Bill Gates Founds New "Think Tank" Company 134
Homncruse sends in news of Bill Gates's new adventure, adding "I was working just one or two floors under this new office when it was all coming together. I even unknowingly shared an elevator with him at one time on his way up to the office." The article notes that the name "bgC3" derives from Bill Gates, catalyst, and the "third thing," neither Microsoft or the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
"Just months after his Microsoft farewell, Bill Gates is quietly creating a new company — complete with high-tech office space, a cryptic name and even its own trademark. Public documents describe the new Gates entity — bgC3 LLC — as a 'think tank.' It's housed within a Kirkland office that the Microsoft co-founder established on his own after leaving his day-to-day executive role at the company this summer ... However, bgC3 will also oversee Gates' personal pursuit of breakthrough ideas in science and technology. [An] insider said the goal isn't necessarily to create new companies, although ideas could be passed along to Microsoft, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — or others — as it makes sense ..."
Borg Cubed? (Score:5, Funny)
Did the name 'bgc3' make anyone else think "Borg Cubed"?
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There were one or two projects left over from the Traf-O-Data days he wants to look into. Also it will be a training school for Bulldozer drivers.
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I doubt it. In any event, you'd have to be richer than Bill Gates to find out.
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Bill Gates Company #3
Duh... just cause it is a think tank does not mean the name needs to be over thought!
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Re:Borg Cubed? (Score:5, Funny)
Sure, but it's vastly inferior to (and has been replaced by) C4. C5 (with even more bang for the buck) is still in beta testing. :)
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Can I get an invite to the beta?
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Did the name 'bgc3' make anyone else think "Borg Cubed"?
I was actually thinking "Bubblegum Crisis 3"...
Sharks (Score:1, Funny)
With frickin' laser beams attached to their heads! Now evidently my cycloptic colleague informs me that that cannot be done. Ah, would you remind me what I pay you people for, honestly? Throw me a bone here! What do we have?
Ballmer: "Sea Bass"
Re:Sharks But, will it be.. (Score:1)
Sink Tank, or STINK Tank, or STINK, then TANK?
Hopefully he's learned enough of what people HATE in/of/about msoft to avoid those mistakes again..
Corbis? (Score:4, Informative)
Corbis is Bill Gates' second company, not the Foundation.
-Isaac
Rich PPL (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Rich PPL (Score:5, Funny)
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No, I'm fairly sure Steve Jobs isn't Palestinian.
Re:Rich PPL (Score:5, Funny)
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Yeah but that would be one damn stylish vest I'll bet
No mod points, but I have to tell you. This is one of the funniest comments I've seen on Slashdot in a LONG damn time ! !
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The windows suicide vest would require 3 car batteries and would sometime just blow off your arm.
The linux suicide vest can run off a potato but requires a rocket scientist in order to put on.
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Damn, I want one already. But it'll probably be pretty expensive.
Maybe Samsung will make a cheap knockoff, that sets off randomly.
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Amazon a-bombs, Ballmer bombers, Slashdot submarines?
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Is that a new english word for a piece of furniture?
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Remember kiddies; after dropping a "Ballmer Bomber", Use TP, flush, and wash your hands!
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Balmer's Guided Cruise Chairs[TM].
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GAWD! First Google with jet fighters... now Bill Gates with think TANKS. What's next?
Oh, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Those Fuchikomas are pretty dangerous if you are fighting one, but ordinarily they're too preoccupied with musing on the philosophical implications of their existence as A.I. and the meaning of humanity in an increasingly cybernetic world, or obsessing over data-linking with every intelligent machine they come across to give much thought to practical matters...
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hope he doesnt become a patent troll (Score:4, Insightful)
"It's housed within a Kirkland office" (Score:5, Funny)
Costco sells offices now?
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"Costco sells offices now?"
Only in bulk.
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Only if you buy them in cases of 6. It's hard to justify the upfront investment if there's a possibility you won't use them all before the expiration date.
Seems sensible (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Seems sensible (Score:5, Funny)
An underground lair located in a volcano?
I bet he could afford real sharks.
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The details of my life are quite inconsequential... very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and
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At the same time, it' s no ordinary office space. Visitors say it' s fully stocked with Microsoft technologies, including a Surface tabletop computer with a virtual guestbook application.
and it's very high tech! For some reason, the fact that it's "stocked with Microsoft technologies" makes it sound like a very ordinary office.
