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Bill Gates Founds New "Think Tank" Company
Homncruse sends in news of Bill Gates's new adventure, adding "I was working just one or two floors under this new office when it was all coming together. I even unknowingly shared an elevator with him at one time on his way up to the office." The article notes that the name "bgC3" derives from Bill Gates, catalyst, and the "third thing," neither Microsoft or the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
"Just months after his Microsoft farewell, Bill Gates is quietly creating a new company — complete with high-tech office space, a cryptic name and even its own trademark. Public documents describe the new Gates entity — bgC3 LLC — as a 'think tank.' It's housed within a Kirkland office that the Microsoft co-founder established on his own after leaving his day-to-day executive role at the company this summer ... However, bgC3 will also oversee Gates' personal pursuit of breakthrough ideas in science and technology. [An] insider said the goal isn't necessarily to create new companies, although ideas could be passed along to Microsoft, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — or others — as it makes sense ..."
Did the name 'bgc3' make anyone else think "Borg Cubed"?
Censorship is obscene. Patriotism is bigotry. Faith is a vice. Slashdot 2.0 sucks.
With frickin' laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my cycloptic colleague informs me that that cannot be done. Ah, would you remind me what I pay you people for, honestly? Throw me a bone here! What do we have?
Ballmer: "Sea Bass"
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
Corbis is Bill Gates' second company, not the Foundation.
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
GAWD! First Google with jet fighters... now Bill Gates with think TANKS. What's next?
I will bend like a reed in the wind.
I doubt it. In any event, you'd have to be richer than Bill Gates to find out.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Yeah, um, about that: http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/1997/01/1484
Like his VP who left MicroSoft some years ago.
Costco sells offices now?
while AMD buys an aircraft carrier from the near-bankrupt US Army
Umm that would be the Navy.
I smoked pot once. But I DID NOT inhale. Will you hire me?
To be honest, it sounds like a nice retirement project... sit around, drink coffee, come up with a few whacky ideas, shoot the breeze with a few interesting people. If I had his money I'd probably do something similar. Except I'd have it located somewhere a little more interesting. Like Paris, Berlin, Singapore... or all three!
And what if the Space shuttle was as reliable as your car? Yeah its apples to oranges, integrated firmware is not the same as a full OS.
They are going to make crappy commercials staring Bill with has-been comedians.
"TV, a medium as it is neither rare nor well done." Ernie Kovacs
Yeah, um, about that ... you really need to read this book, paying special attention to who was at war with whom, and for how long. Also of note, is that Bill Gates does not claim that the Internet is just a fad, and never has claimed that the Internet is just a fad. Pay no attention to the fact that Gates said exactly that; so long as he denies it, it never happened!
... They said Penguin in a M$ context; those kidders!
Anyone who thinks Gates is a "visionary" clearly hasn't read Gates' The Road Behind.
On a side note, Amazon says:
The Road Ahead (Penguin Readers, Level 3) (Paperback)
ROTFLMAO
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Only because you have come to accept poor quality. If people didn't spend 20 years with PC's that were unreliable, they wouldn't accept poor quality in other areas. Now I have to deal with a cell phone that reboots daily, because its "good enough."
There is no fundamental reason why a desk top PC is going to be unreliable. Poor design and quality control of the OS is the cause.
Think Deeply.
I hear Ballmer has already thrown in some chairs for his new office.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
At the same time, it's no ordinary office space. Visitors say it's fully stocked with Microsoft technologies, including a Surface tabletop computer with a virtual guestbook application.
wow. fancy.
and the B&MGF just spends profits from MSFT and even has been said to require Microsoft-only software in computer donations. So no wonder Bill Gates is trying to get others to come up with an idea he can profit from. With Microsoft having been a one-trick pony for all these years, just maybe Bill can find someone else who can come up with a hit.
Knowing the history of Microsoft and Windows, it was not really the product which made the business, it was the business behind the product and that faithful deal with IBM.
So could Bill Gates really build a business around a product which has to stand the test of the market to be successful? Think how Steve Jobs did the iPod and iTunes even though the Mac was still less than 5% of the market. People loved it and when they finally came out with the MS Windows version of iTunes, it opened up a maket of 100s of millions to the product and they came. There was not tying or leveraging of the iPod to a monopoly positioned product.
