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Gates Gets Government Guards for Gala
Nick Irelan writes "The home of the world's richest man was a 'temporary security zone' when he held a party for members of the National Governors Association. Bill's guests included Newt Gingrich, Tommy Thompson, and Leon Panetta. Gates also put in $150,000 for the governors' meeting held the next day. News.com covered this story very well." If your invitation to Gates' place got "lost in the mail", you can read about a Microsoft intern who got to have dinner with the big cheese.
From the linked interns blog and speaking of Bill Gates: "His response (verbatim, might I add), "well it was the dumbest thing I've ever read!". I have actually heard him say this very statement with a crass addendum or modifier in response to an engineers rather thoughtful bit of insight into a problem. Perhaps he was having a bad day, but I found this to be more than a little arrogant and perhaps may go part way in explaining why Microsoft has problems with innovation. As to the title, "Gates gets government guards for gala", I would suggest in Bill's defense that the guards are for some of the guests which is not unusual. I've not been to a soiree at the Gates compound, but I have been to plenty of other events with government folks who pack their own "escorts". Gates likely has his own security detail which if they work like other security details, will usually defer to the secret service (or other federal) detail supervising any government officials who may be present.
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Microsoft is no stranger to astroturfing. I wonder how much the intern was paid for that post.
I have a website. It's about Macs.
I've argued at length with Bill Gates, He's sharp!
It was a little over 10 years ago, and the man and i argued about computer technologies and programming.
He had a variety of perfect angles at defending his position, and was fully up to date on all the latest trends and tools. This should not have been but was. Perhaps it was his hobby.
Mevertheless the guy was packed with info and loved a heated loud debate with a non-employee.
I will always respect that man's brain, even if I hate every microsoft product except some early mac products of theirs.
By the way he had NO SECURITY DETAIL of any kind at this San Jose party. (This was before his pie in the face attack in Belgium, but after Bill Joy (?) abduction).
Bill Gates is a super geek giant, and truly knows it all.
This may be flamebait but who cares. Theres too many idiots on slashdot who just need a clue. Some slashdot people hate Bill Gates because he is the man behind Windows, ooh the evil microsoft company that attacks cool noble things like Linux. Jeez, give me a break. Open source zealotry has its place, but comparing the "good" the linux movement did versus what Bill is accomplishing now; I think Bills the clear winner.
/ 05/09/gates /index_np.html
And despite all the useless mud that open source fanboys sling at Gates, I say Gate's effort in donating and founding organizations to promote education; world health as well as civic and arts organizations in perhaps the neediest regions of the globe makes him #1 in my book.
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Five years ago, in a story on Bill Gates' philanthropy, Salon asked the question, "Is Bill Gates a Closet Liberal?" At the time, Gates had not yet really opened the floodgates of his charitable giving, but a close look at the causes he had supported indicated he was interested in reproductive health and family planning issues, and fighting the spread of infectious diseases, with a focus on the Third World. Since then, Gates has publicly promised to give away 95 percent of his wealth -- $43 billion as of September 2002 -- and he appears to be living up to his words.
In "Health, Wealth, and Bill Gates," a new installment of "NOW With Bill Moyers" airing Friday night on PBS, Gates talks at length about his involvement in global health issues. The interview is a fascinating, detailed look at how and why Gates is giving away his billions. And while it doesn't definitively answer the question of whether Gates is a liberal -- saving dying children is not the province of a particular ideology -- one thing emerges: Gates may go down in history as the single individual who did more to help the world's neediest people than anyone who has ever lived. In the interview, Gates comes off as knowledgeable, sincere and determined to use his wealth to effect massive change. Whatever you think of his business practices, when it comes to global health he is one righteous dude.
Source:
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003
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Nuclear war would really set back cable. - Ted Turner
Bill Gates has created one of the best places in the world to work, this is from a blog I read:
I need to thank Microsoft for several things: our benefits, our technology, and the people with whom I work. Three months ago, my oldest daughter, Jenna, age 9, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She was a normal, healthy kid one day and being rushed in for emergency brain surgery the next. She's now recovering from her second surgery, during which they were able to get 90 percent of the tumor out. Her treatment plan will take many more months, but she's come a long way and continues to make progress daily. When you and your family are healthy, you might tend to take our benefits for granted. I certainly will never do that again. We have the best benefits of any company. Everything has been covered--surgeries, hospital stays, chemotherapy, prescriptions, home nursing and equipment, physical and speech therapy, follow-up visits, and consultations. The medical bills are very large, but everything is covered. We were provided with a case manager who oversees the entire process and helps us deal with the paperwork, organization, and approval processes. In short, they've been phenomenal to deal with. Our technology was also a godsend during this ordeal. A friend and coworker set up a Web site for Jenna the day after her first surgery (http://www.caringbridge.org/sc/jennawit). We have used this site to keep family and friends updated on Jenna's condition and progress. There was no network or wireless access in the hospital, so I used my Smartphone and my laptop to dial in and keep the Web site up to date. I also was able to help other families get their Web sites set up for their children who were in the hospital. Jenna's Web site has had more than 97,000 hits to date, and thousands of well wishes have been posted by friends, family, coworkers, and even complete strangers. If you ever doubted that our technology has had an impact on the world, just take a look at the guestbook on Jenna's site, and you'll see how technology has helped to bring people closer together. Lastly, I must comment on the wonderful people with whom I work. The support has been incredible from day one of Jenna's illness. I was able to take family leave with no questions asked. My team stepped in and took care of my job while my manager worked out a replacement for me, and I was able to just walk away and focus on my family for three months. Also, hundreds of Microsoft folks have offered to help me and my family in any way that they can. We can't thank you all enough for everything that you've done. Thank you, Microsoft, for our benefits, and thank you, employees of Microsoft. The work you do has truly made a difference in my family's life.
