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Gates Donates $15M to Preserve Computing History
Dan-DAFC writes "The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is donating the sum of $15 million to the Computer History Museum in California, according to the BBC. The money is the biggest single gift in the museum's $125 million fund-raising campaign, which is still $50 million short of its target. The funds raised will be used to add more exhibits and educational programs."
Gates is also donating a copy of all his software products.
Infact their bugs has made the history as well as their poorly engineered solutions!
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
Because it's good PR. $15 mil. is pocket change to him, but it buys never-ending advertising in a place sure to only ever be visited by the target audience.
I took a tour of the museum shortly after this announcement. Bill Gates only asked for a few changes to made following his generous donation.
Middle Age Clockwork Computer: Invented by Bill Gates
Punch Card Programmable Computer: Invented by Bill Gates
Analog Computer: Invented by Bill Gates
Digital Electronics: Invented by Bill Gates
Atanasoff Berry Computer: Invented by Bill Gates
Z3 Universal Computer: Invented by Bill Gates
ENIAC: Invented by Bill Gates
EDSAC: Invented by Bill Gates
Integrated Circuit: Invented by Bill Gates
Personal Computer: Invented by Bill Gates
Internet: Invented via a joint effort from Bill Gates and Al Gore
Honestly, this is asinine. While you personally might disagree (as many do) with some of Microsoft's business practices through the year, at the same time, one must honestly be impressed with what they've managed to accomplish. Making computing ubiquitous, and easy to understand-- these aren't things to be taken lightly. Yes, things crash, and yes, he stole some things, but I think that most /.ers wouldn't be here if they hadn't been introduced to computers at some point; most people are introduced to computing through Windows. And maybe yes, we move on to bigger and better things, but at the same time, it's nice to have a computer I'd give my grandmother.
The change jar on Bill's dresser was getting full :)
Don't take that the wrong way. Whatever his reasons (and I believe them honest), you can't help but respect the Foundation. A quick look shows they've donated over $28B and over $1B each year. That's a lot of money doing a lot of good, and is probably better spent than most Government-sponsered projects.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
/)
Maybe Jack Thompson will pitch in ten grand...
Telltale Games: Bone, Sam and Max
To preserve the history of species that went extinct because of drilling. Well, at least students will know there were other computers and operating systems before our new worm-infested overlords.
Will it include a copy of CP/M?
Tell us about it, PyroGx1133. Did the Microsoft Special Forces raid your village and kill your family back when you lived among the hill people of the north?
Web2.0: I love when people Flickr my cuil and digg my boingboing until my google is reddit and I start to yahoo
Okay Steve, time to shell out the rest to really stick it in Bill's craw.
Nice thought. In a sales point of view this makes total sense... Looking at it that way, I'm suprised he didn't donate more. Well with the billions that he has
Everyone says DOS is a dinosaur and now we have a museum of history so DOS should be on display. But seriously speaking DOS did revolutionalize the personal PC segment so it has its place in history. So for that matter does the first mouse, the first GIMP , the first laser printer but then it might become a Xerox PARC archive instead of a museum of computer history.
Anyway wonder how a software can be displayed in a museum. Would they have old computer terminals running DOS on which people can play around or would they just have a number of big boards with writeups abbout the software. A museum of
computer history seems to me to an unique challenge for a curator.
**Life is too short to be serious**
I'm glad their web site is full of tiny pictures with unreadable text. Example here. I suppose I have to visit the museum in person and pay admission to find out what that diagram says. On the other hand, I could probably look at it elsewhere on the web, for free, and with much more information surrounding it.
why *wouldn't* he, dumbass :p
You make it sound like Bill Gates is Hitler or something. Queue Gates = Hitler jokes. The Gates Foundation has donated an enormous amount of money to many different types of organizations that helps millions.
Big PR stunts? Gates has been giving money for *years* (at least as far back as 1997) to charitable organziations. He's also personally responsible for the gates foundation. MS, and gates in particular has been quite generous. Much more so than other silicon valley tech companies. In fact, i recently tried to find information on charitable giving done by steve jobs or apple but to no avail. It seems that they collected some money for the red cross in the wake of katrina but i didn't find any actual donations from apple. How generous of them to off "free" advertising space.
I wonder if they are going to preserve key points and dialogues in computing history like "No one needs 640 kilobytes of ram..."
For Free Computer Help, and Technical Answers
well worth a look if you can't make it there yourself.
$125 million just to boost a collection of old artifacts? Hell, give me half that money and I'll double the size of that collection, with enough money left over to fill the toilets with beer!
he could have donated more!
it's nice to have a computer I'd give my grandmother.
/. expressed their dissdane for their own lineage...
mod parent up.. its about time someone on
serenity now!
I don't know if I'd say that, though. Many people's first experience of computers were with DOS (still Microsoft, I know, but not Windows), Apple II, Apple Macintosh, Commodore 64, Amiga, and probably a plethora of other platforms from the late 70s and 1980s that I forgot to mention. And then we have some old-timers here who were introduced to vacuum tubes, punch cards, IBM mainframes, PDP-11s, and some other ancient stuff.
Computers have been around for about 60 years now, and they have been in Joe Average's workplace for about 25. I'm pretty sure that except for the youngest generation, most people have been exposed to computing prior to Windows dominating the market.
