Bill Gates and I

**Artheuss** · 02-20-08, 06:46 PM

Bill Gates came to speak to students at UT Austin today. I was able to get in to see him speak. When he was done they opened up to questions and answers and I had the boldness to stand up and go first. My question was, "On my home windows machine every time I boot up Windows Media Player spits out a couple error messages.....So if I upgrade to Windows Vista will that fix the problem?" His response was, "If you upgrade to Vista, Windows will spit out several different error messages." That was a real crowd pleaser, the room erupted in laughter and applause.

OK, that was actually my second question. My first question was along something like: I work in a research lab here at UT and one of the primary difficulties I have is that none of the software tools that I have to work with are professional quality. The problems with going ahead and using professional software are licensing, copy write, and open source issues. Nothing but legal problems. So what can Microsoft do to cut through the red tape and open up the possibility for academic researchers to use Professional quality software?

Basically he said yeah we'd like to do that and didn't address how. Later on someone asked him a question about open source and he gave an answer that he could have given to my question. The problem lies in government restrictions as well as with corporate policies. He favors allowing a mixture of freeware and payforware. He mentioned that China has a better legal system set up to allow researchers to use professional software than the U.S..

**Toker** · 02-20-08, 06:54 PM

Tell him I need 20 bucks...

**Benandorf** · 02-20-08, 06:57 PM

Bill Gates and I, not Bill Gates and Me.

**joker23** · 02-20-08, 07:11 PM

tell him he owes me 200$ for every winblows machine that I have wiped and upgraded to linux.

**Panic** · 02-20-08, 08:17 PM

tell him to donate a couple million to ttp

**Benandorf** · 02-20-08, 08:21 PM

Originally Posted by Panic

tell him to donate a couple million to ttp

Give it time, and we'll have Microsoft asking to sponsor us.

**styley** · 02-20-08, 08:23 PM

we should see if ttp can get sponsered by like EVGA or like ASUS or something and see if we can give stuff to ppl who have shitty systems...

anybody have FRAPS?
and an email to anyone who owns a computer part company?

edit: or like a used system thing like a "ski swap" where we could give old parts to ppl who need them... idk ben got me thinking on that last post

**rock_lobster** · 02-20-08, 08:27 PM

Originally Posted by Panic

tell him to donate a couple million to ttp

Seriously....he literally makes money faster than he could spend it. He pretty much has an infinite amount of money. If I were him I'd be donating to legitimate charities, schools, universities, and do cool things like randomly yell out in a restaurant that you are paying for everyone's meal. It is his money and he can do what he wants, I just don't understand with an infinite amount money why you wouldnt be donating it left and right.

**styley** · 02-20-08, 08:28 PM

Originally Posted by rock_lobster

Originally Posted by Panic

tell him to donate a couple million to ttp

Seriously....he literally makes money faster than he could spend it. He pretty much has an infinite amount of money. If I were him I'd be donating to legitimate charities, schools, universities, and do cool things like randomly yell out in a restaurant that you are paying for everyone's meal. It is his money and he can do what he wants, I just don't understand with an infinite amount money why you wouldnt be donating it left and right.

I do know he donates a lot of the time... but I agree why not donate it ALL the time, whats he gonna do with all of it?

**Blah64** · 02-20-08, 08:28 PM

Originally Posted by rock_lobster

Originally Posted by Panic

tell him to donate a couple million to ttp

Seriously....he literally makes money faster than he could spend it. He pretty much has an infinite amount of money. If I were him I'd be donating to legitimate charities, schools, universities, and do cool things like randomly yell out in a restaurant that you are paying for everyone's meal. It is his money and he can do what he wants, I just don't understand with an infinite amount money why you wouldnt be donating it left and right.

You don't watch the news do you...