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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
theodp writes to mention a C|Net article about Chinese President Hu Jintao's historic first visit to the U.S.. The catch is that his first dinner won't be at the White House. It will be at Bill Gates' manse. From the article: "The approximately 100-person guest list is a who's who of the U.S. Pacific Northwest power elite, including Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz and Washington state Gov. Christine Gregoire, said event organizers. The guests will undergo strict security checks before entering Gates' lodge-style, 66,000-square-foot home overlooking Lake Washington with a reported seven bedrooms, six kitchens, 24 bathrooms, a domed library, a reception hall and an artificial estuary stocked with salmon and trout. Gates and Gregoire are expected to introduce and welcome Hu, who will then offer a toast in front of the gathering."
Rather than reference the classic movie starring Sydney Poitier, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, I imagine this would be a more appropriate dialogue.
Rove: "Sir, Hu is going to be attending a dinner at one of your biggest campaign contributors houses, Mr. Bill Gates."
Bush: "Who?"
Rove: "Yessir, Hu."
Bush: "No, I'm asking you..... Who's coming to the US to have dinner with Geeky Gates?"
Rove: "That's right sir, Hu."
Bush: "...............Daggummit Turd Blossom! I'm asking you who is coming to the US to have dinner with Geeky Gates?"
Ad nauseum
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Given what they're probably going to discuss (opening markets, etc.), Gates and the NPE (Northwest Power Elite) are probably more relevant than the President, since they've got all the money.
"My God...it's full of trolls!"
with a reported seven bedrooms, six kitchens, 24 bathrooms, a domed library, a reception hall and an artificial estuary stocked with salmon and trout.
I bet the 1:3.4 ratio of sleeping to dumping at Gates' place has to be the highest in the nation.
The Chinese government issued a decree two weeks ago that all PCs will need to have a licensed operating system software installed before leaving the factory gates in an effort to crack down on piracy.
Spotting the pirated copies of Windows will be easy.
Instead of "Start," the button will say "Very Much Go."
The coolest voice ever.
Hu Jintao's was going to visit about a few months ago, but Hurricane Katrina delayed his visit until now.
He cancelled it on the last day, and the time before, they were also going to dine at Gate's mansion where they had already prepared the salmon, which were airlifted from Alaska on the same day.
Dunno what happend to them.
If you want to drop in, here's Bill's house on google maps [via Sightseeing with Google Maps]:
Bill Gates's House
What happens when that security check reveals that one of the people walking through the door is a tyrant with billions subjects, harboring the biggest piracy, spammer and phishing rings it the world, with nuclear weapons?
And that another is the slightly less powerful guest of that tyrant, the president of China?
--
make install -not war
Hu: President Gates, I..
Gates: Please, I'm not the president, I have more power
Hu: I am still pleased to present you with the Chinese version of Windows
Gates: Hey, that's a pirated copy!
Hu: Yes, we made it just for you, need a key?
Gates: No, you go and post in on YOUR internet, be sure not to censor it. BTW, you do know that RED Hat isn't a communist version of Linux. It actually promotes human rights.
Hu: Oh yes, we know, and based on what I am allowed to read about your decline in human rights, it appears that the US isn't using it either.
Gates: Cheers
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
I'm not against all consumption, or even against all conspicuous consumption, but when it gets to the point where there's no longer even any pretext I think it shows a lack of character.
Then you should not look into the latest retirement package of the CEO of Exxon. He received a $400 Million package that works out to what...... over $1,095,000/day over the past year?
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Hu: Yes, the view of Lake Washington is magnificent.
Gates: Hee hee, that's not what I'm talking about...
"Gentlemen," concluded Napoleon, "I will give you the same toast as before, but in a different form. Fill your glasses to the brim. Gentlemen, here is my toast: To the prosperity of The Manor Farm! "
There was the same hearty cheering as before, and the mugs were emptied to the dregs. But as the animals outside gazed at the scene, it seemed to them that some strange thing was happening. What was it that had altered in the faces of the pigs? Clover's old dim eyes flitted from one face to another. Some of them had five chins, some had four, some had three. But what was it that seemed to be melting and changing? Then, the applause having come to an end, the company took up their cards and continued the game that had been interrupted, and the animals crept silently away.
But they had not gone twenty yards when they stopped short. An uproar of voices was coming from the farmhouse. They rushed back and looked through the window again. Yes, a violent quarrel was in progress. There were shoutings, bangings on the table, sharp suspicious glances, furious denials. The source of the trouble appeared to be that Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington had each played an ace of spades simultaneously.
Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Forty years ago, Nixon invented the policy of engagement to balance the dangerous Soviet Union against an equal dangerous but hungry Communist China.
Ten years ago, with the Soviet menace defeated, Bill Clinton invented the complete sell out. Slave made goods have flowed into out country, jobs and money have flowed out. Parallel to this was born the myth of the "information economy" where the US would own ideas and the rest of the world would do our bidding because of it. Of course, for this ownership to be complete, it must apply to our own citizens. To enslave others, we must first prove our dedication to ruling by enslaving ourselves.
You can draw a straight line to today, with the DMCA, Patriot act and rampant domestic spying from a tremendously expanded federal government. As the rich and powerful gateher in Redmond, ask yourself where the rhetoric of freedom has gone and why your boss is dining with a Communist. What in the hell are we doing?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
... flock together. They're both controll freaks, they both hate freedom and individual liberty, they both lie about free markets (China's while getting freer is not truely free, nor is MS which relies strictly on license monopolies and not competition), they both think they're smart and have large number of resources, they're both more interested in power and prestige than making a mark. Bill wants a billion people in his market, China wants total information controll over their citizens. In all truth, I wouldn't be suprosed if they slept together.
The pigs are walking upright.
I wonder how security is going to be handles here. It seems that if some terrorist like the one wanting to get the WTO, knew about all these power players in one area, could think it might be an attractive target for them. It might have as much umph in the finacial world as the 9/11 attacks.
You obviously never lived with 5 sisters. They need all the bathrooms they can put there hands on.
Coderz 4 Life
A James Bond movie?
Just...strikes me as odd is all.
I don't get it.
If you'll look, after the mess in Tiananmen in 1989 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_prot ests_of_1989 the Chinese government basically said something to the effect of "ok, you know we'll kill you if you embarass us again like that" and that they were going to turn the country capitalist in the sense that foreign companies could do whatever they want and they decided to invest heavily in technology and modernization. Their bread and circuses decision has lead China to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world if not the fastest. There were sweeping reforms economically that took place while the political landscape remained as barren as before. True communists they are not in any sense.
*The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question.*
Did you know Hu Jintao got his degree in hydraulic engineering? Why can't we have an engineer presient?
bug.gd: error search engine. Humanity working together to solve all errors.
I'll bet those trout are ill tempered and have lasers on their heads. Hey, the work for Microsoft so they have to be in a bad mood. Everyday is a bad day, then they serve you for dinner when they "fucking kill" you as they've done before and will do again.
It's nice to see the head of Evil Industry's Starbuck's division getting some publicity and credit. Number two's idea there was quite profitable.
Gates, stroking a bald cat: "Do you like my quasi futuristic clothing, Chairman Hu? I designed them myself."
Chairman Hu: "Ah yes, they are much like Chairman Mao's favorites, but he liked drab blue."
Master Gates: "A toast then, to $400,000,000 and the drab."
-clink-clink-
Chairman Hu: "I have a thing for Red."
Flunky S. Baller: "Tell me you are not talking about Red Flag Linux!" Perspiration half moons show under his arms.
Chairman Hu: "I am."
Baller, raising chair "I'm going to fucking kill Linus. I've done it before and -"
Master Gates slaps Baller on the back of the head: "Down boy!" Turns and smiles. "He's a little fired up tonight."
Baller: "I love this company! I work in the swamp. Though I do not fall in the trenches of coding, I am yet a soldier! Developers, Developers, Developers!"
Master Gates laughs and pats Baller on the head. Yes, this is my favorite number two.
Everyone laughs.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
"Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?"
oo oo oo! Now say wessel!
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Nowadays the government calls it "socialism with Chinese characteristics," not because they think they're fooling anyone, but as a pretense to legitimacy. Socialism is being redefined as something roughly along the lines of Nordic-style welfare capitalism. It's not even clear that the burgeoning urban bourgeoisie would care if the Party apparatus were to repudiate socialism once and for all.
Certainly we should petition for greater freedoms in mainland China and in particular for the rights of imprisoned journalists, political opponents, and religious leaders. Still, considering how terribly China's citizens suffered under previous incarnations (Mao) of the present post-Tiananmen regime, I'm optimistic for the future. I believe the Party will continue on its path of liberalization as a younger, more cosmopolitan generation of Oxford- and Columbia-educated Chinese accedes to power. Who needs revolution, after all, when you can build democracy from within?
Bonsai Kitten: TNG
Really.
If it works like most Windoze "security" a little report is generated, a few files are wiped out, stability suffers and they all contract bird flu anyway.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
So many inaccuracies, it's hard to know where to start...
The word is MANSION
Actually, mansion is a totally different word, I suspect they really did mean "manse".
However, I'll admit to *almost* emailing the editor to correct it, the difference being, I decided to check my facts first...
Manse (noun): A large and imposing residence.
Mansion (noun): A large stately house, a manor house.
Given the description of the house and the person we generally believe Bill Gates to be, "large and imposing" works a little better than "stately" and the old-fashioned images generally associated with "a manor house" don't gel well with the lifestyle and tastes of a software billionaire.
The summary at this time uses the phrase "Bill Gates' manse." This is clearly a subversive attempt to evoke "goatse," a web site formerly located at goatse.cx which features explicit sexual acts involving goats.
Since we've cleared up the meaning of the word 'manse' and we can assume it was used deliberately, in so far as it is a valid choice, why is this an attempt to subvert the meaning of the article?
In fact, why would you believe that having the same two letters at the end of a word automatically links the two concepts in some way? How many other words ending in 'se' also make you think of goatse??
"sexual acts involving goats" ??? I think not...
Perhaps you should read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goatse.cx
Actually, save yourself some time and click this.
WARNING TO EVERYONE ELSE - DO NOT CLICK THAT LINK!
Optimist: The thumb drive is half empty! Pessimist: The thumb drive is half full...
I wonder where you've been for the past 20 years, because China's been liberalizing in fits and starts for pretty much that whole time. As bad as government repression is now, it's nothing compared to the Cultural Revolution or even the years immediately following Mao. Nowadays you can pick up all the major foreign dailies at any newsstand and flip to almost any channel on satellite TV. To be sure, random pages get ripped out of Newsweek, and CNN cuts to black every now and then. But for the government to permit even this limited degree of openness would have been unthinkable not too long ago.
The more China opens up, the more hope there is for the rule of law to replace the rule of guanxi (what we in the West would perceive as corruption), so long as people on both sides of the border keep pushing for free speech and open politics.
Bonsai Kitten: TNG
"I suppress ideas", "oh, so do i"
...I give you the future. It used to be that heads of state met openly, whilst businessmen made deals behind the scenes. Today, we see a head of state openly meeting with arguably the most powerful businessman in the United States. In a few years, the business men will simple meet, having done away with the facade of "heads of state." We live in interesting times.
P.P.S. I'm doing Science and I'm still alive.
Like many rich men, Gates has a hobby.
He just likes to collect China.
I am anarch of all I survey.
It is time for a good political rant. Big business is too powerful and interfering in international relations to a frightening extent.
Most innovation and growth comes from small and medium companies. Large companies exaggerate the power of economies of scale because being nimble is more important in a fast changing world. Big biz survives by bullying smaller companies, not by doing the job better or being more efficient. Anybody who has worked for a big company knows that they are inharently disfunctional.
American car companies didn't grow bloated and slow because of lack of foreign competition, but because of a lack of domestic competition, ei. smaller but more car companies. Japan's auto makers grew competitive because Japan had about 12 car companies before going overseas.
Big businesses should be split, or at least mergers above a certain size should curtailed. Most mergers result in a net loss of profits. The only reason they still happen is because of a select few who make big bucks off such deals and the ego power of being big.
Table-ized A.I.
Honestly, I'm really not sure how many times since Western style diplomacy became the Gold standard internationally that something like this has happened. For a foreign head of state to visit a country and not visit at least someone in the government first is highly, highly irregular. This isn't so much a tech story, I think, as a political one.
Mod Points: Helping you keep your opinion to yourself.
The Indian prez (Dr. Abdul Kalam) is a rocket scientist while the prime minister (Dr Manmohan Singh) is a PhD in economics from Oxford.
"When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." - Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
"Nordic-style welfare capitalism"? I thought that Scandinavian countries were usually politically described as social democracies? Any Scandinavians care to comment on how they prefer to describe their own systems (politely ;-) ) ? Apologies if I've got it wrong, I've just never heard the phrase "Nordic-style welfare capitalism" before. Maybe it's just two different spins on the same system, claims from the right and the left to 'owning' the same model?
