9 ms·

Bill Gates Interview (1993)

73 points by helloworld 10y ago

dang 10y ago
We changed the submitted title (Bill Gates: TRS-80 Model 100 “is in a sense my favorite machine”) and took the anchor off the URL (http://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm#tc35 http://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm#tc35). It's against the HN guidelines to use the title and URL fields of a submission to express which detail you think is important about an article. That cherry-picking is a form of editorializing. It frames the discussion in a biased way, which is not allowed on HN. Here we want readers to make up their own minds. If you'd like to express what you think is important about an article, that's fine, but please do it by posting a comment to the thread. That way your view will be on the same level as anyone else's. On HN (unlike some other social news sites!) being the submitter of an article confers no special right to interpret or frame it for others. (This case seems well-intentioned, not abusive, but it's a point we've learned to insist on.)
- Hydraulix989 10y ago
  Right, don't you think that's a little strict? I've seen way more egregious offenses slide by here (I'm not the OP).
  - sdrothrock 10y ago
    It might seem so, but we don't know how many similar things were fixed by moderators. Perhaps the more egregious offenses that you saw were simply overlooked? In any case, dang was more than reasonable in his explanation and even included OP's original title and link for those who were curious. It seems like a good teaching opportunity.
  - k__ 10y ago
    Haha, yes. It's a bit like Wikipedia or Stackoverflow. More and more "rules" get set up independent of the community, but "for the greater good".
    - megalodon 10y ago
      Have you read the guidelines? > Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait. This paragraph has been there as far as I can remember.
      - tptacek 10y ago
        It's been there since June 30, 2012. :)
        Hydraulix989 10y ago
        Like with the Chinese rave party ex-pat detainment ordeal posted on here this weekend, it's not the rules that change, it's the enforcement that changes.
        tptacek 10y ago
        Enforcement of this rule hasn't changed at all. The only thing that's changed within the last two years is that the mods have gotten much more transparent about enforcement.
  - DanBC 10y ago
    If you see them you can report them using the flag link, or maybe send an email to the mods.
  - dang 10y ago
    Perfect consistency is too stringent a standard for HN moderation, because we can't see everything that gets posted here and it would drive one mad to try. When you do see something we've missed, we'd appreciate your telling us so we can fix it. The way to do that is to email hn@ycombinator.com because (in a nice bit of circularity) if you post it here we might not see it. As for whether the rule itself is too strict, I really don't think so. It's rooted in long experience of what keeps this place relatively substantive, and like a number of HN's rules goes deeper and has subtler side effects than one would suppose. The principle of remaining neutral with respect to content, presenting it in a way that invites readers to make up their own minds, serves HN well. Underlying that are the principles that the reader is smart enough to do so, that it's good to ask the reader to work a little, and an emphasis on the content itself rather than the submitter. That's not to say we never make exceptions, but the OP is a good example of where we wouldn't, hence my comment.
- rullelito 10y ago
  This is awesome!
- discordianfish 10y ago
  If you all agree on doing it this way, why not fetching the title automatically and not providing a title field for link submissions at all?
  - dang 10y ago
    That's much harder to do than it sounds and isn't a viable option. There's no substitute for editorial judgment, much as we all wish there were.
- helloworld 10y ago
  Oops! Sorry about that. I wasn't aware of the guideline, but I'll certainly comply in the future. To help others follow this guideline, how about a small change to the design of the Submit page? Instead of title, maybe the first text box could be labeled original title. Or maybe add the note, "Please use original page title" after the text box.
spynxic 10y ago
The Future of Computing (1993): http://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm#tc62 http://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm#tc62
- lucasverra 10y ago
  Spot on. "We haven't changed the way people educate themselves, or socialize, or express their political opinions, in nearly the way that we will over the next ten years. And so the software is going to have to lead the way and provide the kind of ease of use, security, and richness that those applications demand." State that 20 yrs later we are at the beginning for a lucky minority of earth population, but non-the-less right on target !
- jypepin 10y ago
  2 years ago I went to the SF book fair which sells used books for $1-5 or something. I went in the CS section looking for some old CS/Data structure books, mostly for fun reading and stumbled upon Gates' "The Road Ahead" book [1]. It's from 1995, and he talks about how internet will become etc etc. It is mind blowing how spot on he is right on his vision, perfectly describing the iphone and other things we use today and didn't exist at this time. Sometime I wonder how Microsoft became so wrong on so many things despite such a clear vision of what the future became. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Ahead_(Bill_Gates_book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Ahead_(Bill_Gates_boo...
  - scj 10y ago
    I'd recommend http://www.internethistorypodcast.com/category/chapters/chapter-2/ http://www.internethistorypodcast.com/category/chapters/chap... As far as the internet goes, it makes the case that Bill Gates saw the future, but not the immediate one. This left ground for Netscape to enter and momentarily control the Web. I'd rather use Bill Gates' own words from D5 in 2007: "And [Steve Job's] ability to always come around and figure out where that next bet should be has been phenomenal."
  - ridruejo 10y ago
    Which edition? They rewrote some chapters to remove references to multimedia CDs, interactive TV, etc and replace with references to the Internet once it was clear it was taking off...
nappy 10y ago
This was truly enjoyable.
nappy 10y ago
This was truly enjoyable.
nappy 10y ago
This was truly enjoyable.
teh_klev 10y ago
In Datamation they had these bingo cards where you could check everything you were interested in. So, we just put our name down and checked everything in there and tried to learn about the world of computing. When I was at high school in the early 80's I did exactly that with the "business response" card that came with Byte magazine. Then one day, whilst at school, my parent's phone started ringing regularly during the day with calls from sales folks following up and enquiring if I'd received their sales literature, etc. My poor old folks had to explain on numerous occasions that I was just a school kid and that it'd be unlikely I'd be purchasing whatever $10000 dollar disk subsystem/S100 Bus Chassis/Pick System/etc I'd randomly enquired about, and apologised for the inconvenience caused :)
asciihacker 10y ago
You know how he counts to 10 don't you: 1, 2, 3, 95, 98 NT, 2000, 7, 8, 10.
raywu 10y ago
Read up on CP/M and DOS: http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/microsoft-ms-dos-early-source-code/ http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/microsoft-ms-dos-early-... Here's a copy of Gary Kidall's autobiography: http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/in-his-own-words-gary-kildall/ http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/in-his-own-words-gary-k...

