The New Efficiency

By Steve Ballmer

In all the talk about the economy, one term that comes up more and more frequently is something called "the new normal." I like this phrase because it speaks to the fact that economic reality has undergone a fundamental shift over the course of the past 12 months.

So what is the nature of this shift? After years of economic expansion fueled by unrealistic rates of consumption and unsustainable levels of private debt, the global economy has reset at a lower baseline level of activity. Today, people borrow less, save more, and spend with much greater caution.

This is the new normal and it will be with us for some time to come. The issue now is how to respond.

I believe the new normal requires a new kind of efficiency built on technology innovations that enable businesses and organizations to simultaneously drive cost savings, improve productivity, and speed innovation.

Because you are a subscriber to Executive Emails from Microsoft, I want to share my thoughts with you about how information technology can enable organizations to operate more efficiently, more effectively, and more strategically as they respond to the new normal by moving toward the new efficiency.

The New Efficiency: With Less, Do More

In the new normal, one thing is clear: cutting costs is extremely important. But cost cutting by itself is not a long-term winning strategy. To build a sustainable competitive advantage, companies must ultimately do two things- increase productivity and find ways to deliver new value to customers.

The issue, then, is how can organizations take costs out of their operations, increase productivity, and expand their capacity for innovation all at the same time?

For years, we've talked about how information technology enables companies to do more with less. But during this economic reset, IT provides business leaders with the answer to a slightly different question: Can my company with less, do more?

Other trends give this question even greater urgency. Workforces are more distributed and employees are more mobile. Government regulations are increasing and compliance requirements are mounting. Data security is more important to preserve and more difficult to maintain.

At the same time, companies struggle with legacy technology systems built on incompatible and disconnected applications that limit access to information and impede collaboration. The complexity of these systems forces IT departments to focus too much of their time and too many of their resources on providing basic services and protecting security.

Today, a new generation of business solutions is transforming IT into a strategic asset that makes it possible to cut costs without crippling customer service or constraining workforce creativity and effectiveness. A new generation of business solutions is eliminating the barriers between systems and applications, and automating routines tasks so IT professionals can focus on high-value work that is aligned to strategic priorities. These technologies can help organizations reduce risk, improve security, and drive down support costs.

This is IT how achieves the new efficiency with less.

At the same time, these technologies streamline access to information no matter where it is stored and enable people to work together securely no matter where they are located. This new generation of business solutions also provides improved mobile computing capabilities so people who work in a branch office, at home, or on the road can be as productive as employees who work at corporate headquarters.

Most important, a new wave of IT technologies offers advanced tools that enable employees to transform insights into innovations that address unmet market opportunities and meet unfulfilled customer needs.

This powerful combination of greater productivity and improved capacity for innovation is how IT enables businesses to do more.

Software Solutions for the New Efficiency

This year, Microsoft is introducing a wave of new software created specifically to enable businesses to tackle their most pressing challenges and strengthen their ability to deliver innovation to the marketplace.

It starts with Windows 7, the newest version of our flagship PC operating system. Windows 7 simplifies tasks and lets people get more done in less time with fewer clicks. Ready to deploy now, it enhances corporate data protection and security, and increases control to improve compliance and reduce risk. Part of our Windows Optimized Desktop solution that includes Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, Windows 7 streamlines management of PC environments, making it easier to reduce costs, improve performance, and enable end users to work anywhere.

These and other enhancements are the result of close collaboration with millions of customers and thousands of IT professionals who participated in testing programs and provided suggestions about the capabilities and improvements they wanted to see. Thanks in large part to their help, Windows 7 is the best PC operating system we have ever built.

We've also just released a new version of our server operating system. Windows Server 2008 R2 is designed to increase the reliability and flexibility of server infrastructures. It provides a productive server platform that offers cost-effective virtualization and business continuity, great power saving capabilities, and a superior experience for end users.

Later this year, we will also launch Exchange Server 2010. The cornerstone of Microsoft's unified communications technologies, Exchange Server 2010 provides a great email and inbox experience that extends from the PC to the phone to the browser and it helps companies archive and protect information efficiently. It also enables companies to reduce costs by delivering a built- in voice mail solution and providing low-cost storage options.

Achieving the Benefits of the New Efficiency Today

Organizations around the globe are already deploying these solutions and reaping the benefits.

At Intel, for example, Windows 7 is providing improved performance, greater application responsiveness, and a better platform for mobile workers. Ford is taking advantage of Exchange 2010 and Windows 7 to streamline communications, improve decision making, and boost productivity. Continental Airlines expects to save more than $1.5 million annually in hardware, software, and operational costs through the server virtualization capabilities of Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V technology.

