David Pogue: Reconsidering Bill Gates

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: June 23, 2006 7:01:38 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] David Pogue: Reconsidering Bill Gates
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com

[Note:  This item comes from friend John McMullen.  DLH]

From: "John F. McMullen" <observer () westnet com>
Date: June 22, 2006 3:24:19 PM PDT
To: "johnmac's living room" <johnmacsgroup () yahoogroups com>
Cc: Commonweal Mailing List <commonweal () yahoogroups com>, Dewayne  
Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Subject: David Pogue: Reconsidering Bill Gates

From the Desk of David Pogue: Reconsidering Bill Gates

A few days ago, the richest man in the world, Bill Gates, announced  
that he'd be stepping down from daily Microsoft activities in order  
to devote himself to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Through  
this foundation, Mr. Gates has said that he intends to give away 95  
percent of his wealth. The foundation's primary interests are  
education, poverty and global health--saving the lives of the  
millions who die of preventable diseases, mostly in poor countries.

Now, as faithful readers know, I don't always find Microsoft's  
software-design work very impressive. And, under Mr. Gates's watch,  
Microsoft has done a lot of ruthless and sometimes sleazy things over  
the years. I'm not alone in having some mistrust of Microsoft's  
motives; one Google search for "Microsoft + evil" will convince you  
of that.

But until last week's announcement, I think I was in the same boat as  
a lot of people: I never really allowed myself to confront the  
apparent contradiction between Bill Gates, the merciless businessman  
with ambitions for world domination, and Bill Gates, the  
compassionate scientist whose goal is to save millions of lives.

A couple of years ago, Bill Moyers interviewed Mr. Gates on the  
subject of his global-health interests. You can read the transcript  
here (http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_gates.html), but  
here's a sample that makes you realize the possibilities of putting  
money in the right places (this is Mr. Gates speaking):

"And there was one dinner after we'd given our first vaccination  
grant. I think it was $125 million. All these doctors came. And they  
thought, 'O.K., this is a dinner where I'm supposed to just say thank  
you, thank you. And, you know, try not to use the wrong fork or  
something.'

[snip]
-----

This week's Pogue's Posts blog:
<http://www.nytimes.com/technology/poguesposts/index.html?8cir&emc=cir>

-----

Visit David Pogue on the Web at:
<http://www.davidpogue.com>

Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>



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