The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 3 (of 5)

Gates ends spam

Bill Gates has promised an end to spam in 2 years.

http://news.independent.co.uk/digital/news/story.jsp?story=484520

I have few complaints against Gates and MS, but this seems like hubris at it's best, even for him.

Although I think a good solution to spam will be techonological rather than legislative (eg., Bayesian filtering), I'm surprised that Gates is honestly predicting a magic bullet in two years.

eaw
Saturday, January 24, 2004

This speech was made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. This is where governmental and corporate big-wigs come together for a pow-wow.

CEOs, like politicians, need publicity. What Gates was probably looking for was a sound bite - and he got it. It is a win for him.

In two years time, the speech would have been forgotten and there may be another type of sound bite in the offing.

Ram Dass
Sunday, January 25, 2004

And now there are reports circulating that the Queen will knight him. Will we have to start calling him Sir Bill now?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/01/25/ngates25.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/01/25/ixnewstop.html

Tom H
Sunday, January 25, 2004

Bill Gates is not a British citizen - so although he can be knighted he cannot use the title "Sir"

Ram Dass
Sunday, January 25, 2004

It looks to me that Gates is really predicting the end of the internet. As things are this system would be impossible.

However, given a closed environment controlled by Microsoft, it will all be feasible.

Ged Byrne
Sunday, January 25, 2004

It is just an excuse to get him on his knees wth Her Majesty with a sword in her hand. It is much easier to get him there this way than to invite him to attend Court for his public beheading.

Monday, January 26, 2004

I want to know when the Queen will go to Redmond to get her honorary MSDN membership.

www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, January 26, 2004

Don't forget the free Xbox!

Chris Nahr
Monday, January 26, 2004

If you want to support open standards go for SPF: http://spf.pobox.com SPF helps prevent From: forgery and makes it easier to identify spammers. One more tool against spammers.

Serge
Monday, January 26, 2004