The Digital World Of BILL GATES Essay — страница 3

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Netscape?s own browser; WebTV lets you surf the web on your television and competes with Samsung. With business competitors from America On-line to the American Automobile Association (AAA), it really does seem that Microsoft is trying to dominate this growing industry. The most publicized business battle is between Microsoft?s web browser, Internet Explorer and Netscape?s Navigator/Communicator. Many argue that Microsoft “copied” Netscape?s browser and used many similar features as Netscape?s browser. And to promote its web browser, Microsoft included it with its operating system Windows 95. Then Netscape took Microsoft to court, claiming that since Microsoft made the world?s most famous operating system, and since they just started making an Internet browser which competes

with Netscape?s browser, Microsoft was making it hard for computer users to install Netscape?s browser onto their computers, and as a result were forced to use Microsoft?s browser. Just recently, Microsoft was ordered to stop making computer manufacturers install Internet Explorer, which is Microsoft?s Internet browser. “Any operating system without a browser is going to be f_____ (profanity) out of business. Should we improve our product, or go out of business?” says Gates (Isaacson, pg. 56). * * * Bill Gates is the richest man in the world, and looking at his house, it shows. There was almost 500,000 feet of lumber used for his house, all of it being 500 year old Douglas Fir, which have been sanded to a satin glow. The five acres has been planted with native trees including

Douglas Fir, alder, and maple, and are all kept in their natural appearance. Since the house is in an earthquake region, the entire foundation is concrete. All the roofs of his house are also stainless steel. The house is in Medina, Washington and is at an estimated cost of $100 million dollars (only 1% of his quarterly earnings), where the average house cost $425,000. Such features of the house include a 20-seat theater (with popcorn machine), a 1000 sq. ft. dining room, a 2,300 sq. ft. reception hall with a 22 foot video display (made out of 24 separate 40 in. projection televisions), and a 900 sq. ft. multi purpose room (intended to be a gallery). He has three separate garages, where the main 30-car garage is 6,300 sq. ft. His exercise facility includes a sauna, steam room,

and a trampoline room with a 20 foot ceiling (Gates finds bouncing as good for concentration as rocking in a chair). There is also a 3,900 sq. ft. indoor pool where you can swim under a glass wall underwater, and end up in the outdoor pool. The pool also has its own underwater music system. Attached to his piece of land that touches Lake Washington, is a boathouse and also a manmade beach with imported driftwood. Gates hired a New York rare books store to stock up his 2,100 sq. ft. library. The library is domed, has a fireplace, and also two secret pivoting bookshelfs, where you can hide valuable possessions, such as the 16th century notebook of Leonardo da Vinci which he bought for $30.8 million dollars. His favorite books include Catcher in the Rye, Separate Peace, and The

Great Gatsby. In fact, Gates inscribed the last line of F. Scott Fitzgerald?s The Great Gatsby around the base of his library. “He had come a long way to this blue lawn and his dream must have seemed so close he could hardly fail to grasp it,” (Folkers, pg. 87). But the heart of the house is the technology. There are miles of communication cables, which are for computer servers. In the house, you wear an electronic pin, programmed with things such as your favorite music, art, TV shows etc. As you walk into a room with a display mounted on the wall, the computer scans your programmed pin, and starts playing the things you programmed on it (favorite music, art, TV shows etc.). This pin also controls the climate of the room, and only let?s the phone nearest to you ring. * * *

Bill Gates is not any ordinary person. He is a dreamer that wants to succeed. He will not put up with anything other than perfection. At the start of the computer revolution, he was told that his vision of a computer for the home was only chimerical. But with Paul Allen, he pushed forward proving everyone wrong. Bill Gates is not a mercenary, but rather a perspicacious visionary. Some might say that Gates is starting to monopolize the computer industry, and is moving his way to the media industry. Going into this paper, I myself was against Microsoft, and especially Bill Gates. I believed that they were trying to dominate the market, and that Gates had gone too far. But now, after this paper, I see that that is what Bill Gates is all about. He is determined to not only beat the