Bill Gates leaving Microsoft

Yeah but he did donate a full $50 billion which is pretty significant.

I don't get the fuss about him being the richest man in the world, and how its taken too long for him to retire. He made gobs of money through not entirely awful means, and is now likely going to spend a couple decades using that wealth to fix serious humanitarian type problems in a way that few others capable of doing (namely throwing billions of dollars at hard problems). You could do a hell of a lot worse than that...what you you rather, he quit a couple years earlier and cut you a fucking check for some records and a burrito?

(l.-r.: Dan, me.)

(That's a CNN.com reference for those of you at home.)

And this is despite the hardships of the depression.

I fear for the inevitable "Gates of" puns.

I mean dude whatevs. When you donate 30% of yr bank account, maybe you can have a point here??

Actually, Gate's family's story is a little more interesting than that. Gate's parents weren't born rich. That's why his dad is so supportive of the estate tax. He felt like he got a lot from society that helped him to achieve what he did and that allowed him to support his family and send his kid to Harvard. That seems pretty cool to me.

AW FUCKIN X-POST

http://www.woopidoo.com/biography/bill-gates.htm
In 1999, Gates wrote Business @ the Speed of Thought, a book that shows how computer technology can solve business problems in fundamentally new ways. The book was published in 25 languages and is available in more than 60 countries. Business @ the Speed of Thought has received wide critical acclaim, and was listed on the best-seller lists of the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and Amazon.com. Gates' previous book, The Road Ahead, published in 1995, held the No. 1 spot on the New York Times' bestseller list for seven weeks.

Gates has donated the proceeds of both books to non-profit organizations that support the use of technology in education and skills development.

Also, the current foundation was formed by merging two previously existing foundations together:

http://www.woopidoo.com/biography/bill-gates.htm
Being the richest man in the world has also enabled Gates to create one of the world's largest charitable foundations. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has an endowment of more than $28 billion, with donations totaling more than $1 billion every year. The foundation was formed in 2000 after merging the "Gates Learning Foundation" and "William H. Gates Foundation". Their aim is to "bring innovations in health and learning to the global community".

This was the result of 5 minutes of googling.

A new 21st century spiritual.

looks like he started passing out the cash in various forms the early 90s.

Wasn't the company bleeding money at the time? (I could be wrong.)

i don't think you should look at the percentages but at the absolute total that remains. we'd all quite happily give away 99% of our money if we were still left with a billion dollars afterwards. there is such a thing as too much money.

Must... avoid... BLUE SCREEN JOKES

I like that approach. That means Gates will have to give away about 99.9% of his money before I'll be obligated to donate anything!

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/images/Old_Microsoft_Logo.gif
(1978)

http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~vernal/understand/img/microsoft.jpg

http://ultralight.caltech.edu/web-site/common/logos/logo-microsoft.jpg

http://66.49.231.190/uploaded_images/microsoft_logo-700271.jpg

there we go. 1978.

His ENTIRE estate??? wifey must be just thrilled at the prospect of being a pauper any day now.

i don't think you should look at the percentages but at the absolute total that remains. we'd all quite happily give away 99% of our money if we were still left with a billion dollars afterwards.

uhh NO.

I think bill looks hot in those desk photos. All eric formanish, no? I also want to see what that flowery shirt hes wearing in the mugshot looks like.

common consensus is that a billion dollars will get you about 100 million a year (EACH YEAR) in interest if invested correctly (10%). is that not enough? i could happily live off the interest of the interest of the interest.

wifey was a microsoft project lead, and thus has some dosh of her own.

i believe that bill has stated that each of his kids will get $1M of his cash, no more. Not a bad trust fund to start with.

on the other hand, it's just funny to see him hanging out with fuckin' purple-shaded bono.

(and turnabout is fair play)

http://enlaceaguascalientes.com/sitespecifics/imgs/articles/art_400.jpg

Commander Bono, beams down with Ensign O'neil:

http://www.mullings.com/bono-o

I liked Word 5.1 and Excel 2(?) for Mac. And IE 5.1 was amazing when it came out, but then stagnated badly. Everything else, grrr.

http://www.c2000.com/gifs/billgates.jpg

> uhh NO

common consensus is that a billion dollars will get you about 100 million a year (EACH YEAR) in interest if invested correctly (10%). is that not enough? i could happily live off the interest of the interest of the interest.

-- koogy wonderland (il...) (webmail), Friday 12:25 PM. (koogs) (later)

no, thats not enough. im a firm believer in the theory that you spend what you make ie you make 10,000 a year, you'll spend 10,000; you make 1 billion a year, you'll spend 1 billion.
well, i would anyway.

but sooner or later you'll run out of countries to buy 8)

i have trouble spending what i'm paid (which is substantially less than $1bn). the yearly interest on $1m is about twice my current salary (but i'm sure i could stretch to it). bill's shares are currently worth about $50bn, 50,000 times as much.

You can't buy 1 billion dollars worth of drugs!...and not share.
-- Ned Raggett (ne...) (webmail), Yesterday 10:09 PM. (Ned) (later)

dude! what are you saying??

and this frog putting on airs, linked to in that bit:

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/_g/pulp.jpg

I'm not saying the next two years aren't critical for MS. They are. But the chances of the cards falling in the way the link above describes is about as accurate as me describing exactly how, where, and when the next major hurricane is going to affect the U.S...

..which is, um, it's going to strike just south of Brownsville TX as a Level 1, and create flooding issues in Monterrey, Mexico.

There. YOU HEARD IT FROM ME FIRST! I'M SAYING "I TOLD YOU SO" SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAkuJXGldrM