Who is Bill Gates?

[lugbolt]

U know, the more I think about technology and how far it's brought us, the more I also realize how fragile "we" are because of it.

And that's all I'm saying.

 

[lugbolt]

No, but it buys jet skis... Have you ever seen somebody on a jet ski frowning?

u never seen me on one. But yes, if you have you saw a frown.

I hate them. I hated working on them. I hated selling them. I hated selling parts for them. I hated the owners. I hated the manufacturers of them, the enginerds, I hated every single aspect of personal watercraft. And still do.

Until you've had to work on them you have no idea.

case in point the VERY first day I started working at that dealer, 1992. Summer of 1992. They sold a PWC. Part of the sale is assembly of the PWC from a big wooden and cardboard crate, lift it out and set it on a trailer. Then proceed to assemble the hood, steering, etc. I got it all done and realized that the throttle didn't have enough free-play. So I grabbed a pair of 10mm wrenches and adjusted the cable. Customer standing there watching. Guy turns & walks off, goes up to the salesman and flips out because I was using an old wrench on his brand new $4700 PWC (they are upward of 20 grand now for higher end stuff). Keep in mind it was my first day, no paycheck I was like 16, all my tools were hand-me-downs from my GRANDFATHER who was a mechanic at the UPRR. The new 10mm wrench was a brand new 1st gen Kobalt-- part of a gift I got from my dad, the rest were all hand-me-downs (which I still have and use). When this guy flips out and then comes back to chew on me, as a 16 yr old brat on his first day, it left a poor first impression of jet skis and their owners in general. I dealt with them for 11 years and it didn't get no easier, 2003 the last one left and you might have heard the party from your place across the country. I won't touch them. I get calls weekly or more often sometimes people wanting this or that done on a ski. Nope. Go find somebody else I ain't touching it, not looking at it, not thinking about it, absolutely nothing to do with them. Period. Not for $28/hr, not $100/hr, not $50000/hr I will not touch one!

I had death threats, people pull weapons on me, had rich folks tell me I'm stupid worthless grease monkey, I've been cussed, put down, etc--but on the flip side, there were maybe a half dozen PWC customers that were/are loyal--and those guys and gals I remember well. I hate jet skis. When I had to test them at the lake, it was with big frownie face the whole time. I'd just as soon test a duck boat in the middle of winter than test a dang jet ski even on the nicest summer day knowing the owners didn't appreciate how much the techs had to put up with, how much of a pain they are to work on and how terrible the factory tech support was.

 

[motionclone]

u never seen me on one. But yes, if you have you saw a frown.

I hate them. I hated working on them. I hated selling them. I hated selling parts for them. I hated the owners. I hated the manufacturers of them, the enginerds, I hated every single aspect of personal watercraft. And still do.

Until you've had to work on them you have no idea.

case in point the VERY first day I started working at that dealer, 1992. Summer of 1992. They sold a PWC. Part of the sale is assembly of the PWC from a big wooden and cardboard crate, lift it out and set it on a trailer. Then proceed to assemble the hood, steering, etc. I got it all done and realized that the throttle didn't have enough free-play. So I grabbed a pair of 10mm wrenches and adjusted the cable. Customer standing there watching. Guy turns & walks off, goes up to the salesman and flips out because I was using an old wrench on his brand new $4700 PWC (they are upward of 20 grand now for higher end stuff). Keep in mind it was my first day, no paycheck I was like 16, all my tools were hand-me-downs from my GRANDFATHER who was a mechanic at the UPRR. The new 10mm wrench was a brand new 1st gen Kobalt-- part of a gift I got from my dad, the rest were all hand-me-downs (which I still have and use). When this guy flips out and then comes back to chew on me, as a 16 yr old brat on his first day, it left a poor first impression of jet skis and their owners in general. I dealt with them for 11 years and it didn't get no easier, 2003 the last one left and you might have heard the party from your place across the country. I won't touch them. I get calls weekly or more often sometimes people wanting this or that done on a ski. Nope. Go find somebody else I ain't touching it, not looking at it, not thinking about it, absolutely nothing to do with them. Period. Not for $28/hr, not $100/hr, not $50000/hr I will not touch one!

