c640K ought to be enough for anybody.

Bill Gates Almost every way we make electricity today, except for the emerging renewables and nuclear, puts out CO2. And so, what we're going to have to do at a global scale, is create a new system. And so, we need energy miracles. Bill Gates As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. Bill Gates At Microsoft there are lots of brilliant ideas but the image is that they all come from the top - I'm afraid that's not quite right. Bill Gates Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one. Bill Gates DOS is ugly and interferes with users' experience. Bill Gates I actually thought that it would be a little confusing during the same period of your life to be in one meeting when you're trying to make money, and then go to another meeting where you're giving it away. Bill Gates I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act. Bill Gates I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot. Bill Gates I think it's fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool we've ever created. They're tools of communication, they're tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user. Bill Gates

I'm a great believer that any tool that enhances communication has profound effects in terms of how people can learn from each other, and how they can achieve the kind of freedoms that they're interested in. Bill Gates

I'm sorry that we have to have a Washington presence. We thrived during our first 16 years without any of this. I never made a political visit to Washington and we had no people here. It wasn't on our radar screen. We were just making great software. Bill Gates If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1000 MPG. Bill Gates If I'd had some set idea of a finish line, don't you think I would have crossed it years ago? Bill Gates If you can't make it good, at least make it look good. Bill Gates If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure. Bill Gates In this business, by the time you realize you're in trouble, it's too late to save yourself. Unless you're running scared all the time, you're gone. Bill Gates Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other. Bill Gates Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana. Bill Gates It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure. Bill Gates

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Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There's a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning. Bill Gates Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Bill Gates Life is not fair; get used to it. Bill Gates

Like almost everyone who uses e-mail, I receive a ton of spam every day. Much of it offers to help me get out of debt or get rich quick. It would be funny if it weren't so exciting. Bill Gates Microsoft is not about greed. It's about innovation and fairness. Bill Gates Now, we put out a lot of carbon dioxide every year, over 26 billion tons. For each American, it's about 20 tons. For people in poor countries, it's less than one ton. It's an average of about five tons for everyone on the planet. And, somehow, we have to make changes that will bring that down to zero. Bill Gates People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn't they? People feared coal, they feared gas-powered engines... There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear. But with time, people will come to accept their silicon masters. Bill Gates People everywhere love Windows. Bill Gates Security is, I would say, our top priority because for all the exciting things you will be able to do with computers - organizing your lives, staying in touch with people, being creative - if we don't solve these security problems, then people will hold back. Bill Gates Since when has the world of computer software design been about what people want? This is a simple question of evolution. The day is quickly coming when every knee will bow down to a silicon fist, and you will all beg your binary gods for mercy. Bill Gates
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Mutual Fund Calculator Calculate Returns on Indian Funds Buy/Sell/Switch Mutual Funds Online www.fundsupermart.co.in Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose. Bill Gates Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important. Bill Gates Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs. Bill Gates The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency. Bill Gates

The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow. Bill Gates The U.S. couldn't even get rid of Saddam Hussein. And we all know that the EU is just a passing fad. They'll be killing each other again in less than a year. I'm sick to death of all these fascist lawsuits. Bill Gates There are people who don't like capitalism, and people who don't like PCs. But there's noone who likes the PC who doesn't like Microsoft. Bill Gates This is a fantastic time to be entering the business world, because business is going to change more in the next 10 years than it has in the last 50. Bill Gates Until we're educating every kid in a fantastic way, until every inner city is cleaned up, there is no shortage of things to do. Bill Gates We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction. Bill Gates

We are not even close to finishing the basic dream of what the PC can be. Bill Gates We've got to put a lot of money into changing behavior. Bill Gates When the PC was launched, people knew it was important. Bill Gates When you want to do your homework, fill out your tax return, or see all the choices for a trip you want to take, you need a full-size screen. Bill Gates Whether it's Google or Apple or free software, we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes. Bill Gates Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. Bill Gates

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Bill Gates Biography (William Henry Gates III): Microsoft Founder Famous for : Being the richest man in the world, a cofounder of the software company Microsoft, and for being one of the world's most generous philanthropists. Gates details : Born - USA October 28, 1955 Lives - United States of America More Gates : Buffett Gives to Gates Foundation - Person of the Year 2005 - Melinda Gates Richest Man in the World ::: Woopidoo> Business Masters Home> Bill Gates Biography - Information Bill Gates is one of the most influential people in the world. He is cofounder of one of the most recognized brands in the computer industry with nearly every desk top computer using at least one software program from Microsoft. According to the Forbes magazine, Bill Gates is the richest man in the world and has held the number one position for many years. Gates was born and grew up in Seattle, Washington USA. His father, William H. Gates II was a Seattle attorney and his mother, Mary Maxwell Gates was a school teacher and chairperson of the United Way charity. Gates and his two sisters had a comfortable upbringing, with Gates being able to attend the exclusive secondary "Lakeside School". Bill Gates started studying at Harvard University in 1973 where he spent time with Paul Allen. Gates and Allen worked on a version of the programming language BASIC, that was the basis for the MITS Altair (the first microcomputer available). He did not go on to graduate from Harvard University as he left in his junior year to start what was to become the largest computer software company in the world; Microsoft Corporation. Bill Gates and the Microsoft Corporation "To enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential." Microsoft Mission Statement After dropping out of Harvard Bill Gates and his partner Paul Allen set about revolutionizing the computer industry. Gates believed there should be a computer on every office desk and in every home. In 1975 the company Micro-soft was formed, which was an abbreviation of microcomputer software. It soon became simply "Microsoft" and went on to completely change the way people use computers. Microsoft helped to make the computer easier to use with its developed and purchased software, and made it a commercial success. The success of Microsoft began with the MS-DOS computer operating system that Gates licensed to IBM. Gates also set about protecting the royalties that he could acquire from computer software by aggressively fighting against all forms of software piracy, effectively creating the retail software market that now exists today. This move was quite controversial at the time as it was the freedom of sharing that produced much innovation and advances in the newly forming software industry. But it was this stand against software piracy, that was to be central in the great commercial success that Microsoft went on to achieve.

