Bill Gates to Finally Receive His Harvard Degree 336
coondoggie writes "It's not like he needs it to beef up his résumé, but the world's richest college dropout finally is getting his degree. Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, will speak at Harvard University's commencement ceremony in June and, like all commencement speakers, will receive an honorary degree from the institution. It's hard to guess if Gates, the wealthiest person in the world and co-founder of a company that brought in $44 billion in revenue last year, cares. But the programming whiz who once dropped out of Harvard will likely feel some sense of satisfaction."
Rich man's GED (Score:5, Insightful)
so I guess that makes the honorary degree something akin to a rich man's GED.
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Re:Rich man's GED (Score:5, Informative)
It's an honorary degree, it's more like saying "we recognise you as being prominent in this field and here's the proof."
Not: "omglolwtf u didnt get a degree heres one now ur one of us!!1 lol"
Re:Rich man's GED (Score:5, Funny)
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That said, being Bill Gates might be a different story. Hes got enough money to buy the damn school.
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I think you're putting too much stock into this "honorary degree," it of course isn't worth the paper it's written on and everyone knows that, including him.
It's just nice to get recognition, who cares who it's from.
That's all it is, recognition. If you're too high and mighty with your 'I did well in spite of having a degree Ha Ha Ha soci
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In the original software giants, a lot of the people up-high are solid programmers. Just because they're rich doesn't mean they're not self-made.
Re:Rich man's GED (Score:4, Insightful)
It's an honorary degree, it's more like saying "we recognise you as being prominent in this field and here's the proof."
Not: "omglolwtf u didnt get a degree heres one now ur one of us!!1 lol"
Actually honorary degrees are more of a "we need someone to speak at our graduation and we will give you one as payment". Nothing more, nothing less. Kind of cheapens what the real graduates are getting IMHO.
Re:Rich man's GED (Score:5, Funny)
Yup. He better not try to pass it off as a real degree on a job applicaton or he'll be in trouble.
Re:Rich man's GED (Score:4, Funny)
Not really sure what happened with it.
Apparently, it's a big fuss in some circles... go figure.
Re:Rich man's GED (Score:4, Insightful)
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And as for the "stamp of approval..."
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I believe he said, "There's computers..."
Be excellent to each other... and Party on!
Nose-in-the-air academic snoots... (Score:2, Insightful)
As a drop-out-done-good myself (probably doing better than anyone I ever went to school with as well as the teachers and administrators), I would probably react to an honorary degree with a big fuck you. Like someone who stuck it out on their own and made something great for themselves in the world inevitably need some stamp of approval from a bunch of nose-in-the-air academic snoots?
<rant>
Let's not forget that while Bill Gates is a shining example to college dropouts everywhere, he still did not get to where he is today by his wits and ruthless business strategies alone. He also had to stand on the shoulders of the engineers and programmers that wrote Windows, MS Office, etc. and most of those people were precisely the type of nose-in-the-air snoots with a college degree who didn't follow his example and drop out. Now you can probably defend your self by pointing to the quality
Re:Rich man's GED (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not useless. Most companies require it for you to be able to work for them. A college degree (earned, not necessarily honorary) is valuable in that it shows that you can dedicate yourself to something and accomplish it. Also, for most people it's the first time they are on their own to figure out their own lives. At least for me, the life experiences during college are more valuable than the actual education. The college experience can be invaluable for discovering yourself and finding out how you want to live the rest of your life.
Re:Rich man's GED (Score:5, Insightful)
More indepth answer? If you assume a degree is synonymous with 'being qualified' you are incorrect. There are a large number of graduates who have yet to learn the 'tough lesson' that their degree doesn't actually carry much weight. So the Slashdot community is helpfully trying to get them focussed on the fact that a degree, or lack thereof, isn't a binary state factor. It's an enabler, and it's useful, but then... so is having spent 3 years 'in the industry' whilst everyone else was off getting their degree.
Industry experience harder to substantiate (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Rich man's GED (Score:4, Insightful)
Certainly college degrees aren't useless, but in the same respect they aren't completely necessary. I have a fairly well paying job without a bachelor's degree. However that being said, I am a part-time student pursuing a bachelor's degree, so obviously I do not view it as useless.
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It's not useless. Most companies require it for you to be able to work for them.
That argument makes no sense. It's like saying "Daylight savings time is not useless. It is used all over America and Europe, and if you didn't obey it, you would be getting in to work at the wrong time every day!"
Just because something has become engrained (or legislated) into our culture doesn't make it inherently good or useful. I would expect that anyone arguing against the usefulness of a degree would also argue that emplo
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Let me illustrate an average slashdot poster. I met a friend of a friend. The conversation went like this.
"So, where do you work?"
"I'm actually not right now"
"Oh, so what school are you going to?"
