I think you completely misunderstand my point. I have nothing against MS or Mr. Gates. Actually I have the utmost respect for him and what he has made out of his dream for a company. I realize the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is run transparently as well. My problem is with this particular pledge is the fact that (as you mentioned) not all charitable programs are open source it is possible for people pledge whatever they want, and I am a pessimist when it comes to the generosity of the ultra rich. If I had $40bil and wanted to donate half or more, why would I wait for a website to come along and post my name before doing so? Also the pledge states that the people will do this pledge in their life time. That is a bit on the vague side as well.

I might agree with this if it weren't for the fact that there is no way to keep track of whether or not these Billionaires are giving the money they promise. I can promise to donate $300bn, doesn't mean it is likely to happen. That also might be true about the administrative costs, if this Give Pledge was taking the donations themselves, but it is nothing more than a list of people. Not a lot of overhead there.

If they really cared about giving and helping people, and not just about patting themselves on the back for the world to see, they would make this a legal contract, monitor how much is given, and open it to anyone that wants to give. If some homeless guy wants to give 20 of his last $30 why should it matter that he isn't ultra-rich socialite? Nice sentiment, but (hopefully) anyone can see it for what it is...

"He recognized that the laptop got hot on the left side; however, regardless of that, he did not change its position," the report says. I think we found the problem. Why say your kid is dumb when you can blame his laptop that he never puts down?

The cell phone market is essentially closed to anyone that is trying to break in in a huge way. Without something big, and I mean BIG, to offer Microsoft is just better off to rest on it's laurels and stick to what it does at the moment. I refrain from saying what it does best, cause I think it could do better with some effort, but I digress. You know what I mean. Just cause a company makes good cars, doesn't mean it should build roads.

I may be alone in this, but some of the top games on my list of favorites don't even have a multiplayer mode available. Don't get me wrong, I am not some shut-in that believes human contact would be paramount to signing my soul away. I actually really enjoy mulitplayer when it is done properly and played with people capable of using words of a length greater than 4, but I also really enjoy (and get more into) a single player game with a story that is more than just an after thought.