The Tech Interviews of Yesteryear

nihilist_1137 writes: "Cnet has a collection of interviews with some of the 'biggest movers and shakers' of 2001. It focuses on their plans, ambitions and fears. Included is Sir Arthur C. Clark, Bill Gates, Will Wright, and Bill Joy, to name a few." It''s a fairly eclectic bunch of interviews collected from the last year, not ones done specifically for 2001 nostalgia.

Comments

bundle it up

[magicslax]

This cracks me up, in a funny-as-in-sad sort of way.

In the Gates interview, he said "If we can't add any features, then what is Windows? I mean, there were guys who sold TCP/IP stacks for $100. Should we not have put TCP/IP stacks into Windows?"

If MS was reimplementing TCP/IP for windows today, it would probably compatible only with Windows Media Packets.

Oh well ^_^

Gates' interview is rather chilling

[J.D. Hogg]

"How can you be sure that people will want and pay for Web services? The HailStorm model is based on consumers paying for these services.
Well, some will be free, and some will be for pay. The marketplace will decide. When you describe to people that every file on their machine will be backed up--photos of their kids, business documents, e-mail--if your machine is taken or breaks, those will be available to you."

and to Microsoft for marketing purposes, to Ashcroft for his latest terrorist witch-hunt, to the IRS for the audit they had in mind for you, ...

Does Gate really think people will swallow that ? I mean, holy crap, hell will freeze over before I send any of my files to a remote storage volume owned by Microsoft (or owned by anybody else for that matter).

Word Source

[The Paradox]

I cannot believe this quote. What the FUCK was going through Gates's head?

I don't know that anyone has ever asked for the source code for Word. If they did, we would give it to them.

But you can *bet* that I'm going to try it. Lemme go find a MS email address and request it. They've gotten me seriously curious. (Yes, I'm really going to do this after I post this comment.)

And can I sue Gates for lying if they refuse to give it to me?

Re:Word Source

[The Paradox]

MS will charge you massive fees

They said "give", didn't they?

and have you sign equally daunting NDAs before you actually get to see the code.

So? It would still be fascinating. I'm not doing this just out of open-source altruism, you know: it's just always been a dream of mine to see the code for a part of Office.

Plus... I want to see if I'll get a reply. :D

For anyone interested, here's the email I just sent them:

---

Salutations;

I am a user of Microsoft products, Windows and Office among others. I follow various pieces of Microsoft press with interest and intrigue, and I recently read Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates' interview with C|Net.

Referencing the section of Mr. Gates' comments referring to open source software:

"I don't know that anyone has ever asked for the source code for Word. If they did, we would give it to them."

Taking Mr. Gates' comment at face value, I hereby request a copy of the source code for Word. I would be fascinated to learn from such a program. It has long been an ambition of mine to see exactly what goes into the Office suite's programs.

I am completely serious in this query, and would appreciate a reply in the same vein.

Thank you,

(My real name, which I decline to place on Slashdot thank-you-very-much. ;))

---

They said on the page that they would have someone get back to me within twenty-four hours using the email address I provided. Anyone interested in the reply can email me and request it.

MS Logic

[Zalgon 26 McGee]

From Mr Allchin:

And we're obviously going to spend a lot in marketing because we think the product sells itself...

AH! It's all so clear now!

Dale Fuller: The new barbarians?

[gartogg]

Dale Fuller: The new barbarians? is an interesting article about borland's resurgence as a real company in the marketplace, from thier slump for the past several years. The article doesn't really come out and say it, but the reason borland is doing well now, and wasn't before, is the personnel. I find it amusing that they don't just come out and say it, but they refer, again and again to the "departures of key staffers" when they started their decline, and now, according to Fuller, "one of the major indicators is the number of cool programmers who want to work here--and we're now getting people back from Microsoft, from universities, from all over the world." I guess what Robert A. Heinlein said is true: "brainpower is the scarcest commodity and the only one of real value."

Re:Can someone in the know explain Billy G's comme

[Digitalia]

Ya must be a youngin, so we'll all forgive ya. Pac-Man, an arcade classic produced by Namco, involved a small yellow spheroid. The goal of the game was to gobble up dots and fruits for the benefit of Pac-Man. The analogy fits the Open-Source movement rather well, in my opinion. Open programmers make use of those resources that have been left for them to access. Meanwhile, companies that actually care about such petty things as profit and market shares, represented by the ghosts in Gates' Pac-Man analogy, attempt to waylay the Open programmers. These programmers can only combat the corporation by consuming fruit, obviously representing killer ideas that are worth implementation. The whole epic takes place in a maze that is oddly similar to a cubicle forest, further reinforcing the analogy.

Re:Client/server frightens you? Poor baby

[Billly Gates]

You miss the point. Like the scandal with IE, Microsoft will charge you for the service whether you want it or not with each Windows purchase. Microsoft just added that backup services plan to make its image look better when they plan to charge all corporate users. Thank about it from Bill's perspective. Investors have witnessed a %50 growth every year for close to 15 years and if Microsoft falls short of this then they lose money in the mind of the investor. The investors expect the same growth or else they will sell. The pc industry finally is in a slump and to top it off the whole market is saturated if not over saturated with Windows/Office and many customers do not need to upgrade. Microsoft has tried or are trying different markets like the server end and mobile end to keep expanding. But had no luck. NT makes up only a third of all server os installations and the number is not changing. SQL server is behind Oracle and perhaps even Sybase sales of databases. No growth here. Perhaps winCE devices might take over in the future but for now Microsoft is actually illegally giving them away below cost to hurt palm. No money in that either. At least not yet. The only way Microsoft can make more money and expand is by charging a monthly renters fee for the things we use our computers for. Examples are buying from the net, making copies of photo's taken from your digital camera, and perhaps even booting( which is what Microsoft would make a fortune off of). My guess is that the professional edition of the next version of Windows will only be available by renting via hailstorm. Free backup will be included to make it appear you are getting something for the fee and Microsoft wants to do it to keep the DOJ off their butts. But rest assured the free backup services will be required in the professional edition so Microsoft can milk its existing monopoly while ignorant home edition users will not know any of this. Microsoft has always beat the expectations in the most harsh critics when it comes to squashing competition and milking profits.