You know, I hate Microsoft just as much as (if not more than!) you, but until you donate anywhere near that amount, shut the fuck up.
pure an simple. he has more money then he knows what to do with. 15mill is a lot to you and me but to him, he'd blow that on a 1 week holiday. he donated the money as a tax break, and probably to help boost his ego and get them to show off MS stuff in the museum.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
He doesn't need PR. He needs medical treatment for those open wounds. The smell is disgusting!
I wonder if his money will go to finding and preserving an old copy of the Apple IIe children's game, Z-bug, which was supposed to teach kids to type. That's a bit of computing history I remember, but can't find any references to even on the 'Net. I'm not making that up either, so don't mod me down. It was a piece of my childhood. It probably won't make it to the history of computing, though, because no one seems to remember it. Also reminds me of the ZamJak 72v. At least some people DO remember that crappy platform (http://www.zamjak72g.net./ Mostly just to make fun of, though. I think it was a basement computer enthusiast's attempt to get rich, but who didn't quite have a Bill Gates story in him.
So the museum can buy an archival copy of Windows Vista.
Target Audience goes to this museum?
I think not. The visitors to this museum are hardcore computer geeks that are already well aware of their choices and are likely not going to dump their current setups for Microsoft's latest and greatest based on their experiences at this museum.
Microsoft's target audience is corporate executives and average consumers, not enthusiasts
Slashdot Story Predictor 1.0 predicts with a certainty of 0.097, 96.54% of the following comments will be as follows:
.... Step three: $15M PROFIT!!!!1111"
0) FIRST POST!!!!
1) "$15 million dollars?!? it's clear that this is pocket change to him i did the math and it's like me donating a quarter."
2) "$15 million dollars? what a cheapskate this is just 15 million totally free PR"
3) "When's the last time you donated to charity you grease-faced Slashnerd? Bill Gates is to be admired."
4) "I can't believe he's not donating the whole $135 million needed."
5) "Step one: start computer museum. Step two:
6) "It is now official. The Computer History Museum has confirmed: *BSD is dying."
7) "hay guys i didnt read the article but i think bill gates is a cheapskate for only doonating 15000 dolalrs"
8) "the museum has a kids section: it has kids toys like PHP"
9) "bill gates will put drm on the museum so that only people with a valid windows xp can activate their pass to get into the museum hay guys drm"
10) "This is a blatant abuse of monopoly power by Microsoft to use its domination in other areas of computing to compete in the historic computing market."
"64...ehm... 15'000'000 ought to be enough for anybody." Bill Gates, 2005.
Nice thought. In a sales point of view this makes total sense... Looking at it that way, I'm suprised he didn't donate more. Well with the billions that he has
Would donating more money have bought more advertising? Really?
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
When I first read the title, I thought it said: "Gates Donates $15M to Preserve Continuing History"
The Bill Gates foundation is pretty nice. Even though I support Linux, they have kept our school computers very nice. For example, we recieve upgrades almost every two years, and we just upgraded almost a week ago to 2.8 Celeron D's in our whole school. When our network was only 10BaseT, they helped us upgrade to 100BaseT, speeding login times. Of course, there are the disadvantages, with MSIE only, and Word, but there's always PortableFirefox and PortableOpenOffice!
Student Research and Development
I'll donate the same percentage of my net worth. Aka, my two cents.
I wonder if he will buy me another core memory plane so I can complete this upgrade I've been working on? Seems like he could preserve quite a bit of history of he did.. As in another 255 KB of my history at any given point!
bash: rtfm: command not found
Ok, so he's doing good. Let me know when he reaches the break even point.
If I were the Computer History Museum, I'd beware of history forging influences.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
He's trying to wipe out all references to his early comment that "Nobody will ever need more than 640k RAM!"
que all the comments stating why this is bad/driven by greed.
What better way to secure how history perceives you than to buy it? The guy has been making tax shelters ahem "donations" for quite some time now. This happens to be a good fit between his financial and personal PR goals.
"Who controls the past controls the future"
Computing History may contain lots of Microsoft ideas...
in the hall closet.
Maintaining classic pieces in the museum's collection has grown difficult lately, not for lack of funding, but due to a dark and sinister force known as my wife.
you can have my violent video games when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.
Prime UID Club
It is like a bully after shaking school kids for years of their breakfast money donated $1.50 to support a school exhibition dedicated to achievements of those he used to terrorize.
one must honestly be impressed with [Microsoft] ... making computing ubiquitous, and easy to understand...
Without Microsoft, the world would not have stood still. Moore's `law' is what drove the recent information age; I doubt any company could have stopped it. The Internet is the only component of the puzzle that was critical for our lifestyle, and the formation of Internet as it know it was a coup of the people over the mega-corps if ever there was one. Without Microsoft, the Internet would be a much safer place to do business.
It is my opinion that without Microsoft, companies like IBM, SGI, HP, Sun, Apple, etc would be very viable companies now with quality goods in constant competition. They were starting to introduce low end workstations in the timeframe that MS-DOS was becoming popular. And while MS-DOS was still learning about pixels, SGI Iris had multimedia.
Instead of the hardware engineering industry being matched with quality in software engineering, quantity has always been the "name of the game" for the bulk of the software industry.
My gut feeling says that RMS will be remembered long after all of Gates monuments and plaques have deteriorated away.