Bill Gates retired as Microsoft CEO in 2008. Bill Gates Criticism With his great success in the computer software industry also came many criticisms. With his ambitious and aggressive business philosophy, Gates or his Microsoft lawyers have been in and out of courtrooms fighting legal battles almost since Microsoft began. The Microsoft monopoly sets about completely dominating every market it enters through either acquisition, aggressive business tactics or a combination of them. Many of the largest technology companies have fought legally against the actions of Microsoft, including Apple Computer, Netscape, Opera, WordPerfect, and sun Microsystems. Bill Gates Net Worth With an estimated wealth of $53 billion in 2006, Bill Gates is the richest man in the world and he should be starting to get used to the number spot as he has been there from the mid-ninties up until now. The famous investor Warren Buffett is gaining on Gates though with an estimated $46 billion in 2006. Microsoft hasn't just made Bill Gates very wealthy though. According to the Forbes business magazine in 2004 Paul Allen, Microsoft cofounder was the 5th richest man in the world with an estimated $21 billion. While Bill Gates' long time friend and Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer was the 19th richest man in the world at $12.4 billion. See more information the Bill Gates Net Worth page. Bill Gates Philanthropy 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". Bill Gates continues to play a very active role in the workings of the Microsoft Company, but has handed the position of CEO over to Steve Ballmer. Gates now holds the positions of "Chairman" and "Chief Software Architect". He has started that he plans to take on fewer responsibilities at Microsoft and will eventually devote all his time to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2006, the second richest man in the world, Warren Buffett pledged to give much of his vast fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill Gates Receives a KBE In March 2005 William H. Gates received an "honorary" knighthood from the queen of England. Gates was bestowed with the KBE Order (Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) for his services in reducing poverty and improving health in the developing countries of the world. After the privately held ceremony in Buckingham Palace with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Gates commented on the recognition.. "I am humbled and delighted. I am particularly pleased that this honor helps recognize the real heroes our foundation (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) supports to improve health in poor countries. Their incredible work is helping ensure that one day all people, no matter where they are born, will have the same opportunity for a healthy life, and I'm grateful to share this honor with them." The KBE Order of the British Empire is the second highest Order given out, but it is only an honorary knighthood as only citizens that are British or a part of the Commonwealth receive the full Order. This means that Gates does not become Sir Bill Gates. Bill Gates lives near Lake Washington with his wife Melinda French Gates and their three children.

Interests of Gates include reading, golf and playing bridge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates

Bill Gates
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other people named Bill Gates, see Bill Gates (disambiguation).

Bill Gates

Gates at the World Economic Forum in 2007.

Born

William Henry Gates III October 28, 1955 (age 56) Seattle, Washington, U.S.

Residence

Medina, Washington, U.S.

Nationality

American

Education

Lakeside School class of 1973

Alma mater

Harvard University (dropped out)

Occupation

Chairman of Microsoft Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation CEO of Cascade Investment Chairman of Corbis

Years active

1975present

Net worth

US$ 59 billion (2011)[1]

Board member of Berkshire Hathaway

Religion

Agnostic[2][3]

Spouse

Melinda Gates (m. 1994)

Children

Parents

William H. Gates, Sr. Mary Maxwell Gates

Signature

Website

Bill Gates

William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28, 1955)[4] is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the

software company he founded with Paul Allen. He is consistently ranked among theworld's wealthiest people[5] and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2009, excluding 2008, when he was ranked third,[6] in 2011 he was the wealthiest American and the second wealthiest person.[7][8] 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.[9] 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.[10][11] 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. [12] Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January 2000. He remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect. In June 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time work, and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie, chief software architect, and Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer. Gates' last full-time day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008. He remains at Microsoft as nonexecutive chairman.
Contents
[hide]

1 Early life 2 Microsoft

o o o o o o

2.1 BASIC 2.2 IBM partnership 2.3 Windows 2.4 Management style 2.5 Antitrust litigation 2.6 Appearance in ads

3 Post-Microsoft 4 Personal life

o o o

4.1 Philanthropy 4.2 Recognition 4.3 Investments

5 Books and films

6 See also

6.1 Books

7 References 8 Further reading 9 External links

Early life

Bill Gates was photographed by the Albuquerque, New Mexico police in 1977 after a traffic violation (details of which have been lost over time).

Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, to William H. Gates, Sr. and Mary Maxwell Gates. His parents are of English, German, and Scots-Irish descent.[13][14] His father was a prominent lawyer, and his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate BancSystem and the United Way. Gates's maternal grandfather was J. W. Maxwell, a national bank president. Gates has one elder sister, Kristi (Kristianne), and one younger sister, Libby. He was the fourth of his name in his family, but was known as William Gates III or "Trey" because his father had the "II" suffix.[15] Early on in his life, Gates' parents had a law career in mind for him.[16] When Gates was young, his family regularly attended a Congregational church.[17][18][19] At 13 he enrolled in the Lakeside School, an exclusive preparatory school.[20] When he was in the eighth grade, the Mothers Club at the school used proceeds from Lakeside School's rummage sale to buy a Teletype Model 33 ASR terminal and a block of computer time on aGeneral Electric (GE) computer for the school's students.[21] Gates took an interest in programming the GE system in BASIC, and was excused from math classes to pursue his interest. He wrote his first computer program on this machine: an implementation of tictac-toe that allowed users to play games against the computer. Gates was fascinated by the machine and how it would always execute software code perfectly. When he reflected back on that moment, he said, "There was just something neat about the machine."[22] After the Mothers Club donation was exhausted, he and other students sought time on systems including DEC PDP minicomputers. One of these systems was aPDP10 belonging to Computer Center Corporation (CCC), which banned four Lakeside studentsGates, Paul

Allen, Ric Weiland, and Kent Evansfor the summer after it caught them exploiting bugs in the operating system to obtain free computer time.[23] At the end of the ban, the four students offered to find bugs in CCC's software in exchange for computer time. Rather than use the system via Teletype, Gates went to CCC's offices and studied source code for various programs that ran on the system, including programs in FORTRAN,LISP, and machine language. The arrangement with CCC continued until 1970, when the company went out of business. The following year, Information Sciences, Inc. hired the four Lakeside students to write a payroll program in COBOL, providing them computer time and royalties. After his administrators became aware of his programming abilities, Gates wrote the school's computer program to schedule students in classes. He modified the code so that he was placed in classes with mostly female students. He later stated that "it was hard to tear myself away from a machine at which I could so unambiguously demonstrate success."[22] At age 17, Gates formed a venture with Allen, called Traf-O-Data, to make traffic counters based on the Intel 8008 processor.[24] In early 1973, Bill Gates served as a congressional page in the U.S. House of Representatives.[25] Gates graduated from Lakeside School in 1973. He scored 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT[26] and enrolled at Harvard College in the autumn of 1973.[27] While at Harvard, he met Steve Ballmer, who later succeeded Gates as CEO of Microsoft. In his sophomore year, Gates devised an algorithm for pancake sorting as a solution to one of a series of unsolved problems[28] presented in a combinatorics class by Harry Lewis, one of his professors. Gates' solution held the record as the fastest version for over thirty years;[28][29] its successor is faster by only one percent.[28] His solution was later formalized in a published paper in collaboration with Harvard computer scientist Christos Papadimitriou.[30] Gates did not have a definite study plan while a student at Harvard[31] and spent a lot of time using the school's computers. Gates remained in contact with Paul Allen, and he joined him at Honeywell during the summer of 1974.[32] The following year saw the release of the MITS Altair 8800 based on the Intel 8080 CPU, and Gates and Allen saw this as the opportunity to start their own computer software company.[33] He had talked this decision over with his parents, who were supportive of him after seeing how much Gates wanted to start a company.[31]

Microsoft
Main articles: History of Microsoft and Microsoft

BASIC

MITS Altair 8800 Computer with 8-inch (200 mm) floppy disk system

After reading the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics that demonstrated the Altair 8800, Gates contacted Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), the creators of the new microcomputer, to inform them that he and others were working on a BASIC interpreter for the platform.[34] In reality, Gates and Allen did not have an Altair and had not written code for it; they merely wanted to gauge MITS's interest. MITS president Ed Roberts agreed to meet them for a demo, and over the course of a few weeks they developed an Altair emulator that ran on a minicomputer, and then the BASIC interpreter. The demonstration, held at MITS's offices in Albuquerque, was a success and resulted in a deal with MITS to distribute the interpreter as Altair BASIC. Paul Allen was hired into MITS,[35] and Gates took a leave of absence from Harvard to work with Allen at MITS in Albuquerque in November 1975. They named their partnership "Micro-Soft" and had their first office located in Albuquerque.[35] Within a year, the hyphen was dropped, and on November 26, 1976, the trade name "Microsoft" was registered with the Office of the Secretary of the State of New Mexico. [35] Gates never returned to Harvard to complete his studies. Microsoft's BASIC was popular with computer hobbyists, but Gates discovered that a pre-market copy had leaked into the community and was being widely copied and distributed. In February 1976, Gates wrote an Open Letter to Hobbyists in the MITS newsletter saying that MITS could not continue to produce, distribute, and maintain high-quality software without payment.[36] This letter was unpopular with many computer hobbyists, but Gates persisted in his belief that software developers should be able to demand payment. Microsoft became independent of MITS in late 1976, and it continued to develop programming language software for various systems.[35] The company moved from Albuquerque to its new home in Bellevue, Washington on January 1, 1979.[34] During Microsoft's early years, all employees had broad responsibility for the company's business. Gates oversaw the business details, but continued to write code as well. In the first five years, Gates personally reviewed every line of code the company shipped, and often rewrote parts of it as he saw fit.[37]

