Charlie Rose

doodahdaze  12/30/2008 09:26 AM Report

Mr. viewer, you couldn't be more right.

It seems like, after listening to Bill Gates and his partner/assistant/co-founder/side-kick/new boss of Microsoft/bald guy, whatever his name is. After listening to them speak. It seems like they would love to "dictate" what people want. Actually, they seem like they're pretty used to doing that... Quite frankly, I'd rather go shoot a deer.

viewer  12/29/2008 10:55 PM Report

Bill Gates' exit couldn't have been more timely. I see Microsoft turning into a dinosaur within the next few years. Although he evaded the issues of web-based applications and open-source entirely, both may end up playing a pivotal role in Microsoft's downfall.

Microsoft has been able to keep such a large user-base in part by shipping Windows freely packaged with home desktops and the developing world. But most paying consumers will agree that Vista was overpriced and fell below expectations. If they continue this trend (which they seem to be doing with the new 'pay-as-you-go' patent), open-source may eventually gain a significant lead in the market-share. This is already being seen with in the browser space, where Mozilla Firefox has shown to outperform Microsoft's Internet Explorer in terms of security, updates, speed, features and compatibiltiy.

Web-based applications are another area where Microsoft has stagnated. Web-based applications are clearly defined as applications that run directly from a web-browser, and not just any piece of software that accesses the web as Mr. Gates suggests. A case in point is Google Docs, which already offers a fully web-based office suite.

If Microsoft doesn't come up with a better business model and shape up in its main product lines soon, then you can expect to see it plunge into oblivion.

Matchbook  12/29/2008 03:43 PM Report

Very interesting. I loved the questions about Vista and Google.

I am always intrigued when Microsoft/Bill Gates is positioned as an innovator/inventor of technology. Clearly, Mr. Gates loves technology, but rarely, if ever, has he or Microsoft been the origin of anything technical.

Microsoft's great ability is to copy technology and put the muscle behind it for it to succeed. Sort of like how Rome spread Greek culture. It is for this reason that I do not put much credence in Mr. Gates' visions for the technical future, like his vision for the automated white board.

The lack of technical invention is the crux of the reason why there is a healthy abhorence of anything Microsoft amoung huge crowds of engineers.

It seems the case that most industrial success does not happen for the pioneers, or for the products that are technically "the best". The business world is written by this law. GM, Oracle, and Microsoft.

Microsoft's ability is almost purely a business ability to divide and conquer and almost not at all a technical prowess.

hrc  12/28/2008 09:24 AM Report

Good show, 1st segment, clearly Microsoft missed the boat with search, but how much can one company do. The primary mission of Microsoft was the operating system, which needs constant work now that the browser is so entwined with it. Marvel of marvels is Word.

2d segment, goes to well being, a daunting task it seems for humanity as a whole yet alone for one man with a mission. Maybe build in some kinda of subliminal messages to his operating system that acts as a vaccine against ignorance and greed and those other devilish impediments towards peace and well being. The comments to clean water and sanitation are good speaking points on their own, and I'm sure are implicit to his agenda. Tolerance and other virtues need voice from the world religions.

Overall this show was a benefit to mankind by two great communicators, I wish everyone could see it.

RWillis  12/25/2008 02:11 AM Report

http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/CourseDescLong2.aspx?cid=8050

Yes, I searched for it too hoping it was available for free. Unfortunately, it's quite expensive. The least expensive version is $250. The DVD is over $500.

JoePaz  12/25/2008 12:40 AM Report

Bill Gates talked about one course that he wishes everyone would take, called "Big History" by David Christian. I searched on the web but couldn't really find a course, only some texts on this.

Can anyone point out where to find that course? Must be a video course.

REMant  12/24/2008 12:21 AM Report

Ironically Gates is still wedded to hardware, and to business use, when the real issues are in education and information, itself, and I'm not sure but that he's now in the way. Windows' success is due largely to its non-proprietariness, and that of the related hardware, and M$ would be wise to see that it stays that way. There is a lot more competition in software than he lets on and it is rare to see a program remain on top in a year or two. So far the PC's advantage has been its versatility and adaptability, but its drawback has been that this versatility makes using it more complicated and less direct. The general trend in technology, however, is from general to specific.

