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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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I thought the owner of IKEA was now worth more than Gates.
Gates Gives Governor's Gala, Gets Government Guards
For all the Microsoft bashing that goes on (and I figure /. readers won't need to look far for examples), the note at the end of the MS intern's blog about Gates' daughter was a nice touch.
As much as people love to hate Bill and his company, he is just one guy after all. We seldom here about this side of him (albeit for security reasons in relation to his kids?). Perhaps a Bill Gates book in the vein of Linus' "Just For Fun" is due?
Gates that is. Remember, since he isn't CEO anymore the primary fsck-ups (SCO anyone?) are not something he agreed the company should have ever touched in the first place, when instead the new CEO said "yay! Lets GO DO THIS!".
The journal of the intern is not the only one I've seen where people who meet and spend time with Gates end up with a surprisingly pleasent experience. Geek + Dad + Down to Earth. Of course, people here will continue to flame Gates as if he is CEO, continue to say what a greeding person he is and ignore the intern's journal, or say that the intern is a Microsoft employee.
I hope people can eventually look beyond the company and see the man behind what started it. He's not half bad if you give him a chance.
"We're breaking out the ramen noodles. . . "
"Really? Is it someone's birthday?"
was the dancing monkey they had for entertainment. It looked kind of familiar for some reason.
It is a sad statement on human nature that when a person becomes so wealthy and powerful, they no longer get to enjoy the simpler things in peace. I suspect there are many days when he and his family wishes they could drive to Disneyland and go on the rides like everyone else. Most public places are probably off limits due to the complexity of managing security. Kidnapping is an endless concern.
I may not agree with all that Microsoft does as an entity, but I sometimes wish our world would let the man talk about his kids.
While this whole thing may reek of money politics, it sounds like this whole thing is at least coming down 'on the right side' of some issues, encouraging the extension of the moratorium on 'net sales taxes, and loose regulation of VoIP. Of course, there is still that minor 'monopoly' issue.
Politics can be pretty distateful, especially when it involves things like shutting down public roads so that rich people can talk to politicians in private.
Anyway, it sounds like Microsoft is lobbying the National Governors Association (NGA) to have more forward-thinking opinions on the things they have influence over: The 'Net sales tax moratorium, VoIP regulations, etc. While I doubt many people agree with MS's thoughts about their monopoly, it is nice to have someone 'legitimate' pushing the NGA in a more Libertarian direction, at least a little bit.
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Freedom or Evil: Freevil.net
G. W. Bush says, "You decide!"
OK, other than the class warfare angle that plays so well to anti-capitalist-types on Slashdot, exactly why is this news? Bill Gates threw a ball for a bunch of current and ex-government types. He paid for it with his own cash. If he got "government" guards, it's because government guests were present. Duh! The Slashdot "article" on this reads like a bit of Bill-Gates-is-rich-and-evil propaganda.
Look, I don't like the guy and I don't like Windows, but what he does with his own time and his own money is his business. You don't see a Slashdot article about "John Kerry and John Edwards host celebrity-laden post-convention gala with celebrity personal security" do you?
I mean, I know Slashdot is heavily biased, but you ought to go back to at least trying to hide it.
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Seriously, I love good alliteration. Big kudos for a cool title.
"Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised."
-Marilyn Manson
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.
Sorry but I can't stand all this being nice to Bill stuff, This is /. for god's sake.
Microsoft has reached and held on to the current position it occupies by destroying competitors in the most appalling and brutal way possible. They did it to Lotus making sure that 123 couldn't work on each new release of Windows, they did it to handwriting pioneers Go, they did it to Netscape (trying to destroy the reputations of a number of genuine innovators like Tim Bray who was subject to a vicious, deeply personal extended attack by Microsoft in which they tried to destroy his career and took lethal action against a small struggling company because his wife worked there, all because he'd signed a consulting engagement with Netscape), they more or less did it to Apple and they're having a damn good go at Sun, and they will do it to Linux if they can work out how to. Now if Gates, as the starry-eyed intern suggests, actually believed passionately in software and computing (as I do) he wouldn't work for a company that sets out to kill anything interesting or innovative that he comes across. Perhaps its all Ballmer's fault, but I doubt it.
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
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.
Well the intern made the single largest mistakes most newbie interns (I hope he's a newbie) make the first time they goto Bill's house. I think he'll learn though. :-)
Either way, I was a MS intern for 5 years, the first year I couldn't go but by my second party I had figured out that you don't talk to Bill for very long least for more than maybe 15 minutes. The reason? Because everyone else from MS, and then some is there, for example Tom Brokaw was at one of my parties because of MSNBC. I would ask you this question? When else in your life are you going to have a chance to talk one on one with a senior VP for MS for 4 hours, yes 4 hours. Or for that matter someone like David Cutler or Michael Kinsley (who was my choice as I am interested in politics) You can either do that or stand in the donut around Bill and ask two or three questions and get short one sentence answers.
I will admit that the house is quite impressive, when I was there I was informed by security that it's really two houses in one. The "conference center" part which is where you spend your time and a more intimate "living" part where the family actually spends thier time. I found the private little bungalow down by the beach with the adjacent boathouse the most interesting though, complete with lazy boys, a chess board and an interesting selection of books scattered around.
Choice? where is it? for years whenever I walked into any store selling computers they sold boxes with windows installed. For 99% of the people out there, there hasn't been any "choice" beyond this theoretical "if you maybe heard of another operating system and maybe could track it down and maybe get it installed then maybe you had a "choice"". People don't run windows because they comparison shopped, they run windows because that's what came on their computers. I know people who have never even *seen* a macintosh, let alone anything different on the x86 platform.
Don't confuse slashdot readership (that would also inlcude you and me) with the "market" in general. Microsoft got where they are via industry collusion, bribes, threats, kickbacks, etc in some very high places, not from normal consumer "choice" at the computer store. Heck, I've even got an older 1996 IBM computer here I bought severely discounted but still brand new in a sealed box, it didn't have os2 on it, it had NT on it when I bought it.
"Choice" is only relative when it actually exists in enough of a widespread manner that it is available to most consumers where they shop. It is only in the last two years that there has been any significant breakthrough in operating systems choice, and even now it is still mighty thin on the ground. I did a look in my area, there are 6 stores total that sell computers near me, none of them carry anything but XP boxes, nor are there even any alternative OSes on the shelf with the various software for sale. This is NOT "consumer choice selecting the best product".
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.