Slashdot Mirror
BBC Bill Gates Interview
securitas writes "The BBC's Stephen Cole interviews Bill Gates in the first of a two-part interview. In the first half of the interview with the technology show Click Online, Gates discusses his view of the 'digital lifestyle' that Microsoft has been pushing for some time, lately with its Windows Media Center PCs.
Sample quote: 'People don't want lots and lots of single purpose devices.... The PC has more software, more competition, more richness than anything else. So making it simple and rich, that means the PC will be the key device.' Streaming media in Real format is also available. [Video: Broadband | Narrowband]"
How can he say that after Apples recent enormous success?
DVB card. apt-get install vdr. shove skype on it if you _really_ want to. job done.
total cost: £270 plus a monitor of your choice (£200 for the computer, £70 for the terrestrial DVB card).
£200 if you want a DVB-S satellite card.
vdr also supports a modified (soon to come out of development) version of xine which allows you to no longer need a hardware MPEG decoder on the DVB card.
Actually I do, I want seperate items that do one thing well instead of a Windows PC that does a multitude of things badly. I've not watched the stream because I'm not installing realplayer, there's a lesson for Bill there as well.
I think Bill is slowly growing out of touch with the majority of the general public. Most people I know don't want their computer to be there video system, and their DVD player, and entire media system. Most people I know prefer seperation. Most people would rather buy a computer, a stereo, DVD player, etc., so that they aren't limited to one thing at a time. Could you imagine having to wait until your kids are done watching some DVD so you could listen to your music collection. You'd end up having to buy several media pc's to handle what you could buy with several smaller items.
Gates is wrong on this one. A well designed dedicated device beats the multi-purpose device when it comes to regular every day use. You don't see an auto mechanic with only an adjustable crescent wrench in his tool kit. He'd be laughed out of the shop.
Right now, this PC is running Firefox, SETI, radio, apache, firewall, anti-virus and email.
The AV and firewall are because my kids want MS for the games. Them aside, I get this PC to do plenty of different things. Does your PC only do 1 thing then?
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
It sounded a nervous interview to me. How many times did he use the word: 'certainly'? It's a word you use if you're trying to convince a skeptic...
Did he inhale?
I have a TiVo season pass to Click Online so I watched these two clips when they were on TV over the last two weeks.
I've got to say, I thought the interviewer (I forget his name) was trying to push a few too many buttons on Bill... Like when he goes "Did you ever think, for a second, that Microsoft was being anti-compeditive"... We all know what Gates' reply was going to be, so I don't see much point in asking the question other to annoy Gates...
I think they said at the start their last interview was three years ago - I'm guessing it's going to be another five before the next...
Many moons ago, I thought I would give a combo TV/VCR unit a try. I thought it would be cool to have all the features of my VCR built directly into my TV. And for a year or two, it was great.......
Then, the VCR stopped working.
Whereas before I could have simple unplugged the VCR and carted it to a store for servicing, I had to lug the entire damn TV around. In addition, when I did get around to bringing it to a store, the price they quoted me for repairing it was more than the cost of some new, uncoupled VCRs!
While the Windows Media Center isn't necessarily heavy, the idea is still the same -- having all of these different functions integrated into a single unit present the possibility of a single point of failure. Never mind that the Windows OS is nowhere near as stable as what I would traditionally expect from electronics manufacturers. And when you consider the frequency with which Windows OS's require patching...... it just doesn't make sense.
Isn't the BBC great??! This show explains complex new technology in simple, easy to grasp language without dumbing it down. It's refreshing to witness good computer journalism since there's such a lack of it. I'll definitely put this in my bookmarks.
The Bill Gates interview wasn't great. Gates just ducked and dived out of every question and promoted his company all the while. I suppose, what would you expect him to say, "Yeah, you're right. MS does have a really bad history with security and Longhorn is constantly being delayed. We're a crap company, sorry!"?
The Blue Ray vs. HD-DVD section was much more interesting. It seems like Blue Ray is the better technology but with HD-DVD having a years head start and being much cheaper to produce, it looks like HD-DVD has the upper hand. Only time'll tell I suppose...
Some things should be combined, others shouldn't. For example, I'd quite like my TiVO, TV and satellite decoder to be combined, but I quite like a separate DVD player. My stereo should be separate from both of these. In fact, I want several of those. I'd quite like to play video games on their own TV, but that requires a lot of space, so I'll keep my PS2 near my TV. My telephone I keep in a different room from my TV, and the same goes for my microwave oven.
But Bill's philosophy is rather outdated. I remember reading someone talking about "convergence" several years ago, and talking about how it was going out of date. He gave an analogy with electric motors.
When the electric motor was a newish invention, there was an idea that it would be used in a lot of labour saving devices. But motors were expensive, so they thought that people would buy a single motor, and install it into each machine when they needed it. What happened instead was that the price of motors went down, and all the new devices had one permanantly installed.
A similar situation has happened with computers. Most applications don't need the power of a Pentium 4 or the complexity of a desktop OS. Embedded software and a slower processor is more than enough for most applications, and can be bought as separate components. Even a 1MHz CPU can potentially do 1 million operations per second.
Did anyone notice that when the BBC asked whether MS is being anti-competitive, with the Department of Justice case, Bill answered in terms of the PC Industry?
First, he avoided the question twice - nit-picking about the court cases and the dates. It's actually quite blatant (and amusing) the way he tries his damnedest not to answer the question. Finally, Stephen Cole pretty much says "Goddammit, Bill, didn't you ever THINK about it?"
Look at his answer. As you say, he talks about the industry, but the actual structure of his sentence doesn't say anything except "The PC industry has done well", followed by "And we founded it based on standards". He uses a lot of buzzwords along the way, though - makes it sound very impressive.
No trumpets, no drums.
And how do you envision this happening in your multiple device environment? Last time I checked, a DVD player, a DVR and a video-game box, all required a telivision to operate. Why is it ok to buy multiple TVs but not multiple PCs? I currently live alone and have 2 PCs and a laptop. I am neither excessively geeky nor excessively rich. Before this, I was living with room-mates and all of us had our own desktops. It's not so hard to imagine a 1:1 Person to PC ratio. The P does stand for "Personal" after all.
Please - read a little before modding me to oblivion :-)
I don't want lots of single purpose devices - but, and here's the kicker, I don't want fully fledged convergent devices either.
I want my mobile phone to be a brilliant phone - but I also expect it to be a good enough web browser to read Slashdot. I don't want it to run flash / Javascript etc - but I want it to function well.
I want my amp to decode AC3, DTS and Pro-Logic - I don't want to be able to play Pong on it.
Xbox Media Center plays my DVDs, DivX and Oggs just fine - I've no need for it to tune my car's engine.
Do you see what I'm getting at? Appropriate convergence is a great thing. Appropriate convergence where the device is good in all its intended roles is bloody brilliant!
T
If a square is really a rhombus, why aren't all triangles purple?