Peter RinearsonRezensionen

It took me a while to get to this book...had it on my shelf for 15 years before the library was lost last year...but in this case, the lateness afforded a hindsight check on his predictions. Unlike Ray Kurzweil's wild imaginings, Gates was pretty spot on. He didn't anticipate the power of the smartphone, but he hinted at corollaries.

I've read three books by three of the big four (Jobs, Gates, Woz & Allen), and Isaacson's bio of Jobs, and Jobs was by far the least of them all - in intellect and ability, though Gates treated him with respect (even admiration!) throughout this book. Jobs was the least human as well. Anyway, this was well written and would have been a prophetic read when it came out, though the wait was worth it in confirming the prophesies.

this is a book of Bill Gates tells the story of his lifeWe all strive for success and it is important that we try to follow them in their footsteps and let's continue to take one of the best qualities.The important issue is not the people themselves, but rather the ideas and qualities that made them succeed

TBD - comes with a CD to check

This book is about Bill Gates' life story and his thought for the future of computers.

I was very impressed. All fans of computer should read this book.

1. Main character
computer

2. Write the summary of the book.

In 1994 and early 1995, when there was a lot of excitement about the Information Highway, it seemed that almost every day one company or another was trying to become part of the plans to build it, to be the first to offer users video through television, for example, or video-telephone system.
Then, later in 1995, people suddenly seemed to notice the Internet. Communication from one person to another- from office to office, home to home or country to country around the world- was clearly an early move toward a future Information Highway. The excitement over building the Highway turned quickly to excitement over the power that people had already through their personal computers on their Internet.
Plans changed fast at every communications, computer and software company. They dropped their ideas for the Internet Highway and started to look much more carefully at the "World Wide Web" of personal computers that people were already using. Companies quickly began to make computer hardware and software specially for the Internet, to give users new ways of spending and getting information on almost any subject, of doing business and of making friends, for example.

3. Write your feelings about the book in details.

Sometimes, with everything changing, it seems that the world will be completely different from one day to the next. It won't. But we have to ready for some changes(See p 33).

We have to get a lot of information to deal with change.

4. Write the words, phrases or sentences that impressed you most in the book and explain why they impressed you. Or you could write your questions about the book.

At the same time, it's important to remember that computers can also "hide" information. You can keep your information safe by using a secret password or number(See p 34).

It's important to be able to hide your information where necessary.

I was interested in this book because this was witten by Bill Gates.

This book was written in 1999, so I feel his story is a little old.
But, I think he is an smart man.
I thought the computer was usuful, but had a lot of problems.
But, after I read this book, my opinion changed a little.
His explanation is fine.½

This book is the non fiction that Gates looks back on his life and it is concerned with the future of computer.
In cover of this book,Gates stands at the road.The road is stretching,and probably I think he is thinking that it is not goal,but it is the things that he should do now.This book is described about computer's advantage and disadvantage,and about computer's progress.Although this book is about ten more years ago,but you are worth reading it.

review at
http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/gates.htm

Qui ne connaît pas Bill Gates, surnommé le "Mozart de l'informatique" et surtout l'homme le plus riche du monde, grâce à l'exploitation du système MS-DOS utilisé sur la quasi-totalité des ordinateurs.

This Story told me how wonderful our present life is.
Maybe most of us can't live without computer.
This book is history of computer and other stuff.
we shouldn't forget that our life became bewtter thanks to this invention.½

In any case, the book had to be extensively re-written to make Bill appear to be the visionary. Hard to be a visionary when your vision is only good for a year. But his second bite at the apple was much more accurate. You can definitely see him working with blinders on to a significant degree. He still hypes video-on-demand and producers of content like MSN and AOL. But he missed such innovations that were already in progress at that time, such as portals (Yahoo gets a brief mention as a directory service). His vision of computers and networks in education is woefully lacking in any real ideas. But he seems to have understood the dynamics of paying for content and shopping on the internet, long before it generally understood.

All in all, it’s a pretty decent, if somewhat general, set of prognostications. Overall, it’s not too far off. As for his writing style, there is more self-promotion and patting himself and Microsoft on the back than I would prefer to read. One of the reasons I generally don’t read the book of the month by the latest fad business leader.

(Full review at my blog)

He and another person read the script; not too thrilling, but interesting predictions of the future.

NF

Additional Descriptive Information, Book constains companiion Interactive CD-ROM. 276 p., Index,[277-286] 25 cm.

The past twenty years have been an incredible adventure for me. It started on a day when, as a college sophomore, I stood in Harvard Square with my friend Paul Allen and pored over the description of a kit computer in Popular Electronics magazine. As we read excitedly about the first truly personal computer, Paul and I didn't know exactly how it would be used, but we were sure it would change us and the world of computing. We were right. The personal-computer revolution happened and it has affected millions of lives. It has led us to places we had barely imagined.
Thousands of informed and uninformed people are now speculating publicly about the information highway. The amount of misunderstanding about the technology and its possible pitfalls surprises me. Some people think the highway -- also called the network -- is simply today's Internet or the delivery of 500 simultaneous channels of television. Others hope or fear it will create computers as smart as human beings.
During the next few years, major decisions will have to be made by governments, companies, and individuals. These decisions will have an impact on the way the highway will roll out and how much benefit those deciding will realize. It is crucial that a broad set of people -- not just technologists or those who happen to be in the computer industry -- participate in the debate about how this technology should be shaped. If that can be done, the highway will serve the purposes users want. Then it will gain broad acceptance and become a reality.
I'm writing this book now as part of my contribution to the debate and, although it's a tall order, I hope it can serve as a travel guide for the forthcoming journey.