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.