Bill Gates On the Past, Future, and Google 154
editingwhiz writes "eWEEK reports that Bill Gates told PBS talk show host Charlie Rose and a Stanford University audience at TechNet Wednesday that 'We're at the beginning of something important again' in the development of technology — just as in the 1980s with the advent of the PC. He also discussed the growing Microsoft-Google competition, world health issues, how to give lots of money away to the benefit of mankind, and whether he'll return to Harvard to finish his studies." From the article: "On whether there's another idea today that is as powerful as the idea of the personal computer in the 1970s: 'If I knew medicine like I do computers, I would like to be able to control the [human] immune system, to fight against the onset of disease on a world level ... but I think the idea of the PC still would have topped that.'"
"If I Knew Medicine..." (Score:5, Funny)
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And we all know how Microsoft led in that area. Their BlackBird networkins service totally dominates... errr..., wait. They were caught totally off guard by the rise of the internet, and the importance of TCP/IP. They did wake up to the threat posed to their business by the web browser, but so late that they had to break the law to fight it off, and then have an election go there way to get away with it.
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Actually, CPR doesn't restart your heart. It keeps the blood circulating through the body until a paramedic can use a defibulator to actually restart it.
Oh no, not the defibulator! (Score:5, Funny)
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ObCottonHill (Score:1)
Re:"If I Knew Medicine..." (Score:5, Informative)
Re:"If I Knew Medicine..." (Score:4, Informative)
That is not correct. A defibrillator is useless on a person whose heart has stopped. It is used when the heart goes into "fibrillation", which is an uncoordinated sequence of heart muscle contractions that result in no net blood flow. Since fibrillation almost never resolves itself, left untreated it will cause death within minutes.
In fact the defibrillator works by applying an electrical shock which stops the heart -- thus ending the fibrillation. The hope is that the heart's normal rhythm will start again immediately thereafter.
In CPR, the idea is to maintain blood flow and oxygen in the lungs until (hopefully) the heart starts again on its own. This is why CPR has such a low success rate (5-10%), although still much better than the zero per cent success rate of doing nothing.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. (Although I have a PhD, so technically
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i.e. The electrical current stops the heart so that the normal electrical activity can (hopefully) resume.
Oh teh Noes! (Score:5, Funny)
Zombies. (Score:3, Funny)
"Brains! Brains!"
"Refinance your home. Low rates. Buy herbal viagra!"
"Brains!"
"Teenage sluts want to gamble with you! Brains! Brains!"
"Brains! Protect yourself from zombie attack! Drink Zombie-B-Gone soda today! Guaranteed not to turn you into a zombie! Brains! \/14gra!"
I'd be happier if (Score:2, Interesting)
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Oblig. Clippy (Score:3, Funny)
If he knew medicine like he knows computers... (Score:1, Funny)
Wise choice (Score:1)
Think of what would have happened if he did. Norton sucks enough on a $500 piece of (comparatively) disposable hardware, just think on a one-of-a-kind human body.
It's arrogance and delusion... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Wanna share your thoughts on how you came to this conclusion? It seems pretty ridiculous to me. There are many things you can say about Bill Gates, but claiming that he is simply a management type that doesn't know anything about how computers work is definitely not one of them.
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I have no doubts that billg is a shrewd and ruthless businessman, but I have plenty of doubts that he's done anything technical since Microsoft Basic 1.0.
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Er, "Bill doesn't know personal computers any better than the average hospital administrator knows the human immune system" does not imply "that he is simply a management type that doesn't know anything about how computers work". Hos
Healthcare?! (Score:1)
if only he cared about computer diseases... (Score:1, Redundant)
Present (Score:5, Funny)
Bill Gates on the Past, Future, and Google
So he's saying Google is the Present?
Damn straight ...
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Hot Air (Score:5, Interesting)
His job is to say things like this. He's been saying this for over a decade. It's a lot of hot air.
The microsoft windows monopoly is becoming less relevant with each new free web-based software application/service that comes out, be it Google, YouTube, Flickr, Writely, etc. And all of those run fine on Linux.
Re:Hot Air (Score:5, Insightful)
his job is to continue to leverage his single stroke of phenomenal luck - being at the right place at the right time a few decades ago - to sustain the ongoing illusion to the unwashed masses that he is some kind of unparalleled genius, and by extension, that microsoft is the beginning and end of computing.
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http://www.alibris.com/images/subjects/features/bo oks/roadahead.jpg [alibris.com]
Re:Hot Air (Score:4, Insightful)
To build the company as he did, by outsmarting other competitors like IBM, is not luck. Far from it. He provoked the situation and get the most out of it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOS [wikipedia.org]
As yourself: would you have done the same in the same position?