Nice to know all the proceeds from all those copies of Windows I paid for and chucked in the trash are going to good use!!
Anyone notice which $15 million donor is missing from the Hall of Fellows awards? Too bad they already picked their 2005 winners.
"I'm pretty sure that except for the youngest generation, most people have been exposed to computing prior to Windows dominating the market."
There is a bit of a difference between being exposed to computing and actually having one in nearly every home. Don't forget that programmers aren't the only ones that make a living with computers. Most (if not all...) of the 3D artists I know, for example, got their start because they learned skills in 3D at home on their PC.
In any event, it's silly to deny that Windows hasn't had a positive effect on the number of machines in people's homes these days. I realize it's not fun to think about and all, but honestly, that's just not something to be in denial about.
"Derp de derp."
How about re-releasing MS-DOS 6.22 and MS WfW 3.11 as open source so as to get kiddies in Africa and South-East Asia into computing. You never know, it just may stop those kids from getting hooked on Linux. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Mongrel News all the news that fits and froths
Especially the old 'super computers'. As they say, they don't make them like they used to.
I'm sorry, but I can get old computer parts for free or like twelve bucks on ebay, what in the world do they need that kind of money for?
Wow, did you like spend the last 12 hours trying to come up with some analogy that would fit, so that you could carry on with your Jihad? Loser.
All your history are belong to us!
Mwahahahahahahahaha!
Bill donates where he belongs!
He probably realised that MS Windows may pretty soon be relegated to history. :)
Reserving space before its too late
Yep, and its only getting worse.? &range=2y&size=large&compare_sites=slashdot.org&y= t&url=digg.com
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details
Take it or leave it.
"...one must honestly be impressed with what they've managed to accomplish. Making computing ubiquitous, and easy to understand-- these aren't things to be taken lightly...."
MS didn't cause those things to happen. They've just been along for the ride. It was cheap hardware that made computers ubiquitous. It was IBM that made the PC the defacto standard microcomputer and, at the same time, turned a smalltime software house into a malevolent behemoth. I'll give MS some points for ease of use, but no more so than some other environments.
This is just like really old people buying a plot in a cemetery in preparation for the inevitable...
Help us build a better map!
they also hold a number of symposia with very significant speakers. i saw a tim berners-lee there. pretty humbling to see the man who is largely responsible for the invention of the internet. try to catch some of their lectures by people who have made history. it's really enlightening.
You mean you can get a Xerox Alto and a PDP-11 for a few bucks? Wow... :-O
Free beer is never free as in speech. Free speech is always free as in beer.
No problems! I'll do that right after he refunds everyone for software that was broken, or pays the damage for any ill effect of software his company has released. This is the standard expectation for consumers purchasing any product.
Back in reality for a moment, I realise that damages are not warrented, but in my part of the software industry, refunds do happen. Big clients expect that software is actually able to do what is described in the documentation, does not crash, and that it interoperates.
If Gates really wanted to preserve computing history, he should donate money to the dying *BSDs! Im sure that PR stunt would raise some eyebrows on /. and close a few wounds.
Yeah -- look, it got him mentioned on slashdot!
What, like bringing BASIC programming to the masses? Standing up to Apple to prove that they don't own the WIMP GUI? Setting up the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation?
And what harm has he done? Reduced choice for a load of rich geeks? Competed unfairly with some other companies, thus making some highly employable people have to find other jobs?
God. He's evil.
This is really cool, I wonder how many more people will be doing this. Microsoft's competition should also join in for a challenge, like what about the Mozilla Foundation, hopefully they will donate something...
Oh wait, this is something for the evil tyrant companies to do, doh
The realities of such a statement aside, etc, this statement doesn't exactly come across as "awe-inspiring": thus making some highly employable people have to find other jobs.
...pay Bill first before you can experience it!
The tax break is on the money you donate.
So, he gives $15M, and saves the taxes on that $15M. Those taxes could be 40% or so. So he saves $6M in taxes.
But he's still out at least $9M no matter how you slice it.
I'm glad he donated some money. And yeah, I'm sure some MS stuff will show up there, but that's okay.
Now perhaps Google should to pony up. They're only like 200 yards away from the museum.
It'd be great if Steve Jobs would too.
I've been to the museum. Nice place. Really empty. Let's hope for the best.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
This is a seriously insane museum collection of computer history. Apparently $45K wouldn't do it, but I certainly think getting saving all these old machines for posterity would be worth it.
_ W0QQitemZ8706273723QQcategoryZ4193QQrdZ1QQcmdZView Item
http://cgi.ebay.com/Classic-Vintage-PC-Collection
(And no I'm not the seller, or related to him/her in any way)
I do agree with your sentiment though.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
And besides, MS-DOS supported 768K of RAM on other machines besides PCs (like the Victor 9000). It wasn't Microsoft or MS-DOS (or PC-DOS) that limited people to 640K RAM, it was IBM and their (project Chess) hardware design.
(Actually, some searching on the internet says the Victor 9000 could do up to 896KB of RAM. No one I used had that much. Perhaps that much RAM cost more than the onwers of the machines I used could afford?)
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego and: Oregon Trail Fine piece of childrens software I grew up with on the Apple. Though I did have the original IBM PC hand-me-down with GW-BASIC as my home computer. Had a whopping 20MB hard drive too. Think the thing costed around 5000 back in 1984 or so.
