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Bill Gates' humble abode

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  • #16
    Originally posted by Winston
    How often do you think he has to reboot that pivoting bookcase?
    Windows has encountered a problem and must shut down. To avoid seeing this message in the future we suggest that you select a more stable secret staircase operating system in the future.
    He's got the Midas touch.
    But he touched it too much!
    Hey Goldmember, Hey Goldmember!

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    • #17
      Originally posted by Sikander


      Windows has encountered a problem and must shut down. To avoid seeing this message in the future we suggest that you select a more stable secret staircase operating system in the future.
      Yeah... I was just about to say that I hoped his home ran on *nix... for his sake...
      Only feebs vote.

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      • #18
        Originally posted by nostromo
        Unfortunately, they didn't include pictures of the shark pool
        Dr. Evil: You know, I have one simple request. And that is to have sharks 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?
        Number Two: Sea Bass.
        Dr. Evil: [pause] Right.
        Number Two: They're mutated sea bass.
        Dr. Evil: Are they ill tempered?
        Number Two: Absolutely.
        Dr. Evil: Oh well, that's a start.
        "Just puttin on the foil" - Jeff Hanson

        “In a democracy, I realize you don’t need to talk to the top leader to know how the country feels. When I go to a dictatorship, I only have to talk to one person and that’s the dictator, because he speaks for all the people.” - Jimmy Carter

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        • #19
          The shark pool is obviously for throwing employees in, now that the new consumer version of Windows has been delayed... yet again...
          Only feebs vote.

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          • #20
            Originally posted by Agathon
            The shark pool is obviously for throwing employees in, now that the new consumer version of Windows has been delayed... yet again...
            How dare they make Mr. Bigglesworth angry!!!
            "Just puttin on the foil" - Jeff Hanson

            “In a democracy, I realize you don’t need to talk to the top leader to know how the country feels. When I go to a dictatorship, I only have to talk to one person and that’s the dictator, because he speaks for all the people.” - Jimmy Carter

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            • #21
              Originally posted by Ogie Oglethorpe

              How dare they make Mr. Bigglesworth angry!!!
              WTF is wrong with them.... seriously?

              They eliminated all the cool stuff from Vista (like WinFS) and now it doesn't appear from a regular user's POV to be much more than Windows XP with a nicer GUI and a few more widgets (most of them ripped off from Apple's OS). Why would anyone pay $300 for that (or more for one of the 20 or so versions of it that is actually worth having)?

              I'd be pissed if I was a hardware manufacturer. Now they are going to miss the Xmas market for consumers, and that means less reasons to buy a PC.
              Only feebs vote.

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              • #22
                Yeah, all the lifts in his house have trapdoors on them too...of course all leading to the shark pool
                Speaking of Erith:

                "It's not twinned with anywhere, but it does have a suicide pact with Dagenham" - Linda Smith

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                • #23
                  Originally posted by Agathon


                  WTF is wrong with them.... seriously?

                  They eliminated all the cool stuff from Vista (like WinFS) and now it doesn't appear from a regular user's POV to be much more than Windows XP with a nicer GUI and a few more widgets (most of them ripped off from Apple's OS). Why would anyone pay $300 for that (or more for one of the 20 or so versions of it that is actually worth having)?

                  I'd be pissed if I was a hardware manufacturer. Now they are going to miss the Xmas market for consumers, and that means less reasons to buy a PC.
                  Sorry, what's this about 'buy'?
                  Speaking of Erith:

                  "It's not twinned with anywhere, but it does have a suicide pact with Dagenham" - Linda Smith

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Originally posted by Agathon


                    WTF is wrong with them.... seriously?

                    They eliminated all the cool stuff from Vista (like WinFS) and now it doesn't appear from a regular user's POV to be much more than Windows XP with a nicer GUI and a few more widgets (most of them ripped off from Apple's OS). Why would anyone pay $300 for that (or more for one of the 20 or so versions of it that is actually worth having)?

                    I'd be pissed if I was a hardware manufacturer. Now they are going to miss the Xmas market for consumers, and that means less reasons to buy a PC.
                    I recently read a NY Times article where they ask the exact same question.



