Bill Gates to be Knighted 1116
gexen writes "According to an article in the Telegraph Bill Gates is going to be knighted by the Queen of England for "services to the global enterprise." She's just handing them out like candy these days!"
Aristocracy!! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Aristocracy!! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Aristocracy!! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Aristocracy!! (Score:5, Funny)
OK, so think about it - if Bill accepts the knighthood, he'll be letting her Majesty get within inches of his neck with about 3 feet of sharp steel... When you add in the fact that she's 78 years old this year, we can hope that she might just "slip" and join the dots with a straight line...
EULA (Score:5, Funny)
Xix.
Re:Aristocracy!! (Score:4, Interesting)
For those of you that are not familiar with British politics: There is this guy Tony who is in charge. Then there is this guy Gordon who wants to be in charge. Gordon and Tony agreed that Tony will be in charge for a while and then Gordon will get a turn. It is increasingly looking as if Tony is screwing Gordon out of his turn. Time is running out for Gordon because, since their party has screwed the British public and treated them like serfs for two terms, their party probably only has one term left in government - maybe. And since they have screwed up so royally Gordon will probably be dead next time their party gets put in charge again. So Gordon only has one term to possibly lead the government. So he has started screwing Tony. He has built an empire around his ministry and just about every other part of government now reports in some way to his department. He is the one that holds the country's purse strings. Every chance he gets he usurps the authority of Tony. Tony on the other hand is increasingly looking like a deer caught in the headlights. This honouring of Gates is just another kick in the groin at a time when Tony is already holding his guts to stop them from spilling. Gordon is playing low and dirty on this one.
British politics beats any soap hands down. I am sure it is the same in many other countries. Pity then that it affects real lives.
Hateraid for all. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Congratulate "Sir William" and move on (Score:4, Funny)
(*hit on the head)
=Smidge=
Re:Congratulate "Sir William" and move on (Score:5, Insightful)
>times that is about the only thing that would make him
>not be Knighted
Ummm, lets see. Try stepping back a decade or two and reconsider this position.
They illegally broke the back of DRDOS and OS/2 for that matter. Doing this is one of the key things that made them a monopoly that so many grant was "naturally" acquired. WIthout the monopoly none of the rest would follow.
Re:Congratulate "Sir William" and move on (Score:5, Informative)
BTW he won't be Sir William since he is not a British subject. Neither is Speilberg Sir Steven. However, the difference between an honorary knighthood and a "real" one eludes me.
Re:Congratulate "Sir William" and move on (Score:4, Funny)
The real ones are cheaper.
Re:Congratulate "Sir William" and move on (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Congratulate "Sir William" and move on (Score:4, Interesting)
Basically like the court system at the time (upto 1986 the highest court/ court of last appeal in Australia was the british privy court. Canada had the same arrangement until 1949, and New Zealand upto last year) the honours system for rewarding outstanding acheivement actually extended upto british knighthoods. The australian government and states could recommend directly to the queen, people who should receive knighthoods, and the titles were officially recognised (by political protocol) with the official title of Sir Blogs.
An interesting quirk of this is that now if the queen was to award a knighthood to an Australian, like she is doing to Bill Gates, it would be a large outcry from people saying that it was undermining the Order of Australia as the top honour in Australia, instead of an award from a foreign head of state which is how the US will view the award to Bill Gates.
Edmund Hillary was knighted in an age where the top honour in New Zealand was a knighthood, and the NZ government of the time would have recommended his knighthood. He would also have been addressed by his title at all official events.
IBM (Score:4, Insightful)
They WROTE OS/2 (Score:4, Funny)
Back before the phrase was "developers developers developers" and "windows windows windows", the original chant was "os/2 os/2 os/2". Steve Baller would come running down the hall by my office (i was an MSDOS developer) shouting "OS/2 OS/2 OS/2" letting us know our project was doomed.
funny, but not all true. (Score:4, Informative)
That may be true.
Microsoft wrote OS/2! To say they broke its back is ridiculous! ... They couldnt sell it.