I had death threats, people pull weapons on me, had rich folks tell me I'm stupid worthless grease monkey, I've been cussed, put down, etc--but on the flip side, there were maybe a half dozen PWC customers that were/are loyal--and those guys and gals I remember well. I hate jet skis. When I had to test them at the lake, it was with big frownie face the whole time. I'd just as soon test a duck boat in the middle of winter than test a dang jet ski even on the nicest summer day knowing the owners didn't appreciate how much the techs had to put up with, how much of a pain they are to work on and how terrible the factory tech support was.

You need a good jet sKi FAIL video set to turn that frown upside down:

 

[D2Cat]

Hey Lugbolt, I take it you don't like jet skis?

 

[Lil Foot]

Local news was riding with a sheriff on patrol in Lake Pleasant near Phoenix, discussing inebriated boaters.
Cop spots a likely suspect on a jet ski, hits the siren, and signal the jet skier to pull up alongside.
Guy makes a big sweeping turn, loops back toward the patrol boat, and drives directly into the side of the boat at about 20mph, catapulting himself over the handlebars & into the boat. Cop looks back at the camera with one of those "See what I mean?" looks.
It was undoubtably the funniest thing I've ever seen on the news.
Thank God he only banged himself up, and didn't hit anyone else.

 

[xrocketengineer]

U know, the more I think about technology and how far it's brought us, the more I also realize how fragile "we" are because of it.

And that's all I'm saying.

You are right. I vaguely remember from some college class that the more advanced a civilization gets, the harder it will be to find records of its existence when it gets wiped out. You just think about there are cave paintings from the earliest civilizations. As the civilizations became more sophisticated, then rock carvings, clay tablets, papyrus, paper, magnetic storage, optical storage and finally "the cloud". Maybe the end is near.

 

[random]

U know, the more I think about technology and how far it's brought us, the more I also realize how fragile "we" are because of it.

And that's all I'm saying.

Technology insulates us from nature, allowing us to forget how harsh it actually is.

 

[PoTreeBoy]

Hey Lugbolt, I take it you don't like jet skis?

I think bmblank hit Lugbolt's RANT button.

 

[hagrid]

You are right. I vaguely remember from some college class that the more advanced a civilization gets, the harder it will be to find records of its existence when it gets wiped out. You just think about there are cave paintings from the earliest civilizations.

I agree. That is why I'm urging everyone that keeps delightful kitties to bury them with a tiny saddle and sword so that future generations will think we rode cats into battle.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

I have one, yes, ONE, dealing with Mr. Gates. Wrote him a letter, yeah, snail mail, 'preNET' about an issue I had with one of Microsoft's products. I figure 1 week to west coast, a week in the office, nuther week for the reply to come to me. About 3-4 days after the mailing, I get a phone call from a VP-IT guy, who said 'Bill dropped your letter on my desk, how can I help you Mr. Miller ?' 3-4 days after that DHL drops off 50-60# box FULL of 'programming materials'. Problem solved(quirky low level access, inverted register definitions.... NOT a 'Windows' program by the way......
Anyone who doesn't like Windows have several alternatives to run 'stuff' on there PC. You just have to read,install and away you go or get Delphi and be Windowless !
Microsoft wasn't the first to do the 'licenses' thing... alarm companies in the 60s, 70s installed equipment for free, eventually making money back and much more, with the 'low monthly monitoring fee', they ;earned that from ,ugh, insurance companies and mortgage firms....

 

[xrocketengineer]

I agree. That is why I'm urging everyone that keeps delightful kitties to bury them with a tiny saddle and sword so that future generations will think we rode cats into battle.

Nah! It will probably be something more like this:

 

[wgator]

Bunch of years ago saw a documentary on tv about microsoft. In this doc, Gates himself addressed the new hires and told them you never release a perfect product, cause if you do the consumer will never BUY the next "improved version". And if that happens, we are bankrupt! I have searched for this doc and I truly believe it has been scrubbed from everywhere. Since that doc I switched to apple, not much better except next versions of OS upgrades are "free". I don't want to hear about that abortion known as windows 10 being "free upgrade".

 

[Magicman]

The smartest move that I have ever made was switching to a MacBook.

 

[ctfjr]

Bunch of years ago saw a documentary on tv about microsoft. In this doc, Gates himself addressed the new hires and told them you never release a perfect product, cause if you do the consumer will never BUY the next "improved version". And if that happens, we are bankrupt! I have searched for this doc and I truly believe it has been scrubbed from everywhere.. . . .

