Bill Gates's The Road Ahead, 15 Years Later 280
smooth wombat writes "It's been 15 years since Bill Gates wrote his book The Road Ahead, in which he talks about how technology would shape the future. In the intervening years, technology has changed many aspects of our lives for better and worse. So how did Bill do on his predictions? The Atlantic takes a look at the hits and misses of some of his prognostications. Overall, it appears Bill let optimism guide his thoughts, except when it came to the Internet — his biggest miss of all."
Re:Microsoft best innovation. (Score:5, Funny)
Try Bing, I'm sure it will be full of wonderful Microsoft innovations
Still worked out better than my own predictions (Score:5, Funny)
It's easy to make fun of Bill for his predictions, but I'll admit my own haven't worked out so great either. Here from 1995:
- By 2010, as many as 1 out of every 25 people will have an email account, causing massive slowdown of the FidoNet.
- I'll never be that old guy who gets his video-game ass handed to him by 13 year olds.
- Register sex.com? Nah, that'd be a waste of $100.
- Being a programmer will be a totally safe field -- it's not like people in India will suddenly all get computers and start coding.
Ouch.
Never Seen a Quote from Bill's Book (Score:4, Funny)
Microsoft best innovation: Clippy! (Score:3, Funny)
still no progress in .... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: Never Seen a Quote from Bill's Book (Score:5, Funny)
that is why he left for something he was fully qualified to do: give away money.
I liked the Jon Stewart comment after the police raid over the lost iPhone:
[in confused voice, after reminding us of the Apple "1984" commercial:] 'Apple is busting down doors in Palo Alto and Bill Gates is killing mosquitoes in Africa.'
Re:Still worked out better than my own predictions (Score:3, Funny)
I don't see anything about flying cars.
Moller's latest prototype broke its tether, pitched sideways, and came through his window, killing him while at the same instant dropping a bolt on the mouse, pressing Submit, before he could bring that up.
Re:Microsoft best innovation. (Score:3, Funny)
MS Bob!
Ballmer (Score:4, Funny)
The real prediction (Score:4, Funny)
He could easily have predicted, "In the future, I'll still be filthy rich" - not one to be careless with money.
Re:Microsoft best innovation. (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Microsoft best innovation. (Score:5, Funny)
- Make references to the instability of the operating system
- Discuss alternate software or operating systems that may be more functional
- Spell Microsoft with a dollar sign
Well... (Score:1, Funny)
Surely if he could predict the future he'd be rich. Oh, wait...
Re:Never Seen a Quote from Bill's Book (Score:3, Funny)
My favorite: a way to factor large prime numbers (Score:2, Funny)
-- Bill Gates, in "The Road Ahead," p. 265
Uh huh.
Re:Microsoft best innovation. (Score:3, Funny)
Indeed, I searched Google for "Microsoft innovation" and it asked me:
"Did you mean 'Microsoft immolation'?"
Re:Microsoft best innovation. (Score:2, Funny)
If Microsoft had a dollar for every actual innovation their research division has come up with that has never been turned into a released product...oh wait, they do.
Re:Microsoft best innovation: Clippy! (Score:3, Funny)
http://teneo.org/eh/Clippy/Clippy%20Suicide%20Note.gif [teneo.org] /obligatory
Re:Microsoft best innovation. (Score:2, Funny)
Googling "streetview" on Bing
Well, there's your problem...