At Convergent Computing, an information technology consulting firm based in California, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 will eliminate the $40,000 in annual spending that was needed to maintain a virtual private network for the company's 55 employees. In addition, employees can now access the company's corporate network instantly and download files 30 to 40 percent faster than before.

Another example is Baker Tilly, a London financial services firm with more than 2,000 employees and a network of partners in 110 countries. One of the first businesses to deploy Windows 7 on a company-wide basis, Baker Tilly expects to save about $160 per PC by reducing deployment, management, and energy costs. And because Windows 7 improves productivity, it offers the potential to increase billable time for mobile workers at a rate of nearly $600 per PC. This could return the equivalent of one-half of one percent of the company's current gross annual revenue to the bottom line.

Businesses aren't alone in their struggle to respond to the new normal. Governments must figure out how to deliver more services on budgets that are sharply constrained by falling revenue. As part of its response, the city of Miami deployed Windows 7 and expects that it will save nearly $400,000 a year in reduced security, management, and energy costs.

Ideal Conditions for an Era of Innovation and Growth

Despite the challenges posed by the global economic reset, I'm optimistic about the long-term opportunities that lie ahead.

I'm optimistic because there are encouraging signs that growth may resume in many parts of the world during the course of the next year.

More than that, I'm optimistic because I believe we are entering a period of technology-driven transformation that will see a surge in productivity and a flowering of innovation.

The new efficiency will not only help companies respond to today's economic reality, it will lay the foundation for systems and solutions that connect people to information, applications, and to other people in new ways. The result will be a wave of innovative products and services that will jumpstart economic growth as companies deliver breakthroughs that solve old problems and serve as the catalyst for new businesses and even new industries.

This too will be the new normal-economic growth driven not by debt and consumption, but by rising productivity and new ideas that provide real value to people throughout their lives. Information technology will play an important role. I look forward to seeing the progress that results.

-The writer is the CEO, Microsoft

On Openness: What freedom attracts.

By Jason Pontin
Jason Pontin, Editor in Chief and Publisher.
Credit: Mark Ostow

Openness is a virtue. When we like a person, we say, "She has an open face." About a friendly gesture, we remark, "That was openhanded." About ourselves when young, we might sigh, "I was open to new experiences." Openness is attractive.

Most technologists find openness attractive too. A technical term originally derived from thermodynamics (where it referred to any system that interacted continuously with its environment), openness came to be applied to systems theory, and thence to software, where it initially had a very specific meaning: open computer programs and languages are those that have some combination of portability (that is, they can run within a variety of environments) and interoperability (which

means they can exchange data with other software). They must also adhere to open standards, a term that is generally understood to refer to two related ideas: that the software should be free for use, and its source, or underlying, code should in some manner be defined by its community of developers and users. The operating system Linux is the best-known open software.

The Windows operating system, by contrast, is closed, or "proprietary," in the jargon of information technology: it is not portable and possesses limited interoperability. Although elements of Windows adhere to open standards, the program must be licensed, usually for a fee, and its source code has been compiled and hidden from users and developers outside Microsoft. Developers write to application programming interfaces, or APIs, which until last year were mostly closed, and which still Microsoft jealously guards.

Ever since the emergence of the Web, whose multitudinous pages are themselves created with open standards, information technology has tended to become more and more open. Increasingly, software companies stress their openness. Often, this is mere marketing. Sun Microsystems' Java platform, widely used to create software for devices as different as embedded systems and supercomputers, has been portable and interoperable since it was launched, in 1995, but the heart of its source code was released only in 2007. Some perfectionist companies forswear openness because closed software can be more beautiful, particularly if it is married to hardware, like the Apple Macintosh operating system. But most technologists want their software to be open, because openness attracts innovation.

In this issue, Technology Review's chief correspondent, David Talbot, describes the effort to make online video open (see ­"OurTube"). He writes, "A growing number of technologists and video artists want to see Web video adopt the same openness that fueled the growth of the Web at large. ... A similar transformation of video would not just allow trouble-free playback of any video you might encounter. It would also mean that any innovation, such as a new way to search, would apply to all videos, allowing new technologies to spread more rapidly. And it would make it far easier to mix videos together and create Web links to specific moments in disparate videos, just as if they were words and sentences plucked from disparate online text sources."

The innovations such openness would encourage are impossible to predict. Talbot quotes Chris Blizzard, director of technical evangelism at Mozilla, which develops the open Web browser Firefox: "Nobody is going to tell you they want something before it emerges--rather, the experience of the Web is: 'Holy Cow, I can do this other thing now!' Open standards create low friction. Low friction creates innovation. Innovation makes people want to pick it up and use it."

