B. Gates cares about kids? Since when?

VictimOfScience

VictimOfScience

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Is it clear to anyone else that this is yet another bit of marketing strategy to get the Japanese to support his console?

From Gamespot: "A total of 80 Xbox units will be given out to 44 grade schools, 23 junior high schools, and eight other public facilities in Suginami. Microsoft hopes that its donations will help educate the children to become more IT literate."

Sure, get these kids and teachers and parents to say, "Wow, now I can chat with a buddy from another school or play Mortal Kombat with a friend in Vietnam!"

It should read, "Microsoft hopes that its donations will help convince the children/parents that if the xbox is not just for games, then think of the possibilities that the 360 will offer."

Please Microsoft, give it up--you are a SOFTWARE company. Just because there are other pies out there, doesn't mean you have to have your fingers in all of them!
 
hopefully he gives out copies of Halo/Halo 2, or the Xboxs are worth nothing, oh and a free year of Live
 
That's funny, because Microsoft does have a big hardware department.

Mouses, keyboards, etc etc.
 
Yes, but what percentage of their billions actually comes from the hardware you speak of like keyboards and mouses? What about actual system components? I don't know (m)any people with a Microsoft PC...

My point is that Windows95, etc allowed MS to monopolize the OS market and make ungodly amounts of cash in doing so. With all this cash, they can afford to try to get into whatever field they like, even if they have little experience in it, and even if they take a HUGE loss in it(e.g. the xbox)...

Its all about money and its incredible that anyone could think its about anything else...like those poor Japanese students ;(
 
You do know that Bill Gates is the largest philanthropist that the world has ever seen? Right?
 
I highly doubt Microsoft is going to pay any heed to you telling them to "give up".
 
What do you mean give up? They have some very good games, Halo 1 (not 2) and soon HL2 included!
 
Did you know Bill Gates is the most spammed person in the world?
I believe it's like 3 million emails a day he has a whole department of people to clear all the spam out(Yes still some make it through).
 
Direwolf said:
You do know that Bill Gates is the largest philanthropist that the world has ever seen? Right?
Click to expand...
Quoted for truth.

Bill Gates gives so much money to charity. Money he could just keep himself.
 
Bill Gates and his wife are officially the most charitable people in the world, having given an estimated $26billion to different charities and trust funds over the years. They have both also travelled round Africa, Europe and Asia to see where all their money is being donated and to make sure it is going to the right places. They have also both vowed that by the time they are dead, they will have given almost all of their entire fortune away to charity.

So yes, they do care a great deal about children.
 
How is an XBox supposed to educate these children? And of all places to do it why Japan, where the culture is heavily ingrained in electronics to begin with. They're some of the most technologically educated people on the planet.

It's so obvious that this is to try and promote the XBox 360. I just find it funny that they say a console gaming system (push button, insert CD to play) will make them more "IT literate". :LOL:
 
Yes, I know he is very charitable. With that much money, do you know much 5h1t he would get if he didn't donate and donate big? Frankly, I still think he could do A LOT more with his riches, but my point is that in this instance, his "charity" and concern for the Japanese kids somehow not learning enough about IT is ludicrous and an obvious attempt to infiltrate the Japanese market through not the typical gaming console path(that has proven not to work very well), but by way of a psuedo-productivity thoroughfare. That's all. Agreed?
 
That's pretty funny. Bill Gates does not give a crap about your little opinion of his endeavours and motives for doing so. If he wanted to, he could donate exactly $0 to charity and still receive exactly the same amount he would be if he was donating.

How is donating $25 billion not doing enough with his riches? That's conceivably giving everyone in the world who needs it a month of meals.
 
Conceivably, but not actually. Saying you are going to donate $500 million to a country's economy(India) and then spend $400 million on "improving computer literacy" is absurd to me. Only $100 million donated to help fight AIDS??? Yeah, he obviously cares quite a bit. Like I said, there's a lot more he could be doing instead of focusing on trying to get everyone to use Microsoft products...