That is only part true and contains enough omisions to make it a deliberate lie. IBM also put lots of development into OS/2. They provided sane guidance but what they got from Microsoft was nothing compared to what it became. More importanlty, however, Microsoft did break OS/2 with anti-competive agreements with big PC makers that insured that OS/2 would always cost the end user more than Microsoft's offerings. Microsoft was convicted of breaking anti-trustlaws for that it is the main reason OS/2 lacked device drivers and never was adopted. It was a better system, it could have cost less and it is still better than Microsoft's current kludge, XP.
Today, free software is better and it will soon take over. Once again, IBM is on the bandwagon. They have always picked the best of breed. Microsoft's days are numbered because they can't lock out free.
Bill Gates is a Criminal (Score:5, Interesting)
Microsoft added a message to Windows that gave a warning about incompatibility with DR-DOS. But Microsoft's own testing had shown DR-DOS's compatibility to be essentially perfect. The message was a lie, intended to defraud the public.
Microsoft also added intentional (and encrypted) incompatibilities to Windows 95, while keeping DR-DOS out of the Windows 95 test program. It was a deliberate act of sabotage.
But there are more recent examples of Microsoft's criminal activity:
Sabotage [sun.com]:
> "Strategic Objective [is to] kill cross-platform Java by grow[ing] the polluted Java market" -- Microsoft Pricing Proposal for VJ++ 6.0
Fraud [sun.com]:
> "As i [sic] told charlesf [Fitzgerald] on the phone, at this point its [sic] not good to create MORE noise around our win32 java classes. Instead we should just quietly grow j++ share and assume that people will take advantage of our classes without ever realizing they are building win32-only java apps." -- Armstrong Decl., Ex. 23.
Extortion [usdoj.gov]:
> Gates wrote, "Apple let us down on the browser by making Netscape the standard install." Gates then reported that he had already called Apple's CEO (who at the time was Gil Amelio) to ask "how we should announce the cancellation of Mac Office...."
> In Waldman's words: Sounds like we give them the HTML control for nothing except making IE the "standard browser for Apple?" I think they should be doing this anyway. Though the language of the agreement uses the word "encourage," I think that the spirit is that Apple should be using it everywhere and if they don't do it, then we can use Office as a club.
Almost every one of Microsoft's "victories" has involved similar illegal behavior.
The sabotage of Java alone has delayed the introduction of e-commerce by years, resulting in a loss of as much as $100 billion per year for the U.S. economy. And when you take that much wealth out of the world, people die.
Bill Gates doesn't deserve a Knighthood. He deserves to be in jail.
Re:Bill Gates is a Criminal (Score:5, Insightful)
In every profession, the exertion of the greater part of those who exercise it, is always in proportion to the necessity they are under of making that exertion... and, where competition is free, the rivalship of competitors, who are all endeavouring to justle one another out of employment, obliges every man to endeavour to execute his work with a certain degree of exactness... Rivalship and emulation render excellency, even in mean professions, an object of ambition, and frequently occasion the very greatest exertions.
This comment on the benefits of competition between companies in the same field was written by that well known commie, anti-capitalist Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations, Book V, Chapter I, Park III, Article III.
I spend a lot of time knocking Gates not because I'm envious or anti-capatilist but because his business practises are anti free market, predatory, anti-competitive and just generally centered around filling the Gates bank account regardless of the damage his activities may inflict on others.
One of the most often used quotes by so called "capitalist" politicians is that small business is the engine that drives the economy. This is mainly founded in the idea that for new, small companies to succeed in any market place, particularly one that is dominated by large, wealthy corporations they have to exercise levels of creativity and innovation that established businesses with their large internal beurocracies seldom match.
Gate's crime isn't that he charges for his software, it's that he has used unethical and immoral methods to beat competitors to a bloody pulp and maintain a monopoly that has for years, had an adverse effect on competition.
Seriously, If Microsoft had had real competition through the 1980s do you think that Windows 95 and 98 would have been as piss poor, bug-ridden and insecure as they were? OK 2000 wasn't as bad but it's still a freaky piece of crap based on the nasty piece of work that NT had become. And Gate's response to compettion from Linux? Good programming? Better software? Nope, stuff a hand up Darl and hurl the FUD about, bring in DRM and start patenting everything in site.
