Off topic: William H. Gates, Honorary Doctor in Sweden

[Fred H]

Yes it’s true.
”Billy Boy” has got the title: Honorary Doctor of Technology, in Sweden today.
Now, we hope to get some rebate here in Sweden for Micro$oft products.
And we hope, and hope, and dream, and hope…

Fred H

[Brian Ellis]

Just goes to show how honorific titles have become cheapened, rather like in the UK where almost anyone in showbiz becomes Sir or Lady, or even Lord, after a few years, no matter their talent. These things have become totally meaningless when you consider that academics who have really advanced our knowledge, often against insuperable odds, often go unrewarded. The same often applies within industry: the inventor of the printed circuit, Paul Eisler, without which our computers would not be possible, died unrecognised in dire poverty and a bitter man, even though it was largely thanks to his inventiveness that the war in Europe ended in May 1945. The inventor of wave soldering, Rolf Strauss, still used in the electronics industry as a major assembly technique after nearly 50 years, has not been recognised with any such honours, yet he has done more to advance modern technology than many titled persons with, perhaps, a higher profile. As far as I'm aware, this gentleman is now retired in England, the country he adopted nearly 70 years ago.

[Sciascia]

Brian

I agree about the sir/lady thing, and that the other guys were overlooked, but I think that Billy-Bob-Gates (real name that many don't know about) may actually deserve this one. I know that it is popular to bag on M$oft, but you have to admit that if it weren't for them life would be a lot different. I know that a lot of people will argue about the bugs and about his "illegal" dominatin of the OS market, but if you think about it, all SW has some bugs and we are talking about a system that is supposed to work on ALL different kinds of HW configurations. And as for it being the standard, I would prefer having to only learn one OS for work and home or whatever. Imagine trying to learn 10 different OS's and then trying to get them to talk to one another. you couldn't open this file on that computer or send this file to that guy...

He may not be my favorite person, but he and his corp. have done a lot for technology and changing the way the world communicates and works, if not the most over the last decade.

All Hail the Honorable Billy-Bob!

[Technoid]

He Should have been made a honoray Doctor in Busnies, ecomics and marketing!

Last thing he ever had anything to do with on the development cycle was probably Basic for C64 from commodore.

[Sciascia]

Well I disagree with that! I am sure that he did some technical stuff with Steven Jobs right before he screwed him over!

[Dr Mordrid]

Originally posted by Technoid
Last thing he ever had anything to do with on the development cycle was probably Basic for C64 from commodore.

Yeah, and when we disassembled the code for M$'s AmigaBasic we found timing loops in there to slow it down!!

Talk about being a dyed-in-the-wool saboteur of competing operating systems from the get-go....

Dr. Mordrid