I'm from Spain. We have a very good health care system for free, but it costs a lot of money. Some of that money goes to buy Microsoft products for the computer that it's in the desk of a lot of doctors and a lot more for administrative purposes.
So I'm not very impressed that they spend some of the money earned from our social security systems to preserve some old computers in the United States.
It's my opinion.
My city: Barcelona.
A very appropriate measure.
Once that TCPA thing gets mandated by the government, computers as we know them WILL need preserving. All that will be left are locked up, pre sanitised and centrally monitored appliances.
I disagree with the methods of some of the more brutal African warlords but one must honestly be impressed with the quality of the diamonds that come from their mines.
-- Using the preview button since 2005
Maybe because he wants to walk around a museum and laugh at all the competitors he put out of business. Worlds biggest ego trip :)
Of course, maintaining the fiction that MS were responsible for the birth of popular computing is a good reason for Bill to invest in computer "history".
I don't know. It would be just as silly to claim that it is just because of Windows. I thought more people had computers, because they have gotten cheaper, and more necessary for work. Windows makes computers more expensive, and not as easy to use.
There is simply not the data to prove whether or not Windows had a significant effect on computer adoption. most people were going to end up with one, anyway, whether the software was made by microsoft, Apple, Commodore, Google or some company that exists in a parallel universe.
Since we don't have access to a parallel copy of the universe, we don't know whether Microsoft helped or hindered computing. Perhaps more people would own computers if today's software and Operating Systems weren't so demanding of resources? Or if they remained network, rather than desktop-centric.
I have never known anyonw who bought a computer because of Microsoft. Many but in spite of Microsoft. I have known people to avoid getting into computers at all, because of Microsoft, though.
... and then they built the supercollider.
MS starts asking 15M bucks for XP license and Bill decided to donate a copy of XP?
Monopoly money...
BBC Micro model B, followed by RiscOS on Acorn Archimedes. I might add that when I moved to high school I switched from RiscOS to Windows 3.1. A painful experience.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
One more thing, it's "That's called foresight", dickhead.
.. in this local museum. Much smaller, but enthusiastic and they could use your help! Donate now.
Most of those computers listed by thegrandparent would have been experienced in the home. Something like an Amiga or and Apple II was considerably cheaper than a contemporary PC, and could do most of what the PC could do. Windows required a hard disk at the very least, and a lot of memory. If Microsoft didn't exist, we'd still have a computer in every home. It may even have been better.
Actually it's Quick and Dirty Operating System later shortened into DOS - Dirty Operating System?
There's no 'on' position on the Slacker switch!
I'd like to see a tech company use some of their donation money to improve the workplace and pay of those people that do the soldering and assembly of the actual computers. Personally I'd like to see the money go towards improving the future instead of preserving the past. I guess I'll just have to flame bill a bit more in order to get the money out of him.
check out the best blog ever:
http://oehlberg.com
...perhaps people will be able to remember when one actually had significant choice in mass-market computers.
A contrarian play:
For two decades, every available dollar has been put into making US upgrade to newer and more expensive computers....so now he invests millions to lock some in time? That's kinda ironic.
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
sou desu neeee....., ore mo sou omou. ookii mondai desu yo na. ano, buchakete iu to, kare wa chotto inchiki desu yo. doushiyou....komarimasuyo... ma, shouganai yo. itsuka kawaru yo, kitto. toriaizu, nande unicode denai no? surashudotto mou... ma, zenzen damenanjan, tabun. mukashi ikenai
Although I highly applaud Bill G for giving 15 Mil to the museum, giving 15 Mil is like me opening my wallet and pulling out a 20 dollar bill. Gates probably Makes $20 mil every hour or two in profit off of dividens.
If he was going to contribute 15 mil, why not the whole 50 mil they needed? If a begger is asking for $1.00 and you have it to spare AND intend on giving it to the begger, why only give 30 cents?
Doing good deeds does not change the fact that you've been nasty. Hamas runs welfare systems, does this mean that their violent side isn't so bad after all?
He's not Hitler by any stretch of the imagination however he should be remembered both for his charity and the methods he used to obtain that money.
-- Using the preview button since 2005
As of today, hardcore geeks are the most likely to abandon MS if they haven't already. Being aware of the perils of Microsoft, they are also main targets for the "Bill Gates ain't so bad"-campaign currently running at a slashdot near you.
There's no 'on' position on the Slacker switch!
Still not convinced. It's the open IBM platform more than the Windows OS that made the PC take off in popularity and leave the Mac behind, but that was never really a mass home market.
Ten years ago the most basic home PC cost about a grand, and might have as its big selling point a copy of Encarta. That's the home PC á la Microsoft. Nowadays a basic PC costs a few hundred, and has as its big selling point a connection to the Internet. That's what's changed. We have to thank the massive drop in hardware costs and the increased importance of the Internet for the huge number of home PCs today. The OS is quite irrelevant. Any cheap graphical interface would have done just as well; all that DOS / Windows had as an advantage was that they were far less expensive than the commercial Unices at the time.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
So you're saying that Bill Gates is a little like Robin Hood?
I wonder how true that is. Personally, mine was the Vic-20. I didn't get in front of Windows until 1995 at work (Win 3.1 at the time, but I installed 95 to try), and that was enough to convince me that Windows was not a suitable replacement for my Amiga 4000.