Are there limits to the alchemy of openness? As these quotations suggest, the word has come to be used broadly of all creation that is collaborative and unbound from any one company and that favors free use over paying for something. Proponents of openness tend to assume that history is with them: they are sure that industries beyond information technology will successively become open. Some evangelists of openness believe that written media (the only industry I know as well as information technology and biotechnology) must become open too. To hear them explain it, open written media would be created by anyone, not just professional journalists; it would not be owned by any one publisher but would be endlessly replicated around the Web; and it would be free.

I wonder, though, how applicable radical openness is to written media. (To read my critique of WeMedia, see my "Manifesto" in the May/June issue) In one sense, written media is already open. Unlike some computer code, words are both portable and interoperable. Anyone who knows a language may use its words freely, and they can be understood by any other speaker. Words are their own source code. Yet some writing flourishes best when authors are paid and are supported by publishers that make money directly or indirectly from their audiences. Written media is closed in the sense that it aspires to a kind of formal perfection and is created by people who feel highly proprietorial about their creations. But write and tell me what you think at jason.pontin@technologyreview.com.

Courtesy: http://www.technologyreview.com

Yahoo jazzes up home page with major makeover

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer - Tue Jul 21, 2009 6:37AM EDT

Yahoo Inc. is sprucing up its Web site's home page with a long-promised makeover that is supposed to make it easier to see what's happening at the Internet's other hot spots.

The revamped home page, scheduled to debut Tuesday in the United States, is part of an overhaul aimed at recapturing some of the buzz that Yahoo has lost to increasingly popular online hangouts like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

Even as Yahoo's star has faded, its Web site has remained among the Internet's busiest. More than 570 million people worldwide came to Yahoo in May, according to the most recent data available from online research firm comScore Inc.

The retooled page will be introduced in the United Kingdom, India and France later this week. It will roll out to the rest of the world during the next year, with the option to retain the old design starting to phase out this fall.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company is hailing the new look as the biggest change to its front page since Yahoo's Web site launched 15 years ago. It's the first time that Yahoo has overhauled its home page since 2006.

"Every pixel on the page is relevant now," boasted Tapan Bhat, a Yahoo senior vice president who oversaw the revisions. "We have taken out a lot of our own stuff that was creating a dead zone for our users."

After spending the past 10 months tinkering with the redesign, Yahoo has a lot riding on the new look. The company sorely needs a lift, with its profits mired in a slump that has led to three different chief executives since June 2007.

Carol Bartz, the latest CEO hired six months ago, has predicted the revised home page will help revive the company by re-establishing its Web site as an Internet gateway for more people. If she is right, Yahoo could get a better handle on its users' interests and ultimately sell more of the ads that generate most of its revenue.

Yahoo hadn't intended to take the wraps off the redesigned page until the fall, but apparently felt like it had all the pieces in place now.

While Yahoo was trying to figure out what it wanted to include in the new home page, other online social hubs have become even more deeply ingrained in people's lives.

Facebook, for instance, now has more than 250 million regular users worldwide, up from about 100 million last September when Yahoo first began to publicly discuss its vision for the home page. Meanwhile, Twitter has evolved from a quirky obscurity into a pervasive communications tool for passing along blurbs of personal information, as well as links to news stories and photos.

Yahoo is betting its home page will be more useful if it's easier for people to connect with information and services available elsewhere.

Users can plant a variety of applications from other Web site onto a "My Favorites" section of the redesigned front page. The 65 applications initially available on Yahoo's new page include competing e-mail services from Google Inc. and AOL as well as plug-ins for Facebook and MySpace.

Once the outside applications are set up, Yahoo visitors can scroll over their favorite sites to get a glimpse at what's happening elsewhere without leaving Yahoo.

The front page's news section will automatically feature stories from newspapers located in a user's area and enable people to broadcast what they are doing or thinking, just as millions already do every day on Facebook and Twitter.

Yahoo isn't currently offering a Twitter application, but will eventually, Bhat said.

The home page preferences programmed on a computer can also be transferred to appear on mobile phones and other handheld devices.

iSchool happens ...

By Raqeebul I. Ketan,

Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Class of 2011, Massachusetts Institute Of Technology.