Personally, I don't think he has it in him do make this work. Just they way he publicly talks about things like speech recognition as the next big thing shows he's not good at doing "the next big thing". And they, Microsoft, have always been followers in tech and only get where they do because they leverage 90% marketshare with Windows. We shall see and he sure does have the bucks to get anything off the ground. And hey, the Spruce Goose got off the ground too. ;-)
LoB
it is Bill Gates who doen't have
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
Just a quick question, what would the man have to do in order for you to accept that he is a visionary? Now don't for a second think that I'm calling him one, what I'm saying is that one should not have to invent every useful program/concept in order to qualify as a visionary.
So he missed the internet, big deal, it's not like he was the only one.
Get me a link to his denial from sometime before 1983. Having him deny saying something stupid almost a decade after it became painfully obvious that what he said was stupid isn't really good evidence is it?
Go on, mod me. I don't care.
you had me at #!
I have about a million items
wrong with microsoft software products
that could use some design review.
Not sure why it didn't happen the
first time, but maybe Bill has some
time on his hands now.
Burma Shave.
Is it really that "painfully obvious"? So far my one like beats your zero links. Where did he say that? Why did he say that? Quite frankly I have never seen evidence to support that quote.
How about showing a link that he did? I mean actual proof, not just an "everyone knows" message board or wiki posting. The burden of proof is on the person making the claim, and so far I haven't anyone produce one scrap of evidence backing this claim. In absence of evidence, Bill Gates' words are all we have to go on.
And what if the Space shuttle was as reliable as your car?
that would be good, given that the shuttle exploded and killed its passengers on 2 of 120 trips.
Do they still call it a think tank if they steal all their ideas?
I guess if they sit around and think up better ways to rip people off.
Maybe it'll be like the foundation and he'll just be trying to buy back his twisted little soul with his stolen money.
I wonder if the employment contract BG signed with Microsoft had the usual clause of "everything you've previously thought of, are currently thinking of, or will think of belongs to us" ?
Invalid Checksum. Retrying.
I used to be pretty good with a BFG3000.
I wonder if Bill likes to frag.
1. Start company
2. Spend lots of money
3. ???
Though, seriously, I shouldn't criticize. We would all be better off if the third thing in Bill's next company weren't 'profit'.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
Take a look at the most recent MSFT earnings report (which came out yesterday I believe). You can find it on www.microsoft.com the Investor Relations section. Basically, in terms of income (not revenue): Client (aka Windows) made $3.2 billion, Server and Tools made $1.1 billion, MSFT Business Division (I'm assuming this includes Office) made $3.3 billion, and Entertainment (includes Xbox360) made $178 million. Online Services lost $480 million.
I've read his book. I've heard him on TV. I've read interviews with him. I know exactly how he stole^H^H^H^H^H created innovative products like Windows. His one claim to fame is he thought people would pay for software when everybody else thought it should free with the hardware. WOW!!!! I don't call that innovative so much as greedy. Pretty much every other word out of his mouth is revisionist history based horse$hit. If he said "when Microsoft popularized the Computer Virus ..." at least he would be approaching the truth.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Sink Tank, or STINK Tank, or STINK, then TANK?
Hopefully he's learned enough of what people HATE in/of/about msoft to avoid those mistakes again..
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
At the time MS was trying to sell its MSN service as a walled garden as opposed to going straight to the internet. This was an attempt to compete with AOL, prodigy, etc. I wouldnt be surprised if Bill knew that the real fad was these walled garden services, but as always, business first. MSN now is just a website.
Microsoft Bob 2?
He could follow Mark Shuttleworth's adventure in the Linux world.
Maybe an MSbuntu?
I looked at the source code of his new webpage and he ISN'T using Frontpage.
Support the 30 Hour Work Week!!!
Maybe that's why the Army is 'near-bankrupt'.
After all, who am I to disagree with a three-digit /. id?
Take a look at the bottom on TFA, in "Related Articles"
I don't know what kind of shitty phone you use but my Motorola A1200 Linux smart phone never needs rebooting.
Blaming poor quality software written by other developers on Microsoft is pure blind hatred. Would you blame a defect in a pair of shoes on a competitor?
Bottom line, companies choose their own quality levels. Some are exceptional, some aren't and the median level is set from that. Your cell phone's company made its own choices about quality. There are plenty of phones out there that work just fine (mine included) - don't shift blame.
The Symbian OS crashes like there's no tomorrow. I traded up from a Nokia N95 (Symbian) to an iPhone. Crashes are gone.
I don't doubt your A1200 is the same.
Maybe he needs a better Vista from his new office.
Thinkingman.com New Media
.
"The test of time?"
