Saint Bill Gates exit

If William Henry Gates the Third's philanthropic work leads to him being canonized one day as the first secular saint of our times, I won't stand in the way of the celebrations. Geeks get things very out of proportion, and the value of saving even one life should be more apparent to everyone than the cost of a poorly written Windows USB stack. When Microsoft is criticized, while the practices of arms dealers, pharmaceutical companies and extraction cartels around the world are ignored, its reminds us that some nerds place a very low value on human life itself.

But if Gates is to be canonized as the man who invented the PC, and without whom our lives would be poorer - as he is this evening - then we should all be troubled, as it suggests we're suffering from a terrible case of ignorance and amnesia. More troublingly, it raises the fair question - which we hope you can help answer - of what kind of qualifications one needs to have to earn the title 'Henry Ford Of Our Times'.

read about Bill on:
microsoft.com
the register
c net
mercury news
wikipedia
bill and melinda gates foundation