I have some exciting updates for you regarding the progress of iSchool (interactive school). Probably the most important is that now we are at a stage of the iSchool project where each of you from any corner of the globe can take part in the iSchool project! So, please take a few minutes to go through the rest of this message. Also, if you would like to know more about the iSchool program and what its mission is please visit the link http://web.mit.edu/hov/www/proj_ischool.html

The results from last January and the second phase of iSchool:

Last January we launched the iSchool program for the first time in a remote village in Panchagarh district, Bangladesh with some 150 students. It was primarily a test of the suitability and sustainability of

this initiative. The outcomes proved to be highly encouraging. The core mission of the project; to devise a low cost sustainable solution, was achieved. Volunteers from IBA, Dhaka University compiled the animations, meaning that the administrative and design costs were null. The cost of blank DVDs added to the rental cost of DVD players and TVs was minimal. Most importantly, though, the animations proved to be highly effective with students showing improvements upto 35% in their test score. Professor Peter Dourmashkin of the department of Physics at MIT helped design the test questions and later performed a post program evaluation. We concluded that students in each merit category performed substantially better after watching the videos. The improvements were more marked in tackling the qualitative questions and were most significant among the lower merit group students. Hence, we are now ever more energetic and determined to carry our mission of iSchool-for a better learning experience!

Recent achievements and our mission this time:

Once again MIT has been generous enough to fund the future of iSchool and help ensure its sustainability. I am glad to inform you that I have been awarded the Peter J. Eloranta fellowship (http://mit.edu/eloranta/winners.html)and the David J Shapiro award (http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2009/awards-aero-astro-tt0603.html) for my work with iSchool and to help me carry out the task of compiling an interactive lecture series (to be used as textbook supplement) for the SSC students in Bangladesh.

This time we are working with a much larger pool of volunteers that span students from IBA to BUET to BRAC University. Our goal is to compile the first version of interactive lectures for the SSC (grade 10) Physics syllabus. To this end we are using very basic computer programs, so that our volunteers do not require high end technical expertise (take a look at the sample video I have posted in our iSchool group, and note that we will have narration with the video). Added to this crude yet effective collection of animations will be videos of the most common lab experiments to help familiarize students with common lab procedure. If you are good with flash or comfortable using power point with an interest in physics, you can help!

We want your help:

You can help make a difference in the way secondary school students learn science. Please let us know if you would be interested in being a part of the iSchool team. You can help us either by attending our meetings or even from your home using the internet. We hope that soon we are going to launch an iSchool website, that will contain our animations and videos with both Bengali and English narration. We intend to have a provision for uploading files by anyone from any corner of the globe. This way you can help us with your expertise by designing something, anything that you believe will come handy for the students. Our iSchool team will make any necessary adjustment and will put it up as add ons along with the core videos. It is the collection of the core videos that we intend to distribute in the high schools. School authorities can use their existing facilities to show the videos to the students (say once a week as a supplement to their core curriculum). Until we have the website constructed we request you to send your work via e-mail (or you can upload them in any web host site and provide us the link). If you are interested in investing the bare minimum from your free time, please let us know and we will send you the required resources (the chapters from our standardized SSC physics book)

Once again for your convenience:

What: Genral body meeting a discussion session on iSchool; MIT funded project to improve the education system in Bangladesh.

Why: Serve your country and people!

MIT PSC letter of recognition.

All expenses paid

When: 13 July (Please reply at ketanbd@mit.edu with iSchool as the subject)

Where: BRAC University, Civil building Room# 603 (exact details will be provided later in another mail )

How: Powerpoint skills. (To work on the animations)

Volunteer to teach.

Finally, I would humbly request you to leave any word of opinion/comment at the iSchool group. Alternately you can e-mail us at ketanbd@mit.edu and mohibulslm@yahoo.com. We have taken it as our responsibility to do the best we can about our education system. We know that we are not alone :)

iSchool For a Better Learning Experience

By Raqeebul Islam Ketan


WHEN I was a student of A levels, I hated chemistry. This mysterious subject has often eluded me. My impromptu remedy to this learning dilemma was blind memorization. Soon I came to the realization that I was not really learning Chemistry, I was merely gathering facts; facts that would make no difference to my understanding of science.

After my A levels I got into MIT. I got advance standing (meaning that I did not have to take the preliminary courses) for physics and math but not for chemistry. My impression about the futility of blind memorization grew stronger than ever.

