some pages down in Google, we didn't see it there.
In any case, since there was no trademark filed for the product and we didn't know about Steve's program, we went ahead and launched Shoot The Messenger! Frankly, there are some days I wish we really could shoot the messenger!
So here's the thing: both programs are pretty slick. Steve is an extremely well-respected member of the PC community and we've relied on his Shields Up service for quite some time. We'd never want to do anything to hurt him or his business.
That said, we've also invested quite a bit into launching Shoot The Messenger (our version) and intend to see it on the market. After all, we have a cartoon character!
So, seriously, here's what we're doing. First, we're publicly acknowledging that Steve's a god. No question. Second, we're including this link to his freeware product. You're more than welcome to download his and try it. There are some differences; the most profound being that we offer realtime monitoring and as best as I can tell, his program doesn't. But, given that Steve wrote it, it's bound to be good.
Have fun with both. The wonder and joy that is the Internet is that we can provide a cornucopia of opportunties for everyone. Now, you've got two exceptional solutions for an annoying problem. And that's what both of us wanted in the first place, I'm sure: a way to make an annoyance go away.
Take care and share the love!
-- David
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