I bought a 486 DX2/66, put slackware on it, then a few years later supplimented that with a Mac (OS 8.6) and then moved to OS X. I see no reason other than Battlefield 2 to go back to Windows as my main machine :)
/. is probably reasonably stacked wth people who ddn't need to be introduced to computing by their workplace or local harvey norman / computer world / best buy.
Only big ligs use sigs.
...and I will build you the LARGEST collection of computer junk you could ever imagine!
e pisode/68766.html
I wonder if they have the W.O.P.R. (War Operation Planned Response) computer system?
Do they also have the M-5 from Star Trek? It sounds like something right up Microsoft's alley:
from: http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TOS/
The U.S.S. Enterprise is chosen to be the test ship for the new M-5 multitronic computer system, a computer meant to be able to run a starship without human intervention. Also aboard for the test is Dr. Richard Daystrom, the inventor of the M-5 and an obsessive and unstable individual. Initially the M-5 performs well, but when it decides to destroy a robot freighter, Kirk orders the test canceled. The M-5, however, protects itself and makes it impossible for it to be disconnected. The computer becomes increasingly erratic, a result of Dr. Daystrom's decision to impress his engram onto the computer as part of its programming. Starting a scheduled war games drill, M-5 uses the full arsenal of the U.S.S. Enterprise to attack four other Federation starships.
In a last-ditch appeal to the M-5, Kirk makes the computer realize that it has committed the sin of murder. Since Dr. Daystrom would be ethically abhorred at such an act, the M-5 is equally penitent and tries to commit suicide by leaving the U.S.S. Enterprise defenseless against a counter-attack by the remaining other starships. At the last moment, Spock and Scott are able to finish disconnecting the M-5 unit. Kirk keeps the shields down, gambling successfully that the attacking ships would not fire on an undefended vessel. Restoring communications next, the fleet is called off.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
:P
The computer history museum website has a "Hall of fellows section" Which is described as:
For over a decade, the Computer History Museum has been publicly recognizing individuals of outstanding merit who have contributed to the development of computing. Chosen on the basis of accomplishment--formal education is not a factor--are nominated by a panel composed of Museum staff, industry peers, and former Fellows.
At least 10 years must have elapsed between a specific contribution and an individual's nomination in order to properly assess the historical importance of his/her achievements. The contribution must thus be of a foundational nature, one that has strongly influenced the intellectual, disciplinary, or industrial underpinnings of computing.
Bill gates is not on this list, because he has stifled development more than contributing to it... I imagine part of the terms for this donation will be that he gets listed..
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
Then will he give me 10 million to devote my life to spreading the availability of quality computing resources into new areas... thats a full time job no one pays for... but $10 million dollars annual investment returns would fund and pay for my time doing it...
I realy do wonder just whats going to happen to the heirs to his fortune... i mean realy... does any one have any clue what the Jnr Gates s are going to do with the worlds largest inheritance...
XML - A clever joke would be here if
Making computing ubiquitous, and easy to understand-- these aren't things to be taken lightly.
Hmm, computing is not really easing easy and ubiquitous with Windows. That's what they want us to think, but it's not true.
Most people I know have many problems using their computer, which are full of virus, spyware and that kind of shit. I would say that 80 or 90% of people having a computer connected to the internet can't use it correctly.
Some others OSs are not always as easy to use, but at least they work and don't try to make you think that something which is inherently complexe is simple (making it actually more complexe if you want something working because they hide you all the details).
wtf.n0x.org
You know, these moderators are insane. There was NOTHING imflammatory about that comment. He was simply expressing an opinion. But because his views of Linux don't line up with the moderators, it's tagged as flamebait. Grow up, moderators. Just because you don't agree with someone doesn't mean it's flamebait.
That's a ridiculous comparison even for slashdot.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
She must have long since set the record for "Most money of my husbands that I've given away" award.
I guess she's still pretty well off, not dining on Mr. Noodles & water by any means.
~jennifer.k~
My first contact with anything like a computer was a C64, later I got a 386DX40 as my first real PC with Windows 3.1
If it were not for Bill Gates, I would have looked at codes much sooner then I did now and were much further. So if anything, Bill Gates and closed source held me back.
If he would not have been there, I would have picked up another kind of PC that would have been available. Perhaps a Mac, perhaps something completely different.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
It's an exageration without a doubt but the basic principle is the same. The parent seemed to be saying that it's okay to like Bill because despite the dubious business practices of Microsoft, they make some real nice stuff.
Does that make more sense to you?
-- Using the preview button since 2005
I haven't seen a list of where Steve Jobs is donating his money. Perhaps one of the Apple fanboys (or fangirls) could explain that the goodwill glow from all the iPods is enough.
But lets not sell him short... He did donate $1,000 on 3/25/2004 to Congressman Rahm Emanual campaign. see.
More info here and here.
SYS 64738
Charitable donations are tax deductable. What Gates is doing is very similar to what Andrew Carnegie and other "Robber Barons" did around the first of the century with their foundations. It would be curious to know who will be the administrators of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation after they have deceased and how well, if at all, they will be paid.
He found five copies of Windows which are the only known copies which never crashed during their time in service.
These are so rare that eBay auctioneers have determined their value to be in the millions...
All five are, however, known to be riddled with spyware...