Now I not only imagine but also work toward the goal of establishing iSchool. I came up with the iSchool idea at MIT. Thanks to MIT PSC (Public Service Center) for awarding me with a fellowship for my proposal, currently I am working on a small-scale implementation of the first ever iSchool in Panchagarh.

iSchool or interactive school tries to come up with a sustainable and cost effective solution to the problem of blind memorization. As we all know, students in Bangladesh have a tendency of memorizing equations without proper understanding. This counterproductive practice stems mainly from the lack of adequate facilities (no labs, computers etc.) and the acute shortage of qualified teachers in high schools. The mission of iSchool is to supplement the already existing education curricula (of the National Board of Education in Bangladesh) by creating a virtual lecture series. The interactive part of the lecture series will comprise of translated audio clips, animation, video clips of various experiments, processes, lab videos interactive software etc. All of these interactive components will be integrated into the lectures and will be in direct reference to the standardized textbooks.

To put it in a nutshell, imagine watching a video of a lecture that is traditional in every sense (teacher explains the course material standing in a lab) except that the blackboard is replaced by the interactive mediums. Hence at the end of the explanation of each concept will be an interactive slot. Students will get to view lab experiments (wherever appropriate), animations, slides and diagrams intended to clarify the concepts further. There will also be at least one concept question followed by the interactive viewing to keep the students involved. We cannot provide actual labs and outstanding teachers in every school but we seek to devise the closest realistic alternative.

The major challenge beside the mammoth workload of compiling the video lectures is the cost of implementation. To make the videos accessible to even the most rural areas in Bangladesh I came up with the idea that iSchool compilation be stored in video discs (VCD). This will require a VCD player and a television as opposed to the much more expensive alternative of using a computer. VCD or even DVD technology is now omnipresent in Bangladesh. Besides, the cost of a blank CD along with burning it can be restrained well within a dollar (seventy taka). The overall cost of running iSchool parallel to traditional schooling is manageable indeed.

If I have to mention the birthplace of iSchool, it would be MITs Public Service Center. PSC has paved the path for numerous MIT students to travel to the furthest corners of the world with one mission; improving people's quality of life. PSC is the central office at MIT with the responsibility of matching the funds with the right kind of

motivated students. Be it healthcare or education, PSC's door will always be the first one to be knocked by any

student interested in social work in such field.

I have always cherished the thought of doing something useful, something beneficial for the community, more specifically in the education sector. One day I gathered all my courage and wrote an e-mail to Sally Susnowitz, the director of MIT PSC, regarding a very rudimentary plan, the first version of iSchool. Sarwar bhai (my fellow Bangladeshi at MIT) helped devise the proposal with his invaluable feedback and advice.

Finally I and Sarwar bhai had the meeting with Sally. She was very realistic yet very motivating. She gave us hope and installed the faith that iSchool doesn't have to continue as 'imaginative school '; it can indeed be 'interactive school'. Later I met with Alison Hynd, PSC Fellowship Program coordinator, who helped me make the required changes in my plan of implementing iSchool. With her help and support I applied for a fellowship - the pinnacle of PSC's hierarchy of fund dispersal. I called in Professor Samuels, my freshman adviser at MIT, to ask for a required faculty recommendation for my application. He shared my enthusiasm in iSchool and suggested that I meet with a few other professors - professors who would later become integral asset for iSchool. In due time, I was interviewed for fellowship and was subsequently offered one.

That was the moment when iSchool crossed the boundary of mere thought; it stepped onto the realm of reality!

As soon as I got the all-important nod from MIT PSC, I contacted Sudip da (my project supervisor) to plan out the details. Sudip da has vast experience in a whole spectrum of activities. We both felt the need to start off the proceedings for iSchool immediately.

Out first requirement was to get access to a lab where we can carry out some of the more fancy experiments (different kinds of motion using motion sensors and trolleys on air track). I contacted Professor Tom Greytak to request access to a TEAL (Technology-Enhanced Active Learning) lab. Exceeding my expectations he showed enthusiasm in my work and took out some time from his busy schedule to talk to me about iSchool. He told me about one of MIT's initiatives, much similar to iSchool, launched in the early fifties. He, later, gave me a compilation of his simple animations used for the 'Waves and Vibrations' chapters in Physics.

I also contacted Professor Peter Dourmashkin, associate director of ESG (Experimental Study Group) to take some suggestions for iSchool. Professor Dourmashkin is an expert in alternative learning strategies and loves initiatives that seek to improve the learning techniques among students. He was very keen about the potential success of our virtual lecture series. He provided me with a series of questions on Newtonian Mechanics (Our focus in January), which I am using to assess the effectiveness of our lecture videos. With all the resources in hand I traveled to Bangladesh on the 20th of December as a PSC fellow with my humble motive. What happens here in Bangladesh is the unfolding of another very interesting series of events indeed!

-Raqeebul Islam Ketan is a Bangladeshi studying in Aeronautics Engineering in MIT,USA. He is contributing to Bangladesh building work. What about you ...???