"I'm not going to college, the school messed me up"
"Oh, ok"
This person lives w/ their parents, and claims to enjoy "intelligent conversation". When you consider the number of self-styled experts that know everything on a subject, I'd say you have a large number
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At my commencement (not at Harvard, at a relatively small school in Pennsylvania), we had the guy from Adelphia Cable [clarion.edu] speak and he received an honorary Doctor of Public Services degree.
Oops. [iht.com]
I don't remember much about what he said, so hopefully I won't end up like he did...
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Already has several others (Score:5, Informative)
Yawn!!!
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That's probably what I'd do at the commencement - read his book and heard his many interviews - it's discouraging that such a top figure in computing really never had anything inspirational to say - at least pertaining the field.
Anybody else feel the same way? I mean, he's an okay speaker but not really that interesting.
Re:Already has several others (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Already has several others (Score:5, Insightful)
But, how
Bill Gates has had a really HUGE influence to the field (some good, some bad, but in my opinion, more good than bad). I would think that he deserves more like a Master degree... maybe *even* a PhD (although maybe he is not familiar with research methodologies).
I know here in slashdot more than 50% of people do not like him but I think overall, after he dies he will be nicely remembered as the guy who introduced computers to the masses.
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I know here in slashdot more than 50% of people do not like him but I think overall, after he dies he will be nicely remembered as the guy who introduced computers to the masses.
Undoubtedly the ability to run MS-DOS (and later Windows) on generic hardware contributed to competition in the PC market and the corresponding freefall in prices. Whether this was Gates' intent is debatable; sure
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huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, he certainly must care, as he's obviously not doing it for the money.
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Never?
Then why do they typically specify "earned degrees" in the position announcements?
Is Harvard doing it for the money? (Score:2)
An honorary degree (Score:4, Funny)
Re:An honorary degree (Score:5, Funny)
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Not a doctorate? (Score:3, Insightful)
With those credentials (Score:5, Funny)
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Honorary licenses (Score:5, Funny)
degree is done, man (Score:5, Funny)
Degrees are overrated... Skills are important! (Score:5, Insightful)
I have no degree but take college courses (adult continuing education) that interest me. At some point in most of them, the prof will usually add a remark like: "...but of course we know that's not how it works in the real world."
I'm not saying that they're teaching the wrong things in college, just that the average 18 year old will be learning mostly best-case theory. Most of the actual skills are learned during the early years in the workplace.
Seems like it would be a better process to work in your desired field for a few years, then go for the degree. Or, at least participate heavily in an apprentice program. But I do realize that some career fields are not compatible with this paragraph.
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Seems like it would be a better process to work in your desired field for a few years, then go for the degree.
I originally dropped out of college, and worked a few jobs somewhat in my field, but when I wanted to move into anything more, I always got responses like "while your resume shows a lot of the experience we're looking for, you don't have a degree." I wouldn't even get interviews most of the time, just because I didn't have a piece of paper that said I know how to learn. It didn't matter that I had 2-3 times the experience they were looking for. So I decided to go back to school. Now that I'm more mature, a
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Re:Degrees are overrated... Skills are important! (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not the dot-com era anymore, companies aren't going to hire 17 year old dropouts as sysadmins. Your case was a complete one off, you may as well advise people to buy lottery tickets for a living.
Re:Degrees are overrated... Skills are important! (Score:5, Insightful)
Things I learned in college
1. algebra
2. calculus
3. data structures
4. algorithms [sorting, searching, etc]
5. compiler theory
6. numerical analysis
7. and a host of practical courses, etc.
And what do I do for a living? Software developer in the field of cryptography. So I need the math, algorithms, etc, etc. Yeah, granted I too taught myself a lot of my skills [like crypto], but to say college was a total waste because I had to sit through a "intro to C" class is ignorant.
Maybe if you had a job that required talent you'd be talking differently. I'm sorry, but setting up servers, changing network settings, etc, isn't exactly a skilled labour. I mean it's a job, but don't pretend you're some tech god because you can make Apache start and host a page.
Sorry for knocking you off your high horse, but you're advice is ignorant and misleading.
Tom
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Yep, he earned it, I'd say. (Score:4, Insightful)
If it's computing science, then I'd probably have a few words to say.
why not computer science (Score:2)
it isn't all about algorithms and considering what some schools teach in CS these days...
Man thats going to be dull... (Score:5, Funny)
Now who should get an honorary Harvard degree is Hugh Heffneir, for his buisness empire... Maybe he would pass the bunnies around...
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What it also says (Score:5, Insightful)
The writeup is right ! (Score:2)
In which field? (Score:2)
Bill should get a real degree in philospophy... (Score:4, Funny)
Then maybe he'd have a better understanding of Ethics.
-R
Thanks Bill for the nice building (Score:4, Interesting)
This is gonna ruin his SPAM joke. (Score:3, Funny)
(Slide of Bill Gates' inbox comes up, showing "Ref1nance your morgage!").
However, sometimes they hit just by random chance.
(Next message in inbox is about "U.N.I.V.E.R.S.I.T.Y.D.I.P.L.O.M.A.S").
