Friday, June 27, 2008

Three Finger Salute

Bill Gates resigned from Microsoft Corporation today, in a weepy-eyed meeting with a bunch of his employees, leaving to concentrate his efforts on what is the largest charity in the world, the Gates Foundation. It makes me wonder is about a billion Microsoft personal computers will get "the blue screen of death" without his leadership, and we'll all have to do the three finger salute at once (CTRL+ALT+DEL).

Over two decades ago my friend Andy up in Austin said two words to me: "the Internet." Boy howdy was he right. To be honest, I started out on mainframes and the Apple - or was it a MacIntosh? That's almost a Biblical question by now, but you have to hand it to Bill Gates for exploiting computers and the Internet as a new frontier to be conquered.

You know, there really aren't any new frontiers to fill our imaginations anymore. Even nano-tubes are bio-tech are ho-hum. No more cheap labor in the world, although last I heard President Bush was looking for signs of life on Mars so maybe they could make sneakers, T-shirts, and underwear on the cheap for us American consumers.

It was equivalent to the Gold Rush of 1848 to 1855, something that captivated the spirit. I think that's what is wrong with the economy right now, that we don't have any new frontier of knowledge and experience that can be exploited. Maybe somebody will start a new rage going, but when Bill Gates leaves the company he started, you know that party is pretty much over.

I salute ya, bruddah.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Sammy, hope all is well with the family. It will be interesting to see what direction the company takes without Bill.

As to Mars, GW will be out of office before that happens, but if BHO gets in, he may include them in a true "universal" health care system you and I get to pay for.

Take care.

MLeahy

Sam said...

That was funny ... health care for the universe! Please don't ... um ... give him any ideas, OK?

Hope you're doing well too.

Joni said...

A little late in jumping on this but, oh well.

What about energy - that is a new frontier that someone could have a little fun with.

Just a thought.