I played tennis with Bill Gates today

R

richw76

Rookie
sureshs said:
They did develop their own OS (OS2) but it went nowhere.
Click to expand...

It was too late by the time OS2 came out. All the Fortune 500 Companies had already purchased Millions in hardware and sent at least the same amount in training employees to use Dos and Lotus 123/Word Perfect.

He's smart and IBM was stupid. For the last 200 years it was demonstrated that you can make WAY more money owning intellectual property than making the medium.

Publishers make much more money than book binders or paper mills. Song writers make more than performers, etc

IBM was used to selling Million dollar mainframes to fortune 100 companies that also required hundreds of thousands in support and professional services so the software was basically included.

They thought stand alone pcs were a niche. By the time they realized the potential they missed the bus.

Although I'm more an apple/Unix guy I would tell Bill I love Windows7 :)
 
S

sureshs

Bionic Poster
Bill and Melinda have a home close to the resort here that I sometimes play at. They have been spotted at the resort (it is ranked the #1 tennis resort in the US).
 
S

sureshs

Bionic Poster
Did Bill Gates get a security update/patch during each changeover from a tour trainer?

Did he suddenly freeze in the middle of a point and require the match to be restarted?
 
vbranis

vbranis

Professional
Fee said:
I thought you might have been but I wasn't sure. So if you play for COD, are you from Spain or Chile? ;)

Who's the coach there now? I knew the guy who coached years ago (1991 or so) but I've forgotten his name...
Click to expand...

I'm actually originally from Romania but have been living in the PS area for about 7 years. Out of the 12-13 guys on the team, only 1 is American, the rest are mostly from Brazil and Chile.

Carl Schroeder is now the coach, I think Guy Fritz was before him back in the 90s.
 
Fee

Fee

Legend
vbranis said:
I'm actually originally from Romania but have been living in the PS area for about 7 years. Out of the 12-13 guys on the team, only 1 is American, the rest are mostly from Brazil and Chile.

Carl Schroeder is now the coach, I think Guy Fritz was before him back in the 90s.
Click to expand...

Guy Fritz, that was him. Hung out with him and a few of his players once after the regional playoffs in So Cal. I don't think there was one American on his team that year. Good times...
 
lethalfang

lethalfang

Professional
vbranis said:
It happened at a very select country club in Indian Wells where a bunch of notable Palm Springs area pros were invited to a pro-am event with the club members (among which was Bill Gates). Me and a few other guys from the local college team were also invited to assist the pros. Mark Woodforde and Tom Gorman were among the pros. There were 8 courts in total (2 pros + 2 members on each one) and we did a bunch of drills.

So eventually, Mr.Gates arrives on my court. Complete with glasses and neatly tucked-in blue Nike shirt. I was really nervous, I kept thinking "Don't hit Bill Gates or do something embarrassing..." Oh, and did I mention Woodforde was watching, as well? Talk about pressure. Bill said he's a 3.0 player, maybe a 3.5 on good days. He is remarkably capable at net, quick hands. His serve & footwork need a lot of work, though. OK groundies for his level. We did a bunch of doubles drills and then played a few games. Me and Bill vs. the other pro and club member. We stopped at 2-2 since time was up for the rotation. He shakes hands with me and thanks me for taking it easy on him. Very soft-spoken guy, almost shy it seemed. I was going to ask him for a refund of the joke that was Vista, but somehow, it just didn't seem appropriate...

OK, before the inevitable "pics or else it didn't happen" posts, I was told beforehand that I would get in trouble if I took pictures with him. The entire reason he is part of that club is to get away from people bugging him for autographs or pictures. Plus, there was security EVERYWHERE. So I didn't dare...:neutral:
Click to expand...

If you wanna ask for Vista refund, you need to ask Steve Ballmer.
Ask Gates for Windows ME refund instead.
 
BreakPoint

BreakPoint

Bionic Poster
Ultra2HolyGrail said:
Explorer is the most secure browser.
Click to expand...
Internet Explorer is the biggest P.O.S. ever created by mankind. The only reason most people use it is because it comes pre-loaded with Windows on almost all PC's sold. Microsoft used their Windows monopoly power to push aside a far superior browser in Netscape.

It sometimes takes 20 times longer to load a webpage in IE than it does in a Mozilla-based browser. There's no comparison. There are browsers that operate in light speed, and then there's IE, which is like The Day the Earth Stood Still. :???:
 
S

sureshs

Bionic Poster
Sentinel said:
LOL !

I think they call it Service Pack, or used to 10-15 years back.
Click to expand...

SP was when they used to release big chunks. Those happen today too. But now the high-speed networks allow them to push out many minor updates on a regular basis. They usually refer to KB (Knowledge Base) numbers for the patches. Many of them are due to security holes.
 
S

sureshs

Bionic Poster
BreakPoint said:
Internet Explorer is the biggest P.O.S. ever created by mankind. The only reason most people use it is because it comes pre-loaded with Windows on almost all PC's sold. Microsoft used their Windows monopoly power to push aside a far superior browser in Netscape.

It sometimes takes 20 times longer to load a webpage in IE than it does in a Mozilla-based browser. There's no comparison. There are browsers that operate in light speed, and then there's IE, which is like The Day the Earth Stood Still. :???:
Click to expand...