Actually, the political spectrum in Taiwan is more extreme. In traditional Chinese society, which is preserved better in Taiwan, most people believe that "well educated man should rule the country". Apart from the notably exception of current president Chen Shui-Bian, all the major current and past party leaders (former president Lee Teng-hui, major oppression leaders Lien Chan, James Soong, Ma Ying Jeou) all have PhD (actually all from major universities in US).
In fact, I ran into a guy from Taiwan in my postgrad class. He was doing his PhD in electrical engineering at the time. I wondered why he made the decision because I knew he did not really enjoy engineering even for his masters. He told me that he had a strong interest in politics and had helped out the election campaign in the last Taiwan president election. His mentor suggested that the shortcut to enter politics was to get a PhD (any PhD preferrably in USA). This still gives crediblity to many people.
In the past (pre 20 century), educated man in China means proficient in literature, history and poetry. But, after the shock from interacting with the West, people started to worship "technology" (esp in mainland China). It is not a surprise to see engineer president, even if there is a real election in China today.
Kudos, you wrote the most useful, relevant, important post in this whole thread.
;) ...should read Myths of Free Trade and learn something real about our relationship with China and the rest of the world.
Related to that, everyone, and I mean everyone - liberal & conservative alike (including libertarians
See, the beauty is that under free markets businesses that can't turn a profit, or corrupt the market, will collapse under their own weight eventually.
Legislation and governmental action is not needed unless that specific entity has been playing unfairly by being anti-competitive or predatorial.
I agree that smaller companies tend to be more innovative, but larger companies have their place as well. Large companies allow for mass production, thus lower costs and more savings to the end consumer. This means they are (usually) a more efficient producer in the marketplace.
American car companies grew bloated and slow for two reasons. The first was due to union stagnation. The second was because the US DOT heavily regulates the auto industry thus creating a higher barrier to entry and effectively limiting competition.
And about regulation, big business LIKES big government. Think about it. When the government has the power to regulate the market, it creates regulations, red tape, legislation, and other obstacles that smaller and medium sized businesses cannot afford to participate in. Think drug companies. It takes over $1 BILLION (USD) to release a new drug, most of which is due to FDA regs. Thus, the only people who can participate are larger companies with deeper pockets; smaller firms are excluded.
And you are wrong about how big business survives. Some survive on their own free-market merits. Others however, and this is unfortunately becoming more and more common, survive to due influence in legislation and a bloated far-reaching government.
If the US government were limited and allowed the free-market to naturally self-regulate, like the US Constitution originally set forth, we would all be in a better situation now.
Libertas in infinitum
Google Search for: Hu visit to US
result:
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IP Logged.
Huh?
Gates, Harvard undergraduate dropout. GDub, Yale BA, Harvard MBA. Who is the intellectual?
MBA's aren't intellectuals. The intelligence required to get an MBA, even somewhere like Harvard, is a fraction of the intelligence required to get into Harvard as a technical major. Given that Gates has shown both far more intellectual capacity than Bush, technically, as well as having been orders of magnitude more successful as a businessman, I find your point to be positively silly.
If you call opposing the creation of a race of subhumans bread only for their stem cells to be anti-intellectual then I hope we have more of it. You are intellectually dishonest.
Who exactly is proposing creating a race of subhumans breed for their stem cells? Do you have a good grasp on how the technology works? The stem cells come from disposed fetuses (which are about as human as a piece of steak), and it is the cells that are cultured, not the fetuses.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
I run a nonprofit wherein I refurbish people's castoff computers, install Kubuntu, and then give them away to high school students in my area who can't afford their own computers (we also do fundraisers to pay for their DSL).
There is no way we could afford Windows licenses (we have placed about sixty boxes since January). Kubuntu is free.
To the end-user, who in this case only needs to type papers, send e-mail, and surf the web (ie, the vast majority of users), Kubuntu is a much better deal than XP. There is absolutely no comparison. None of the things you posted up there matter; even if MS Office is a superior product to OpenOffice (which I'll grant), for a basic user, MS Office's advantages are a non-issue, because they only ever use the most basic features (type, spellcheck, put text in italics, maybe insert footnotes, etc.).
I'll also allow that if you want to play games, typically you gotta be running a windows box. But then again, if I want to play new games, there is a hardware buy-in as well as the software buy-in for the XP license--I gotta shell out for the newest 3D card, more RAM, etc. already anyway, so I think gaming is a special case.
I suppose it just comes down to what specific application you're using the box for, eh?