I never really liked Bill Gates. A few years back one of my bosses asked me if I read his latest book, I said no. What I really wanted to say couldn’t be said in the office. Anyway, at the library last week I checked out his book Business @ the Speed of Thought. (Actually, I checked out the book on tape, since my reading time is precious, but my driving time is largely wasted.) I’m about half way through with it, and it actually has some interesting stuff in it. I’m surprised. I’m not sure if I’ll get to hear it all before it’s due, but this is the most interesting thing I’ve gotten out of it so far:
Make sure any system you build or buy supports PC and internet standards…
Yup. That’s what Bill said. Now I don’t know what ‘PC’ standards’ are, but internet standards I’m familiar with. So by Bill saying this, it almost seems as though he’s telling you not to use Microsoft products, at least the ones that don’t support internet standards, like Microsoft Internet Explorer. I wonder if the ‘build or buy’ part was carefully worded. I not attempting to sound like a conspiracy nut, but I notice that it says ‘build or buy’ and not implement. It seems to imply that you can create your own system, or purchase one, but what about implementing what already exists and is freely available. Ok, my open source advocate badge is starting to show, I’ll stop now.
I’ll end with this: Dear local library, please get more decent books on tape for me to listen to. Thank you…