Bill Gates Is Coming To A College Near You

Xyn writes "Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates visited UW-Madison today as part of his 2005 College Tour, designed to promote greater youth involvement in technology careers. Gates discussed "The Impact and Opportunity of Technology: Why Computer Science? Why Now?" at a student forum."

Comments

Wow

[XMetal2001]

No matter what your opinion of him, if the Richest Man in the world suddenly showed up in your Computer Science class as a guest speaker, that would be mindblowing.

Cradle Robbing

[Doc Ruby]

Microsoft depends on recruiting young developers more than on any other population segment it reaches - market, purchasers, legislators, investors, whoever. All that crazy-ass "developers developers developers developers, developers developers developers developers" ranting comes from the heart over there. But Microsoft has lost the zeitgeist in that segment - Linux got it. Otherwise, Linux's tiny market share, especially among normals, would never justify the amount of software developed for it by multi-platform vendors.

Gates is out there trying to keep Microsoft looking cool to their most important audience. Too bad he's easily outcooled by an expat Finn and a cartoon penguin.

Re:How did he pick UW-Madison?

[Gothic_Walrus]

Well, he was at the University of Michigan this morning. I was there. I know.

Stupid article not mentioning my college...

But then again, we had the distinct pleasure of watching him struggle with an Xbox 360 because he didn't turn on the controller. Silly Bill...

Great Opportunity

[max born]

If you happen to be there. Ask him lots of questions. Let's get something on the record. Here are some I can think of. Make up your own.

Could Microsoft ever open its code and make more money from support than developement?

What's up with Microsoft and Linux? Seems like you guys have the same goal of wanting to write geat software for the benefit of everyone. Why not collaborate?

Microsoft was recently sued by 20 states and found guilty of violatling the Clayton and Sherman anti trust acts. What have you done to rectify that?

It's still not possible to buy an MS-free computer from many vendords. Why? Will you personally pledge you will put no pressure on an vendors to sell "microsoft only" systems.

Just keep asking questions. We want to know.

Re:Why to do computer science

[einhverfr]

Honestly?

Gates himself seemed to say many times that CS degrees were optional and that learning to program well required hands-on experience more than formal education. So it is interesting to see the turnaround on this issue. Yes, CS education formal or not (I get mine by hanging out in forums with people who have deep knowledge of the technologies I work with).

But education is education and should be aimed not merely at teaching a vocation but teaching someone how to learn. Unlike most liberal arts majors, I have a strong interest in science and math and can hold my own in most of these fields. However, most of my formal education was spent on humanities such as History, and I have attempted to study linguistics, philology, and other fields on my own (though these are fields where one simply cannot do serious work without at least a MA in the fields). So part of the problem today is that many liberal arts majors are intellectually lazy, but one should not generalize to the relevant fields as a whole. There is absolutely no reason why a serious historian with an interest in and reasonable grasp of mathematics cannot become a good programmer in non-research fields.

Why do geology majors do better in medical school than those with pre-med degrees? Again, if you are ready to learn a discipline, the fact that you have studied what you love and learned critical thinking skills in the process is far more important than taking a CS curriculum as a vocational track (if you love CS, it will *not* be a mere vocational curriculum, and I have seen plenty of history majors who treated it as a vocational track :-( ).

So what I am saying is that to any student, you should study what you really want to study, because it is the educational and not vocational aspects that will build the best foundation for your life. Sure some fields give more leeway for intellectual laziness, but ideally you want something that will inspire you to go forward. If I was hiring a computer programmer and I had a choice between an Irish Lit Major who seemed excited and curious about technology and a CS major who seemed somewhat bored, I would hire the Irish Lit Major. If course if I was hiring kernel programmers for the next Cray, it is safe to say that neither would get much consideration, but these jobs are few and far between and really are only suited for CS majors who really are in love with the field.

Questions to B. Gates

[mtenhagen]

I have a few questions for Bill,

1) Should a society defend it self against monopolies. If so how?
2) Should children be raised with the thechnologie from one company?
3) What is worse, people using pirated windows or people using linux?
4) Should technology be accesable to everyone or only those who can afford?
5) What is more important, money or a social society?
6) How can we learn operating systems without the source?

Are the answers from Microsoft different than your own? If sow why?

Free MS Office for Linux to first 100 attendees !

[SgtChaireBourne]

If I were on such a campus, I'd paper the kiosks and announcement boards the day before with flyers promoting the event and proclaiming things like:

Free MS-Linux preview CDs to all attendees!

Free MS Office for Linux beta for first 100

Sign up for free MS Linux Developers Kit

That ought to make the question and answer session interesting.