Like the software, the things that will help the poor the most are things of the mind, and most of these have actually been well known for centuries. The problem has been that we have ourselves been moving from general to specific, which has not really been a helpful evolution. Our educational system, and in particular at the higher levels, needs more "interdisciplinary" focus, and, indeed, a retreat from its professionalism and careerism, which has become a new scholasticism. And, our financial system needs similarly to be redirected away from supporting the same, and its selfishness. As I've said before, I don't think this "Carnegie" approach is anywhere near as fruitful as a rigorous anti-monopoly, anti-inflation regime would be, because in the end ppl have to do most of this for themselves, and those things are the main stumbling blocks to it. Capitalists have always made the argument tho that their enforced saving is required for progress and that this is doing the will of God. This is not much different than arguing the divine right of kings, besides bearing the marks of an artificial deprivation. If you are going to be doing it this way, tho, then research and development is the best way to spend the money. The Internet, mostly through individual initiative and co-operative projects like Wikipedia (which needs money, btw) and the Internet Archive book project, has IMHO been a considerable force for this kind improvement, and not the least because of the amount of pirated materials. It is also true that much of what we want technical solutions for was caused in the first place by disruption of more effective natural ways of dealing with the problems. For example, more disease was prevented by 19th c sanitation campaigns than by vaccinations, I'm sure, and likely would be today.

stephenbwise  12/23/2008 07:41 PM Report

It's been estimated that over 1 billion people on our planet don't have clean drinking water. It would be nice to see Mr. Gates' foundation tackle that one, or some part of it.

esantoro  12/23/2008 12:55 PM Report

I'm happy to post after Shalom, because he/she opens up a discussion I've been wanting to have about Gates' ideological thinking, what it succeeds at and what it unwittingly overlooks, especially regarding education. We are willing to ask this question of Barack Obama : "With all of his good intentions, can he really change anything?"

I've never seen this asked of Bill Gates. Yes, he can turn out technological products, but McDonald's also serves over a billion (daily?). That doesn't mean that overall it has a good product. It simply has flooded the market with products that have a good deal of appeal and satisfaction on the surface, but of little real nutritional value.

The more educated people become the less they actually have learned from history. Is Bill Gates' educational philanthropy of the same ideology as that of the various Indian schools of the 19th and early 20th centuries? Are we educating urban students in proper behavior and suburban students in competition and critical thinking? Urban schools do have different realities from that of suburban schools, with some overlap, but are we educating urban students for second-class citizenship/consumership in the burgeoning New Word order?

Education is political. Not to be aware of this is to socialize students for future identities and social roles. In _1984_ Orwell writes about the proles, those people who are not of the current leadership class, those people by dint of birth who have not subscribed to middle-class ideology. He argues that it is these proles who will change things if change is ever to happen, that change, real change, will never come from a Bill Gates,Orwell would argue.

Urban schools like to focus on morale building and getting students to make connections with the world, but this is done on a superficial level (in 90 percent of these schools). The real shame is that there is tremendous opportunity for real scholarship and change to come from these schools -- and not just urban schools but all schools that serve the underrepresented. But what usually happens in these schools is packaged education that seals up all the cracks that allow the possibility for the light to get in.

I do come at this from the perspective of the humanities, but what I would like to see is students in elementary and secondary education using their backgrounds and experiences to make real connections, connections that I don't think Gates could even make. These students are poised to understand Ellison, Fitzgerald, Melville, Morrison, Twain, Miller, Naylor, and others in ways that could blow the doors off the educational system that has helped fabricate the current crises this country faces, and has been doing so for the last thirty years. The only problem is that this view of education requires, as with all discoveries, a messy, non-linear approach, or at least the allowance of some wiggle room for such approaches. Packaged education where teachers are turned into technicians is very similar to the systematic socialization of congresspersons that promotes dysfunction in government. It's amazing what students can do when the realize that they were right all along in feeling on a visceral yet unarticulated level that something is not quite right in Denmark. They should be allowed to explore these avenues, not diverted from them. But that's what technicians do: they simply follow marching orders from on high. The insanity is all this is hidden out there in plain sight.

ShalomFreedman  12/23/2008 11:56 AM Report

I well understand Charlie Rose's appreciative attitude towards Bill Gates. How can anyone not admire his decision and action in regard to helping the world's poorest people?

I found it truly interesting to listen to Gates' explanation of his efforts in helping the world's poorer people, and why this is not in many cases an overnight task.

The segment on Gates' Microsoft career I found a bit less interesting. This is familiar ground covered by Rose in previous interviews with Gates.

What surprised and disappointed me is that not a single question was asked about the world - economic- crisis,the economic situation of 'Microsoft', the effect of the downturn on Gates' projects in the poorer regions of the world.

doodahdaze  12/23/2008 09:17 AM Report

Microsoft Windows has caused me more grief than I was really asking for, and basically ripped me off. They say the situation was caused by the unreasonable maniac behavior of this guy... He doesn't seem so bad anymore.?.?

eb05458  12/23/2008 08:51 AM Report

Learn from the best, and very good to watch.