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
...I gave a bumb $.75 earlier last week.
Ever done a `man` on `top` ?
yeah but you probably didnt even do that.
.00000000001% donation is far better and more useful than if you donated 75% of your worth
and it doesnt matter if it is a small percentage, his
cause the difference is millions and when the organization gets abig check that is all that counts.
Unless you've got some kind of evidence that the history museum is being influenced to change the nature of their exhibits to lean towards a more Microsoft-centric history - I think you're just being another anti-Gates troll with this comment.
It's pretty clear that Gates is a guy who has a real interest in computing, no matter what else you think of his company's own products or business practices. I think almost *any* of us with a similar interest (both personal and business) in computing technology would throw some donation money towards a museum catering towards preserving computing history - assuming we had loads of cash sitting in a bank account for these purposes already.
If you see Bill Gates donating millions to a "bowling hall of fame" - then you might say "Ok, what's the catch here? Microsoft powered bowling alley scoring systems?" But Bill isn't an avid bowler, last I checked. This is a little bit different....
... in Frozen Carbonite
ADVENTURERS! - ANTIHERO FOR HIRE - CARDMASTER CONFLICT
.... such as the infamous chair. That's a piece of history we all want to see preserved.
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
Yeah, the evidence is in the article. Follow the money. Even if he was donating to a bowling hall of fame, there would be some reason for that. You don't give that kind of money away and continue to be rich. It just doesn't happen. Most of his donations are there to protect the money from taxes and the feel good PR is a nice byproduct for him. He can even choose these shelters to appear cool, generous, interested, whatever.
is this supposed to be serious? and Windows "just works"?!
i'd mod you +5 funny if it was my turn...
I don't feel like it...
Would they display a collection of JPEG artifacts?
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Making computing ubiquitous, and easy to understand-- these aren't things to be taken lightly.
Indeed. If Microsoft were uniquely responsible for doing those things, this comment would support your argument. They weren't, and it doesn't.
I think gates used/uses his money to improve his tainted image.
Why is the parent post moderated "troll"? Be realistic, people -- this is one of the prime motivations for wealthy individuals and corporations to make charitable donations. Not the only motivation, mind you, but anyone who thinks it isn't a consideration in a multi-million-dollar donation is seriously naive.
That the reason is because he stifled development more than contributing to it?
Is it on the plaque in small print? Or did you just make it up?
I'm not quite so sure lately, but I think DOS and Windows 95 were incredibly important to innovation. Anyone who watched the PC platform when Windows 95 came out knows better than to say that MS stifled development. By creating a platform for developers, they allowed the lowly PC platform to catch up greatly to the Mac in usability and bring capabilities to buyers of low-cost hardware that might never have come to them otherwise.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/10/01/leaked_ema il_exposes_ms_charity/
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Maybe he knows he's getting part of history and want to preserve himself.
I realy do wonder just whats going to happen to the heirs to his fortune... i mean realy... does any one have any clue what the Jnr Gates s are going to do with the worlds largest inheritance...
s /0,15114,1117906,00.html
1 16457,00.html
The couple of articles below will answer probably a majority of questions.
Check the conversation between Gates and Buffet on this topic to see that their views are fairly noble indeed:
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/article
Excerpt on why Buffet thinks Gates is able to manage philanthropy better than Buffet:
"FORTUNE: You have different philosophies about philanthropy, with Bill giving a lot of his money away today and Warren waiting until he dies to give it away. What arguments would you make to the other that your way is the right way?
BUFFETT: Well, I think his way is better. He and Melinda, they're devoting a huge amount of money, terrific brains, and heart to it. That's a great combination. I couldn't have done that when I was in my 40s and added anything meaningful. At my age now, you can argue that a very significant percentage of the money has been made. And I don't need the stock to control Berkshire, so it may make sense to do something very significant before I die."
-----------
While you are it, please see this old (1986) article about Buffet (referenced from the earlier one) titled "Should You Leave It All to the Children":
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/articles/0,15114,1
"Susan Buffett, who works in Washington as an administrative assistant to the editor of U.S. News & World Report and is married to a public interest lawyer, admits her father's position is tough to live with. 'My dad is one of the most honest, principled, good guys I know,' she says. 'And I basically agree with him. But it's sort of strange when you know most parents want to buy things for their kids and all you need is a small sum of money --to fix up the kitchen, not to go to the beach for six months. He won't give it to us on principle. All my life my father has been teaching us. Well, I feel I've learned the lesson. At a certain point you can stop.'"
S
I think Bill has already though about this
They call me the wookie man, I guess that's what I am
Bill donates where he belongs!
Really? Has he donated to hell yet?
Microsoft's target audience is corporate executives and average consumers, not enthusiasts Actually, they do try to get people who use other operating systems to use M$ Window$. The only thing is, they have to make free programming tools and power user tools available (and supported), as well as getting the system not to have a full crash whenever something like a game fails, before that happens. And it would be a good idea not to charge so much as well. Come on, software is not like making cars. Once you have one copy of the software, making so many more is very, very cheap. It does NOT cost $300 just to produce one copy of the software! Just my $.02
Microsoft-free since March 28, 2004
Bill, to get the museum off to the right start, I am willing to part with my beloved Osborne luggable. (Think portable sewing machine at about 24 pounds.) The screen is an attractive green 5 inch beauty. And as an added plus there are two floppy drives and a selection of floppies: each of which can hold almost 10 pages of text. Wordstar and SuperCalc included.