Re:Seems sensible (Score:4, Informative)
I bet it's on the "Kirkland Riviera," the part of downtown Kirkland that's right on the lake. There are even bikinis visible in the parks there during the three warm weeks of the year.
I live nearby. I should polish up my resume. ;)
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Yeah, I saw that in an article shortly after I posted. I still consider that part of the "Kirkland Riviera" though. :)
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Now he will finally have time to perfect Microsoft BoB and that damn paperclip.
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Anyway, perhaps as a second project, Bill hopes to re-engineer Microsoft's current selection of chairs.
Its a media company (Score:3, Funny)
They are going to make crappy commercials staring Bill with has-been comedians.
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They had Bean?
I love Mr. Bean!
Congrats Bill (Score:2)
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I hear Ballmer has already thrown in some chairs for his new office.
that was his office warming present you insensitive clod!
no ordinary office... (Score:1)
At the same time, it's no ordinary office space. Visitors say it's fully stocked with Microsoft technologies, including a Surface tabletop computer with a virtual guestbook application.
wow. fancy.
Design review to make MS products usable? (Score:1)
I have about a million items
wrong with microsoft software products
that could use some design review.
Not sure why it didn't happen the
first time, but maybe Bill has some
time on his hands now.
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I have about a million items
wrong with microsoft software products
that could use some design review.
Not sure why it didn't happen the
first time, but maybe Bill has some
time on his hands now.
Burma Shave.
nothing profitable outside of Windows, (Score:2)
and the B&MGF just spends profits from MSFT and even has been said to require Microsoft-only software in computer donations. So no wonder Bill Gates is trying to get others to come up with an idea he can profit from. With Microsoft having been a one-trick pony for all these years, just maybe Bill can find someone else who can come up with a hit.
Knowing the history of Microsoft and Windows, it was not really the product which made the business, it was the business behind the product and that faithful dea
MSFT recent earnings report (Score:2)
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$178 million when 10s of billions were put into it is not being profitable. Didn't they just write off $3 billion for Xbox overheating issues just 8 or so months ago? That's not profitable IMO.
And the rest of it, that's all Windows based and except for Windows itself, leveraged the monopoly position of Windows. What I said was that they were not profitable outside of Windows.
But I am surprised you didn't mention their mice and keyboards. That is the only thing outside of Windows where they have made profits
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To be fair, it is most likely just the way any true computer nerd/geek will express themselves, when they can afford to do so. What better than their own private lab, to explore their own ideas, as well as investigate new ones. So a self indulgence, likely but, it is still far better than spending it of private jets and mega yachts or on other ostentatious extravagances.
Who knows perhaps they might even explore new ideas in free open source software.
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Gates is still trying to shake off what IBM and others have said regarding Microsoft not being a tech company. But, he is tied to Windows hook line and sinker. His Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, from what I've heard, prevents those accepting funding from using open source software. That is a diehard Windows advocate and Bill will not change that. IMO.
I would rather he spent it on jets, yachts, etc and he stayed the heck away from tech. He's delayed tech and innovation way too much over the past 20 years
Microsoft is no one-trick pony (Score:2)
.
"The test of time?"
We are not so very far distant from the 30th year of MSDOS and Windows. Office 1 was released in 1990. The XBox in 2001.
MSDOS and Windows began as a client OS.
That Microsoft is strongly competitive in the server market leaves the geek with something more to explain.
IOW, "Organised Crime Sets Up in Kirkland" (Score:2)
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I'm impressed. Numerologically you user id adds up to 3.
It must be frustrating for Bill personally. Imagine having billions of dollars at your disposal with every toy you want and realise that it's not enough, that you want to sit down with a clean sheet of paper on a new desk with a sharpened pencil and start thinking creatively.
He's had a few years to do this and decided in the end that it's best to 'outsource' the creative aspect by forming a company and hiring creative people for his own personal thinkt
How right you are! (Score:2)
After all, who am I to disagree with a three-digit /. id?
Take a look at the bottom on TFA, in "Related Articles" [kirklandviews.com]
Think tank? (Score:1)
Do they still call it a think tank if they steal all their ideas?
I guess if they sit around and think up better ways to rip people off.
Maybe it'll be like the foundation and he'll just be trying to buy back his twisted little soul with his stolen money.
All your idea are belong to us (Score:2)
I wonder if the employment contract BG signed with Microsoft had the usual clause of "everything you've previously thought of, are currently thinking of, or will think of belongs to us" ?