Honorary Degrees Outside Commencement (Score:3, Insightful)
Ethics? (Score:2)
Woz on the other hand.. (Score:3, Insightful)
talk about PR stunt (Score:3, Insightful)
Like all commencement speakers..... (Score:2)
Also in the same story... (Score:5, Funny)
Non sequitur? (Score:2, Funny)
not as bad as giving Shrub an honorary degree, but (Score:3, Insightful)
(I'll admit the Gates Foundation does good philanthropic work, but for that I credit his wife. I never heard of him doing that stuff before he got married.)
Programming whiz? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm under the impression that he made his mark by announcing vaporware and then coming up with something quick (primarily using someone else's work), before showing it off to potential buyers (e.g. QDOS [wikipedia.org], Altair BASIC interpreter [wikipedia.org]).
Tough time to be a recent grad (Score:4, Funny)
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Recently somewhere I read that there was a 'driving game' in some msdos distribution, and that it was awful (at best). Well, BillyG thought it was good enough to stamp his name in the credits for programming.
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At least Bill Gates married a programmer (Score:2)
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But, from what I understand, Gates was the Steve Jobs of Microsoft, while Paul Allen was the Steve Wozniak. Gates took care of the business and marketing, mostly, while Paul did most of the coding.
Thanks,
Mike
Re:"programming whiz"? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"programming whiz"? (Score:5, Informative)
Gates began programming at age thirteen, at fourteen, he was clearing $20,000 a year at this game. In 1973 he co-authored and published a paper a paper on algorithms with computer scientist Christos Papadimitriou. Bill Gates [wikipedia.org] That is moving damn fast and damn far for a "whiny wannabee."
Microscoft was founded in 1975. In Japan in 1978.
Microsoft was dominant in programming languages for the microcomputer in 1980 and not an unknown quantity to IBM. Gates promised to deliver a serviceable, low-cost, OS in time for the scheduled launch of the PC. Nothing more. But these were the words IBM needed to hear---and they weren't coming from Kildall.
You snooze, you lose.
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I think you've swapped Dershowitz and Said. Said's academic claim to fame was his stupid book on Orientalism, which revealed his ignorance of the history and scholarship of the Arab world. His political claim to fame was his defense of terrorism and bigotry. Dershowitz on the other hand is a distinguished civil libertarian as well as one who has told the truth about Arab bigotry and terrorism and has defended the only free, democratic country in the Middle East.
Nader is a curious case. He did indeed do
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Or is this just one of those just for fun things the other generations end up seeing and take for fact?
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It's nice that you assume that the Administration is innocent until proven guilty. I just wish they would return the favor and practice due process with their victims instead of engaging in rendition, torture, indefinite detention, disappearances, and etc all before any legal trial. I'd rather live in a republic than a junta.
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I'm going to go on a limb here and assume you are talking about the enemy combatant issue. There is a process for review that determines if they are who we think they are, it determines if the are enemy combatants in accordance with the
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The fact that you are not convicted is not a case you are not guilty.
Enron's ex-CEO's conviction was overturned once he died between appeals.
Does that mean he was as innocent as a feather?
Does it mean all the people who he led down the drain were figments of their imaginations?
Is lying to your own people about reasons for a war and then justifying it with a lame excuse OK for you?
And don't go countering "oh, so removing a dictator is not g
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In the US, yes it is. You are only suspected until you are found guilty. Did you notice that when we found Saddam, we didn't execute him on the spot? Nope, we let the Iraqis hold a trial and convict him under their own judicial system then saw him executed.
I'm not sure what innocent as a feather is. A feather can be
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SA= Saudi Arabia. You should really stop watching only Fox news.
We invaded saddam's Iraq because none of our oil majors could get a cut like the europe's oil companies. And we could not do another S.Arabia against them (using their own oil
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Pretty much any country that has signed the same treaties we have concerning war crimes. But they could only do it to the extent of the treaty revision we have taken too and if they were involved at the same time.
Take the Geneva convention, There are countries that have signed on during the later revision that we didn't adopt. They would not have competent jurisdi
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Gaining unauthorized access to code is a violation of the DCMA. Please turn yourself in to your local police station and await charges there. I believe the RIAA wants in on this one, too.
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Windows is a commercial OS designed and priced for systems which are entry-level or mid-line at the time of its release. The $500 Vista Basic laptop from Acer. The $900 dual-core Vista Premium laptop from Toshiba.
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Back then, I did.
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Actually he was a fairly skilled programmer back in the 70s. Writing the MITS Basic interpreter was not a particularly noteworthy achievement,
but to write the interpreter he and Allen first had to write an 8080 emulator on the Harvard mainframe. Writing an emulator that was good enough that the BASIC interpreter ran the first time when put on the actual hardware was not too shabby for an 18 year old.
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Re:He is NOT a dropout; he is on a leave of absenc (Score:3, Funny)