The Bill Gates Story
Brian Redman
Image: "This is your brain on Windows"
(Conspiracy Nation, 09/22/05) -- Thanks to a reader of Conspiracy Nation
for tweaking a recent report. ("How To Abandon Microsoft,"
http://www.shout.net/~bigred/MicroAband.html)
Bill Gates, it turns out, did not even develop DOS. The DOS article at
the Wikipedia web site gives a fuller background.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS)
While at the Wikipedia site, a search was made on "Bill Gates" and
intriguing information was found. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates)
Humble Beginnings Of Bill Gates
Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955. His full name is William Henry
Gates III.
The father of W.H. Gates III, corporate lawyer William H. Gates, Sr.,
was son of the original William Henry Gates. Bill Gates is "The Third."
The mother of the Microsoft monopolist, Mary Maxwell Gates, was on the
board of directors of these corporations:
* Berkshire Hathaway
* First Interstate Bank
* Pacific Northwest Bell
* United Way (national board)
Young Bill Gates attended Lakeside School, Seattle's most exclusive prep
school. From there, he went on to Harvard, only to drop out.
Recall from the above that Mary Maxwell Gates, mother of the supposed
"visionary," was on the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway.
According to the Wikipedia reference, "On December 14, 2004, Bill Gates
joined Berkshire Hathaway's board, formalizing the relationship between
him and Warren Buffett. Berkshire Hathaway is a conglomerate that
includes Geico (automobile insurance), Benjamin Moore (paint) and Fruit
of the Loom (textiles). Gates also serves on the board of Icos, a
Bothell biotech company."
Bill Gates: Political Titan
Being so interconnected with the corporate world, the question arises:
What are Bill Gates' political views? He has a lot of money, for
instance. Does he make any donations to political parties?
"According to Forbes, Gates contributed money to the 2004 presidential
campaign of George W. Bush. According to the Center for Responsive
Politics, Gates is cited as having contributed at least $33,335 to over
50 political campaigns during the 2004 election cycle." (Wikipedia
reference, "Bill Gates," op. cit.)
Gates stands staunchly against the Communist menace. He has reportedly
compared free and open source software, such as Linux, to Communism.
A Lucky Break
IBM needed an operating system -- fast. (See "How To Abandon Microsoft,"
op. cit.) Microsoft did not have an operating system, and sent IBM to
Digital Research. Digital Research did not like IBM's non-disclosure
agreement and no deal was made. IBM went back to Bill Gates, who had
purchased rights to a DOS clone. This he licensed to IBM. So Bill Gates
did not even invent DOS.
Intertwined with then-dominant IBM, Microsoft soon had a stranglehold on
the operating system market. "After all, we are not communists." (Quote
from film, "The Godfather")
Before too long, if you purchased any Intel-based computer, you usually
had to get the Microsoft Windows operating system with it. Like John D.
Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie before him, William Henry Gates III
became immensely rich.
A Knight Of The British Empire
Like other monopolists before him, Bill Gates became a philanthropist.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation contributes to charitable causes,
such as the fight against so-called AIDS. However "Journalist Greg
Palast suggests that The Gates Foundation is used to make tactical
donations to hide media sensitive humanitarian side effects of treaties,
such as TRIPS, which have been supported by Gates. TRIPS prevents
countries from producing their own version of patented AIDS drugs, which
Palast believes results in African deaths." ("Bill Gates," Wikipedia
reference, op. cit.)
Such good deeds caught the eye of the British monarchy, and on March 2,
2005 it was announced that Gates would be made a Knight of the British
Empire (KBE).
Speculation
In the 1960s, IBM was dominant in the computer industry. They did not
want to make personal computers; their model was, "leave it to the
experts" (and pay a hefty fee).
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created an upheaval when they launched
Apple and gave computing power to the masses. IBM, to be competitive,
had to get into the PC (personal computer) market. IBM had had an
effective stranglehold, but American ingenuity changed that.
"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." How alike to the old IBM has
become Microsoft. Once more, do-it-yourselfism is on the wane. Once
more, hefty fees, lab-coated professionals, and intrusive marketing are
on the rise.
There are persistent reports that the National Security Agency (NSA) has
a hidden "back door key" into Windows-based computers. (See "How To
Abandon Microsoft," op. cit. See also, for further reference,
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/04/12/gates_gerstner_helped_nsa_snoop/,
"Gates, Gerstner Helped NSA Snoop -- US Congressman")
"A recent report renews claims that the US National Security Agency
(NSA) secured the co-operation of IBM and Microsoft in gaining access to
encrypted data, and documentation seen by The Register gives a fuller
picture of how this may have taken place. In this congressman Curt
Weldon makes the astonishing claim that the US military was able to see
Saddam Hussein's orders before his commanders did. According to
Cryptography & Liberty 2000, published last week by the Electronic
Privacy Information Center (EPIC): 'On September 28, 1999, Congressman
Curt Weldon disclosed that high level deal-making on access to encrypted
data had taken place between the NSA and IBM and Microsoft.'" ("Gates,
Gerstner Helped NSA Snoop -- US Congressman," op. cit.)
Only Speculation: That Bill Gates and his inner circle are a facet of
the national security state. Could this be why the mass media, another
facet, consistently praises a lousy operating system? Could this be why
anti-trust laws are not vigorously enforced against Microsoft, Inc.?
("This Is Your Brain On Windows" image from "DDB: DOS Operating System"
web site, http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~ak621/DOS/DOS-Head.html)
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Conspiracy Nation
http://www.shout.net/~bigred/cn.html
Karl von Austein
> The Bill Gates Story
> Image: "This is your brain on Windows"
>
> Bill Gates, it turns out, did not even develop DOS. The DOS article at
> the Wikipedia web site gives a fuller background.
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DOS)
O, it's better than that... Bill Gates and his buddy Paul Allen also
didn't develop their flagship product, Microsoft BASIC. According to the
usual suspects, Allen had been working on a program to translate
executable code (the instructions actually executed by a computer's CPU)
from one CPU to another. He apparently was fascinated with the new, teensy
"micro-computer" from Intel, the 8080, and created a version of his
translator to take code from the Harvard Computer Lab's DEC minicomputer
and turn it into code for the 8080. One of the programs he translated this
way was a little old thing called BASIC. Not too long afterward he and
Bill started up Microsoft, announced Microsoft BASIC, and started making
deals to supply it to the fledgling microcomputer industry.
Was Microsoft BASIC nothing but a stolen version of DEC's BASIC?
Hmmmmm?