We are not so very far distant from the 30th year of MSDOS and Windows. Office 1 was released in 1990. The XBox in 2001.
MSDOS and Windows began as a client OS.
That Microsoft is strongly competitive in the server market leaves the geek with something more to explain.
If you want to take a bite, invest a tooth ...
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Does anyone else think it's rather arrogant of Bill Gates to assume that he has been a catalyst twice?
Once I'll give him. Microsoft actually made the PC something that most people could use (and afford). I don't think IBM was going to go there; in fact, they tried to stop it with the PS/2.
I wonder if Bill knows that his new logo is almost identical to the Codemasters logo?
Didn't Paul Allen do the same thing? We used to laugh about the folks who worked at his start-ups, pulling down good money to sit around and look busy.
Throws a chair.
If enithin kan gow rong it whil. (Murfey)
They all run Linux and Macs at BGC3.
;')
Bill sits down to his new Linux/KDE4 desktop PC and thinks.."Free at last, free at last....."
"There is no fundamental reason why a desk top PC is going to be unreliable. Poor design and quality control of the OS is the cause."
You could make that argument about the Windows 3X-9X series, but not about DOS and the NT based operating systems. DOS was always pretty stable for me (DOS was certainly more stable than the graphical Apple OS's that were being sold at the time... and we don't equate Apple with bad software quality... why?), and while NT 4 was an improvement, Win2K and XP were very stable operating systems.
One thing that no one really acknowledges is that even with the newer NT based systems, Windows isn't going to be quite as stable as, say, OS X, because the hardware available to Windows is almost unlimited, while Apple systems have very few devices to have stable drivers for. With such a high number of devices available, Microsoft had to rely on the manufacturers for drivers, and those drivers didn't always mesh well with the OS. This is why when you install a driver on XP or Vista, and it hasn't been vetted by Microsoft, you get a message that essentially tells you to install at your own risk.
Once upon a time, my Linux boxes were far and away more stable than the 9X boxes I had. But if I've got good drivers on an XP box now, my Mac and my Linux box isn't any more stable or reliable.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Why do people always talk about those two trips and not the other 118?
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
... if someone had done that somewhere in this thread, then you wouldn't sound like such a raving lunatic.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
Gates' personal pursuit of breakthrough ideas in science and technology.
Good that he finally gets started on some. Seriously, the guy is great in stealing and rebranding other ideas as his own, but that's it. I've yet to hear of even one original idea by Bill Gates.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
...that will not infringe on the PgUp/PgDwn patent?
Allow / Deny
soylentnews.org Go there to enjoy the people!
How about the fact that the 640K limit was actually a limitation of the hardware.
That is revisionist truth. It is true that the IBM PCs memory mapped their video card memory at 640KB. It is also true that (of the docs I read at the time) PC DOS manuals recommended using DOS calls for I/O instead of applications diddling with memory themselves. DOS, however, was not much of an OS and applications were allowed to diddle with the video card memory directly.
In other words, it was the same sort of situation with regards to installation of programs - they ignored guidelines, but since the guidelines were not enforced (until Microsoft Vista) no one cared.
The 640KB "limitation" was due to misguided programmers poking directly into video card memory. A stupid practice at best, but standard practice at the time and ignored by PC DOS for "performance" reasons, so it flourished.
It was NOT a hardware limitation.
I found a quote that was much worse:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/comphist/gates.htm
I laid out memory so the bottom 640K was general purpose RAM and the upper 384 I reserved for video and ROM, and things like that. That is why they talk about the 640K limit. It is actually a limit, not of the software, in any way, shape, or form, it is the limit of the microprocessor.
Only to the dimwitted ... Notice also how he takes credit for IBM's system design.
Maybe you should read the thread then.
Then one post later
In neither case is anyone blaming poor quality software written by other developers on Microsoft! They are blaming Microsoft for the fact that the public considers seriously buggy software to be the norm. He points out that other companies have figured out that Microsoft lowered the bar and so they cut costs to come in just under it. So nobody is blaming the poor code quality on Microsoft, since obviously it is the developers at the various companies writing the code, not M$. They are simply blaming Microsoft for the fact that the bar is so low thanks to them.
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
and damn stylish at that.
It is a FIRM belief of mine that when an OS crashes it is the fault of the OS, period. If an application fails then it is the fault of the App developers, but if the app causes the OS to crash then that is a problem with the OS. Your OS should only crash when there is a hardware problem. Anything else that causes the OS to crash is a problem in the OS.
Think Deeply.