Results tagged “billgates”

In a blockbuster show of billionaires believing in public health, Bill Gates and Mayor Bloomberg will spend $500 million on anti-smoking initiatives around the world. Five million people die from tobacco-related illnesses each year.

What is it about Frank Gehry? When The Boston Globe reported this week that the architect (and a construction firm) is being sued by MIT, news organizations from Kansas City to Dublin reported the story. Does Gehry have a building in KC, too? Apparently, not, but he raised controversy there over an arena bid. Sound familiar?! The university filed a negligence and breach of contract suit, alleging design flaws in the $300 million Stata Center...

At the Nokia Theater in Time Square last night, Microsoft officially launched Vista and Office 2007 to the US masses. It was here in New York City, twenty-four years ago, that the software behemoth first announced their commitment to a GUI interface. Last night, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer rattled off stats and spiel in a setting where even the escalator bolts were Vista branded!

It's a new step in outdoor advertising: Have a big billboard, then wire dancers to get all Microsofty over it! We heard that there would be a special billboard today outside the Terminal Building on 11th Ave between 27th and 28th Streets, but we didn't know it was going to be this...well, Cirque du Soleil.

Paul Dinin dropped out of high school his senior year to make gobs of money working with computers. Later, Paul helped launch Consumption Junction, a site renowned for its collection of graphically shocking videos, a position that has allowed him to travel the world. He's survived Katrina, shot grenade launchers, fallen into canals, and thrown parties for Philippine Orphans. Welcome to the world of Paul Dinin.

So maybe Bloomberg isn't running for President? Or is that just what he wants us to think?

There is a lot to be said about Warren Buffett's announcement that most of his billions-of-dollars fortune will be given to charities, with particular focus on giving about $31 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. And we hope his actions, as well as those of the Gateses, reverbate through billionaire and millionaire circles, because giving back to the world that made them rich makes sense - tax incentives or no. For instance, when Ted Turner donated $1 billion to the U.N. in stock, he said, "When I got my statement in January. I was worth $2.2 billion. Then I got another statement in August that said I was worth $3.2 billion. So I figure its only nine months' earnings, who cares?"

San Francisco is proud host of a new reality show called "How to Get the Guy" that's unfortunately not a descendant of Will and Grace, Queer Eye, The L Word, American Idol etc. Also a biodefence lab is coming to the East Bay and SFist teaches wine pairing.

Yesterday, during the trial of suspected subway bomb plotter Shahawar Matin Siraj continues, prosecutors played tapes of Siraj talking to the police's informant. Siraj explained why Bill Gates had to be killed, perhaps they should get uranium from Area 51 (though he says Area 52), and that various bridges had to be destroyed because they impact the economy. Here's a tidbit of the tapes, from the NY Times:

Speaking to his driver, he derides a passing policeman: "Hello, pig. Hi, pig. Bye, pig. Pig, you have a problem?" Then, "You, pig, will learn the lesson someday." And also sings — apparently mimicking a song. "Brooklyn Bridge is falling down. Falling down. Falling down. The black guys used to sing this song, remember?"

Phillyist notes a fistfight between local pols that leaves one man down for the count. Jehovah's Witnesses get a Philly contributor out of bed, things get a little geeky with a film festival and geeky gets taken to a whole new galaxy when they talk with the Dragon Queen of the Dark Kingdom.

Forget city policy for a moment - people want to know if playing solitaire while being paid on the city's dime is a fire-able offense. And yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg admitted that the city employee up in the Albany office was really fired because the Mayor saw solitaire up on his computer. Edward Greenwood, victim of the Mayor's "all work, no play" ethic and Microsoft, told the Times he has no "real animosity towards the guy. He's the boss, so if this is the way he wants it handled, there's nothing I can do about it. But am I happy about it? No."

- Some families of September 11 victims want to block the building of Santiago Calatrava's PATH Transit Hub at Ground Zero

The stories coming out of the courthouse where lawyers are trying to select jurors for John Gotti Jr.'s trial continue to be amazing. Apparently, the potential jurors have been less than smart, with Judge Scheindlin saying about one juror, "He wasn't the brightest bulb." And then Gotti's lawyer said, "We've had that a lot." There there was the juror, a "self-taught criminologist," who collected gangster memorabilia - he got bumped. Judge Scheindlin has been upset because on the questionnaire, potential jurors are asked to list three people in the history of the world they admire...and many people listed no one, arguing, "I'm not into that. I'm a working person. That's pretty much it."

The Gates have finished their popular run in Central Park, delighting visitors from around the world as well as around the corner. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, whose roof was open to the public to see The Gates, was reportedly overwhelmed with visitors (even more so than the holidays!) and there was spillover into other museums and neighborhoods in the city, leading vendors and store owners, whose businesses were up anywhere from 50-100%, to regret the closing. The NY Times spoke to artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude about the end of the exhibit: They seem very ready. Gothamist is glad that The Gates came to Central Park, delighting some, challenging others, because the exhibit was successful in making people rethink their relationships with the park, what art was, or let them go to town with their cameras. What did you think?

The Gates delivered this past weekend: Rave reviews (well, as rave as you're gonna get in this town - here's one semi-pan from Newsday) from all corners (Post, Daily News, NY Times). And, happily, business is brisk for most everyone, from hot dog vendors to hotels, just as the city had hoped. However, there may be some casualties in the wonder that are The Gates: Photobloggers, who have been trying to top themselves with new and interesting ways of capturing 7500+ gates. Here's a partial list of blogs with photographs, and here the Flickr tags: gates, thegates, christo, centralpark.

- Gates' remark: "There's one fact about my past that I am glad Mr. Klein didn't mention. Of course, what I mean is that despite my commitment to education, I am actually, personally, a college dropout."

PowerPoint, the bane of many an office wonk's existence ("I can animate this slide with builds and sound effects - just give me an hour") gets reinterpreted by David Byrne in his new book and DVD, David Byrne: E.E.E.I. (Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information). Unlike office wonks, David Byrne gets to look at PP with new eyes and use it in funny, "artistic" ways, like using an outline of Dan Rather's head (unless you work in network TV news) or photos of Dolly the sheep and create a book and DVD with similar far-out slides. His enthusiasm for PP can be read in his essay for Wired's September issue: "." Byrne's essay is followed by one from Edward Tufte that calls PowerPoint evil. Well, of course, it is - it's from Microsoft.

Authorities have arrested one computer hacker who sent out of a version of the Blaster virus two weeks ago. (Since most people including Gothamist are getting still getting crap from the Sobig virus, the Blaster virus is the one that shut down your Windows-run computer within one minute of starting it.) The perpetrator is an 18 year old Minnesotan who took the virus and rewrote it, sending a new version, "Blaster.B," to 7,000 computers.

Every so often, news will pop up about various geniuses being autistic, based on books and essays about their behavior. Cambridge professor Simon Baron Cohenbelieve that Albert Einstein and Sir Issac Newton had Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of autism, which seems to explain their eccentricities and problems with socializing. There have been thoughts that Bill Gates is autistic, inspired by his rocking in chairs, his odd tics.

I don't think I am a business road warrior, someone who can jump from plane to plane and make each hotel room his/her own home. Airports make me a little crazy, since I tend to have too many bags to keep track of and going anywhere, bathroom, newsstand, becomes a funny challenge. ("Ha, that girl has a laptop, messenger bag, pull carry-on luggage, winter coat, and bottle of water - and she thinks she's going get to the back of the newsstand for Cosmo.")