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Well, that's certainly HALF right.
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as amazing as it may be to you, it's possible to make a negative observation about someone who is wealthy unmotivated by jealousy.
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John.
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As to your points. I run 64 bit linux and though I suppose I could drop back to 32 bit browser in order to use false, the fact is that 64 bit browsers have been around since 2003. Flash is proprietary once flash is available I suppose I would have to stick to 32 bit until all plugins were updated to 64 bit. Extending that concept, I might as well be running windows s
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Amazon. Same deal.
Yahoo. It uses almost entirely FreeBSD.
This is the original (Score:3, Informative)
This is the original article for the dupe [slashdot.org] posted earlier today.
Was anyone else reminded of (Score:5, Funny)
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Yeah, just not the same
Napoleon Dyanmite + Back to School! (Score:2)
Ahh, so that explains it (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyway, I believe that the next big thing will be an expansion of high speed communication to cover most of the human race. Sure, it's pretty obvious... but as I recall so was the idea that the internet would be a world changing phenomenon in 1994 and I have a file that was originally written on a BBC master in 1987 explaining how the computer would be widespread in business and the home.
Over the next 20 years? Same as the last 20. Continual progress towards more devices that communicate more freely.
Come again? (Score:5, Funny)
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Pirate Genes (Score:3, Funny)
Windowa Vista Alive! (Score:1)
Monopoly (Score:2)
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So, no different than it is now, huh?
gates as prophet (Score:4, Funny)
Yes, that was January 2004.
Other observations and predictions by Bill Gates (Score:2)
"We will never make a 32-bit operating system, but I'll always love IBM."
"There are no significant bugs in our released software that any significant number of users want fixed."
"There are people who don't like capitalism, and people who don't like PCs. But there's no one who likes the PC who doesn't like Microsoft."
"We've done some good work, but all of these products become obsolete so fast....It will be some finite number of years, and I don't know the n
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So, in truth technology has made spam a thing of the past.
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How can spam be a thing of the past, when there is more of it being sent today than at any time in the past?
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*shudder* (Score:1)
Am I the only one who got a chill down his spine when he referenced being as knowledgeable about the immune system as he was with computers?
Now I'm not a Microsoft hater and unlike most my first thought wasn't about possible viruses but about DRM.
Can you imagine a world where MS has copyrights to a healthy immune system? Now you can add in the jokes about viruses... oh and now there are new opportunities for monopoly joke as well.
If this were against Microsoft... (Score:1)
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
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Not anymore.
In any event, longevity research is less about how to make us live longer as it is to make us live better, longer. I'm in my mid-forties now, and if the medical system could keep me as I am now 'til I'm 90 or so, that would be great. What scares me most about old age is not death, per se, but the long, debilitating, unproductive process most of us suffer before we finally die.
What if... (Score:1)
Bill thinks he invented the PC? (Score:2, Insightful)
Which makes me wonder, what has Bill invented?
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The worlds largest bank account.
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Visual Basic.
A lot of the intial Apple application software.
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As far as Apple Software goes...
Excel was a line by line rip of 1-2-3 "Do everything 1-2-3 does and do it better" was the goal
Word? Too many word processors to list, and the code came from Xerox Parc along with Charles Simonyi
PowerPoint maybe? Ah, no, that came from a company called Foresight.
Even DOS itself was a rewrite.
My point is that Bill isn't an inventor in the Edison mould (not even Edison was, but one sacred cow is enough for one day). He's a sm
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His past. Have you noticed that he's sounding more and more delusional and megalomaniacal every year?
I guess being always surronded by yes men and lackeys does that to you, but for us spectators is kind of weird to see it happening in real time.
I'm expectig the persian cat and the monocle anytime soon.
Cheers,
CC
Darth Gates? (Score:2, Funny)
"One day I will be. I'll be the most powerful Jedi ever! I'll even be able to stop people from dying!" - Anakin Skywalker, Attack of the Clones.
Am I the only one who thought that these two quotes are pretty scarily similar?
Irrelevant (Score:1)
They are now behind the times, and are relying on their soon to be obsolete dominance to push things that are already out there: look at Zune and Windows Leopard, I mean Vista...lol.
They should change their names to Copy$oft.
I will give credit to the Xbox, but that wasn't new either it is a copy of unmentioned consoles.
Offtopic observation (Score:2)
What he didn't say... (Score:5, Interesting)
The tricky part is reading between the lines...
From TFA:
[Gates on "powerful ideas"]
Translation: "Y'all better be glad I'm just screwing up your PC."