I used to have a BFG3000 (Score:2)
I used to be pretty good with a BFG3000.
I wonder if Bill likes to frag.
Third thing? (Score:1)
1. Start company
2. Spend lots of money
3. ???
Though, seriously, I shouldn't criticize. We would all be better off if the third thing in Bill's next company weren't 'profit'.
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This is Gates we're talking about, it should go
1. Start a company ...?
3. Profit
3.
4 Spend massive amounts of money.
He should make a distro (Score:1)
Maybe an MSbuntu?
bgc3.com (Score:2)
I looked at the source code of his new webpage [bgc3.com] and he ISN'T using Frontpage.
Maybe he needs... (Score:1)
Is it just me... (Score:2)
Does anyone else think it's rather arrogant of Bill Gates to assume that he has been a catalyst twice?
Once I'll give him. Microsoft actually made the PC something that most people could use (and afford). I don't think IBM was going to go there; in fact, they tried to stop it with the PS/2.
It's Paul Allen All Over Again (Score:2)
Didn't Paul Allen do the same thing? We used to laugh about the folks who worked at his start-ups, pulling down good money to sit around and look busy.
No wonder it's being kept secret... (Score:2, Funny)
Bill sits down to his new Linux/KDE4 desktop PC and thinks.."Free at last, free at last....."
what vision? (Score:5, Insightful)
Gates' personal pursuit of breakthrough ideas in science and technology.
Good that he finally gets started on some. Seriously, the guy is great in stealing and rebranding other ideas as his own, but that's it. I've yet to hear of even one original idea by Bill Gates.
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Clippy!
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End of spam in 2006, bitches!
His own original idea.
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Re:640GB should be enough for anyone... (Score:4, Informative)
Anyone who thinks Gates is a "visionary" clearly hasn't read Gates' The Road Behind [amazon.com].
On a side note, Amazon says:
The Road Ahead (Penguin Readers, Level 3) (Paperback)
ROTFLMAO
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Just a quick question, what would the man have to do in order for you to accept that he is a visionary? Now don't for a second think that I'm calling him one, what I'm saying is that one should not have to invent every useful program/concept in order to qualify as a visionary.
So he missed the internet, big deal, it's not like he was the only one.
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At the time MS was trying to sell its MSN service as a walled garden as opposed to going straight to the internet. This was an attempt to compete with AOL, prodigy, etc. I wouldnt be surprised if Bill knew that the real fad was these walled garden services, but as always, business first. MSN now is just a website.
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Re:640GB should be enough for anyone... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:640GB should be enough for anyone... (Score:4, Interesting)
Only because you have come to accept poor quality. If people didn't spend 20 years with PC's that were unreliable, they wouldn't accept poor quality in other areas. Now I have to deal with a cell phone that reboots daily, because its "good enough."
There is no fundamental reason why a desk top PC is going to be unreliable. Poor design and quality control of the OS is the cause.
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I don't know what kind of shitty phone you use but my Motorola A1200 Linux smart phone never needs rebooting.
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The Symbian OS crashes like there's no tomorrow. I traded up from a Nokia N95 (Symbian) to an iPhone. Crashes are gone.
I don't doubt your A1200 is the same.
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Blaming poor quality software written by other developers on Microsoft is pure blind hatred. Would you blame a defect in a pair of shoes on a competitor?
Bottom line, companies choose their own quality levels. Some are exceptional, some aren't and the median level is set from that. Your cell phone's company made its own choices about quality. There are plenty of phones out there that work just fine (mine included) - don't shift blame.
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... if someone had done that somewhere in this thread, then you wouldn't sound like such a raving lunatic.
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Maybe you should read the thread then.
Then one post later
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When an OS crashes... (Score:2)
Not Quite (Score:2)
"There is no fundamental reason why a desk top PC is going to be unreliable. Poor design and quality control of the OS is the cause."
You could make that argument about the Windows 3X-9X series, but not about DOS and the NT based operating systems. DOS was always pretty stable for me (DOS was certainly more stable than the graphical Apple OS's that were being sold at the time... and we don't equate Apple with bad software quality... why?), and while NT 4 was an improvement, Win2K and XP were very stable oper
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And what if the Space shuttle was as reliable as your car?
that would be good, given that the shuttle exploded and killed its passengers on 2 of 120 trips.
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while AMD buys an aircraft carrier from the near-bankrupt US Army
Umm that would be the Navy.
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Maybe that's why the Army is 'near-bankrupt'.
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