73 points by helloworld 10y ago

dang 10y ago

We changed the submitted title (Bill Gates: TRS-80 Model 100 “is in a sense my favorite machine”) and took the anchor off the URL (http://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm#tc35 http://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm#tc35). It's against the HN guidelines to use the title and URL fields of a submission to express which detail you think is important about an article. That cherry-picking is a form of editorializing. It frames the discussion in a biased way, which is not allowed on HN. Here we want readers to make up their own minds. If you'd like to express what you think is important about an article, that's fine, but please do it by posting a comment to the thread. That way your view will be on the same level as anyone else's. On HN (unlike some other social news sites!) being the submitter of an article confers no special right to interpret or frame it for others. (This case seems well-intentioned, not abusive, but it's a point we've learned to insist on.)

Hydraulix989 10y ago
Right, don't you think that's a little strict? I've seen way more egregious offenses slide by here (I'm not the OP).
- sdrothrock 10y ago
  It might seem so, but we don't know how many similar things were fixed by moderators. Perhaps the more egregious offenses that you saw were simply overlooked? In any case, dang was more than reasonable in his explanation and even included OP's original title and link for those who were curious. It seems like a good teaching opportunity.
- k__ 10y ago
  Haha, yes. It's a bit like Wikipedia or Stackoverflow. More and more "rules" get set up independent of the community, but "for the greater good".
  - megalodon 10y ago
    Have you read the guidelines? > Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait. This paragraph has been there as far as I can remember.
    - tptacek 10y ago
      It's been there since June 30, 2012. :)
      - Hydraulix989 10y ago
        Like with the Chinese rave party ex-pat detainment ordeal posted on here this weekend, it's not the rules that change, it's the enforcement that changes.
        tptacek 10y ago
        Enforcement of this rule hasn't changed at all. The only thing that's changed within the last two years is that the mods have gotten much more transparent about enforcement.
- DanBC 10y ago
  If you see them you can report them using the flag link, or maybe send an email to the mods.
- dang 10y ago
  Perfect consistency is too stringent a standard for HN moderation, because we can't see everything that gets posted here and it would drive one mad to try. When you do see something we've missed, we'd appreciate your telling us so we can fix it. The way to do that is to email hn@ycombinator.com because (in a nice bit of circularity) if you post it here we might not see it. As for whether the rule itself is too strict, I really don't think so. It's rooted in long experience of what keeps this place relatively substantive, and like a number of HN's rules goes deeper and has subtler side effects than one would suppose. The principle of remaining neutral with respect to content, presenting it in a way that invites readers to make up their own minds, serves HN well. Underlying that are the principles that the reader is smart enough to do so, that it's good to ask the reader to work a little, and an emphasis on the content itself rather than the submitter. That's not to say we never make exceptions, but the OP is a good example of where we wouldn't, hence my comment.
rullelito 10y ago
This is awesome!
discordianfish 10y ago
If you all agree on doing it this way, why not fetching the title automatically and not providing a title field for link submissions at all?
- dang 10y ago
  That's much harder to do than it sounds and isn't a viable option. There's no substitute for editorial judgment, much as we all wish there were.
helloworld 10y ago
Oops! Sorry about that. I wasn't aware of the guideline, but I'll certainly comply in the future. To help others follow this guideline, how about a small change to the design of the Submit page? Instead of title, maybe the first text box could be labeled original title. Or maybe add the note, "Please use original page title" after the text box.

