Bill Gates // Current

25 years ago today, Bill Gates announced Windows 1.0

Two decades and a half ago today, Bill Gates unveiled Microsoft's first operating systems. Oh, it wasn't for sale... more

yai
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WiFi for Rural America Up in the Air

With airwaves freeing up from the big migration to digital, the FCC has some ideas on what to do with them. In an attempt to... more

WaspintheLotus
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bgC3, la misteriosa terza azienda di Bill Gates

Bill Gates ha fondato una nuova azienda. Lasciata la sua creatura, Microsfot, per dedicarsi alla fondazione umanitaria Bill &... more

danito
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Gates declares war on farm animal disease

A grant of $28 million to combat disease in African farm animals aims to save the livelihoods of some of the world's poorest... more

TravG73
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Bill Gates penis for safe-sex ads

In a new safe-sex campaign from Belgium, the likeness of stars Bill Gates, Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Lennon and more are... more

knowandtell
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Malaria battle given $3bn boost

World leaders and philanthropistshave pledged nearly $3bn (£1.6bn) to fight malaria at a summit in New York. The meeting,... more

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Gates gives $168 mln for malaria vaccines research

Microsoft founder Bill Gates gave $168.7 million to develop vaccines for malaria, part of $3 billion in funding announced on Thursday to tackle Africa's biggest killer disease.

Gates said the funding for the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, in conjunction with GlaxoSmithKline Plc, will support "next-generation" vaccines research to find longer-lasting protection against the mosquito-borne disease.

The funding was announced on the sidelines of a special poverty summit organized by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to assess the Millennium Development Goals to halve global poverty by 2015, including by tackling malaria.

"I'm very hopeful that the malaria vaccine currently in advanced testing will be proven effective, but that will just be the first step," said Gates, who stepped down from his duties at Microsoft in June to focus on philanthropy.

"Now it's time to develop a new generation of vaccines that are even more effective, and could someday help eradicate malaria altogether."

Experts agree that a vaccine is the best way to fight the disease, but this has proven nearly impossible. The Plasmodium falciparum parasite has a complex life cycle inside mosquitoes and the human body, which helps it evade the immune system.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc has reported that its experimental vaccine had protected 65 percent of infants from infection, but it reduced illness by just 35 percent after six months.

An international health consortium, the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, comprising U.N. agencies, leading drugmakers and aid experts, said on Thursday the world should spend more than $5 billion a year to prevent deaths from malaria, nearly five times current spending.

The World Bank said on Thursday it will increase spending on fighting malaria in Africa by $1.1 billion, and focus on the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria, which account for 30 percent to 40 percent of all malaria deaths worldwide.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick said countries such as Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Zambia had made progress in cutting malaria deaths through the distribution of bed nets and more access to low-cost, effective drugs for treating the disease.

In other funding announced, the Geneva-based Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said it would give $1.62 billion in grants over the next two years for malaria; Britain pledged $40 million; and Houston-based Marathon Oil pledged $28 million for Equatorial Guinea over five years. Meanwhile, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said it would give $2 million for insecticide-treated bed nets to refugees in Africa.Microsoft founder Bill Gates gave $168.7 million to develop vaccines for malaria, part of $3 billion in funding announced on... more

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1 month ago

Bill Gates talks about the economy.

BIll Gates talks about the situation of America and the troubles today

FrankOmazing
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1 month ago

Microsoft reboots Seinfeld, Gates ad plans

No more spots to air in campaign called odd; focus on real Windows users

starr111
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1 month ago

Microsoft retires Seinfeld ad campaign

TV viewers can return to their favorite programs without fear of seeing Bill Gates shaking his tushie now that Microsoft Corp. has retired a bizarre two-week-old ad campaign featuring the software giant's chairman with comedian Jerry Seinfeld.
Bloggers and online media have suggested that the Redmond, Washington-based company yanked the Seinfeld ads after they were poorly received. The ads show Gates and Seinfeld trading banter at a mall shoe store and while living with a suburban family, trying to get in touch with regular people. Seinfeld asks Gates nonsensical questions about the future of computing, and Gates responds with "signs" that he's on the right track, including "adjusting his shorts," as Seinfeld called the awkward hip shake, and doing "the robot," a dance move.

However, a senior vice president in Microsoft's central marketing group, Mich Mathews, contended in an interview Thursday that it was always the plan to replace the Seinfeld-Gates ads with ones that focus on Windows.

