31 May 2014 - BILL GATES

BILL GATES

 October 28th 1955, Seattle, Washington, U.S.A

G'day folks,

Welcome to some background on a man most people have heard of - Bill Gates.

As founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates is one of the most influential and richest people on the planet. Recent estimates of his wealth put it at $56 billion, this is the equivalent of the combined GDP of several African economies. In recent years he has retired from working full time at Microsoft, instead he has concentrated on working with his charitable foundation “The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation”

Bill Gates foundation of Microsoft 

 Bill Gates founded Microsoft in 1976 when he formed a contract with MITTS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) to develop a basic operating system for their new microcomputers. In the early days Bill Gates would review every line of code. He was also involved in several aspects of Microsoft’s business such as packing and sending off orders.

Bill and Steve.

The big break for Microsoft came in 1980 when IBM approached them for a new BASIC operating system for its new computers. In the early 1980s IBM was by far the leading PC manufacture. However increasingly there developed many IBM PC clones; (PCs developed by other companies compatible with IBM's). Microsoft worked hard to sell its operating system to these other companies. Thus Microsoft was able to gain the dominant position of software manufacture just as the personal computer market started to boom. Since its early dominance no other company has come close to displacing Microsoft as the dominant provider of computer operating software.

Bill Gates - Windows 

 In 1990 Microsoft released its first version of Windows. This was a break through in operating software as it replaced text interfaces with graphical interfaces. It soon became a best seller and was able to capture the majority of the operating system market share. In 1995 Windows 95 was released, setting new standards and features for operating systems. This version of windows has been the backbone of all future releases from Windows 2000 to the latest XP and Vista.

Throughout his time in office Bill Gates has been keen to diversify the business of Microsoft. For example Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has become the dominant web browser, although this is mainly because it comes pre installed on most new computers. In one area at least Microsoft has not gained Monopoly power, and that is in the area of search engines. MSN live search has struggled to gain more than 12% of market share. In this respect Microsoft has been dwarfed by Google. Nevertheless the success of Microsoft in cornering various aspects of the software market has led to several anti trust cases. In 1998 US v Microsoft, Microsoft came close to being broken up into 3 smaller firms. However on appeal Microsoft were able to survive as a single firm.

Philanthropic Activities – Bill Gates

Bill Gates is married to Melinda French (married in 1992). They have 3 children Jennifer (1996), Rory (1999) and Phoebe (2002). With his wife Bill Gates formed the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill Gates says much of the inspiration came from the example of David Rockefeller. Like Rockefeller, Gates has sought to focus on global issues ignored by the government; he also expressed an interest in improving the standards of public school education in the US. He has appeared with Oprah Winfrey to promote this objective. In respect to charitable, philanthropic activities Gates has also received encouragement from investor Warren Buffet. Recently Gates announced that from 2008 he would work full time on his philanthropic interests. Forbes magazine 2004 estimated that Gates has given over $24 billion dollars in the 4 years from 2000 to 2004.

Clancy's comment: Mm ... Not bad for a guy who was considered to be a nerd. 

Go, Bill and Melinda. Love ya work!

I'm ...

Think about this!

23 September 2012 - Famous Quotes - Bill Gates

WILLIAM HENRY 'BILL' GATES 111

28th October 1955

Good morning, Mr. Gates!




William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, computer programmer and philanthropist. Gates is the former chief executive and current chairman of Microsoft, the world’s largest personal-computer software company, which he co-founded with Paul Allen. He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2009, excluding 2008, when he was ranked third; in 2011 he was the wealthiest American and the second wealthiest person. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder, with 6.4 percent of the common stock. He has also authored or co-authored several books.

Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Gates has been criticized for his business tactics, which have been considered anti-competitive, an opinion which has in some cases been upheld by the courts. In the later stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000.

NOTABLE QUOTES:

"As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others."

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning."

"It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure"

"Patience is a key element of success"

"I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act."

"I do think this next century, hopefully, will be about a more global view. Where you don't just think, yes my country is doing well, but you think about the world at large."

"Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other."

"I can understand wanting to have a million dollars ... but once you get beyond that, I have to tell you, it's the same hamburger."

Gates began to appreciate the expectations others had of him when public opinion mounted suggesting that he could give more of his wealth to charity. Gates studied the work of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, and in 1994 sold some of his Microsoft stock to create the William H. Gates Foundation. In 2000, Gates and his wife combined three family foundations into one to create the charitable Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is the largest transparently operated charitable foundation in the world. The foundation allows benefactors access to information regarding how its money is being spent, unlike other major charitable organizations such as the Wellcome Trust. The generosity and extensive philanthropy of David Rockefeller has been credited as a major influence. Gates and his father met with Rockefeller several times, and modeled their giving in part on the Rockefeller family's philanthropic focus, namely those global problems that are ignored by governments and other organizations. As of 2007, Bill and Melinda Gates were the second-most generous philanthropists in America, having given over $28 billion to charity. They plan to eventually give 95% of their wealth to charity.

Bill Gates offers 11 points

to high school students:

RULE 1
Life  is not fair - get used to it.

RULE 2
The  world won't care about your self-esteem.The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you  feel good about yourself.

RULE 3
You  will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with car phone, until you earn both.

RULE 4
If  you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.

RULE 5
Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your  grandparents had a different word for burger flipping they called it Opportunity.

  RULE 6
If  you mess up,it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

     RULE 7
Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as  they are now. They got that way from paying  your bills,
cleaning your clothes and  listening to you talk about how cool  you are. So before you save the rain forest
from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

     RULE 8
Your  school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have  abolished
failing grades and they'll  give you as many times as you want to  get the right answer. This doesn't bear the
slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

RULE 9
Life  is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in
helping you find yourself. Do that on your own  time.

RULE 10
Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to  jobs.

RULE 11
Be  nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Clancy's comment: Mm ... well said. I guess you have the numbers on the board, eh?

I'm Clancy Tucker.

www.clancytucker.com.au