Maybe, but in the end user experience is what counts. I have seen so many people who claim to love alternate browsers, but they complain that certain websites work properly only on IE. Of course, it is easy to blame the sites, but they will cater to the most common browser first. Same with Linux. No one can agree on one user experience, and many peripherals don't work with it. You can blame the lack of drivers, but same issue.

Or take MS Office. I used to use OpenOffice (the free one) at home. Then my son started getting word processing assignments from school. He automatically started preferring MS Works (the free bundled one) and said it is much better than OpenOffice. He was too young to know about MS and Bill Gates and open source.

It is in the mobile world that Unix-based systems like iPhone and Android have started dominating over Windows Mobile. It doesn't bode well for MS.
 
Sentinel

Sentinel

Bionic Poster
I don't think I'd agree with u, suresh, on the IE running most sites thing. There are established standards or tests for all browsers. I think it was last year or so. IE was certainly not on top. It was an alt browser such as Opera, FF ...

From what i know, IE's lost a huge market to FF, and now i hear Chrome is taking over.

OO -- i agree -- but there, since the formats are in MS's hands so its near impossible for alternatives to keep up. I used Star Office many years back (2003-4), and my office formats would never come out right. I would have to borrow a MS machine to fill a document (I was on Linux then).
 
JoshDragon

JoshDragon

Hall of Fame
vbranis said:
It happened at a very select country club in Indian Wells where a bunch of notable Palm Springs area pros were invited to a pro-am event with the club members (among which was Bill Gates). Me and a few other guys from the local college team were also invited to assist the pros. Mark Woodforde and Tom Gorman were among the pros. There were 8 courts in total (2 pros + 2 members on each one) and we did a bunch of drills.

So eventually, Mr.Gates arrives on my court. Complete with glasses and neatly tucked-in blue Nike shirt. I was really nervous, I kept thinking "Don't hit Bill Gates or do something embarrassing..." Oh, and did I mention Woodforde was watching, as well? Talk about pressure. Bill said he's a 3.0 player, maybe a 3.5 on good days. He is remarkably capable at net, quick hands. His serve & footwork need a lot of work, though. OK groundies for his level. We did a bunch of doubles drills and then played a few games. Me and Bill vs. the other pro and club member. We stopped at 2-2 since time was up for the rotation. He shakes hands with me and thanks me for taking it easy on him. Very soft-spoken guy, almost shy it seemed. I was going to ask him for a refund of the joke that was Vista, but somehow, it just didn't seem appropriate...

OK, before the inevitable "pics or else it didn't happen" posts, I was told beforehand that I would get in trouble if I took pictures with him. The entire reason he is part of that club is to get away from people bugging him for autographs or pictures. Plus, there was security EVERYWHERE. So I didn't dare...:neutral:
Click to expand...

I would have been happier to hit with Woodforde than Gates. Still, that's a good story.
 
D

dodger

Guest
Bill Gates

Vbranis...are you there? I'd like to talk to you right away. Very important!
 
LuckyR

LuckyR

Legend
vbranis said:
It happened at a very select country club in Indian Wells where a bunch of notable Palm Springs area pros were invited to a pro-am event with the club members (among which was Bill Gates). Me and a few other guys from the local college team were also invited to assist the pros. Mark Woodforde and Tom Gorman were among the pros. There were 8 courts in total (2 pros + 2 members on each one) and we did a bunch of drills.
Click to expand...

Which Club?
 
mikeler

mikeler

Moderator
Chrome supposedly is the most widely used browser now. It is also my favorite. Fast and simple, just like Google.
 
ericsson

ericsson

Hall of Fame
It Looks like one of his kids strung his Prince EX03 Black:

6rj2ow.jpg
 
zanabel

zanabel

Banned
vbranis said:
It happened at a very select country club in Indian Wells where a bunch of notable Palm Springs area pros were invited to a pro-am event with the club members (among which was Bill Gates). Me and a few other guys from the local college team were also invited to assist the pros. Mark Woodforde and Tom Gorman were among the pros. There were 8 courts in total (2 pros + 2 members on each one) and we did a bunch of drills.

So eventually, Mr.Gates arrives on my court. Complete with glasses and neatly tucked-in blue Nike shirt. I was really nervous, I kept thinking "Don't hit Bill Gates or do something embarrassing..." Oh, and did I mention Woodforde was watching, as well? Talk about pressure. Bill said he's a 3.0 player, maybe a 3.5 on good days. He is remarkably capable at net, quick hands. His serve & footwork need a lot of work, though. OK groundies for his level. We did a bunch of doubles drills and then played a few games. Me and Bill vs. the other pro and club member. We stopped at 2-2 since time was up for the rotation. He shakes hands with me and thanks me for taking it easy on him. Very soft-spoken guy, almost shy it seemed. I was going to ask him for a refund of the joke that was Vista, but somehow, it just didn't seem appropriate...

OK, before the inevitable "pics or else it didn't happen" posts, I was told beforehand that I would get in trouble if I took pictures with him. The entire reason he is part of that club is to get away from people bugging him for autographs or pictures. Plus, there was security EVERYWHERE. So I didn't dare...:neutral:
Click to expand...

hi whats mark woodforde like? notice anything about him?
 
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