"The notion that we're doing some quick thing to cancel (the Seinfeld ads) is actually preposterous," Mathews said. "Today was always the day. ... Media buying is something you have to do months in advance."

Mathews described the three Seinfeld spots as ice breakers with a limited shelf life, designed to grab people's attention in a tongue-in-cheek way without the pressure of having to talk about the product.
"We wanted to be sure that when we do come out with our major message, today, 'Life Without Walls,' more people would be paying attention than they would otherwise," Mathews said. "My goodness, did we do that."

The Windows-focused campaign attempts to turn Apple's "I'm a Mac" ads on their head. A new TV ad set to debut during "The Office" on NBC Thursday evening begins with a Microsoft engineer who looks like the PC character in Apple's ads saying "Hello, I'm a PC, and I've been made into a stereotype." He's followed by a montage of real-life PC users, celebrities and Microsoft Windows engineers who all repeat the "I'm a PC" mantra.

Microsoft also has ads queued up for print, Web and public spaces that focus on the way Windows, Windows Mobile, Microsoft's Live services and its TV platform connect.

The $300 million campaign was designed by ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Microsoft said the company is "exploring options" with Seinfeld for new ads, but that no ads beyond the three that aired have been filmed so far.
TV viewers can return to their favorite programs without fear of seeing Bill Gates shaking his tushie now that Microsoft Corp. has... more

Moopak
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1 month ago

Pharrell joins Microsoft ad campaign

After less than two weeks on the air, Microsoft's newest advertisements with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld will be pulled... more

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1 month ago

Microsoft Ads "Going to Next Phase" Without Jerry Seinfeld

You know those really unfunny (and uncool) Microsoft ads featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates? The ones in which Seinfeld got... more

cringeNYC
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2 months ago

Jerry Seinfeld And Bill Gates' Microsoft Ads Being Pulled

Microsoft is preparing to pull its TV ads featuring comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Microsoft's co-founder and chairman Bill... more

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2 months ago

Bill Gates invests in algae fuel

Arguably the world's most famous billionaire dork, Bill Gates, has just plopped some cash down on one of EcoGeek's... more

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2 months ago

Echoing the Campaign of a Rival, Microsoft Aims to Redefine ‘I’m a PC’

It appears that Microsoft just can't take it anymore. I'm sure you have seen the recent Gates and Seinfeld TV spots which were ill-received and left many views confused. Being an avid Apple supporter, I had a slight bit of guilt when I chuckled at the ridiculous and pointless plot of the ads. Either way those ads are being kicked to the curb. Next, Gates will be fighting back with a direct attack on Apple's ever popular "I'm a PC" ads.

"One new Microsoft commercial even begins with a company engineer who resembles John Hodgman, the comedian portraying the loser PC character in the Apple campaign. “Hello, I’m a PC,” the engineer says, echoing Mr. Hodgman’s recurring line, “and I’ve been made into a stereotype.”

The strategy to use the Apple attack as the basis for a counterstrike is typical for the agency behind the campaign, Crispin Porter & Bogusky.

Crispin Porter, part of MDC Partners, relishes efforts to transform perceived negatives into positives. For another client, Burger King, the calorie-stuffed menu is portrayed to a target audience of young men as a rebellious personal choice to “Have it your way.”

Mr. Gates makes a cameo appearance in the new Microsoft spots, along with celebrities like the actress Eva Longoria, the author Deepak Chopra and the singer Pharrell Williams. (Mr. Seinfeld is gone, at least for now.)

But the stars are everyday PC users, from scientists and fashion designers to shark hunters and teachers, all of whom affirm, in fast-paced, upbeat vignettes, their pride in using the computers that run on Microsoft operating systems and software.

Among them are more than 60 Microsoft employees, who are accompanied in the ads by e-mail addresses — even Mr. Gates’s (bill@windows.com).

Apple executives have been “using a lot of their money to de-position our brand and tell people what we stand for,” said David Webster, general manager for brand marketing at Microsoft in Redmond, Wash.

“They’ve made a caricature out of the PC,” he added, which was unacceptable because “you always want to own your own story.”

The campaign illustrates “a strong desire” among Microsoft managers “to take back that narrative,” Mr. Webster said, and “have a conversation about the real PC.”"

Lets see what Microsoft has to throw back.It appears that Microsoft just can't take it anymore. I'm sure you have seen the recent Gates and Seinfeld TV spots... more