The worst part of it from my country is that the politicians and Microsoft victims are so fucking stupid that they wont even help themselves. Newham council think they're clever because they used Linux to knock MS down to price. Once Longhorn's out and installed do you think Newham will have an option to swap? If MS pulls a patent war out of the hat and Linux gets killed off what do you think is gonna happen, price cuts all round from Microsoft - BOLLOCKS!
If Gates gets a knighthood, the British government will be effectively condoning a method of business business lacking in rules, morals and ethics.
If Microsoft were so sure of the superiority of their products, they'd use open standards and let the consumer decide. Until then you've got Windows, Office et al.
Re:Bill Gates is a Criminal (Score:4, Insightful)
I think you'll need to provide more evidence of your claim.
Sure, it's nice to think about "hey, what if..." arguments, like "hey, what if Microsoft wasn't there, and everyone all shared their source code, and all the problems were solved, and everyone lived happily ever after."
It's possible you're right, but nobody seems to even examine the alternative case. I imagine a world without Microsoft, where no platform or human interface is standardized, the average computer literacy is equal to the average literacy on a BSD system today, I can't share a file with my friend because none of our hardware matches up and the formats are all different.
Would hardware be as cheap if a manufacturer could only market each device to 15% of the market? Maybe there would be a standard, but let's face it, microsoft did turn some standards (as in some committee agreed on something), into standards (as in everyone can actually use it).
Maybe you're right. But I'd never trade in the current reality, which is something spectacular, for a parallel universe in which Bill Gates was never born.
I'd just be too worried that the computer industry would turn into an appliance, with accessories and weird quirks, like so many companies have actually tried to do. Every company out there wanted to turn a computer into some kind of appliance it seems, except MS. We may be able to connect to the internet today, but that would probably have the same fate as the telcom industry. I don't know that MS is the company that really allowed computers to become what they are today, but I believe they played an important role.
I run gnu & linux, I love open source software, and free software, and all the development behind them. I don't like MS software much myself, but I at least appreciate its significance.
Re:Congratulate "Sir William" and move on (Score:5, Insightful)
And Mussolini got the trains to run on time. What's your point?
Eh, whatever. She ain't my queen...
"Robin Hood"? (Score:5, Insightful)
"Even if I grant you his illegal and/or underhanded, ruthless business practices, at worst he is a modern day Robin Hood, stealing from the well off, giving to the poor off (and keeping a healthy chunk for himself - although he has pledged to eventually give away close to everything he's earned)."
He takes from the rich
And gives to the needy
He keeps a little bit
But I'm not greedy!
-or-
They robbed the rich
And gave to the poor
except what they kept for expenses!
Let me crush your world image right now. ANYONE can promise to do ANYTHING thing
If you want to talk about how wonderful Bill Gates is, please just TRY to restrict yourself to ACTUAL activities.
And that "close to everything he's earned".... well, that all depends upon what YOUR definitions of "close" and "everything" and "earned" are and what HIS definitions are.
"If I were in the software business, I would hate Microsoft for what they are and what they symbolize."
Translation: If you were trying to support yourself and your family by doing honest work...
"If I were some starving person in Ethiopia, I would be saying, "fucking finally, someone is willing to put their money where their mouth is.""
Translation: If you were the object of his generosity....
So, it all comes down to whether you are the victim or the benefactor.
Let's try looking at this in a more enlightened mode, eh?
Look at the whole process. He breaks laws and amasses a HUGE personal fortune. But then he gives away a portion of that fortune. A small portion. A portion he will not even notice.
Now, to me, that doesn't seem like a person or behaviour that is "good".
I don't recall Robin Hood living in a castle with servants and such, all paid for by his "steal from the rich and give the table scraps to the poor".
Re:Nice "thought process" there. (Score:4, Insightful)
It's also important to remember that people like Carnegie and Rockefeller were even more reviled in their time than Gates, and far outdid him for pure sleaze and avarice. But their principal legacy was a number of magnificent philanthropic works, which arguably did far more to improve society than their business practices did to debase it. Howard Hughes is an even better example; his fortune went towards medical research and is the basis for one of the largest private funding sources in the nation.
I despise Microsoft and refuse to buy, use, or support their products whenever possible, and I don't respect Gates for the way he acquired his money, but I think the fact that he's using his fortune to make the world a better place far is far more important than his past misdeeds. In fifty years, he'll be remembered for helping improve Africa, not for a collection of lousy but ubiquitous software. Larry Ellison, on the other hand, will be known as "that asshole with the yachts."
All built on crime? (Score:5, Insightful)
Quit your bitching, Bill gates is probably a better man than you, and by the standards of Knight Hood, he definitely ranks up there with what has been knighted in the past, using intelligence and guile to achieve wealth and power, has always been the definition of Nobility, so try not being such a liberal baby for a minute and just accept, he's doing better than you, and no one gave it to him.
Hopefully he's not (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hopefully he's not (Score:5, Funny)
The Queen is handing out Knighthoods lately like the certification mills are handing out MCSEs. I guess it's fitting and just as useless.
Re:Hopefully he's not (Score:5, Insightful)
It's clear to me now... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Hopefully he's not (Score:5, Funny)
ba dum dum
Arise! (Score:5, Funny)
Arise, Sir Plenty of Bugs, Sir Mega of Lomaniac, sir Screen of Blue, Sir Embrace of Extend, Sir 640 of K....
Re:Arise! (Score:5, Funny)
So that's who that was!
Re:Arise! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Arise! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Arise! (Score:5, Funny)
He cant be just "Knigtef" (Score:4, Informative)
Re:He cant be just "Knigtef" (Score:5, Funny)
Re:He cant be just "Knigtef" (Score:5, Informative)
There's more information on the history of the award at the Royal Family website [royal.gov.uk].
Re:He cant be just "Knigtef" (Score:5, Interesting)
No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.
Does Bill count as having an office of profit or trust?
Re:He cant be just "Knigtef" (Score:5, Informative)
-B
Re:He cant be just "Knigtef" (Score:5, Funny)
Or maybe, like being knighted "Home Edition"
Re:He cant be just "Knigted" (Score:5, Informative)
Re:He cant be just "Knigted" (Score:4, Funny)
1. Post a question containing a (albeit incorrect) supposition (get karma).
2. Answer one's own question (get more karma).
Then when karma is got:
3. Post TK and GNAA trolls at +2 (karma has to be used for something).
Re:He should be beheadded. (Score:5, Informative)
I'll admit that he's not the best philanthropist, but he does donate a lot of money to a lot of organizations. He could just swim in it all day like Scrooge McDuck, so he deserves some definite props for doing what he does.
Don't sell him short just because he's mostly evil...
Re:That is how much money they HAVE. (Score:5, Interesting)
Requirements for Knighting (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Requirements for Knighting (Score:5, Informative)
No, but you need to be a Commonwealth "Citizen" for it to give you the right to use the title "Sir".
Re:Requirements for Knighting (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Requirements for Knighting (Score:4, Insightful)
I notice the smiley, but still it's just not true. Some of the most modern states of the world - Japan, Britain or almost entire Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden, Norway) - are monarchies. At the same time, some of the most backwarded states that are not even in the 18th century by our standards, like the African or Middle-Eastern failed states are republics. So are the banana republics in Central America. When you see what kind of a person [georgewbush.com] can get elected as a president, monarchy no longer sounds as such a bad idea.
pfft (Score:5, Funny)
Hollywood Star (Score:5, Funny)
We need to create a rewards system that rewards not celebrities but progressives. The Martyr Award or the like. Give it a sexy title... and *poof* suddenly being a progressive is hip.
Re:Hollywood Star (Score:5, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who
No Sir! Stars who refused honors--CNN Article [cnn.com]
Sly Queen... (Score:5, Funny)
We Are The Knights Who Say 'Ni'! (Score:5, Funny)
-- The Queen Mother
Another example of the UK Govt getting it wrong (Score:5, Insightful)
I always did think Labour were too damn close to WBG the III. At least he doesn't get to call himself 'Sir', not being British...
Simon
I would be careful... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I would be careful... (Score:3, Funny)
This is the way it's always been (Score:3, Insightful)
"All hail to Sir Borg^h^h^h^hBill!"
Well I suppose... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Well I suppose... (Score:5, Funny)
Obligatory Monty Python reference.. (Score:3, Funny)
What I picture (Score:5, Insightful)
There are probably hundreds of people in the IT industry more worthy of knighthood than Gates... think of people like Wozniack, Torvalds, Stallman, Page... guys who made REAL advances in computer science without greed as a primary motivator.
Re:What I picture (Score:4, Informative)
Tim Berners-Lee [bbc.co.uk] got the knighthood less than a month ago.
and congress will accept this? (Score:5, Interesting)
The constitition says in part "No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State. "
does this mean congress has to vote on it? or already has?
for me to succeed, it doesn't matter if MY point of view is right or wrong, there must just be reasoned replies.
Re:and congress will accept this? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:and congress will accept this? (Score:5, Informative)
1 - The US Government does not grant titles of Nobility. It means they can't invent a "Noble" class and start knighting people, etc. This goes along wiht "All people are equal" and stuff.
2 - It says that, more or less, someone holding a public office or public trust cannot accept entitlements, gifts, knighthoods, etc, from a foreign monarch or government, without permission of congress.
So basically it means if Britain tries to knight Arnie, he has to refuse, or get permission from congress first.
What I would like to see... (Score:5, Insightful)
What I mean is an examination from an alternative viewpoint, not for the sake of making a favorable impression of Microsoft -- but as an academic exercise.
I'm well aware that Microsoft, especially on this forum, is seen as one of the most evil entities to ever exist. With that in mind, I'm going to rush right into Godwin's Law and make the following comparison with Hitler's Germany: In just a few years, Hitler managed to transform Germany from an highly agricultural, economically decrepit country into a modern, industrial, profitable one. This was all before the Holocaust, and during that period, he enjoyed immense public support.
Now examine Microsoft. They are a convicted monopolist, and continue to enjoy unparalleled control over the domestic software (and to an extent, hardware) market. But what has arisen from this that would lead their chairman to be considered for an honorary knighthood? Thrust aside the seething hate for a second and just look. What accomplishments have arisen? Computers running software whose price/performance [tpc.org] is fantastic? One of the easiest-to-develop-for video game consoles ever? Highly capable web servers that run some of the busiest sites--Dell.com, Nasdaq.com, MSNBC.com? Software conformity (and all the positives and negatives that result)?
As I said, this is intended to be an exercise, not a trumpeting endorsement, in the interests of shedding new light on this piece of news.
What has he done: charity (Score:5, Insightful)
Giving loads of money to good causes always helps.
Re:What I would like to see... (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, he has given away a very substantial amount of money to worthy causes through his and his wife's foundation.
Is this a good thing? Of course. Sort of. Where did the money come from? Basically from a sort of involuntary tax extracted from millions upon millions of PC users around the world. So it's good that the money is going to a good cause, just bad that progress and innovation had to be retarded to make that happen.
The real reason why he's getting a knighthood, however, has nothing to do with his gifts to good causes. It's a powerplay between the Prime Minister Mr. Blair and his Chancellor Gordon Brown. Mr. Blair is in serious political trouble at the moment, what with the 45 minute claim, the missing WMDs, the ongoing situation in Iraq and various political issues at home (tuition fees for Universities). By coincidence, Mr. Brown who fancies being PM one day is having all his friends in business over for a conference - flexing his muscles and making it known that he has "important" friends too. By all accounts Mr. Blair didn't even know about this conference until 2 weeks ago!
I'm a director of an entrepreneurial company in the UK (well, I like to think so anyway :-)
and we tried to get to go to this conference,
but we're firmly not invited. It's only for
those "innovators" in big business, see. This
makes me quite bitter because big business only
accounts for about 20% of the UK economy, making
them fairly irrelevant as far as growth and
innovation are concerned.
Rich.
Bill / Microsoft's Real Contribution (Score:5, Insightful)
Forget this list. Like a lot of "you owe Microsoft" style posts, it consists of accomplishments that are debatable either because their accuracy or whether they really stand out above their competition.
Microsoft's (as both a separate entity and alter-ego to Bill Gates) real contribution is in its history. Once again, Microsoft advocates often miss the mark by starting their list with "Internet for the masses" or the beginnings of Windows (with both points being dubious). It goes further back than that.
Microsoft's biggest contribution to computing is being a conduit for the process of making computer hardware a commodity. Kind of an odd turn of events since they were entirely a software company at this point. And likely more accidental than planned.
At this point in history, microcomputers were coming in to their own. They were no longer toys for hobbyists but rather important business tools. It hadn't taken long for IBM to notice that a market they had resoundingly ignored was quickly growing. IBM backpedaled and rushed out their own entry - the IBM PC. It was such a success in the business market that soon became a defacto standard. It might be worth pointing out that in IBM's rush to market, their IBM-PC product was heavily dependent on off-the-shelf components and and a licensed operating system from a small outfit based in New Mexico.
Enter Compaq. Compaq was the first to produce a legal IBM-PC clone in their Compaq Portable product (although not the first clone to market or first "portable" computer). This was done through a meticulous and expensive reverse engineering process. This was a necessary step since the hardware involved was available but the underpinnings of the IBM-PC, its BIOS, was not. The investment paid off - Compaq had a fully functional clone which launched the company to becoming one of computing's major players.
However, Compaq's success would have been questionable if it wasn't for Microsoft. The reason to go through this tedious reverse engineering was to create a machine that functioned just like an IBM-PC. The BIOS was one piece. The operating system was another. But unlike previous microcomputer products, the OS was not owned by the manufacturer. Compaq licensed the same OS, Microsoft's DOS, that ran on the IBM-PC.
I find it hard to believe that Bill Gates foresaw this turn of events. It is very likely that he simply saw software as being as important as hardware, that the microcomputer would take off, and that getting a portion of each IBM sale would lead to more profit than an outright buyout of DOS. Or maybe Bill reflected on their success with BASIC and did, in fact, see a day when their OS could be licensed in the same manner.
In any case, Compaq was the first of many. More clones came to market. This challenged IBM's product and lead to a situation where the "IBM-PC" became a compatibility standard as much as an available product. Clone companies continued to compete on price and features as the "IBM-PC" market shifted away from IBM's proprietary product to a commodity.
And Microsoft collected a fee for each "IBM-PC" sold.
There are a couple interesting points worth stressing here.
IBM began this process, albeit unintentionally, by relying on off-the-shelf parts that any other manufacturer could also purchase. IBM then attempted to protect their product with proprietary firmware. There are some echos of this behavior in today's computing environment.
Microsoft rode the wave of the hardware market becoming a commodity. Whether this was luck or not might be open to some debate but they
Sour grapes! (Score:5, Insightful)
I may not like the way Microsoft does think (somewhat arrogant) but give credit where it's due. Mr Gates' contributions in my mind are as follows:
1) Making IT not just for the geeks and the super rich but making it affordable for hundreds of millions of IT illiterates to learn how to use a PC. (I agree Macintosh and others were better but point 2 is the reason why MS succeeded).
2) Standardizing the way GUI applications work so that ordinary folks can get productivity out of them instead of endless tweaking and fumbling. (of course, sometimes it crashes and those @#$%^*!! words start flowing)
3) Bill is a philanthropist and a marvellous example compared to many other rich folks.
Let's be rationale, we may not like some aspects of a company or a person but don't throw out the good parts. That is character murder and a sign of immaturity on our part.
Article I, Section 9, par 8. (U.S. Constitution) (Score:3, Interesting)
Here, read it for yourself: Constitution for the United States of America [constitution.org].
There are just so many ways to look at this (specifically where Bill Gates is concerned), that this could keep constitutional lawyers happy for years.
He's in a position of profit and trust, but is it Under the States? Is geographic location, making that much money, and having your software so deeply enshrined in so many State governments enough to make that connection? Note: Office does not specifically say POLITICAL office...
Oh yeah, HUGE can of worms.
Re:Article I, Section 9, par 8. (U.S. Constitution (Score:5, Informative)
All titles/awards are ruined by someone. (Score:3, Insightful)
Like someone else said previously, Yasser Arafat has a Nobel Peace Prize.
Milli Vanilli once had a Grammy.
George W. Bush has made a mockery of the US Presidency.
Commander or Grand Cross? (Score:5, Informative)
From Wikipedia.org [wikipedia.org]:
RTFA (Score:4, Informative)
Whoa... (Score:5, Funny)
What a week!
I would say (Score:5, Insightful)
Hated? Yes. Undeserving? No.
Malaria Research (Score:5, Insightful)
No, if a withered narcissist like Mick Jagger can be knighted, Gates certainly deserves the honor. It's a shame, though, that the British are honoring him when, frankly, he deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It galls me to write this, but it's the truth.
A true nerds dream come true... (Score:5, Funny)
"Sir Bill Gates, level 15th Paladin...a true warrior for the people if I do say so myself" - Bill Gates
Swords are kind of outdated... (Score:5, Funny)
"I knight thee in the name of... ZZZWURTCH
Look on the bright side (Score:5, Funny)
This is not surprising (Score:5, Interesting)
Remember that not only is Bill Gates the self-made, richest man in the world, but he is also one of the top philanthropist of all times due to the charitable gifts of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He has already given away billions. So, it's not too surprising that he is knighted. I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner.
I'm definitely not a Microsoft fan (I'm a Unix admin). But give the guy some slack. I think some people take this anti-Microsoft thing too personally.
I hate to say this but...... (Score:5, Interesting)
For all you folks over the pond, a bit of recent UK political history starts here:
The person who nominated Gates for this award is Gordon Brown, currently the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Brown and Blair have a love hate relationship based on the fact that Brown believes he was stitched up by Blair over the Labour party leadership prior to Labour's victory in the 1997 election.
This animosity is kept quite on the whole because no government in the UK will dare to show a division of support for its leader as it's a great turn off for the voters as several Tory opposition leaders have found over the last 8+ years.
Blair is in a very vulnerable position for the first time in years as the shit is heading for the fan re: Iraq and Brown sees this as a good time to position himself for the take over if Blair goes down. The entrepeneurs conference Brown has set up is basically (as the article suggests) a "look how important I am and how powerful my friends are" day. Incidentally, the conference's most notable claim to fame is the lack of speakers who have started the business they currently run.
Personally, I find the concept of being lectured on entrepeneurship by people who have taken on the CEO post at a multinational or run their own predatory destroyer of start-ups, small businesses and competitors insulting in the extreme and hope Brown fall flay on his face despite my intense dislike for Blair.
I don't know whether there's a mechanism for objecting to honours in the UK but if anyone does, now may be the time to speak up.
The "anti-christ"? (Score:5, Insightful)
26... billion... dollars...
That's WELL over half of his liquid worth, and it nears 3/4 of his liquid wealth, which is currently sitting somewhere near $40-42 billion. And he's the "anti-christ"?
Appropriate (Score:4, Funny)
Wait a minute... (Score:5, Funny)
geez. (Score:5, Insightful)
the main standard for modern knighthood is CHARITY. to maintain a knighthood you have donate a huge percentage of your time and money to charitable causes.
Bill has given over 20 billion dollars to charity. He is among the highest individual contributors to aids charities.
disliking the software is one thing, but slamming him getting a knighthood like this is just lame. STFU.
Maybe she has another motive... (Score:5, Funny)
"I dub thee... Blue scream of death!" *WHACK*
Re:DEAR FUCKING LORD (Score:5, Funny)
Re:DEAR FUCKING LORD (Score:5, Insightful)
Gates Foundation battles ancient diseases (Score:5, Insightful)
We are close to completely removing polio from the face of the earth, as we have done to the other ancient horror, smallpox.
Granted: the Gates legal team created the foundation to shelter the family wealth from taxes, and the wealth was created in less than honorable ways.
But, it is currently being directed successfully towards a goal that will benefit all humans now and in the future.
This is why the nerd king is being recognized as Sir Bill.
we all know what happened there (Score:4, Funny)
Bill: awww, but I dun
Melinda: not another word, or you wont have chances at sex again for another 3 years
Bill: Fine, god dammit. you stupid bitch, I'll fund your little useless cause
Melinda: and you can get more potential customers and more publicity!