Source: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/0,39023166,39151789,00.htm

You could also learn a lot from this:

http://www.marxist.com/scienceandtech/bill_gates_capitalism.htm
 
Does Microsoft really have a citizen's chance in Ravenholm of competing with the Xbox(es) in the land of Sony? Or are they just kidding themselves?

Obviously, they aren't donating these boxes to help kids become "IT literate..." game consoles have the complete opposite effect. They seem to be trying to destroy productivity in the classroom... or at least that's probably a more likely outcome.
 
Hey guys, lets say stuff about someone we dont know? Come on it will be fun!

MJ touchs children!
Bill gates is the devil!
Bush is a total idiot lol!

>.>

What the real issue here is VictimOfScience, when was the last time you get 100 million to help fight AIDs? Oh..whats that? Never? My word. Bill gates may be the richest person in the world, but that not give you, or anyone, the right to say unless he gives 600million a day to some charity he is a heartless person. You people make me ****ing sick.
 
Um... I know for a fact that he's given thousands of computers to the seattle school district as well as free Windows 2k and XP licenses to fill them up. I doubt anybody but your dumb ass is complaining about getting an xbox. Gates is already the most charitable man in the world, you mocking him is honestly laughable. You are not smart.
 
MJ does touch kids.
Bill Gates is a genius.
George Bush is...well...this belongs in the Adult's Only forum
 
Listen Ritz and Ghost,
Yes, he is charitable, but I am trying to get the point across that just because you donate a lot of money and "resources," doesn't mean you aren't self-serving as well. Its a hidden agenda, albeit not a very well-hidden one, and I, for one, am not taking it at face value. Thankfully, many governemnts across the world aren't doing-so anymore either.

@Ritz: When was the last time I had a net worth of ~$45 billion? Get it? Don't try to make this argument because its logic is inherently flawed.

@Ghost: Did you hear what you just said? "Thoudsands of computers and Windows licenses to fill them up." Sound charitable? Yes. Sound self-serving? Very much-so. Of course he is going to try to give away as many systems running Windows as he can--the more people using it, the more they will all rely on Microsoft in the future. Its not unlike a drug-dealer giving out the first hit for free and then charging for the subsequent fixes.

You guys have thousands of posts here, I hope they are not all so unaccomodating as your most recent in this thread. Swearing and calling people stupid are not very effective ways of strengthening an argument, unless of course you are like 12 years old...and with that much extra time to post, it would certainly make sense.
 
VictimOfScience said:
Listen Ritz and Ghost,
Yes, he is charitable, but I am trying to get the point across that just because you donate a lot of money and "resources," doesn't mean you aren't self-serving as well. Its a hidden agenda, albeit not a very well-hidden one, and I, for one, am not taking it at face value. Thankfully, many governemnts across the world aren't doing-so anymore either.

@Ritz: When was the last time I had a net worth of ~$45 billion? Get it? Don't try to make this argument because its logic is inherently flawed.

@Ghost: Did you hear what you just said? "Thoudsands of computers and Windows licenses to fill them up." Sound charitable? Yes. Sound self-serving? Very much-so. Of course he is going to try to give away as many systems running Windows as he can--the more people using it, the more they will all rely on Microsoft in the future. Its not unlike a drug-dealer giving out the first hit for free and then charging for the subsequent fixes.

You guys have thousands of posts here, I hope they are not all so unaccomodating as your most recent in this thread. Swearing and calling people stupid are not very effective ways of strengthening an argument, unless of course you are like 12 years old...and with that much extra time to post, it would certainly make sense.
Click to expand...

Because if it benefits both parties it makes the giving party a bad person. Seriously. What do you want him to do to satisfy you? Give away a million copies of an opposing OS and then donate almost all of his earnings to other people?
 
If Bill Gates is such a freaking good philantropist with such a heart of gold then why doesn't he spare some money for this poor soul? Damn bastard.
 
notice that the kids are japanese(right?)

and the xbox dont sell so much in japan so any chance this can be some tipe of publicity

cuz if he want to bring education he should hired some teachers or something like that isnt?
 
