Net Worth

As Bill Gates approaches his last day (well, sort of) at Microsoft, speculation is rampant about the company’s future. Features on Gates are rampant as well--Gates as iconoclast, Gates as $58 billion geek overlord, Gates as industry innovator, Gates as far-reaching philanthropist, Gates as the root of all evil, and so on, ad infinitum. Allison Linn over at MSNBC sums up the many faces of Gates nicely in this article.

Or get the company line here.

But--as Bill shuffles off into the sunset, the whirr of a billion PCs and Xboxes subsiding behind him, the clicking of so many peripherals becoming a distant tap, I find it entertaining to consult a few pictures of a younger, more innocent Gates, with a net worth several decimal points to the left. Newsweek posted this then-and-now photo in a recent article:

Who could have guessed? Surely none of those folks anticipated global domination. And there’s Gates at bottom left. Those are not the eyes of a cunning businessman. That’s the bug-eyed fatigue of someone staring at too many lines of code, if I’m not mistaken. But maybe he knew, just maybe. Perhaps this old mug shot from The Smoking Gun is more revealing:

That’s Gates in 1977, freshly arrested for a traffic violation (details are sparse) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There’s something more to this photo: the classic, slightly awkward Gatesian smile, the seeming comfort with being in an unfortunate situation. He’s looking directly at the camera, just as directed, but his face seems to say: someday I will be able to buy Albuquerque, officer. Put that in your film and develop it.

He knew, didn’t he? Regardless, a Harvard dropout with a net worth exceeding that of many countries makes for a great story, and we can all agree on at least one thing about Mr. Gates, aptly illustrated, as Forbes’ Hayes Davenport points out here, when he took the stand himself in 1998’s antitrust suit: The guy has guts. That’s something all of us--from misfit to mogul, twerp to tycoon--ought to appreciate.

~ Jason P.

1. Web developers have an exciting new platform to create apps for, and the iPhone's touch screen is a fun interface to think about when creating new applications.

2. This may kick-start Web 2.0's evolution into Web 3.0: sites and services redefined, redesigned, and refined for a handheld platform and fully mobile user base.

3. As competing devices follow suit and shift to a more-immersive mobile browsing experience, Web-based software and Web 2.0 sites may have great days ahead of them.

But Leopard was the star attraction of this circus, and it's been loaded up with over 300 new features. The Finder, the engine of the Mac operating system, has been given a redesign that resembles the iTunes UI--including the ability to browse through files using the coverflow feature (pictured at right, via Lifehacker). And the desktop has been further squeezed into the dock, enabling you to keep your background image pristine. Macworld offers some details:

The redesigned Desktop does away with the blue background familiar to OS X 10.4 users. The background shown during Monday's keynote featured blades of dew-covered grass, but Apple fully expects users to upload their own iPhoto images to the background of the Desktop. To that end, Jobs said, the Desktop has been redesigned to better accommodate those images; the Menu Bar is now semi-transparent while the Dock will be reflective. Drag a window toward the Dock and you'll see its reflection on the platform where application icons now sit.

More significantly, the redesigned Desktop in Leopard introduces Stacks--a collection of folders that reside in the desktop. Apple sees Stacks as a way to clean up Desktop clutter. Files are collected in the Stacks for rapid access; click on the Stacks icon and the Dock and the files and folders fan out or appear in a grid. Clicking on one of those icons instantly launches the relevant app. You create Stacks by dragging any item or group of items to the Dock.

As part of Stacks, the redesigned Desktop will also feature a dedicated Downloads folder. Files downloaded via Web browsers and e-mail clients will automatically get routed to that destination--the Downloads icon in the Dock bounces when a new item arrives with the most recent download appearing on top.

No word yet on whether this means the Beatles will finally go digital. As Apple Corps' U.S. spokeswoman points out, it's their label, the recently beleaguered EMI, that owns the masters and would be making any arrangements with Apple Inc. or any other digital music service. (EMI would have to get Apple Corps' approval for this, though--and neither deal has been struck.)

(BTW--regarding 99c [or whatever] Beatles downloads--does the prospect excite you? Is there really anyone out there who doesn't have a single Beatles track in their collection already?)

~Ben, Amazon Earworm