Author: Bruce Moreland
Date: 10:34:35 04/21/00
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On April 21, 2000 at 04:27:14, Mark Ryan wrote: >To read some articles from the last 5 years, go to: > >http://www.microsoft.com/billgates > >Then go to the search window and type > >chess > >When you press Go, this should produce 8 "hits"; in some of the Q&A in hits >1,2, and 4, Bill discusses computer chess, Kasparov versus Deep Blue I and II, >and artificial intelligence. (He also mentions that he is an avid chess player, >and that he once wanted to be the world's strongest chess player.) > >Cheers, >Mark The first article returned is the best one. I think that he's on the money, although that's not terribly significant. I have met Bill Gates and spoken with him several times. People tend to trivialize him, but anyone who has spoken with him for more than a moment would understand that this is a mistake. The guy is very smart, and that's an understatement. I have a hard time imagining any CEO being more involved with technical details of his products. They used to have "demo days" in the Excel group, and Bill would walk down the development hall, go into each office, and get a personal demo of every new feature in Excel, from the guy who wrote the feature. Another time I was pissed off about some technical decision so I just sent him a multi-paragraph email rant, which he carefully read, responded to, and took care of. And finally, on another occasion I was standing behind him in a snack line, and I tapped him on the shoulder and asked him why Microsoft was building so many email programs. He turned around and faced me, and proceed to explain exactly why Microsoft was building so many email programs. Exactly why. I watched the line disappear behind him, but nobody had the nerve to go around us both and fill in. After about five mintes I interrupted him and warned him that he was going to miss his snack. bruce
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