If not - they should get one ASAP while there is still some of them left.
Say what'd you'd like to say about Bill the person, but his foundation has helped many of people in my city. I went to high school in Tacoma, and the highschool itself was easily one of the most badly-talked about schools. It was built in the 60s with a California style open campus - but it failed to take into account the Washington weather. Anyway, the foundation has continually helped many low income students such as myself to go to college, usually giving out 9,000 dollars a year until one obtains a degree. The foundation is also 'repairing' most of the inner city high schools here and also built a totally new high school to replace my old high school - same name different building. It's easily the most expensive in Washington State by far. Again, say what you'd like but if it wasn't for the foundation, I probably would be in serious debt for college.
How much are they willing to pay for that old pc-jr in my garage? I got the whole offical pile. Put it away ages ago (worked then) and haven't touched it since. It even has the 640K hack. I will throw in a Basic Cart. and Mouse Cart with it but they have to find their own special dos2.2 as mine mildewed.
When you spend most of your life being an arrogant bastard, ruthlessly stealing other people's work and/or putting other people's companies out of business by questionable/illegal means which are then all aired in court during an antitrust trial, that's when you've got to spread the cash around so you'll still be fondly remembered when you're gone.
Somehow the wrong moderation was sent so I'll post something and cancel my moderation in this topic.
It is possible, very possible, that Bill Gates has some expectation of benefit to Microsoft. Rather than finding fault with Bill or raise questions about conflict of interest or even contemplate that Bill ought to return some cash into the needier aspects of computing, I'll suggest that from an objective view Microsoft has made contributions to computing industry worth preserving. Microsoft products typically have not been sold as luxury items and I doubt a big donation was intended to attract people with overly expensive displays. Any presentation of Microsoft or the impacts of Microsoft will likely be costly so give Bill a chance to pay for some of it. Bill could have paid for the entire museum but he made a fairly proportionate contribution. Jobs for artists and tourism. No biggie.
Know your pads. One time pad: good for cryptography. Two timing pad: where to take your mistress.
You can just fill the museum with NEW computers, and then just wait for next year to open.
...when the curator tries to include it, a nasty guard will shout "ILLEGAL OPERATION!" - but not actually stop him from doing anything.
Did you ever hear the interview with Bill Gates that PBS did years ago? One of the statements he made way back then was that he envisioned himself as becoming one of the great philanthropists of the modern era. He looked up to people like Carnegie who were "immortalized" with foundations bearing their names, and so forth.
As I recall, the comment came about because the interviewer pretty much directly asked him why he wasn't donating more of his money to charitable causes. Bill explained that he still saw himself as a businessman first and foremost. He felt he was still too young to start in with the philanthrophy, but that was part of his "long term plan".
So yeah, of course the donations serve as tax write-offs for him, as all of them do. But it seems to me Gates is doing pretty much what he said his personal goals were.....
...to preserve the current computing history where Microsoft and other handful of proprietary software companies dominated the world.
Here's to change and open source!
finally! I can sell my old OS/2 stuff off to them! Gates will love that.
I call it like it is and someone mods me troll. Brilliant. Maybe if I post it again I can get smarter mods:
I think gates used/uses his money to improve his tainted image. The best way to get money out of Jobs and others might be to start a personal campaign against them. The only way out of it would therefore be public donations.
I'd like to see a tech company use some of their donation money to improve the workplace and pay of those people that do the soldering and assembly of the actual computers. Personally I'd like to see the money go towards improving the future instead of preserving the past. I guess I'll just have to flame bill a bit more in order to get the money out of him.
check out the best blog ever:
http://oehlberg.com
It's great they donated something they thought was significant. But unless they expect that item to generate large cash amounts for the museum, they still should pony up dough, IMHO.
This is easy for me to say, as I've given the museum very little money myself.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Queue would be to place it in line. If you queued it, it might never happen.
He's referring to "cue", which is when you start something (a process?) on a signal.
Since we saw the jokes, I have to assume they were "cued", and not just "queued".
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
the last one, and this one too.
I've been a Mac person (to the core) since 1987.
And I didn't shoot myself after typing it.
GNU has done very little for application developers. No GNU platform is a viable platform for shipping consumer-level applications on, yet...
When I say developers, I don't mean people who toil away. I mean people who make a business of it.
I do agree Windows is not pleasant to develop for. But the money makes it worth it. When you're a businessman, not a hobbyist, it's the results that matter most. Windows created a platform that has lined many developers pockets with money.
And it doesn't matter where half the money of that low-cost systems goes to. That system would never have reached $500 with just Apple making GUI systems. Apple does not have an in-built tendency to reduce costs to make something available to wider audiences. It took the competition of Windows to make that happen.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
I fully support this donation, in fact, I think we should lobby to thank Bill, and especially Melinda for theuir donation, and I know just how to do it.
Make the virtual curator/host Microsoft's greatest creation...
Microsoft Bob
8-)
Without Microsoft, the Internet would be a much safer place to do business.
