>>1
Please get rid of this dishonest way of thinking. Plagiarism is unscientific and ultimately destructive.
Gerald Jay Sussman
Name:
AN OPEN LETTER TO HOBBYISTS2008-02-28 21:51
By William Henry Gates III
February 3, 1976
An Open Letter to Hobbyists
To me, the most critical thing in the hobby market right now is the lack of good software courses, books and software itself. Without good software and an owner who understands programming, a hobby computer is wasted. Will quality software be written for the hobby market?
Almost a year ago, Paul Allen and myself, expecting the hobby market to expand, hired Monte Davidoff and developed Altair BASIC. Though the initial work took only two months, the three of us have spent most of the last year documenting, improving and adding features to BASIC. Now we have 4K, 8K, EXTENDED, ROM and DISK BASIC. The value of the computer time we have used exceeds $40,000.
The feedback we have gotten from the hundreds of people who say they are using BASIC has all been positive. Two surprising things are apparent, however, 1) Most of these "users" never bought BASIC (less than 10% of all Altair owners have bought BASIC), and 2) The amount of royalties we have received from sales to hobbyists makes the time spent on Altair BASIC worth less than $2 an hour.
Why is this? As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal your software. Hardware must be paid for, but software is something to share. Who cares if the people who worked on it get paid?
Is this fair? One thing you don't do by stealing software is get back at MITS for some problem you may have had. MITS doesn't make money selling software. The royalty paid to us, the manual, the tape and the overhead make it a break-even operation. One thing you do do is prevent good software from being written. Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his product and distribute for free? The fact is, no one besides us has invested a lot of money in hobby software. We have written 6800 BASIC, and are writing 8080 APL and 6800 APL, but there is very little incentive to make this software available to hobbyists. Most directly, the thing you do is theft.
What about the guys who re-sell Altair BASIC, aren't they making money on hobby software? Yes, but those who have been reported to us may lose in the end. They are the ones who give hobbyists a bad name, and should be kicked out of any club meeting they show up at.
I would appreciate letters from any one who wants to pay up, or has a suggestion or comment. Just write to me at 1180 Alvarado SE, #114, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87108. Nothing would please me more than being able to hire ten programmers and deluge the hobby market with good software.
Bill Gates
General Partner, Micro-Soft
Name:
Anonymous2008-02-28 23:42
By William Henry Gates III
February 3, 1976
An Open Letter to my dick
To me, the most critical thing in the hobby market right now is the lack of my dick. Without my dick and an owner who understands programming, a hobby computer is wasted. Will quality software be written for my dick?
Almost a year ago, my dick and myself, expecting my dick to expand, hired Monte Davidoff and developed Altair BASIC. Though the initial work took only two months, the three of us have spent most of the last year documenting, improving and adding features to my dick. Now we have my dick4K, my dick8K, my dickEXTENDED, my dickROM and my dickDISK BASIC. The value of my dick we have used exceeds $40,000.
The feedback we have gotten from the hundreds of people who say they are using my dick has all been positive. Two surprising things are apparent, however, 1) Most of these "users" never bought my dick (less than 10% of all Altair owners have bought BASIC), and 2) The amount of royalties we have received from sales to hobbyists makes the time spent on my dick worth less than $2 an hour.
Why is this? As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal my dick. Hardware must be paid for, but my dick is something to share. Who cares if the people who worked on it get paid?
Is this fair? One thing you don't do by stealing my dick is get back at MITS for some problem you may have had. MITS doesn't make money selling my dick. The royalty paid to us, the manual, the tape and the overhead make my dick a break-even operation. One thing you do do is prevent good software from being written. Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting my dick and distribute for free? The fact is, no one besides my dick has invested a lot of money in hobby software. We have written my dick6800 BASIC, and are writing my dick8080 APL and my dick6800 APL, but there is very little incentive to make my dick available to hobbyists. Most directly, the thing you do is theft.
What about the guys who re-sell my dick, aren't they making money on my dick? Yes, but those who have been reported to my dick may lose in the end. They are the ones who give my dick a bad name, and should be kicked out of any club meeting they show up at.
I would appreciate letters from any one who wants to pay up, or has a suggestion or my dick. Just write to me at 1180 Alvarado SE, #114, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87108. Nothing would please my dick more than being able to hire ten programmers and deluge the hobby market with my dick.