Best advice: Gates on Gates

The father-and-son duo talk about what it was like growing up Gates as they reflect on the advice that has influenced their careers and their relationship.

Caption: Americans in Paris: Bill Gates, in France with his family for part of the summer, is joined by his father on the balcony at the legendary Hôtel de Crillon.

Interview by Andy Serwer

PARIS (Fortune) -- It's certainly a unique father-son relationship. The man who created one of the largest fortunes in history, now in his second career as a philanthropist, has his dad working for him as co-chair of the world's largest charitable organization -- the $27.5 billion Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Actually, this is a second act for both men. Bill Gates, 53, stepped down from day-to-day work at Microsoft last June, while his father, Bill Gates Sr., 83, retired from the prominent Seattle law firm Preston Gates & Ellis (now known as K&L Gates), in 1998. These days both men give counsel to each other, but for years, of course, Dad doled out indispensable advice to his son. I recently sat down with this unlikely buddy act in the famed Leonard Bernstein suite at the H�tel de Crillon on Paris's Place de la Concorde to ask them about the best advice they ever got.

Bill, I'd like to ask you about the best advice that you've ever gotten from your dad.

Bill Gates: Well, my dad and my mom were great at encouraging me as a kid to do things that I wasn't good at, to go out for a lot of different sports like swimming, football, soccer, and I didn't know why. At the time I thought it was kind of pointless, but it ended up really exposing me to leadership opportunities and showing me that I wasn't good at a lot of things, instead of sticking to things that I was comfortable with. It was fantastic, and now some of those activities I cherish. They had to stick to it because I pushed back a lot, but it was fantastic advice.

Mr. Gates, do you remember specifically dispensing advice, or was it something that was just a natural part of parenting?

Bill Gates Sr.: I think to some extent his mother and I were explicit about this, but it was mostly just instinctive. We did feel like he ought to go turn out, go and play on the neighborhood softball team and things of that kind. We thought it would be good for him and that he'd enjoy it, and apparently it turned out to be good advice.

B.G.: Even though I wasn't very good at it.

B.G. SR.: You were okay.

You make it sound very easy, but all of us who are parents know that raising a family is not always that way. In your new book you mentioned dinners on Sunday nights and wearing the same kind of pajamas [on Christmas]. Does that stuff really work, Mr. Gates?

B.G. SR.: Well, I guess on the basis of one family's experience, my answer is a loud yes.

What do you think, Bill?

B.G.: I think family traditions that get you to come together and talk about what you're up to -- going on trips together, always sitting at dinner and sharing thoughts -- really made a huge difference. We learned from our parents what they were trying to do, whether it was United Way or a volunteering activity or the world of business. I felt very equipped as I was dealing with adults to talk to them in a comfortable fashion because my parents had shared how they thought about things.

Things weren't always so smooth, though, between the two of you. Like any father and son, you've had some rocky moments, right?

B.G.: That's right. I don't think I was easy to bring up. I had a lot of energy and stubbornness about things that I wanted to do. At one juncture, when I was in my last year of high school, I got a job offer and it would take me away from school, and I was amazed that my dad, after meeting with the headmaster and getting all the data, said, "Yeah, that's something you can go and do." Most of the rockiness had been before that, when I was still confused about, was I trying to prove something vs. my parents. There was actually a professional who I went and visited, who my parents had me chat with. [That person] explained to me that there wasn't really any benefit to fighting with my parents. It was all about the issues, the battles were going to be about the real world, and they were really on my side. And that was fantastic. It just changed my mindset. I was only 12 or 13 at the time. I think it made things a lot smoother from that point on.

A lot of times 12- and 13-year-olds are told that their parents are not their enemies, and it goes in one ear and out the other. Yet you were able to actually take this advice and listen to it, and you began to become closer to your parents after that?

B.G.: That's right. As I was starting Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500), I'd go over on Sundays and share with my parents what the challenges were and get some thoughts, just vent about what was complicated. I remember when we were taking the company public, I was saying that I thought that would have some real drawbacks, and we talked about how to mitigate those.

So there was a lot of camaraderie that came from the fact that we'd gotten on an even keel, and they were very encouraging even though it was a business that was mysterious in some ways. The scale of the opportunity was beyond what would have been predicted.

You guys have this incredible working relationship, and obviously a close familial one as well. What do you think the secret to that is?