Bill: Wow, did I tell you how beautiful you are?
prolly went down something like that.
Re:DEAR FUCKING LORD (Score:5, Informative)
Re:DEAR FUCKING LORD (Score:5, Funny)
Anyone here in the UK? someone tell her you have to swing REEEALLY hard.
thanks
DEAR FUCKING LORD (Score:5, Insightful)
I think Muslim and Christian Fundamentalists talk about each other this way too
fanatics OF ALL FLAVORS are stupid, period
Re:DEAR FUCKING LORD (Score:4, Interesting)
Look up the word 'Insightful' you crack smoking mods!
Yes. Microsoft people think criticism comes only from envy and can't get over that speed bump. I've seen "Pirates of Silicon Valley" too, but that was a movie. From what I read, Bill's mother was on the board of directors of the same charity as the CEO of IBM and said "I know someone who can find you an OS for that new PC thing". Bill went out and bought one, mostly changed the drive IO parameters, and MS-DOS was born. What has always been at the front of my mind is how could someone NOT make a billion or two riding on the coat tails of that wave?
Yes, Microsoft did successfully break from IBM. But did he personally invent and write Windows? I don't think so. So "the height of nerddom". I don't think so. The guy is no Edison.
But weaselly-schrewd lying, cheating, world-class FUD spreader of a hard ball businessman, yes. The guy is a throwback to 19th Century robber barons. Which, come to think of it, probably makes him a good candidate for knighthood.
Re:We'll never live this down (Score:5, Informative)
Since the restoration (where the British asked the king back 'cos even he was less tyranical than the parlimentarian revolutionaries) the monarch has had no real power to do anything much. In fact the monarch is forbidden to do anything remotely seen as overtly political.
Honour lists are made up by Whitehall functionaries (civil servants) and the political classes, most notably the ones in power at the time. The majority of knighthoods are given to civil servants so that they can be given a certain level of job where one of the unofficial prerequisits for the position is the title. This is especially true in the Ministry of Defence. As for the others they seem to be all purely political "thank-yous."
The best argument for the current status quo with respect to the British constitutional monarchy is that the head of state has no political power and hence no politician craves the position. Hence, we don't have a power hungry lieing sod in the position, merely a grandmother in a disfunctional family.
Re:What about Torvalds? (Score:5, Insightful)
how much has Gates' earned by circumventing laws and price gouging governments and nations around the world? Hence a lot of people!
How much has Linus taken from the same people?
A tax rebate is when the government decides to give back money from you it shouldn't have taken. Here, Bill Gates through immoral and illegal actions has garnered billions and is "generous" to give back. Forgive Linus for not going through that route but instead helping create and organize the production of Linux, a product that'll continually give back to the public.
Consider that for each person that is using Linux but wouldn't have heard about FreeBSD or some other free system and would instead of had to pay for Microsoft. How much money is that? How about governments and organizations that are now saving from the microsoft tax?
I'm in no way saying he should be knighted. But his donation of time has resulted in quite impressive results. It's just not a fair comparison to say he hasn't donated large sums of money when you consider how Bill got his money.
Re:What about Torvalds? (Score:3, Insightful)
If you steal millions from widows and orphans and then endow an orphanage you are a great man and a philanthropist.
If you dedicate your life to directly aiding widows and orphans you're a bum who never amounted to anything.
It really doesn't take too much reading of history to discover that this principle is almost invariable.
Or you can just take the shortcut and read Mark Twain's essays.
KFG
Re:What about Torvalds? (Score:5, Insightful)
His lifework.
And you're forgetting that he donated it for FREE.
Imagine how much money would have been spent on Linux if it wasn't free? SuSE, RedHat, Mandrake and all those other Distros make up a large section of the IT market just on CD SALES and SUPPORT for what is essentially a free product.
MSFT got rich on selling the same product that Linus gives away for free.
Re:The End (Score:4, Insightful)
He's the marketing dude.
I think you might be mixing him up with Steve Wozniak.