Bill Gates

Ali

Not sure how true this is but apparently Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about eleven (11) things they did not and will not learn in school. This should be posted on the fridge door of every house that has kids ! I like no 7 best Rule 1 : Life is not fair - get used to it! Rule 2 : The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself. Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both. Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: They called it opportunity. Rule 6 : If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them. Rule 7 : Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were: So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.. Rule 8 : Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. *This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life. Rule 9 : Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. *Do that on your own time. Rule 10 : Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs. Rule 11 : Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one..

miss annie

That's an old one I think, but wise words none the less. Pretty much spot on about adult life. I still prefer Steve Job's Stanford speech though.

andy

<http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_bill_gates_speech.htm>; *As frequently happens when texts are repeatedly copied and forwarded over time, something written by one person has come to be attributed to another. Here, the displaced text is a pared-down version of an op-ed piece by education reformer Charles J. Sykes, best known as the author of Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good about Themselves, but Can't Read, Write, or Add. The op-ed was originally published in the San Diego Union-Tribune in September 1996. It began making the email rounds under Bill Gates' name in February 2000, and has continued to do so ever since.*

Ali

Good to be corrected

dion

Anyone can get a car phone, just go to LondonCarTelephones

Ian

Andy beat me to it. One of the oldest internet fallacies in the book. I was once in a meeting with Bill Gates. He was extremely eloquent, committed and focused on the evidence that putting his wealth and developed country aid into vaccinations was money well spent. That aside, my main take from it was he looks like Woody Allen and sounds like Kermit the Frog.

kreuzkav

Why have people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs become cultural icons? Once people liked John Lennon, David Bowie and Dennis Hopper. These guys had life. Now they like nerd boys who invent gadgets. Yes, I use the internet but if it went tomorrow I could live without it. I couldn't live without good music, good books and interesting people. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs seem like the most boring people in the world. I could be wrong (and I know Steve Jobs has just died).

And I agree life is not fair, live with it, but most of the other points are such boring cliches.

andy

Steve Jobs shits Dennis Hopper before breakfast

kreuzkav

@ Andy. In what way?

miss annie

Sir Tim Berners Lee is more impressive than all the aforementioned. Part of what I find inspirational about Steve Jobs is that he was born to unmarried parents, given up for adoption, dropped out of college and still went on to great things without moaning about his rocky start in life, or allowing it to hold him back. I think that he is a great example of someone who seized every opportunity that came his way.He revolutionised the way we interact, work, listen to music and so much else. People still like Dennis Hopper, David Bowie and John Lennon but now they like other people too.

kreuzkav

I accept Steve Jobs rose above his station. I'm working class Irish background ya ya ya. But despite all this I think he's boring. And the products. I fell out with a friend who bought an iphone and kept showing me the apps every time we met up. That is nerdsville. Before this we chatted about all sorts of stuff. Iphones, apps are generally boring unless controlled grately. I don't think Jobs or Gates have really made our lives more interesting.

I use the products because they have become the mediums.

Doug

Grately?
I used to have the facility to have an open fire; but no more. Is that what you meant?

kreuzkav

Fuck off Doug, usual racist anti-irish shit.

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates boring. Stephen Gately fucking boring.

Apps nerdsville.

Let's light a candle by the apple store. No, that's like lighting a candle to the anti-offshore tax group.

Let's lick corporate ass1 Please don't!

graeme

On a lighter, less agressive note: Bill Gates jumping over a chair.

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Arkady

Kreuzkav, you claim that you could live without the internet. I don't believe you. Can we scientifically test this theory, by you going away for a very long time?

miss annie

I wish that Steve Jobs had lived long enough to invent a device that stopped people using computers when they are in their cups.

kreuzkav

Arky, as I said this is only a medium. I wouldn't fret if there was no internet again.

By the way, your proposal to have a one world financial tax system will not work. Nationalism is too strong. What will happen is a decentralism over the next few decades.

Bill Gates is not the messiah!

love and peace to you all!

tosscat

Ah, now I see what you mean Miss A. The 'fuck off' above is very blunt indeed. I think Stephen Gately led a fascinating life and death.

ADGS

Stephen Gately made shit music, but he was in an OK radio Doctor Who and he pissed off the Daily Mail, so his life wasn't a complete waste.

For all that I hate Steve Jobs, his Emperor's new clothes hardware and his invasive software, iTunes has made it possible for a lot more creatives to make a living off their work - so that now cult concerns can make a living where they wouldn't before, and acts who might once have been cult concerns can instead become stars (Lady Gaga).

And at least he wasn't a hypocritical gobshite like John Lennon, sanctimoniously singing "imagine no possessions" in his huge white mansion.

kreuzkav

@ADGS. What a great post! I agree Stephen Gately did some good things. He was just a product of bland Britain and Ireland. Dale Winton, Elton John, Boysown..........

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are nice guys who used this niceness to make corporate greed seem fluffy. They were cut throat capitalists in the 90s.

John Lennon was a hypocrite and a bit of a prick but he was interesting and included many ideas into his early 70s music. I compared him to Steve Jobs because people lit candles at his death. However, he did say 'Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can...' I don't think he was asking people to get rid of them.

Kaz

I love that clip of Bill Gates jumping over a chair!