B.G. SR.: One of the [best pieces of advice] I ever had is related to what you just asked about, and that is the business of getting along with and encouraging the right things with your youngsters. Bill's mother and I early on were involved in parent effectiveness training, [an] activity at the church we went to. And the thing that the people there taught us and emphasized, which is so central and so significant, is that you should never demean your child. When you think about the centrality of that, in terms of the relationship with an offspring, you're off to a really good start. I'm a great fan of my son's. I think he's an incredible citizen and a wonderful businessman, and we let that show in the things we do together.

B.G.: I think it's because we have well-defined roles. I'm kind of a driving, "Why haven't we gotten all these things done?" [kind of person], and dad is the voice of wisdom. We'll be having a meeting, talking about the calendar or the cost or those things, and he'll make a comment that will get everybody to stop and think, You know, we missed that way of looking at things. And his being there at the foundation full-time really has shaped the values. When we have the foundation meeting, people get up and applaud because they see that that really makes a difference. And to create a family foundation, when I was busy, and yet to know that the values were going to be right and strong, I give credit for that to my dad.

And your son maybe didn't always take your advice, Mr. Gates. I mean when he told you he was going to drop out of Harvard, what did you say to him?

B.G. SR.: Well, the first time he said he was going to take a period away and then go back, the emphasis was on, well, he will go back. Second time around, after he did go back, then he again felt like he had to go to Albuquerque, where the company was, and work there more. We were much more concerned the second time. The company was becoming very demanding, and Paul Allen was out there in Albuquerque, and Bill needed to help him.

Bill, let me ask you about another one of your mentors. What's the best advice Warren Buffett has ever given you?

B.G.: Well, I've gotten a lot of great advice from Warren. I'd say one of the most interesting is how he keeps things simple. You look at his calendar, it's pretty simple. You talk to him about a case where he thinks a business is attractive, and he knows a few basic numbers and facts about it. And [if] it gets less complicated, he feels like then it's something he'll choose to invest in. He picks the things that he's got a model of, a model that really is predictive and that's going to continue to work over a long-term period. And so his ability to boil things down, to just work on the things that really count, to think through the basics -- it's so amazing that he can do that. It's a special form of genius.

If you're getting too balled up with a lot of complicated things on your schedule, do you actually go back and think, What would Warren do?

B.G.: Yeah, sure. I think Warren is so nice to everybody -- how does he say no in a nice way? Or how does he think about priorities and have that explicitly in mind? And he turns down an unbelievable number of things, and yet everybody feels great about it. His grace in talking to people where he's always saying, you know, "You probably understand this better than I do, but here's how I messed it up when I first got involved in this." You know, that's a special talent, and I do find myself thinking, Hmm, how would Warren say this in a friendly fashion?

There was a case at the annual meeting where somebody asked a question about should you sell the stocks that have gone up and keep the ones that have not? And he sort of said, "No, you look at the value of the business." And then Charlie [Munger] added, "He's telling you your conceptual framework is all wrong." Which is in fact what the answer had been, but there wasn't one element of, "Hey, dummy ..."

What about growing up, Bill? Teachers in high school or at Harvard? Were there any experiences you had there where you got a piece of advice that kind of gave you an ah-ha moment?

B.G.:Well, my parents were nice enough to have me go to a great high school. It was a private high school. And a lot of the teachers there were very encouraging in my math and science and giving me the books that they liked, letting me read ahead. And the whole computer experience, the exposure came because Lakeside was sort of forward-looking. They were truly amazing -- that when the teachers found it too confusing, they let the students take over. Most schools would have just, I don't know, shut the thing down or something. It was a very weird deal where we kind of took charge and even the whole way we started using computers to pick when the classes would meet -- that was a friend and I in charge of doing that.

So they had a comfort, and you know, there were a few teachers that I would give a lot of credit to -- they let us go and dream about where we would take it.

Do you remember their names?

B.G.: Yeah, Fred Wright was the key person who ran the math department, and I think [he] deserves most of the credit. There was a physics teacher, Gary Maestretti, who encouraged me. Even when I was first in 8th Grade, and I was doing very well on these national tests, a guy named Paul Stocklim was incredible at just saying -- Hey, you should have more confidence. You're really good at this stuff. Getting that kind of encouragement -- it was very helpful, and that was a great environment. All those teachers were thoughtful. I think I got more than my fair share of their energy because, you know, I was so excited about the subjects and the frontiers. They kept throwing new stuff at me because of that.

So Mr. Gates, why did you decide to write this book? In this book, there's a fair amount of advice and learning, and obviously, you feel compelled to share some of that. What was it that prompted you to do this?

