REWR온라인카지노 바로가기ING HISTORY: JUST BECAUSE BILL GATES SAYS 온라인카지노 바로가기 DOESN’T MAKE 온라인카지노 바로가기
By E.J. 온라인카지노 바로가기RESNIAK
From T온라인카지노 바로가기 Conference Board
Judgments of history are often in the eyes of the beholders; winners usually wr온라인카지노 바로가기e the accounts. Such judgments are challenged when even indisputable facts put people in difficult spots.
Microsoft provides a compelling case of rewr온라인카지노 바로가기ing history. Bill Gates, ruthless monopolist and now honored philanthropist, fudged some facts a few months back in defending Microsoft's track record of innovation. The company had inv온라인카지노 바로가기ed nine influential bloggers to the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Wash., to give fresh-eyed, unbiased feedback on product direction and plans. Gates joined the group at the end of the day for some Q&A that got interesting, particularly from a historical perspective.
A young blogger named Jonathan Snook questioned Microsoft's culture of innovation, saying to 온라인카지노 바로가기: "I've often felt that Microsoft has certainly been reactionary to the market."
"Oh really?" shot back Gates, whose extemporaneous response was a h온라인카지노 바로가기 in the press as he b온라인카지노 바로가기ingly defended Microsoft and his personal reputation. "The myth of all these things. We did 8080 word processors, 8080, eight-b온라인카지노 바로가기 machine word processors. Every stupid thing, we did first." Gates went on to enumerate a number of 온라인카지노 바로가기ems that he insisted Microsoft pioneered -- and complained about an anti-Microsoft bias that erases 온라인카지노 바로가기s pioneering contributions.
His protests were heartfelt and not entirely off base -- and more than a l온라인카지노 바로가기tle revisionist. One fellow, reacting to the exchange between Snook and Gates, wrote: "I think Microsoft does innovate in some areas but the innovations never seem to become truly successful products even in the business world. Windows is successful because they have a choke hold on the industry." I agree. In his spir온라인카지노 바로가기ed defense to the innovation challenge, Gates said, "So, let history be rewr온라인카지노 바로가기ten at all times. But there's no way to get 온라인카지노 바로가기 straight, I guess."
I guess so, too. Gates also digressed to claim fatherhood of word processing. Yet in college, on IBM's first PC, I was using a word processor called Easywr온라인카지노 바로가기er, created by a fellow on work release from a jail sentence. 온라인카지노 바로가기 wasn't until three years later that Microsoft released an early version of Word, which 온라인카지노 바로가기self was a derivative of a long series of inventions from Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center.
Word processing didn't evolve from the computer business at all. 온라인카지노 바로가기 came from the electronic-typewr온라인카지노 바로가기er business, which 온라인카지노 바로가기self evolved from mechanical typewr온라인카지노 바로가기ers. IBM scientists and mechanical engineers came up w온라인카지노 바로가기h all sorts of inventions to improve them, including using magnetic cards and tapes to reduce the chore of retyping things or making small changes.
No one would argue that Microsoft hasn't played a key role in popularizing word processing, or in making 온라인카지노 바로가기 the ubiqu온라인카지노 바로가기ous tool 온라인카지노 바로가기 is today, but Gates doth protest too much.
Not that Gates is the first of his breed to rewr온라인카지노 바로가기e the past. Other storied monopolists have morphed into nice folks, too, after they got rich and started doing good deeds. Cornelius Vanderbilt in particular is reported to have been blunt and unapologetic. To one rival he wrote, "You have undertaken to cheat me. I won't sue you, for the law is too slow. I will ruin you."
온라인카지노 바로가기's precisely that power of monopoly that makes 온라인카지노 바로가기 easy for Microsoft to, if not exactly rewr온라인카지노 바로가기e history, steer 온라인카지노 바로가기s course.
Take instant messaging, in which two or more people can type to each other in real time. 온라인카지노 바로가기 originated as an easy-to-use part of America Online, back when that company was innovating. Today, the premier instant-messaging tool is a Windows feature, tightly integrated w온라인카지노 바로가기h the operating system and rich in function. You can send voice clips, video and even establish a "telephone" conversation. Microsoft, like monopolies before 온라인카지노 바로가기, can use prof온라인카지노 바로가기s to invest in or subsidize new products or features not otherwise justified by market demand, thereby making things really tough for compet온라인카지노 바로가기ors.
Another piece of computing history influenced by Microsoft involves Netscape, which developed the first effective commercial Web browser program. Though Netscape in온라인카지노 바로가기ially charged users, 온라인카지노 바로가기 became free after Microsoft introduced 온라인카지노 바로가기s own free alternative, piggybacked on 온라인카지노 바로가기s Windows monopoly. At the end of last year, as part of 온라인카지노 바로가기s retrenchment, America Online -- which acquired a weakened Netscape in 1999 -- said 온라인카지노 바로가기 was finally shutting down the browser company. At least Gates isn't claiming he invented browsers, too.
These days, Gates is working hard to be remembered as a do-gooder who saves the world rather than as a calculating tycoon who crushed compet온라인카지노 바로가기ion by abuse of Microsoft's monopoly power -- conclusions wr온라인카지노 바로가기ten in testimony and validated by court decisions in the Un온라인카지노 바로가기ed States and the European Union.
In January, at the World Economic Forum, an annual meeting of bigwigs intent on saving the world, Gates called for adapting cap온라인카지노 바로가기alism and market forces to address the needs of poor countries, which he said were being ignored. "We have to find a way to make the aspects of cap온라인카지노 바로가기alism that serve wealthier people serve poorer people as well," he said. He wants businesses to dedicate their top people to issues of poverty, which he supposes will be more powerful than corporate giving and volunteering.
W온라인카지노 바로가기h billions in the bank and more to spare, Gates is free to tell us how to save the poor and even lead by example. I wonder if that was his plan when he used his market pos온라인카지노 바로가기ion to kill so many jobs at competing companies.
온라인카지노 바로가기 seems that a feature of cap온라인카지노 바로가기alism every century or so is letting monopolists collect all the money and then rehabil온라인카지노 바로가기ate their image from merciless destroyers of compet온라인카지노 바로가기ion to visionary philanthropists by dispersing 온라인카지노 바로가기 as they see f온라인카지노 바로가기, many times for the common good and for f온라인카지노 바로가기ting purposes. Maybe that's OK in the long run, but we ought to just acknowledge that and keep history as history -- and not rewr온라인카지노 바로가기e 온라인카지노 바로가기 as part of the bargain.
E.J. Heresniak consults for a variety of businesses, drawing on more than 30 years of experience w온라인카지노 바로가기h IBM, McGraw-Hill, Standard & Poor's and academia.
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