@Rakurai,
Indeed it seems like a benefit until you run into problems with your system and try to report the bugs like these two users(and they are far from being alone):

"Microsoft's usual policy is to let bugs be caught by customers instead of by Microsoft, because Microsoft gets to charge 4,200 yen from each customer who tries to report a bug. That is the situation yet again today with 4 Windows XP bugs for which Microsoft is refusing to let customers download updates and is telling customers to phone for support. (Yeah sure in English Microsoft says that fees might be waived if the updates are enough to really fix Microsoft's bugs, which of course they aren't. In Japanese Microsoft doesn't even say this.) Well, sorry I'm not paying 4,200 yen per bug to report the above bugs"

or...:

"Complaint:
I've tried to report this bug to Microsoft Support, however they require me
to pay a $35 support fee to tell them about their bug. Their reason is that
the Windows XP version I'm running (the same bug is in Win 2K) has an OEM
registration so I should call the PC Manufacturer (who also charge for
'support')."

Yeah, how about I give you this particular automobile I have for free! Only thing is, I am not going to tell you right-out that you will have to come to me for any repairs in the future and my fees are ridiculous, not to mention the car's history of potentially hazardous design flaws...

Explain to me the part about you benefitting from this.
 
VictimOfScience said:
@Ritz: When was the last time I had a net worth of ~$45 billion? Get it? Don't try to make this argument because its logic is inherently flawed.
Click to expand...

No. You see I was making a point. Lets do the math.

Say Bill gates 100 million a year (I know he doesnt, Im keeping it simple, just for you!) he gives away 10 million of that each year to someone.

You make $100 a year, you give $10 away each year to someone. Same thing, just with less numbers. If someone was to tell you "Why dont you give 50 away? You clearly make enough to do that!" what would you tell them... that you would rather keep that 40 for yourself? Ah, but thats perfectly fine isnt it, but when Bill gates does the same, but with bigger numbers, its wrong?

Bill Gates worked for his money, he owes the world nothing, but he gives his earned money away, you can say all you want that he does it for other reasons other then the kindness of his heart, but whats that matter? When you really get down to it, does it matter? A kid dieing of canser who was just cured using that money is not going to give a shit why Bill donated the money, just that he got it to keep him alive.

So what this boils down to, is that you beileve because Bill gates is so rich, he should give his money away, and when you find out he does, you then want him to give more, or that he is some way doing this for personall gain, when it doesnt matter if it is for personal gain or not, the money is still given and thats what matters.

I give money to charity myself, I give money to help build a new hospise(sp?) for the old or ill. I give money to the RSPCA and Canser Research UK. You can say I and others like Bill gates do this for personal gain all you want, but I can asure you I dont gain anything by giving money away, apart from a good feeling of doing somthing right.

But this wont mean anything to you, you seem to have set yourself to be an anti-Bill gates troll.

Your logic is flawed, not mine (And others who are saying the same thing) Bill gates gives money to charity, and for whatever reason he does it, its still a nice thing to do. You cant say giving money to help others is a bad thing, and lets face it thats what your saying, even if someone gives a penny out of a pound, it still means somthing.
 
Ritz is right on this one. Bill Gates doesn't have to spend a penny.

Your opinion of him counts for NULL anyways.
 
@Ritz,
You are clearly right that he technically doesn't have to donate one penny to anyone(though I might argue that in the interest of his future business endeavours that he HAS to donate in order to maintain this altruistic image that he is portraying--plus, can you imagine the tax breaks???). And you are also right that in the end, the money/consoles are donated PERIOD. Its the pretense(def:a false appearance or action intended to deceive) that rubs me incorrectly and has done-so from the beginning, but more on that in a bit.

And no, my opinion of him doesn't matter at all except to me, right? Consider this excerpt from Neal Stephenson's essay, In The Beginning Was The Command Line:
"To put it more directly: every time someone decides to use a non-Microsoft OS, Microsoft's OS division, obviously, loses a customer. But, as things stand now, Microsoft's applications division loses a customer too. This is not such a big deal as long as almost everyone uses Microsoft OSes. But as soon as Windows' market share begins to slip, the math starts to look pretty dismal for the people in Redmond."
EVERY opinion counts--just look at the recent presidential election in the USA--very very close, coming down to one state and a few thousand votes. Now look at where that has left them, perhaps due to people like you telling other liberals and left-leaning republicans that their little opinions didn't matter.