B.G. SR.:It started with writing a memoir and really as much as anything, my colleague in that work, someone by the name of Mary Ann Mackin whose name is on the cover of the book, encouraged me to think in terms of making it more of a book than just one that I would give to the family or friends as a memoir. I was reluctant about that, to be candid, but she persisted, and finally, well, okay, okay, let's go that way. And I'm delighted that I decided to. It's really been an interesting experience. I mean it's an industry I knew nothing about, and it's really revealing and fun to see how the book business works, and I'm tickled with the book.

Has it surprised you that you've met all manner of associates and friends of your son's and that these people have ended up being peers and people that you work with? Did you ever imagine that would come to pass that way?

B.G. SR.:No, no, that isn't the kind of thing you would expect to occur, and you describe it well. It's a surprise. It's not a prediction I would have made, the way my life was going to work.

Who were some of your son's associates or friends that you feel have really contributed to your learning process?

B.G. SR.: Well, a good many of them. Certainly, his two key associates, Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer, would be in that category. Very bright, insightful, thoughtful human beings.

B.G.: And I'd also say probably Patty Stonesifer.

B.G. SR.: Yes.

B.G.: Together with my dad, [Patty] really created the foundation, the whole approach, the values. I think the integrity, humility. Together with Patty they thought through a lot of things so that once I was ready to go full-time, it was a thriving concern that was pretty far into some interesting, complex problems. And so it's been an incredible gift for me that as I move over, it's not a startup, it's a going concern with amazing people, and Dad's values have really shaped the direction it's gone in.

B.G. SR.: The other person who would be on that list, by the way, would be Melinda Gates, who is more than just a daughter-in-law. She's a friend, and she brings wisdom to the table.

Bill, as you move from Microsoft to the foundation world, from computer science to natural sciences and beyond, have you gotten advice and learned new things from this whole new group of people that you now associate with?

B.G.: Yeah, it's a different world, and you want to make sure you're bringing what's good about the business environment and the kind of engineering world that I spent most of my life in, and abandoning some elements that aren't going to work.

What about advice or lessons learned as you were growing Microsoft from say, Andy Grove or people at IBM?

B.G.: We learned [a lot] about quality control, particularly from IBM Japan. Our Japanese customers on the whole were so tough about quality and precision -- that was fantastic, because we did a lot of business there early in our existence. Intel (INTC, Fortune 500), we kind of grew up with together. Andy would sometimes be very friendly, offer good advice. Sometimes he was very tough on us. But it was all very helpful. I mean, he's brilliant. And he helped us think about things in new ways. Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) is a competitor, but in terms of getting the Macintosh to critical mass, Microsoft was the key partner who had all the early software. You know, that was an interesting learning curve. Working with Steve Jobs is also exciting and not totally predictable, but he was brilliant and inspired us in a lot of ways.

Is there anything you specifically learned from Steve Jobs over the years?

B.G.: Well, Steve's kind of a fanatic about things, and you know, I think fanaticism is underrated. I'm a fanatic about running the engineering groups and the quality of them. Steve is a fanatic about the user experience and the design, and it clearly has made a huge difference for Apple that he says that it all has to come together -- not some committee-type view that has a list of things, but rather a holistic view. That's a deep insight.

Do you guys celebrate Father's Day? What do you guys do to mark that day?

B.G. SR.: We do birthdays and things like that pretty assiduously, but Father's Day, we've occasionally had a dinner or something

B.G.: Yeah, we always talk on the phone on Father's Day.

B.G. SR.: Yes, we do.

B.G.:Our rituals are more around Thanksgiving, birthdays, July 4th, Christmas. But it's a nice opportunity to call dad and tell him he's been [an] amazing father and set an incredible example.

First Published: June 21, 2009: 6:51 AM ET

Source: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/

Preema's Paintings Phenomena

Microsoft’s ‘Project Natal’ is in action

-by Mahbub Manik

A highly interactive motion gaming technology which allows gamers to use their whole body as a control mechanism is being built by Microsoft under it’s grand initiative termed ‘Project Natal’. The technology is a motion controller in a camera, that uses object, movement, and voice recognition to deliver a new kind of gaming experience.

Legendary movie director Steven Spielberg admitted that he was impressed by the technology.The technology can be added onto the existing Xbox 360. Microsoft has yet to set a release date for the technology. Some commentators note that it could be a year before the device finds its way to store shelves.



Caption: A module that can be added onto the existing Xbox 360, Project Natal incorporates sensors that track a player's full body movements while responding to spoken commands, directions and even shifts in emotional tone


Caption:

Along with the hardware, the console has software that tells the Xbox how to find 48 of the body's joints.

Caption: For games involving more than one player, Natal has the ability to distinguish the voices of the competitors from those of other people in the room.





-Resources:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz

http://www.time.com