IBM partnership
IBM approached Microsoft in July 1980 regarding its upcoming personal computer, the IBM PC.[38] The computer company first proposed that Microsoft write the BASIC interpreter. When IBM's representatives mentioned that they needed an operating system, Gates referred them to Digital Research (DRI), makers of the widely used CP/M operating system.[39]IBM's discussions with Digital Research went poorly, and they did not reach a licensing agreement. IBM representative Jack Sams mentioned the licensing difficulties during a subsequent meeting with Gates and told him to get an acceptable operating system. A few weeks later Gates proposed using 86-DOS (QDOS), an operating system similar to CP/M thatTim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products (SCP) had made for hardware similar to the PC. Microsoft made a deal with SCP to become the exclusive licensing agent, and later the full owner, of 86-DOS. After adapting the operating system for the PC, Microsoft delivered it to IBM as PC-DOS in exchange for a one-time fee of $50,000.[40] Gates did not offer to transfer the copyright on the operating system, because he believed that other hardware vendors would clone IBM's system.[40] They did, and the sales of MS-DOSmade Microsoft a major player in the industry.[41] Despite IBM's name on the operating system the press quickly identified Microsoft as being very influential on the new computer, withPC Magazine asking if Gates were "The Man Behind The Machine?"[38] He oversaw Microsoft's company restructuring on June 25, 1981, which re-incorporated the company in Washington state and made Gates President of Microsoft and the Chairman of the Board.[34]

Windows
Microsoft launched its first retail version of Microsoft Windows on November 20, 1985, and in August, the company struck a deal with IBM to develop a separate operating system calledOS/2. Although the two companies successfully developed the first version of the new system, mounting creative differences caused the partnership to deteriorate. It ended in 1991 when Gates led Microsoft to develop a version of OS/2 independently from IBM.[42]

Management style
From Microsoft's founding in 1975 until 2006, Gates had primary responsibility for the company's product strategy. He aggressively broadened the company's range of products, and wherever Microsoft achieved a dominant position he vigorously defended it. He gained a reputation for being distant to others; as early as 1981 an industry executive complained in public that "Gates is notorious for not being reachable by phone and for not returning phone calls."[43] As an executive, Gates met regularly with Microsoft's senior managers and program managers. Firsthand accounts of these meetings describe him as verbally combative, berating managers for perceived holes in their business strategies or proposals that placed the company's long-term interests at risk.[44][45] He often interrupted presentations with such comments as, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"[46] and, "Why don't you just

give up your options and join the Peace Corps?"[47] The target of his outburst then had to defend the proposal in detail until, hopefully, Gates was fully convinced.[46] When subordinates appeared to be procrastinating, he was known to remark sarcastically, "I'll do it over the weekend."[48][49][50] Gates' role at Microsoft for most of its history was primarily a management and executive role. However, he was an active software developer in the early years, particularly on the company's programming language products. He has not officially been on a development team since working on the TRS-80 Model 100,[51] but wrote code as late as 1989 that shipped in the company's products.[49] On June 15, 2006, Gates announced that he would transition out of his day-to-day role over the next two years to dedicate more time to philanthropy. He divided his responsibilities between two successors, placing Ray Ozzie in charge of day-today management and Craig Mundie in charge of long-term product strategy.[52]

Antitrust litigation
Further information: United States Microsoft antitrust case and European Union Microsoft competition case

Bill Gates giving his deposition at Microsoft on August 27, 1998

Many decisions that led to antitrust litigation over Microsoft's business practices have had Gates' approval. In the 1998 United States v. Microsoft case, Gates gave deposition testimony that several journalists characterized as evasive. He argued with examiner David Boies over the contextual meaning of words like "compete", "concerned" and "we".[53] BusinessWeek reported:
Early rounds of his deposition show him offering obfuscatory answers and saying 'I don't recall,' so many times that even the presiding judge had to chuckle. Worse, many of the technology chief's denials and pleas of ignorance were directly refuted by prosecutors with snippets of e-mail that Gates both sent and received.
[54]

Gates later said he had simply resisted attempts by Boies to mischaracterize his words and actions. As to his demeanor during the deposition, he said, "Did I fence with Boies? ... I plead guilty. Whatever that penalty is should be levied against me: rudeness to Boies in the first degree."[55] Despite Gates's denials, the judge ruled

that Microsoft had committed monopolization and tying, and blocking competition, both in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.[55]

Appearance in ads
Gates appeared in a series of ads to promote Microsoft in 2008. The first commercial, co-starring Jerry Seinfeld, is a 90-second talk between strangers as Seinfeld walks up on a discount shoe store (Shoe Circus) in a mall and notices Gates buying shoes inside. The salesman is trying to sell Mr. Gates shoes that are a size too big. As Gates is buying the shoes, he holds up his discount card, which uses a slightly altered version of his own mugshot of his arrest in New Mexico in 1977 for a traffic violation.[56] As they are walking out of the mall, Seinfeld asks Gates if he has melded his mind to other developers, after getting a yes, he then asks if they are working on a way to make computers edible, again getting a yes. Some say that this is an homage to Seinfeld's own show about "nothing" (Seinfeld).[57] In a second commercial in the series, Gates and Seinfeld are at the home of an average family trying to fit in with normal people.

Post-Microsoft
Since leaving Microsoft, Gates continues his philanthropy and, among other projects, purchased the video rights to the Messenger Lectures series called The Character of Physical Law, given at Cornell University by Richard Feynman in 1964 and recorded by the BBC. The videos are available online to the public at Microsoft's Project Tuva.[58][59] In April 2010, Gates was invited to visit and speak at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he asked the students to take on the hard problems of the world in their futures.[60][61]

Personal life

Bill and Melinda Gates, June 2009

Gates married Melinda French on January 1, 1994. They have two daughters, Jennifer Katharine Gates (1996) and Phoebe Adele (2002), and one son, Rory John (1999).