(This is the original post)
The benefits at Microsoft are second to-none, anywhere in the country, and probably the world. Paid family leave. The best medical care money can buy. Supportive work environment.
The top execs at Microsoft could gut the benefits and give the employees basic HMO coverage for probably 1/50th the per employee cost, and in the process reap another couple of hundred million a year for themselves.
They wouldn't be the first place to go that route. But did they?
No. Not at all.
Of course, since the courts of the land has deemed MS to a monopoly, there is little relation between MS and the free market. Unless, of course, you don't believe in law and order. In which case I must assume you are a democrat or a socialist or a communist. Just joking.
But seriously, the issue is that a few people with a bunch of money is not free market or capitalism or democracy. People must have money to buy stuff for a free market consumer economy to function. Extending easy credit just goes so far. At some point sacrifices have to be made at the top to insure that everyone can buy stuff. After all, the a single wealthy can only buy so much stuff. A million poor people allowed to earn a few extra dollars is going to buy quite a bit more stuff. This might mean that the weathly can no longer own people, but that went out of style years ago.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
See aerial photos of his house.
(mirror site) http://cryptome.sabotage.org/gates-eyeball.htm
(main site) http://cryptome.org/gates-eyeball.htm
- which I'm sure will get me modded down in the eyes of various goverments: Why not just drop all this protection of big and important politicians? Yeah, I know why, but just think about it - the average guy in power wuld have to put a bit more effort into not creating enemies, for one thing.
I remember a story about the Russian Czar visiting the king of Denmark; and they went to look at one of the famous landmarks in Copenhagen, the 'Round Tower', which is a church tower with a (at that time) advanced observatory at the top and no staircase inside (another story is that one king used to drive his carriage up there, but I'm not so sure about that). The story goes that the Czar wanted to demonstrate his absolute power over his soldiers as well as their courage, so he ordered a young lieutenant to climb over the balustrade and jump to his death (they were standing at the top of the tower), and the man started doing so, somewhat reluctantly I imagine, but none the less.
The King promptly got this stopped, of course - he didn't want to have that kind of spectacle in his city, but he admitted that he was impressed. 'But I have another kind of power', he said, 'I can go out into the countryside, unarmed, to any farmhouse, rich or poor and stay the night, and the farmer will be my personal guard. When hearing this, the Czar fell silent.
Without betraying any confidences (especially by not logging in!) I can pass on some secondhand impressions of Bill the human. I live in Seattle (but have never worked for Microsoft) and have friends whose kids are in the same classrooms as the Gates kids. I've never met the guy but these friends say the Gates are a perfectly nice family, the kids are just normal kids, and that playdates at the Gates' house aren't a lot different than with any other schoolmates. BillG may be all the things people say he is as a businessman, but by all accounts he's a good dad, and his foundation work is from the heart as opposed to some cynical or guilty attempt to deflect criticism.
Living in certain parts of Seattle and being plugged into the whole children/school mix you can't help but make the social acquaintance of some very wealthy people. One oughtn't to be in awe of them, the money doesn't make them any different (or happier) than anyone else I know. This is probably because it's mostly new money, having actually earned it themselves they haven't the sense of entitlement and superiority one sees in those with inherited wealth, such as we see in folk like as President Bush.
Only a meager decade or so ago, we adored him, and Microsoft
The self-professed technical-elite began to harbor widespread Microsoft-hatred in 1987, and it was cemented in their culture by 1994, long before Slashdot ever came online.
Not a year ago everyone here got hard for SCO
SCO was never adored, only tolerated- it was viewed as a company prehaps trying to do the right thing, but too incompetent to amount to much.
beloved Apple has no problem whipping out the DMCA to prevent real competition.
Anyone who thought Apple was pro-competition simply hasn't been paying attention, especially to their old experiment in clone-licensing.
They didn't run it like Enron, he ran it honestly albeit aggressively.
The numerous falsehoods that have supported Microsoft through the years are well known and documented. The very terms "vaporware" and "FUD" were invented to make it simpler to talk about how Microsoft works.
But the route they took to get it there, was frankly, brilliant.
Brilliance is not virtue. There is nothing contradictory about the concept of an "evil genuis" (or an amoral genius) (or a repetentant, evil genius, who dispurses ill-gotten treasure to the world's indigents)
That's about all I can think of at the moment, it was an interesting experience but I didn't come away as impressed as some people have. If I had that much money to spend on a house I'd have hired a better architect and told him to do something genuinely innovative.