The one thing I've learned about the internet is there is virtually no 'scrubbing from it'. I tried several searches for a quote from Gates similar to what you quoted with no success.
I did find a list of 25 of his quotes from INC magazine that I think would benefit most of us:


1. "Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose."
2. "It's fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure."
3. "This is a fantastic time to be entering the business world, because business is going to change more in the next 10 years than it has in the last 50."

4. "Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning."

5. "Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana."

6. "The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency."
7. "Everyone needs a coach. It doesn't matter whether you're a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast, or a bridge player."
8. "In business, the idea of measuring what you are doing, picking the measurements that count, like customer satisfaction and performance ... you thrive on that."
9. "Of my mental cycles, I devote maybe 10 percent to business thinking. Business isn't that complicated. I wouldn't want to put it on my business card."
10. "[Intelligence is] an elusive concept. There's a certain sharpness, an ability to absorb new facts. To walk into a situation, have something explained to you and immediately say, "Well, what about this?" To ask an insightful question. To absorb it in real time. A capacity to remember. To relate to domains that may not seem connected at first. A certain creativity that allows people to be effective."
11. "Don't compare yourself with anyone in this world ... if you do so, you are insulting yourself."
12. "We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next 10. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction."
13. "Don't make the same decision twice. Spend time and thought to make a solid decision the first time so that you don't revisit the issue unnecessarily. If you're too willing to reopen issues, it interferes not only with your execution but also with your motivation to make a decision in the first place. After all, why bother deciding an issue if it isn't really decided?"
14. "Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without talking about the other."
15. "If I had to say what is the thing that I feel best about, it's being involved in this whole software revolution and what comes out of that, because you can go all over the world and go into schools and see these computers being used and go into hospitals and see them being used, and see how they're tools for sharing information that hopefully leads to more peaceful conditions, and just the great research advances that come out of that."
16. "If you show people the problems and you show people the solutions, they will be moved to act."
17. "Whether it's Google or Apple or free software, we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes."
18. "To win big, you sometimes have to take big risks."
19. "Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning."
20. "A bad strategy will fail no matter how good your information is, and lame execution will stymie a good strategy. If you do enough things poorly, you will go out of business."
21. "Business people need to shake off the notion that information is hard to get."
22. "Only a few businesses will succeed by having the lowest price, so most will need a strategy that includes customer services."
23. "Customers want high quality at low prices and they want it now."
24. "A company's ability to respond to an unplanned event, good or bad, is a prime indicator of its ability to compete."
25. "Reward worthy failure--experimentation."

 

[RCW]

Surprising the reach of the Gates' legacy.

When our twin daughters were at Cornell University, the $60MM "Bill and Melinda Gates Student Center" building was under construction.

Not sure they even had a connection with Cornell, and Cornell is far from destitute. I think half of it was on Bill and Mindy's dime. Big friggin' building, and looked fancy.

Not making any point, other than I often wondered why? Recruitment?

 

[Daylight]

Bill Gates using an argument from ignorance? Goes to show that apart from his money he really is nothing special at all...

I'd recommend he reads up a bit on moral philosophy and the origins of morality, paleobiology, astrophysics, evolutionary biology et.al. Fascinating reading, and it would do him a world of good.

In 2014 Bill stated, "The morals system of religion are super important. Our children attended the Catholic church Melinda goes to and I participate in. Science has filled in some of the realm that religion used to fill in, but the mystery and beauty of the world is overwhelmingly amazing and there's no scientific explanation of how it came about. I think it makes sense to believe in God."

 

[JimmyJazz]

u never seen me on one. But yes, if you have you saw a frown.

I hate them. I hated working on them. I hated selling them. I hated selling parts for them. I hated the owners. I hated the manufacturers of them, the enginerds, I hated every single aspect of personal watercraft. And still do.