The Gates's home is an earth-sheltered house in the side of a hill overlooking Lake Washington in Medina. According to King County public records, as of 2006 the total assessed value of the property (land and house) is $125 million, and the annual property tax is $991,000. His 66,000 sq ft (6,100 m2) estate has a 60-foot (18 m) swimming pool with an underwater music system, as well as a 2,500 sq ft (230 m2) gym and a 1,000 sq ft (93 m2) dining room.[62] Also among Gates' private acquisitions is the Codex Leicester, a collection of writings by Leonardo da Vinci, which Gates bought for $30.8 million at an auction in 1994.[63] Gates is also known as an avid reader, and the ceiling of his large home library is engraved with a quotation from The Great Gatsby.[64] He also enjoys playing bridge, tennis, and golf.[65][66] Gates was number one on the Forbes 400 list from 1993 through to 2007 and number one on Forbes list of The World's Richest People from 1995 to 2007 and 2009. In 1999, Gates's wealth briefly surpassed $101 billion, causing the media to call him a "centibillionaire".[67] Since 2000, the nominal value of his Microsoft holdings has declined due to a fall in Microsoft's stock price after the dot-com bubble burst and the multi-billion dollar donations he has made to his charitable foundations. In a May 2006 interview, Gates commented that he wished that he were not the richest man in the world because he disliked the attention it brought.[68] Gates has several investments outside Microsoft, which in 2006 paid him a salary of $616,667 and $350,000 bonus totalling $966,667.[69] He founded Corbis, a digital imaging company, in 1989. In 2004 he became a director of Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company headed by long-time friend Warren Buffett.[70] In March 2010 Bill Gates was bumped down to the second wealthiest man behind Carlos Slim.

Philanthropy

Gates (second from right) with Bono,Queen Rania of Jordan, Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, President Umaru Yar'Adua of Nigeria and other participants in a 'Call to Action on the Millennium Development Goals' during the Annual Meeting 2008 of the World Economic Forumin Davos, Switzerland

Further information: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

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.[71] The foundation allows benefactors access to information regarding how its money is being spent, unlike other major charitable organizations such as the Wellcome Trust.[72][73] 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.[74] As of 2007, Bill and Melinda Gates were the second-most generous philanthropists in America, having given over $28 billion to charity.[75] They plan to eventually give 95% of their wealth to charity.[76] The foundation was at the same time criticized because it invests assets that it has not yet distributed with the exclusive goal of maximizingreturn on investment. As a result, its investments include companies that have been charged with worsening poverty in the same developing countries where the Foundation is attempting to relieve poverty. These include companies that pollute heavily, and pharmaceutical companies that do not sell into the developing world.[77] In response to press criticism, the foundation announced in 2007 a review of its investments, to assess social responsibility.[78] It subsequently canceled the review and stood by its policy of investing for maximum return, while using voting rights to influence company practices.[79] The Gates Millennium Scholars program has been criticized for its exclusion of Caucasian students.[80][81] Gates's wife urged people to learn a lesson from the philanthropic efforts of the Salwen family, which had sold its home and given away half of its value, as detailed in The Power of Half.[82] Gates and his wife invited Joan Salwen to Seattle to speak about what the family had done, and on December 9, 2010, Gates, investor Warren Buffett, and Mark Zuckerberg(Facebook's CEO) signed a promise they called the "Gates-Buffet Giving Pledge", in which they promised to donate to charity at least half of their wealth over the course of time. [83][84][85]

Recognition
In 1987, Gates was officially declared a billionaire in the pages of Forbes' 400 Richest People in America issue, just days before his 32nd birthday. As the world's youngest self-made billionaire, he was worth $1.25 billion, over $900 million more than he'd been worth the year before, when he'd debuted on the list.[86]

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs at the fifthD: All Things Digital conference (D5) in 2007

Time magazine named Gates one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th century, as well as one of the 100 most influential people of 2004, 2005, and 2006. Time also collectively named Gates, his wife Melinda and U2's lead singer Bono as the 2005 Persons of the Year for their humanitarian efforts.[87] In 2006, he was voted eighth in the list of "Heroes of our time".[88] Gates was listed in the Sunday Times power list in 1999, named CEO of the year by Chief Executive Officers magazine in 1994, ranked number one in the "Top 50 Cyber Elite" by Time in 1998, ranked number two in the Upside Elite 100 in 1999 and was included in The Guardian as one of the "Top 100 influential people in media" in 2001.[89] In 1994, he was honoured as the twentieth Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society. Gates has received honorary doctorates fromNyenrode Business Universiteit, Breukelen, The Netherlands, in 2000;[90] the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, in 2002; invited in 2003 to deliver the keynote address [91] of the Golden Jubilee of the Indian Institute of Technology,held in San Jose, California;[92]Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, in 2005; Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in April 2007;[93] Harvard University in June 2007;[94] theKarolinska Institutet, Stockholm, in January 2008,[95] and Cambridge University in June 2009.[96] He was also made an honorary trustee ofPeking University in 2007.[97] Gates was also made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005,[98] in addition to having entomologists name the Bill Gates flower fly, Eristalis gatesi, in his honor.[99] In November 2006, he and his wife were awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle for their philanthropic work around the world in the areas of health and education, particularly in Mexico, and specifically in the program "Un pas de lectores".[100] In October 2009, it was announced that Gates will be awarded the 2010 Bower Award for Business Leadership of The Franklin Institute for his achievements in business and for his philanthropic work. In 2010 he was honored with the Silver Buffalo Award by the Boy Scouts of America, its highest award for adults, for his service to youth.[101] In 2011, Bill Gates was ranked as the fifth most powerful person in the world, according to rankings by Forbes magazine.[102]

Investments

Cascade Investments LLC, a private investment and holding company, incorporated in United States, is controlled by Bill Gates, and is headquartered in the city of Kirkland, Washington.

bgC3, a new think-tank company founded by Bill Gates. Corbis, a digital image licensing and rights services company. TerraPower, a nuclear reactor design company.