                    So what's wrong with Microsoft? There is, after all, no shortage of smart software engineers working at the corporate campus in Redmond, Wash. The problem, it seems, is largely that Microsoft's past success and its bundling strategy have become a weakness.

                    Windows runs on 330 million personal computers worldwide. Three hundred PC manufacturers around the world install Windows on their machines; thousands of devices like printers, scanners and music players plug into Windows computers; and tens of thousands of third-party software applications run on Windows. And a crucial reason Microsoft holds more than 90 percent of the PC operating system market is that the company strains to make sure software and hardware that ran on previous versions of Windows will also work on the new one — compatibility, in computing terms.

                    As a result, each new version of Windows carries the baggage of its past. As Windows has grown, the technical challenge has become increasingly daunting. Several thousand engineers have labored to build and test Windows Vista, a sprawling, complex software construction project with 50 million lines of code, or more than 40 percent larger than Windows XP.

                    "Windows is now so big and onerous because of the size of its code base, the size of its ecosystem and its insistence on compatibility with the legacy hardware and software, that it just slows everything down," observed David B. Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School. "That's why a company like Apple has such an easier time of innovation."

                    Microsoft certainly understands the problem, the need to change and the potential long-term threat to its business from rivals like Apple, the free Linux operating system, and from companies like Google that distribute software as a service over the Internet.

                    In an internal memo last October, Ray Ozzie, chief technical officer, who joined Microsoft last year, wrote, "Complexity kills. It sucks the life out of developers, it makes products difficult to plan, build and test, it introduces security challenges and it causes end-user and administrator frustration."
                    Let us be lazy in everything, except in loving and drinking, except in being lazy – Lessing

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                    • #25
                      Originally posted by VetLegion
                      Total assessed value: $53,392,200
                      Land value: $9,122,200
                      Estimated property taxes for 1998: $620,183


                      These property taxes are totally unfair. Someone works his ass off and builds a nice place, and then the society rips him off for having a nicer place than everybody else


                      You do realize that land is finite, right? If he had a problem with the property taxes, he could have built his mansion in the wilds of South Dakota where land and property taxes are cheap.

                      Not taxing the wealthy, or taxing them so little that it verges on zero in proportion to their income will result in exactly the same situation as pre-Revolution France -- the untaxed owning everything. Money makes money. Concentration of money in one set of hands will grow exponentially and stifle progress unless kept in check intentionally.
                      Blog | Civ2 Scenario League | leo.petr at gmail.com

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                      • #26
                        You should change your location to "communist party of Apolyton, exponentialist division"

                        Taxes are not there because land is finite, if it was so, then the scarcer something is, the more we would tax it, and that is not the case.

                        Secondly, your view of how the rich get rich and stay rich is naive to say the least.

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                        • #27
                          Originally posted by VetLegion
                          These property taxes are totally unfair. Someone works his ass off and builds a nice place, and then the society rips him off for having a nicer place than everybody else
                          Oh blow it out your stern tubes!

                          For government to function, it needs taxes. It's best to tax people based upon their ability to pay.

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                          • #28
                            Yeah, and what if he didn't have 50 billion dollars in the bank, but dreamed to have a mansion one day, and spent his last dime on it. He'd still have to pay $600 000+ in taxes every year. How's that fair? You get punished for having a big house

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                            • #29
                              Anyone who spends their last dime on a house is an idiot. There are always overlooked expenses that come up. Whoops, we need curtains. The water heater doesn't work. That kind of thing. --And anyone who doesn't budget for property taxes is a double idiot.

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                              • #30
                                I'm OK with taxes. I'm not OK with taxes on land.

                                BTW... the largest landowner in the world is AFAIR Ted Turner, and he doesn't have that much. Certainly negligable as percentage of total area of USA. The others trailing him have much less. So I think that you shouldn't worry about land getting concentrated in the hands of the few.

                                And even if it did... let 'em have it. Most constitutions have a provision for taking land away if it's in the interest of the majority (highways etc.)

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