But to get back on-topic, all that I have said from the very first post in this rapidly-souring thread is that donating these 80 xboxes to Japanese students purely in the interest of helping the children become more IT literate is a marketing scam disguised as altruism. And for those of you unfamiliar with that term, this might help:
"The word 'altruism' was coined by Auguste Comte, the French founder of positivism. Advocates of altruism as an ethical doctrine assert that one's actions ought to further the welfare of other people, ideally to the exclusion of one's own interests. A person who embraces these principles is known as an 'altruist.' Altruism is distinguished from ethical egoism, according to which one's actions ought to further one's own interests."

My contention hasn't changed and I will resolutely stand by the fact that Bill Gates is more concerned with getting his product(whatever it may be) in as many hands as possible than with genuinely caring if kids from a market that has thus far been so unkind to his "game console" learn more about information technology. I am sure in the 80s that everyone's parents thought that by buying an Atari 2600 for their kid(s), they would somehow teach them how to deploy a large server farm or to manage the tech in each room of 7 university buildings from the Linux laptop on his desk(or sometimes on the floor or on a chair).
 
Ya, I am sure he saves tons of money by donating $28 billion.
 
You make it sound as if Bill Gates was going around announcing what a great thing he did-- trying to make himself look good. He's not. It's just something Microsoft did quietly that showed up in a Gamespot article. 80 Xboxes is not a lot of anything. It's not very impressive (especially since it's going to people that aren't really in 'need') but it certainly isn't any reason to criticize Mr. Gates.
 
VictimOfScience said:
@Ritz,
You are clearly right that he technically doesn't have to donate one penny to anyone(though I might argue that in the interest of his future business endeavours that he HAS to donate in order to maintain this altruistic image that he is portraying--plus, can you imagine the tax breaks???). And you are also right that in the end, the money/consoles are donated PERIOD. Its the pretense(def:a false appearance or action intended to deceive) that rubs me incorrectly and has done-so from the beginning, but more on that in a bit.
Click to expand...

As I stated in my last post, it doesnt matter why a person donates, its that they *do* donate.

Lets have a look at this? Starting from the Xboxs.

Bill gates gives away some xboxes so some kids, this might be a good move since alot of those kids might go and buy there games and over the years he might make his money back. Lets not forget he wont be selling many xboxs latly anyway as people will be waiting for Xbox 360. This is a smart business move by them. You see in a business thats involved with selling products, the point of the business is too..well, sell things. Top of the hat to Bill gates for being a good businessman.

Now thats all well and good, but what does he get from say donating 400 million to an AIDS group? Does he maybe do this so these AIDS guys will all go buy xboxs? In your thinking he does, you have him pegged as an evil man. Which really does make you look like an idiot.

Please drop this with me, you wont turn me to say "Oh well I guess your right, that ****ing bastard, the way he gives money to sick children and stuff, makes me ****ing sick". As your clearly just a troll who thinks his opinion is right, no matter how stupid it may be. So dont reply to this, or if you do, dont accept a reply from me, I said all I needed to say last post, this one shouldnt of even needed posting, but since your such a dence person, I needed to make it abit more clearer.
 
Why do some people think that Bill Gates should give money to charities? its his ****ing money, not yours nor anyone else's. But, he does donate.


Idiots.
 
15357 said:
Why do some people think that Bill Gates should give money to charities? its his ****ing money, not yours nor anyone else's. But, he does donate.


Idiots.
Click to expand...
Because petty people always find things to bitch about ;)
 
wow, it's amazing how far people will look to find some conspiracy. i sincerely doubt 80 xbox's(or is the plural xboxes?) is going sway the Japanese consumer to start buying xbox's. Bill and Melinda Gates are incredible philanthropists, not just how much they give, but who they give to. They stay incredibly well informed about projects they give. The Gates' don't even plan on leaving much for their kids. How incredibly benevolent is that? I'm floored by their generosity. You can see some petty conspiracy by Gates, but even so - only 80 xbox's?
 