Until you've had to work on them you have no idea.

case in point the VERY first day I started working at that dealer, 1992. Summer of 1992. They sold a PWC. Part of the sale is assembly of the PWC from a big wooden and cardboard crate, lift it out and set it on a trailer. Then proceed to assemble the hood, steering, etc. I got it all done and realized that the throttle didn't have enough free-play. So I grabbed a pair of 10mm wrenches and adjusted the cable. Customer standing there watching. Guy turns & walks off, goes up to the salesman and flips out because I was using an old wrench on his brand new $4700 PWC (they are upward of 20 grand now for higher end stuff). Keep in mind it was my first day, no paycheck I was like 16, all my tools were hand-me-downs from my GRANDFATHER who was a mechanic at the UPRR. The new 10mm wrench was a brand new 1st gen Kobalt-- part of a gift I got from my dad, the rest were all hand-me-downs (which I still have and use). When this guy flips out and then comes back to chew on me, as a 16 yr old brat on his first day, it left a poor first impression of jet skis and their owners in general. I dealt with them for 11 years and it didn't get no easier, 2003 the last one left and you might have heard the party from your place across the country. I won't touch them. I get calls weekly or more often sometimes people wanting this or that done on a ski. Nope. Go find somebody else I ain't touching it, not looking at it, not thinking about it, absolutely nothing to do with them. Period. Not for $28/hr, not $100/hr, not $50000/hr I will not touch one!

I had death threats, people pull weapons on me, had rich folks tell me I'm stupid worthless grease monkey, I've been cussed, put down, etc--but on the flip side, there were maybe a half dozen PWC customers that were/are loyal--and those guys and gals I remember well. I hate jet skis. When I had to test them at the lake, it was with big frownie face the whole time. I'd just as soon test a duck boat in the middle of winter than test a dang jet ski even on the nicest summer day knowing the owners didn't appreciate how much the techs had to put up with, how much of a pain they are to work on and how terrible the factory tech support was.

A heartfelt unvarnished rant if I ever heard one. Thank you. Made my day.

 

[JimmyJazz]

Surprising the reach of the Gates' legacy.

When our twin daughters were at Cornell University, the $60MM "Bill and Melinda Gates Student Center" building was under construction.

Not sure they even had a connection with Cornell, and Cornell is far from destitute. I think half of it was on Bill and Mindy's dime. Big friggin' building, and looked fancy.

Not making any point, other than I often wondered why? Recruitment?

Up the road from me is Carnegie Mellon University. Many of the faculty have been recruited over the years by Mr.Softee (Microsoft) and others. Several big tech companies are continually funding research ,constructing buildings, endowing professorships and also recruiting. Bill gates would consider the Cornell building an investment. Andrew Carnegie envisioned a school where one could learn the practical skills needed to advance society 120 years ago, think engineering. Today many students are foreigners , lots of math and computers. I have a friend who teaches there. Came all the way from Greece. He explained that the risk taking culture in America is unique in the world. Probably not a beer bong anywhere near campus. My father said if I went there they would study me. HaHa.

 

[ctfjr]

. . . Bill gates would consider the Cornell building an investment. . . .

I am no apologist for Bill Gates or any other Billionaire but let's keep this 100.
I have no idea what Gate's motives were for that donation. The following quote from an article in the Guardian from 2020 made me wonder what kind of return he got from these endeavors:

Some of this influence is indirect. The philanthropy of Bill and Melinda Gates has brought huge benefits for humankind. When the foundation made its first big grant for malaria research, it nearly doubled the amount of money spent on the disease worldwide. It did the same with polio. Thanks in part to Gates (and others), some 2.5 billion children have been vaccinated against the disease, and global cases of polio have been cut by 99.9%. Polio has been virtually eradicated. Philanthropy has made good the failures of both the pharmaceutical industry and governments across the world. The Gates Foundation, since it began in 2000, has given away more than $45bn and saved millions of lives.

 

[skeets]

Up the road from me is Carnegie Mellon University. Many of the faculty have been recruited over the years by Mr.Softee (Microsoft) and others. Several big tech companies are continually funding research ,constructing buildings, endowing professorships and also recruiting. Bill gates would consider the Cornell building an investment. Andrew Carnegie envisioned a school where one could learn the practical skills needed to advance society 120 years ago, think engineering. Today many students are foreigners , lots of math and computers. I have a friend who teaches there. Came all the way from Greece. He explained that the risk taking culture in America is unique in the world. Probably not a beer bong anywhere near campus. My father said if I went there they would study me. HaHa.

Yep it was like that back when I went to CMU ( never finished, ,life happens ya know) anyways there is so much pressure on the foreign students to excel, a lot have mental brake downs. I know of 3 that took the bridge over Panther Hollow. Short drop of only about 150 feet, a real shame really