In an interview with CNET News, Gates talks about why he spent his own money to make a series of classic physics lectures available free on the Web. He also touches on Project Natal, Google's Chrome OS and more.
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I don't get it...
I'd say he qualifies to be an expert, wouldn't you?
Yes, Bill Gates is a drop out, however, I am quite sure he's smarter then you :) He happened to start one of the worlds most profitable companies.
Regardless - as was stated above... he's simply posting films/videos of Richard Feynman's 1962 lectures. I found them rather enlightening - a very good primer to physics - an area I have the least bit of knowledge about. I'm a bit smarter :)
I watched some of the lectures... they are pretty good, I don't understand some of it but I liked them non the less.
you guys wanna tell me you use open source software because its "open source" not because its "free as in free beers" .
so why does google releases its software with BSD license not GNU-GPL.
is google going to dishup ads sold by yahoo on their search engines in the near future?
and not even google applies open source policy on their money making products.
i am not a google hater without it i would never discovered the web.
i just want you guys to realize each company wants to make a profit on its investments.
google is not investing time and money for charity cases. they just want more platforms to
dishup their ads
Just wondering if you are a founding member of the Flat Earth Society or just lacking in objectivity in general.
So let's see here, Bill Gates spends his own money to buy limited rights to Feynman's lectures then posts them on a website that anyone with a computer and internet connection can access.
People complain that they can't watch the videos in Firefox, which is wrong since that is what I'm doing with Firefox 3.5. Of course it does require the Silverlight plugin to be installed.
People complain about having to install a free plugin. I suspect they probably have Quicktime, Flash, Java, and several other free plugins installed in their browsers. Oh wait, Silverlight is a Microsoft plugin which automatically makes it inferior and undesirable.
Argue for your limitations and you shall have them.
Thanks Mr. Gates for providing these lectures.
Your comparison of Silverlight to Flash or Java is ridiculous. Both Flash and Java are available for many operating systems FROM THE VENDOR OF THE TECHNOLOGY whereas Microsoft only makes Silverlight available for Windows, as far as I can tell. I tried your suggestion of finding a "Silverlight" plugin for Firefox (you can simply click on the "Silverlight does not work on your machine" icon on the MS Feynman web page) and was pointed to Moonlight's download page. This is an open-source implementation (i.e. not done by Microsoft) of Silverlight. I downloaded and installed it on my Firefox (on Ubuntu)...and it doesn't work.
I think Mr. Gates did an admirable thing by making these lectures available - but he certainly can't call them "publicly available" if a growing percentage of the public can't access them. If I were of a paranoid bend, I would call it yet another way MS tries to lure you into its proprietary world.
You can insult people who think this as flat-earth backwards. But maybe you're being a bit naive (and ignorant) as well.
Silverlight works on both Windows and Mac. If you'd bother to read other poster's comments you would know this already. Every software developer wants to lure you into a proprietary world including Linux distros. I don't understand how you can state that the Feynman lectures aren't publicly available. They are for 98% of the public with internet access that use Win or Mac OS's. Your growing percentage still needs to grow quite a bit more before it becomes relevant.
I run Xubuntu on my laptop and don't expect everything to work. Getting the wireless card to function was a PITA. That's just the nature of LInux at this point in time. It does have it's drawbacks as you have discovered. I haven't tried it yet but Silverlight may work on Linux through the Mono implementation of .NET for Linux.
There are a lot of people that are suspicious of .NET. Back when I was ignorant and naive, I felt the same way. All .NET really is, is a JIT compiler that uses a CLR. I write code in C#.NET and I like the syntax and structure. There's really nothing mysterious or sinister about it and it's pretty efficient at what it does.
Fine, call me ignorant and naive if you want. In the meantime I'm watching Feynman's lectures and you're not.
I am not using M$ and Windows. I am proud of Linux and I am giving support to them by donations. Because they are doing a very great job. They are the heroes of the modern ages.
By the way, I am a scientist.
SSSSossooooooo, if u hate ms so much why bother reading this or for that matter any of the news about ms?
u need to go learn to look at stuff on a neutral perspective and not on hatred, if ur really a "scientist" it would help...
do remember Bill never mentioned Silver light or how great it is, enough said
Ubuntu? Fedora? CentOS? PCLinuxOS? Mandriva? Sabayon? Debian?
No.
So, download Moonlight and get it working on Fedora. I'll see you in a year.
If you had actually watched the lectures you would have seen that they were produced by the BBC. Acquiring the film, converting it to video, and posting on a website that is freely accessible cost Mr. Gates every step of the way.
Kinda funny that you call it "MS propaganda" then turn around and disseminate your very own Linux propaganda.
The more I learn of him, the more I feel the better man won the OS war.
Keep innovating and supporting education and knowledge.
Even if he wanted it to be available to only windows users, it's not like he is expecting this thing to drive sales. Come on guys, you have a brain, why not use it. You look for the MS boogeyman behind everything.
And a comment on linux. I use both windows and linux. Each has costs and benefits. I see a lot of socially inept or social misfits drawn to linux. That allows them to help continue their view that the world is out to get them. Don't get me wrong, their are plenty of linux users who are normal, everyday people. To them linux is just another thing, like bread or shoes. They just don't worship at the church of Linus or Richard S every week like the ones who lack the social development.
What a great gift this is. I've had paper copies of these books for over 25 years.
Thanks Bill.
Works fine on OS X with Firefox.
Thank you Mr. Gates. I plan on watching Dr. Feynmans lectures in my leisure because that is the kind of geek that I am. I appreciate you making this available to me.
Folks, it's time to stop holding Bill's ass to the fire. When he gives something back to the community, just say thank you. It's called manners.
I have to say that, as a computer user, I incredibly lothe that Billie Gates got rid of the desktop competition in the 1990's and forced his f**king stupid operation down my throat, the worse operating system in history. Where are my choices if I don't like the Apple?
For the case at hand, if I choose Fedora, I am also f*cked.
The conspiracy theories are priceless!
I found the videos to be interesting. But after a few years of physics, I'll stick with my microbio major tyvm.
Bill Gates offers IE users a physics lesson
;-)
- by inachu1 July 17, 2009 5:55 AM PDT
- The only bad thing I have learned was that at first we all smiled when
- Like this Reply to this comment
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- by shycelticwitch July 20, 2009 12:36 PM PDT
- Yeah... and now he wants control of hurricanes. Can you say "Big Brother?"
- Like this
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Showing 2 of 3 pages (171 Comments)Bill Gates decided to save the entire earths supply of seed grain. Yep that is a mighty moral project that any philanthropist could ever do for humanity.
The down side to this. Bill Gates has allowed companies to raid these seed stores and copyright them all so no farmer around the world will be allowed to use their own seed grain that they have been using for hundreds of years as they are all copyrighted now.
Pretty sad dark world we live in.