Bill gates is really an asshole, but I don't condem him for it. He has the right to be an asshole, and in turn I have the right to call him one. It's not like he cares what you think anyways. He's Fuc*ing Bill Gates. He owns you, literally.
 
@Ritz,
Some advice: DON'T give your credibility away for free. Some examples:

"Latly." Did you mean lately? As in, recently? Just clarifying.

"Top of the hat." Did you mean you were giving Mr. Gates a tip of the hat you are probably not wearing anyway as a sign of respect?

"Shouldn't of even...." Just because its a contraction doesn't mean you can fudge the verb. Correct usage would be "Should not have even...." Oh, and it needs an apostrophe too, otherwise it is not a contraction, it is just nonsense.

"Dence." Since when is this a word? It sounds like your mind is too dense to accept incoming intelligence.

"Abit"--Two words, 'nuff said.

"More clearer." Wow. What, were you held back in 3rd grade? In order to get people to repsect your argument a bit more, try not using a double comparison. "Clearer" is already in the comparative state, so no need for the modification.

Look at that: six quick ways you too can sound like an intelligent human being.

And by the way, if there is one place where stating your opinion should be okay, its in a free forum like this where people can open their minds to new ideas by hearing what others think. Disagree? Fine, but let's not drag this out. All these flames for discussing a marketing ploy...geez, who knew?
 
MarcoPollo said:
Bill gates is really an asshole, but I don't condem him for it. He has the right to be an asshole, and in turn I have the right to call him one. It's not like he cares what you think anyways. He's Fuc*ing Bill Gates. He owns you, literally.
Click to expand...
How do you know he is an asshole?
 
VictimOfScience said:
@Ritz,
Some advice: DON'T give your credibility away for free. Some examples:

"Latly." Did you mean lately? As in, recently? Just clarifying.

"Top of the hat." Did you mean you were giving Mr. Gates a tip of the hat you are probably not wearing anyway as a sign of respect?

"Shouldn't of even...." Just because its a contraction doesn't mean you can fudge the verb. Correct usage would be "Should not have even...." Oh, and it needs an apostrophe too, otherwise it is not a contraction, it is just nonsense.

"Dence." Since when is this a word? It sounds like your mind is too dense to accept incoming intelligence.

"Abit"--Two words, 'nuff said.

"More clearer." Wow. What, were you held back in 3rd grade? In order to get people to repsect your argument a bit more, try not using a double comparison. "Clearer" is already in the comparative state, so no need for the modification.

Look at that: six quick ways you too can sound like an intelligent human being.

And by the way, if there is one place where stating your opinion should be okay, its in a free forum like this where people can open their minds to new ideas by hearing what others think. Disagree? Fine, but let's not drag this out. All these flames for discussing a marketing ploy...geez, who knew?
Click to expand...

Im wrong because I cant spell? Your a ****ing genius. You have no idea why my spelling happans to be so bad, so **** you, if you cant reply with a proper answer but instead just say "Eh..eh your spelling sucks!" then you..fail.
 
VictimOfScience said:
@Ritz,
Some advice: DON'T give your credibility away for free. Some examples:

"Latly." Did you mean lately? As in, recently? Just clarifying.

"Top of the hat." Did you mean you were giving Mr. Gates a tip of the hat you are probably not wearing anyway as a sign of respect?

"Shouldn't of even...." Just because its a contraction doesn't mean you can fudge the verb. Correct usage would be "Should not have even...." Oh, and it needs an apostrophe too, otherwise it is not a contraction, it is just nonsense.

"Dence." Since when is this a word? It sounds like your mind is too dense to accept incoming intelligence.

"Abit"--Two words, 'nuff said.

"More clearer." Wow. What, were you held back in 3rd grade? In order to get people to repsect your argument a bit more, try not using a double comparison. "Clearer" is already in the comparative state, so no need for the modification.

Look at that: six quick ways you too can sound like an intelligent human being.

And by the way, if there is one place where stating your opinion should be okay, its in a free forum like this where people can open their minds to new ideas by hearing what others think. Disagree? Fine, but let's not drag this out. All these flames for discussing a marketing ploy...geez, who knew?
Click to expand...

Attack the argument, not the person.
 
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