[Gates on how Live.com competes with Google]
...until we leverage all the content out of Google with IP lawsuits [slashdot.org].
[Gates on recent struggles with the EU]
Interesting that there's no specific mention of what was modified to make the European Edition "unnecessary". It's obvious that Vista is still packing Windows Media Player (component in question) Is this IE/Netscape all over again [wikipedia.org])?
[Gates on the next 10 years]
This is after quoting all the "amazing stuff" that's coming with the Xbox360 [slashdot.org], Zune [slashdot.org] and voice recognition [google.com]. Yes, World, be like the good ol' U.S. of A-holes! Cave-in to an oppression of content not seen since the book burnings of 1938 Germany [wikipedia.org]!
[Gates on the delays of Vista]
Yes, it's later than we planned. But we want it to be right. It reminds me of when we released Windows 95 late that year, taking much longer than we planned.
...and we all know how "right" Windoze95 turned out to be. (...but it's got a killer version of MS-DOS!)
[Gates on the exposure of medical research furthered by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation [gatesfoundation.org]]
I get a little upset with the media, which will cover a plane crash in India that killed 100 people, but it won't cover the fact that 1,000 times that many died in Africa today from malnutrition or disease.
Of course! That's why Billy has a problem with the media [cnn.com]. ...or is it another
reason [foxnews.com]?
If Gates did turn out to be a doctor, I'm sure he'd be a plastic surgeon [fxnetworks.com]. If he can't make you well, he can at least make you look good [thinkexist.com].
in a parallel universe... (Score:1)
Bill isn't a functioning part of MS anymore (Score:2)
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Ummm. (Score:2, Informative)
Gates & co do not care less about human welfare or hea
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I suspect this is the result of having a child. The first thing any father wants to do is change the world to protect his children.
If I had a billion dollars, I'd donate money to getting medicine to kids.
I would not wish I wasn't the worlds richest man, though.
MS and Google Alike (Score:1)
Yes, Google is the company most like Microsoft. Just like Superman is the person most like Bizarro Superman.
let me guess, Zune is going to change the world (Score:2)
LoB
You've got to be kidding (Score:2)
Everyone else is saying, "Good thing he's not in health, because we'd have all these viruses." I'm wondering how his perspective got so twisted. Which changes people's lives more? Having a PC, or not dying?
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Besides, how many people have PCs saved?
Arrogant and self-delusional (Score:2)
No matter how great genius he could be, the human immune system is more complex than what any single person could study in his/her lifetime.
Would had he dedicated his life to medicine, he would know far less about the human body than he knows about technology, by several orders of magnitude.
if there is a worse person to ask about google.... (Score:2, Insightful)
If Gates knew computers like he knows math... (Score:2)
Philanthropy for Dummies (Score:2, Interesting)
Steal from 100 widows, support 1, collect humanitarian award.
Refuse to steal from widows, get arrested for indigence.
Such it has always been, so it shall always be.
KFG
Re:Philanthropy for Dummies (Score:4, Insightful)
and microsoft steals from widows.....how?
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Now you're just being silly. You're a hockey puck.
KFG
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It's his wife... (Score:2)
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Re:FP (Score:4, Interesting)
The policies of MS, and their way of doing bussiness has an effect everywhere.
Although MS is not the cause of all the bad stuff that is happiening around, they have some responsibilities, here and there, including developing countries.
They use some techniques I don't approve to convince my government to give them money, and I think that money has better places to be spent. The same thing is happening in Africa, for example.
The guy gives back some money, that is right, and he even gives in a sensible way. But the net gain for everybody, because of the existence of MS is not that clear.
Plus, charity is not that great, and it just doesn't work very well.
Charity alone is not something to praise a guy for. Good ethics, and an overall good effect on the community, that would earn my respect. Giving something back is sometimes not enough.
Re:FP (Score:5, Insightful)
Charity alone is not something to praise a guy for.
That's why he has a foundation, and there are strict rules governing the way that the money is given to 3rd parties. It's run like a business - your charity has to produce results for you to get the money, and to keep getting more, you need to keep producing results. Otherwise, he gives his money to another charity which will do a better job.
Pretty smart way of handling it actually - which is why Warren Buffet jumped on board too.
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And how do you define "results"? and no matter how you define it, you're going to end up with a bunch of organisations that spend a significant amount of money gathering statistics, writing progress reports, auditing, etc, which ends up taking resources away from actually helping people. And of course it will still be very easy to pad the numbers to make it look like you're doing a lot.
It really isn't just as easy as "lets run it like a business and demand results!". You honestly think that in the histor
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He nose slashdot like he nose computers!
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