Stop Microsoft

Miscellaneous => The Lounge => Topic started by: KernelPanic on 12 May 2005, 17:24

Title: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: KernelPanic on 12 May 2005, 17:24
http://news.com.com/2061-10786_3-5704718.html?part=rss&tag=5704718&subj=news


[size=48]Absolutely![/size]
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: Calum on 12 May 2005, 18:53
no he isn't.

why isn't there a poll on this? this is the sort of dumb thing that people usually have a poll about.
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: Aloone_Jonez on 12 May 2005, 19:13
I can't even be bothered to reply to this.
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: KernelPanic on 12 May 2005, 19:48
Quote from: Aloone_Jonez
I can't even be bothered to reply to this.


It seems you just did thanks.
By the way, I'm not forcing you to post here.
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: adiment on 12 May 2005, 20:00
No he's not, but he is a better american than me.
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: Aloone_Jonez on 12 May 2005, 20:29
Quote from: KernelPanic
It seems you just did thanks.
By the way, I'm not forcing you to post here.

I wasn't dissing the theard I was expressing my distaste that people consider Bill Gates to be good. Oh well I've made my second reply afterall. :D
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: BobTheHob on 12 May 2005, 20:53
Well as soon as i saw
Quote
The top 100 is heavily weighted toward music and movie types, from Elvis and Madonna to Clint Eastwood and George Lucas.
Quote
and also... Alexander Graham Bell, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison

wtf are these people smoking, see, this is why america is fucking crap now. All thses stupid fuckers care about now is entertainment, our culture is now complete fucking trash. Sure we may be free, but free to do what, act like fucking dumbasses who only like entertainment which is made up of others misfortunes. People like the trashy reality shows because they like to see others suffer because it makes them feel better. People need to fucking get some common sense. yea I can just see how madonna changed not just america but the world with her invention of electricity. These people need to be fucking shot for being so stupid.
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: Aloone_Jonez on 12 May 2005, 21:18
I think people associate and a very succesful bussiness with being a great person.

So this must make drug barrens great people. :D
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: Jenda on 12 May 2005, 23:06
Hell yeah. This is the decline of the Western Civilisation!

And BTW, AG Bell was NOT American. He was born, grew up, and lived for most of his life in Scotland. And mind you, we at school here in Fredericton are being told that the telephone is a Canadian invention!!!

And speaking of Bell, may I mention that his company - now AT&T - are the ones who stole UNIX...
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: Kintaro on 13 May 2005, 03:15
You mean developed Unix, or is my history incorrect.
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: Orethrius on 13 May 2005, 04:18
Quote
According to America Online and the Discovery Channel, those five, and 95 others, are in the running to be voted the "Greatest American" of all time.

That explains A LOT right there.
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: BobTheHob on 13 May 2005, 08:15
Quote from: kintaro
You mean developed Unix, or is my history incorrect.

http://www.bell-labs.com/history/unix/
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: Orethrius on 13 May 2005, 08:34
Quote from: BobTheHob
http://www.bell-labs.com/history/unix/ (http://www.bell-labs.com/history/unix/)

Wait, what's your point?
That UNIX is based on Multics?  So what?
That AT&T "stole" from Bell?  Tell me you didn't just draw a line between Lucent and BNL.

You might want to find a better source to back that up than one that's going to take the most pro-Bell (read: anti-impartialism) standpoint possible. :p
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: BobTheHob on 13 May 2005, 09:12
Quote from: Orethrius
Wait, what's your point?
That UNIX is based on Multics?  So what?
That AT&T "stole" from Bell?  Tell me you didn't just draw a line between Lucent and BNL.

You might want to find a better source to back that up than one that's going to take the most pro-Bell (read: anti-impartialism) standpoint possible. :p
Hey, I'm not claming anything, lol, I just posted the link.
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: Orethrius on 13 May 2005, 11:01
Quote from: BobTheHob
Hey, I'm not claming anything, lol, I just posted the link.

Ah, my bad, I thought you were taking Jenda's side with *that* link of all the ones out there (which would be very weak).  ;)

In layman's terms: I goofed.  Read too much into it.  Vops.  :D
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: cahult on 13 May 2005, 19:04
If I were to vote for the greatest american I would choose one who didn
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: piratePenguin on 13 May 2005, 19:49
Richard Stallman!
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: Jenda on 15 May 2005, 00:48
Definitely RMS

PS Sorry about the Bell comment, it seems that I'm not infortmed well enough to be entitled to blame them. What is the true story of Unix?
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: WMD on 15 May 2005, 03:23
RMS is one of those people who won't really be recognized until after he's done being influential (or dead).  Right now he's just a hippie communist.
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: piratePenguin on 15 May 2005, 14:32
Quote from: WMD
RMS is one of those people who won't really be recognized until after he's done being influential (or dead). Right now he's just a hippie communist.
Umm... riiiight.
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: Calum on 15 May 2005, 23:19
yes, the telephone (like many other inventions) was a scottish one.

shame that history is written by the victors or that might be more common knowledge.

http://www.visitscotland.com/aboutscotland/history/scottishinventions?view=Standard
http://www.magicdragon.com/Wallace/thingscot.html

and so on.
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: Laukev7 on 15 May 2005, 23:35
But that raises the question, should credit go to the country of origin of the inventor, or to the contry where it was invented (which in this case is Canada)?

Eh, to be fair, maybe credit should go to both sides.
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: piratePenguin on 15 May 2005, 23:41
Credit to the inventor (only).
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: Jenda on 15 May 2005, 23:50
Inventor only, for sure. The country usually has nothing to do with it.

How come Canada? I think it's the States. It was demonstrated in Boston, and Bell spent most of his time in the USA. Nova Scotia was just a summer house. Wasn't it?
Title: Re: Is Bill Gates the greatest American ever?
Post by: Laukev7 on 16 May 2005, 00:24
Well, whatever. I agree with piratePenguin, the inventor should get the credit.