Books and films

To date, Bill Gates has authored two books. The Road Ahead, written with Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold and journalist Peter Rinearson, was published in November 1995, and it summarized the implications of the personal computing revolution and described a future profoundly changed by the arrival of a global information superhighway. Business @ the Speed of Thought was published in 1999, and discusses how business and technology are integrated, and shows how digital infrastructures and information networks can help getting an edge on the competition. Gates has appeared in a number of documentaries, including the 2010 documentary film Waiting For "Superman"[103], and the BBC documentary series The Virtual Revolution. Gates was prominently featured in Pirates of Silicon Valley, a 1999 film which chronicles the rise of Apple and Microsoft from the early 1970s to 1997. He was portrayed by Anthony Michael Hall.

http://inventors.about.com/od/inventormagazines/tp/bill_gates.htm
Authorized and unauthorized books on Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman and the youngest self-made billionaire in history. 1. Barbarians Led by Bill Gates: Microsoft from the Inside

Henry Holt & Co

By Jennifer Edstrom and Marlin Eller - Two insiders wrote this book on the success and sordid details of Microsoft, the daughter of a Microsoft spin doctor and a 13-year veteran Microsoft developer. Read Microsoft's history from the early '80s to the present with juicy bits of gossip and humor, highlights include the Netscape vs. Explorer wars and Microsoft's trial with the Justice Department.

Ads Malaysian Business OnlineFree websites for small businesses from Google. Join the movement!www.GetMYBusinessOnline.com.my Mechanical BeltingUni-Drive Technologies Sdn Bhd unidrive@hotmail.com/ 03-8061 6733biz.yellowpages.com.my/uni-drive Rambus: 1990 - 2011Learn more about Rambus' award-winning technologywww.rambus.com/inventor 2. Business the Bill Gates Way

John Wiley & Sons Inc

By Des Dearlove - Learn about the business success secrets of Bill Gates. How Gates the Harvard dropout became one of the richest men in the world. The ten ways Bill Gates succeeded and how you could apply that learning towards your own success. While written as a motivational aid for aspiring entrepreneurs this book provides fascinating biographical insight into Bill Gates as well.

3. Bill Gates

Lerner Pub Group

By Jeanne M. Lesinski - Part of the A & E biography series, this book is an easy and entertaining read about the life of Bill Gates. The one hundred pages packed with photos, give an understanding of Gate's life from childhood to his latest charity and brushes with the Justice department. Other books may give more in-depth detail on different issues, however this book gives you a great overview.

4. Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace

John Wiley & Sons Inc

By James Wallace - Focusing on the years between 1992 and 1997, Wallace captures the browser wars between Microsoft and Netscape like a good spy novel. A time when Bill Gates doubled his net worth, while he did what many experts thought he had missed the opportunity to do - capture the highway to the Internet. A fascinating if somewhat unproven expose of the latter years of Bill Gates life.

5. Business the Speed of Thought: By Bill Gates - An very expensive and hard to get collector's item, written by Bill Gates himself. Gates gives the hard sell on why new technology is good for business and the need to regard it as an asset rather than an expense. "I have the simple but strong belief," Gates writes. "How you gather, manage, and use information will determine whether you win or lose."

6. Gates - Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented an Industry By Stephen Manes and Paul Andrews - The story of the youngest self-made billionaire in history and a well-liked book among Bill Gates' fans. Publisher Simon & Schuster says that "Gates" is "Vivid and definitive, details the behind the scenes history of the personal computer industry and its movers and shakers uncovering the inside stories of the bitter battle for control. A bracing, comprehensive portrait of the industry, the company, and the man."

7. Hard Drive - Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire By James Wallace and Jim Erickson - An unauthorized biography of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates that details tactics like software programming in Microsoft products that caused non-Microsoft products to fail, Microsoft managers spying on employer email, and allegations of abusive behavior towards female executives. Covers the early history of Bill Gates up to Windows 3.0, continued with the sequel Overdrive.

8. Bill Gates Speaks By Janet C. Lowe - Best-selling author, Janet Lowe researched and transcribed the words of Bill Gates from articles, essays, interviews and newscasts to create this one-of-kind authorized biography about Bill Gates. Business Week says, "Bill Gates Speaks" has "...plenty of engrossing material. And, toward

the end, we learn about Gates the human being -- who gamely sang, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" on national TV at Barbara Walters' bidding."