Bill Gates
General Partner, my dick
Name:
Anonymous2008-02-28 23:43
By William Henry Gates III
February 3, 1976
An Open Letter to my dick
To me, the most critical thing in the hobby market right now is the lack of my dick. Without my dick and an owner who understands programming, a hobby computer is wasted. Will quality software be written for my dick?
Almost a year ago, my dick and myself, expecting my dick to expand, hired Monte Davidoff and developed Altair BASIC. Though the initial work took only two months, the three of us have spent most of the last year documenting, improving and adding features to my dick. Now we have my dick4K, my dick8K, my dickEXTENDED, my dickROM and my dickDISK BASIC. The value of my dick we have used exceeds $40,000.
The feedback we have gotten from the hundreds of people who say they are using my dick has all been positive. Two surprising things are apparent, however, 1) Most of these "users" never bought my dick (less than 10% of all Altair owners have bought BASIC), and 2) The amount of royalties we have received from sales to hobbyists makes the time spent on my dick worth less than $2 an hour.
Why is this? As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal my dick. Hardware must be paid for, but my dick is something to share. Who cares if the people who worked on it get paid?
Is this fair? One thing you don't do by stealing my dick is get back at MITS for some problem you may have had. MITS doesn't make money selling my dick. The royalty paid to us, the manual, the tape and the overhead make my dick a break-even operation. One thing you do do is prevent good software from being written. Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting my dick and distribute for free? The fact is, no one besides my dick has invested a lot of money in hobby software. We have written my dick6800 BASIC, and are writing my dick8080 APL and my dick6800 APL, but there is very little incentive to make my dick available to hobbyists. Most directly, the thing you do is theft.
What about the guys who re-sell my dick, aren't they making money on my dick? Yes, but those who have been reported to my dick may lose in the end. They are the ones who give my dick a bad name, and should be kicked out of any club meeting they show up at.
I would appreciate letters from any one who wants to pay up, or has a suggestion or my dick. Just write to me at 1180 Alvarado SE, #114, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87108. Nothing would please my dick more than being able to hire ten programmers and deluge the hobby market with my dick.
On most browsers, you can bring up your browsing history by pressing Control-H. (No, this is not going to become a discussion of werecows.) On Firefox, this brings up a sidebar that shows up on the left side of the window. If you put your mouse over the edge of the sidebar, the cursor will turn into a different kind of arrow. By clicking and dragging it, you can move the edge of the sidebar back and forth. You are, to put it another way, manipulating the border between the normal window and the history window. By moving the mouse, you can increase the portion of the window devoted to either part. In a more extreme view of this situation, you're increasing or decreasing the amount of existence the sidebar has.
Now, let's apply this idea to something more abstract. Look out your window. If you don't live in a highly urbanized area, you should be able to see the horizon. Think of this as the border between the land and the sky. The land and sky are obviously distinguishable thanks to this boundary. Now, if you were to "drag" the sash between the sky and the land, or to manipulate the border between land and sky, you would end up causing the sky to become larger and the land to become smaller, or vice versa. An effect of this might be to cause something that was just on the ground to suddenly be hundreds of feet in the air. Truly a frightening situation to be in. So, look at it this way - manipulating the border between two physical things shifts whatever balance there is in the interaction between those things. Alternatively, by manipulating the border between two things, you can change the manner in which they exist.
Still, this isn't *that* abstract, since it's still dealing with real things in the real world. Many believe that in this world, there are those things that are true, and those that obviously aren't. This divides reality into two extremes: truth and falsehood. But, since we have two extremes, logically one can imagine a boundary between those two extremes - the border between truth and lies. If one were to manipulate this border, suddenly things that were pure fantasy (flying pigs, for the sake of argument) have become reality - or things from reality have ceased to exist. This is how Yukari is said to have invaded the moon - by manipulating the border between truth and lies, as applied to the reflection of the moon on a pond, she was able to make the reflection of the moon into a manifestation of the actual moon, and so send her youkai army onto it. This is what's truly amazing about Yukari's power - the ability to manipulate the border between completely abstract concepts allows her to fundamentally change reality as we know it (at least in terms of two abstract concepts).