spynxic 10y ago

The Future of Computing (1993): http://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm#tc62 http://americanhistory.si.edu/comphist/gates.htm#tc62

lucasverra 10y ago
Spot on. "We haven't changed the way people educate themselves, or socialize, or express their political opinions, in nearly the way that we will over the next ten years. And so the software is going to have to lead the way and provide the kind of ease of use, security, and richness that those applications demand." State that 20 yrs later we are at the beginning for a lucky minority of earth population, but non-the-less right on target !
jypepin 10y ago
2 years ago I went to the SF book fair which sells used books for $1-5 or something. I went in the CS section looking for some old CS/Data structure books, mostly for fun reading and stumbled upon Gates' "The Road Ahead" book [1]. It's from 1995, and he talks about how internet will become etc etc. It is mind blowing how spot on he is right on his vision, perfectly describing the iphone and other things we use today and didn't exist at this time. Sometime I wonder how Microsoft became so wrong on so many things despite such a clear vision of what the future became. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Ahead_(Bill_Gates_book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Ahead_(Bill_Gates_boo...
- scj 10y ago
  I'd recommend http://www.internethistorypodcast.com/category/chapters/chapter-2/ http://www.internethistorypodcast.com/category/chapters/chap... As far as the internet goes, it makes the case that Bill Gates saw the future, but not the immediate one. This left ground for Netscape to enter and momentarily control the Web. I'd rather use Bill Gates' own words from D5 in 2007: "And [Steve Job's] ability to always come around and figure out where that next bet should be has been phenomenal."
- ridruejo 10y ago
  Which edition? They rewrote some chapters to remove references to multimedia CDs, interactive TV, etc and replace with references to the Internet once it was clear it was taking off...

nappy 10y ago

This was truly enjoyable.

nappy 10y ago

This was truly enjoyable.

nappy 10y ago

This was truly enjoyable.

teh_klev 10y ago

In Datamation they had these bingo cards where you could check everything you were interested in. So, we just put our name down and checked everything in there and tried to learn about the world of computing. When I was at high school in the early 80's I did exactly that with the "business response" card that came with Byte magazine. Then one day, whilst at school, my parent's phone started ringing regularly during the day with calls from sales folks following up and enquiring if I'd received their sales literature, etc. My poor old folks had to explain on numerous occasions that I was just a school kid and that it'd be unlikely I'd be purchasing whatever $10000 dollar disk subsystem/S100 Bus Chassis/Pick System/etc I'd randomly enquired about, and apologised for the inconvenience caused :)

asciihacker 10y ago

You know how he counts to 10 don't you: 1, 2, 3, 95, 98 NT, 2000, 7, 8, 10.

raywu 10y ago

Read up on CP/M and DOS: http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/microsoft-ms-dos-early-source-code/ http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/microsoft-ms-dos-early-... Here's a copy of Gary Kidall's autobiography: http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/in-his-own-words-gary-kildall/ http://www.computerhistory.org/atchm/in-his-own-words-gary-k...