Ads How To Write a BookLearn how to write your book and get published now!www.briantracy.com Business OpportunityConnect with over 120,000 suppliers from Hong Kong, China and Taiwanwww.hktdc.com 9. Bill Gates' Personal, Super-Secret, Private Laptop By Henry Beard and John Boswell - A funny book about Bill Gates and Microsoft that folds out like a laptop, the left page is the screen and the right is the keyboard. Amazon Books compares it to the classic Mad Magazine satires of the '60s and '70s. Beard and Boswell are well-known parody writers and this book represents their best effort to date.
Buy Direct

10. Bill Gates - Billionaire Computer Genius (People to Know) By Joan D. Dickinson - Reading level: Young Adult This is a great book for kids interested in the computer age revolution and an unusual find for the younger reader, a biography about Bill Gates and how he became a billionaire that will inspire. It is fun and entertaining for kids, who will love the plentiful black-and-white photographs.

http://www.forbes.com/profile/bill-gates/

Bill Gates
Net Worth

$59 B
Earnings

As of November 2011

$800,000
Follow (1718)

As of November 2011

At a Glance

Title: Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Age: 56 Source: Microsoft, self-made Residence: Medina, WA Country of Citizenship: United States Education: Drop Out, Harvard University Marital Status: Married

Children: 3

http://www.billgatesmicrosoft.com/history.htm

Bill Gates History

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William Gates, the son of a prominent Seattle, Washington lawyer, was an underachieving math whiz in school. He was first exposed to digital computers while in the seventh grade and worked on various computer projects for the next several years. While in high school, Bill and a friend, Paul Allen, formed a company called Traf-Data, which used the Intel 8008 microprocessor to help control traffic patterns in Seattle. Gates eventually sold this system to the city for $20,000 when he was only fifteen years old. He dropped out of high school for one year to work for TRW in computing, earning $30,000. In 1974 Bill was attending Harvard University when Allen spotted an advertisement for a $350 assemble-at-home computer called the Altair 8800, manufactured by MITS, a company headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico.Bill and Allen worked nonstop for six weeks to devise a simple version of BASIC, a programming language, for the Altair. They demonstrated their finished product to the company's engineers with great success, and the following year, Bill and Allen founded Microsoft Corporation.Microsoft had enteredthe personal computer (PC) industry at an opportune time.The Apple Computer Corporation had introduced its Apple II personal computer with much success. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) decided to enter the market but needed software designed for specific tasks and an operating system that permitted hardware to interpret the software. In 1980 Microsoft won a contract with IBM to operate personal computers using Microsoft's system, commonly known as MS-DOS. By 1983 the IBM PC had become the industry standard and MS-DOS was its operating system. In 1995, Microsoft introduced Windows 95 which again revolutionized the PC market, and became an industry standard.
Today some 90% of all personal computers use Microsoft Windows. Advertisements

In 1991 Gates was ranked number three on the Forbes magazine list of the wealthiest Americans; his share of Microsoft is worth approximately four billion dollars.By 1998 he had became the richest man in the world. In addition to operating systems, Microsoft produces software for word processing, spreadsheets, games, and Windows, which allows IBM PCs and their clones to use pictures and a handheld "mouse" to eliminate complicated keyboard commands, much like Apple did for its computers.

In 1999, Bill 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. Bill has donated the proceeds of both books to non-profit organizations that support the use of technology in education and skills development. In addition to his love of computers and software, Bill founded Corbis, which is developing one of the world's largest resources of visual information a comprehensive digital archive of art and photography from public and private collections around the globe. He is also a member of the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which invests in companies engaged in diverse business activities. Philanthropy is also important to Gates. He and his wife, Melinda, have endowed a foundation with more than $28.8 billion (as of January 2005) to support philanthropic initiatives in the areas of global health and learning, with the hope that in the 21st century, advances in these critical areas will be available for all people. The Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation has committed more than $3.6 billion to organizations working in global health; more than $2 billion to improve learning opportunities, including the Gates Library Initiative to bring computers, Internet Access and training to public libraries in low-income communities in the United States and Canada; more than $477 million to community projects in the Pacific Northwest; and more than $488 million to special projects and annual giving campaigns. Gates was married on Jan. 1, 1994, to Melinda French Gates. They have three children. Gates is an avid reader, and enjoys playing golf and bridge.

http://www.propaganda.net/skoleside/?stil=6547
Why did Bill Gates become so successful?
Oppgave om Bill Gates, grunnleggeren av Microsoft. Engelsk - Resonnerende Forfatter: Andreas Solnrdal Madsen Skriv ut

The chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft Corporation, the worlds leading software firm. Bill Gates wrote his first computer program when he was 13 years old. It was a program to play farmer-chess on. The computer he used was big, heavy, and slow and he was totally obsessed. The computer did not have a screen, so they made there move, and they ran over to a big printer and looked at the score or who had won. If they did it on paper each move would take about 30 sec. but on the computer it took almost the whole lunchtime. Bill established an arrangement with the owners of the computer, that he would get free computer-time if he found things that would make the computer crash. During this time Bill met Paul Allen, his business partner for the rest of his life. Together they started a small company called Traf-o-Data, they sold a small computer outfitted with their program that could count traffic for the city. This company wasnt a big success but it did earn the two boys some money as well as good business skills. He told his teachers that he would be a millionaire by the time he was 30, this was one of the few times he underestimated himself, Bill was a billionaire when he was 31. Bill left Harvard for business opportunities in programming which turned him into a multibillionaire. Its very interesting that even whit all that money Bill drives himself to work in an average family car and he even flies coach. Gates made an operative system that he called Microsoft Disk Operative System, or MS-DOS, he sold it to IBM. Gates then persuaded IBM to give up its secret design specifications in favour of an open system for its personal computer, thereby allowing other software makers to build software for it more easily, since they would know how the operating system functioned. About 100 companies, eager to be IBM-compatible, obtained licenses for MS-DOS quickly making it major operating system for personal computers. Conclusion One reason that Bill Gates is so successful is that he did not underestimate himself. He always believed on himself. Its very interesting that even whit all that money, Bill still drives himself to work in an average family car, and he even flies coach. Bill Gates said that he would become a millionaire before he became thirty, and he made it! When he was born, his family established a million-dollar trust fund for him. I guess that without his fund, he could never go to Harvard without it.!

http://www.partnerpoint.com/Community/News-Blogs/Bill-Gates-History.aspx

1. Micro-soft's first ever mention The first ever mention of Microsoft was in a letter from Bill Gates to co-founder Paul Allen in 1975. Gates initially wrote the company name as Micro-soft, which made sense considering it's a portmanteau of microcomputer and software. Losing the hyphen, Microsoft was officially registered as a company in November 1976 in New Mexico where Gates and Allen were working with their first major customer, MITS. Microsoft didn't move to its current campus in Redmond, Washington until 1986.