I doubt this. If windows wasn't on 90% to 95% (extremely rough guess) and it was some other OS then all the malious hackers and script kittys out there would target that OS. we'd still have the same problems and people would bitch about who ever released said OS
Slashdot sigs contain more useful information than the articals
All references to Seattle Computer Systems, Digital Research and Tiny Basic have been excised... ;-)
I have done some development work in third-world countries, and the stuff Bill & Melinda's foundation supports is brilliant. They are not encumbered by the obligations government aid gets (buy from donor country, or cannot support abortion rights). They also have piles of money, so they can take on smart, useful and long-term projects which ultimately save many lives and improved education levels and economies.
Having said that, I believe that Bill never donated a dime to anyone until he got married, saying that he wanted to be actively involved in working with recipients and didn't have the time back then.
I don't like the guy's software, nor his business practices, and his sudden conversion to philanthropy may be a concern, but the work his foundation does is absolutely fantastic.
The subject who is truly loyal to the Chief Magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures (Junius)
reading that makes me think of him running a mr burns style search for an heir.
if hes only going to give 30 million to his kids. why not search out 7 other people and chuck them 10 million each to spread the wealth around more. not as much philanthropy, as seeding the economy, and being very generous to 7 random people. A person with 10 million can do a lot of good if they set their mind to it, imagine if you never had to worry if the bills were paid and you could every year funnel that 100 thousand dollar income (not part of returns on the 10 million and yould probably have a big chunk of that you could funnel in too.) into a charity or to being generous and helping people.
Simple point. Theyll give a kid in etheopia a laptop for free but Comp Sci students in the western world wont even be able to buy them yet? *points to his Univesity SUBSIDISING laptop prices and still not bringing them under a grand* If some charity would cough the dough, id buy a thousand of those laptops and just give them to any of the students in the Comp Sci department. They did a study and proved it helped, so theyre unfortunatly giving an unfair advantage to those with $. If i had 100 grand a year for being generous, i could do that every year, not a single student in the department wouldnt have one and theyd all have the benefit.
XML - A clever joke would be here if
Barclay stood nearly trembling, his eyes drawn to the back of the slim
body of young Cadet Crusher cavorting naked under the gentle
waterfall. His round pale buttocks, so smooth, so pink, so...
virginal. And with that doofy art-boy haircut plastered wetly to his
head he seemed even more attractive...
Wesley turned, full lips, flaccid, uncircumsized penis hanging limp
from his near-hairless groin over two unimpressive wrinkled little
testicles, his arms awkwardly akimbo, he stared at Barclay, a grin
spreading across his face.
"Broccoli! Come for a swim." He reached into the pool of water
swirling around his thighs, waded toward the older man, splashing and
grinning wickedly.
"W-Wes, d-don't... stop splashing me!" Barclay staggered awkwardly,
backing away from the waterfront, away from the wet, naked boy. His
stretchy standard-issue uniform pants only accentuated the bulge
swelling from his groin.
Wesley grinned, enjoying the lieutenant's discomfort, smug in the
knowledge that his youthful body excited the officer. He stepped out
of the water and grabbed Barclay's wrist; heaving backward and to the
side as he'd learned in his judo class, he sent Barclay to his knees
in the muddy bank of the pool...
But Barclay *had* somehow managed to get through the Academy's basic
training, and he did outweigh the lad by nearly 30 lbs... his hand
snaked out catching Wes' ankle and the two were on the ground in a
flash. Blue uniform wet and muddied sliding against the laughing
slippery wet young boy Barclay's hands grabbing whatever appendage was
handy in his efforts to pin the brat rubbing himself hard against the
smooth hairless body he easily pinned the arrogant little snot-nose
face-first in the mud.
"Well, Wesley..." Barclay rubbed his clothed groin against the firm
round crack of young Ensign Crusher's nether region.
Wesley giggled, even as Barclay leaned forward to keep Wes pinned down
by the weight of his upper body as he lowered his soggy pants to let
his hard penis spring forth, using his free hand to guide it between
Wesley's pink firm cheeks, tapping against the virginal little brown
button hidden therein.
"I've been wanting to to d-do this for a l-long time, you little...
little BRAT!"
Barclay plunged his penis into Wesley's rectum; the lad squealed,
impaled, as Barclay proceeded to ride his ass. He began humping back
at the cock violating his hind quarter, moaning in youthful excess...
"Gee Broccoli, this is *great*... what do you call it?"
"COMPUTER! FREEZE PROGRAM."
Barclay continued cornholing young ensign Crusher. Having secured his
program so that only he could access or stop it, he was at the moment
oblivious to the presence of his commanding officer, lost in his lusty
revenge fantasy.
"CAPTAIN'S OVERRIDE!"
Barclay landed with a thud, the head of his penis slamming into the
cold matrix grid of the holodeck floor howling in agony his pants
around his hips his erection vanished rolling onto his back clutching
his injured organ attempting to curl into a fetal position.
"Mr. Barclay..." his features etched in stone, so much control over
his facial muscles that it was difficult to move his jaw enough to
speak, Jean Luc Picard spat his words out very carefully.
"Consider yourself on report. Mister. Barclay." Picard tugged
meaningfully at the bottom of his uniform shirt.
Barclay lay with his knees drawn to his chest, his buttocks exposed,
his genitals clutched protectively, his eyes squeezed tightly shut
rolling desperately from side to side.
Lord High Crapflooder The Right Honourable Vlad Craig Esther McDavenpherson III
Destroyer of Mercatur.Net