The Microsoft logo has changed several times over the years, the current Pac-Man logo was introduced in 1987, but previous to that was the blibbet logo that's pictured above. The blibbet refers to the stylised o and was apparently once the name of a burger served in the Microsoft company cafeteria.
2. Brian Eno composed The Microsoft Sound Pioneering musician Brian Eno was the musical brains behind Window 95's start up tune, dubbed The Microsoft Sound.

The influential musician, who has worked with the likes of David Bowie and U2, told the San Francisco Chronicle that making such a short piece of music was funny and amazing. Eno likened the process to making a tiny little jewel. Other musical trivia from the launch of Windows 95 is, of course, the use of The Rolling Stones Start Me Up in the ad campaign, while a related Eno fact is that he also composed the music for the computer game Spore.
3. Microsoft's favourite food is Pizza Although not quite at Google's level of snack-tastic, free-for-all wonder, Microsoft does offer free drinks. Over 23 million gratis beverages are downed on the corporate campus each year. Apparently the top two drinks of choice for Microsoft staffers are milk and OJ. There's also free confectionery on the Microsoft campus shuttle.

As far as food goes, Microsoft has around 35 cafeterias serving around 37,000 people each day. Pizza tops the list of most popular meal.
4. Microsoft uses codenames Ever since the company's first operating system, Microsoft has worked on its projects under codenames, of which Wikipedia has a long list. Apparently Gates was ready to launch Windows under the name Interface Manager before he was persuaded to change it by an employee. Past codenames include Longhorn, Lone Star", and Vienna. While you might be tempted to add Mojave to that list, it's actually part of a Microsoft ad campaign. The Mojave Experiment was a marketing exercise that battled Vista's poor PR by presenting the software to new users as a fresh product. 5. The average softie The average Microsoft employee, or Softie as they call themselves, is a 38-year-old male with the average salary for a developer coming in at $US106,000.

Microsoft currently employs 88,180 people who work across 32,404,796 square feet of Microsoft's premises, over 50,000 of which are US-based. The male to female ratio is very high among Microsoft's American employees with a staggering 76% male workforce.
6. Microsoft celebrates anniversaries with M&Ms All companies have their little in-house traditions, and Microsoft is no exception. It seems it's customary for Softies to celebrate their yearly employment anniversaries with confectionery, and more specifically, M&Ms.

Each anniversary, a Microsoft employee is expected to provide one pound of M&Ms for every year they've worked. That means if Bill Gates observed the tradition, he should have turned up with 33 pounds (14.96 kilograms) of M&Ms on June 27, 2008.
7. Microsoft's stock has split nine times Microsoft has split its stock nines times since it went public back in March 1986. Put very, very simply, a company will generally split its stock when its share price becomes too high.

Since Microsoft has had six 2-for-1 splits and three 3-for-1 splits, one original Microsoft share would now be equal to 288 shares today. Interestingly the price of Microsoft's stock at its initial public offering was $21 a share, at the time of writing a share is now around the $US23 mark. One original MSFT share would now be worth over $US6,000.
8. Microsoft has a huge art collection No, we're not talking about Clip Art. Microsoft is one of thelargest corporate collectors of artworks with over 5,000 contemporary pieces including painting, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, ceramics, studio glass, and multimedia works. Microsoft gathers arts from local artists, up-and-coming artists and big names such as Cindy Sherman, Chuck Close and Takashi Murakami. A large proportion of the works are on display at more than 150 of Microsoft's many campuses, as the company subscribes to the belief that art in the workplace reduces stress, increases productivity and encourages discussions and expression of opinions. 9. Microsoft asks strange interview questions Microsoft has a reputation in the industry for asking off-beat, off-the-wall questions during its job interview. The most oft-quoted question is: Why is a manhole cover round? Whether this particular example is genuine, or an urban legend, it's certainly true that Microsoft employs a very unusual and forward-thinking interview process. It's even rumored that companies like Google have since emulated the style. Rather than plain Where do you see yourself in five years type questions, Microsoft is more likely to ask you to solve a logic puzzle or think through a problem like Design a coffee maker that will be used by astronauts. Obviously, Microsoft isn't planning to go into the coffee-inspace industry anytime soon, but the process serves to find candidates that can think creatively. 10. Microsoft holds over 10,000 patents Microsoft holds over 10,000 patents and files around 3,000 every year, ranking as one of the top five patent owners in the US.

Although a large majority of the patents relate to obscure elements of software, the 5,000th and 10,000th were consumer-friendly, easily-understandable ideas. The 5,000th was for tech in Xbox

360 games that lets people watch a video game remotely, while the 10,000th was for the Microsoft Surface, linking real-life objects with data and images. Microsoft also rewards its staff members for securing a new patent. Besides a $1,500 bonus, they get a wooden plaque and a decorative black cube that features their name, as well as the title and date of the patent.