@BrianK

It's great Bill uses some of his money on good deeds, but the naming "Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation" also sounds like PR. For instance I've paid monthly money to Novib (helping people to learn to take car of themselves in poor countries), The Dutch World Wide Fund for Nature and CliniClowns (Clowns visiting sick childrens in hospitals), but if I had the cash I would never start a "Mike Bouma foundation"! But percentage wise I think I have outspend Bill and this actually affects my personal life unlike is the case for him, for instance my girlfriend's study is amazingly expensive (as foreign student she has to pay double and has no chance for a scholarship and not allowed to work), actually due to this I had to cut down on my charity spendings. She is my top priority!

Bill Gates as leader of Microsoft, a worldwide condemned monopolistic company was demonized by many on the internet, especially by those who lost their jobs due to Microsoft's monpoly within the market and the company's abuse of their might. As Bill Gates has been a if not "the" primary beneficiary of this situation and actually had a lot of influence (he could have made Microsoft stop this abuse!), the demonizing effect on people's opinions isn't that strange.

How many millions does one need? How many Billions?

I think there are good reasons for Bill to do this now, he will earn more respect (like he has) and this may also be good for Microsoft's public image, for example as BrianK underlines there is a perception of a relationship between this charity foundation -> Bill Gates -> Microsoft -> free XNA downloads.

@MikeB

I wasn't really thinking of the Gates foundation since it is separate from Microsoft.

It's a personal thing for the two of them and I believe he has pledged to give away the majority of his money to charity eventually.

Anyway, looking at Gates as a representative of Microsoft is not necessarily correct, even if he is the icon for hatred by millions of spotty geeks. I doubt he's any more evil than the head of any other corporation. Ballmer on the other hand... At the very least he has serious temper and ego issues.

Either way we won't really know who caused what. What we can do is look at what individuals do themselves and what the company does - but I'd say it's wise to keep things separate.

Actually if you downoad the latest podcast from majornelson.com you can hear about a charity party Microsoft threw together with Nintendo. Furthermore mister "1080p is impossible" was grilled by Nelson (who clearly had a grand time doing it), and he clarified that obviously he didn't mean that 1080p was technically impossible, because you can always draw a triangle on a display no matter what the resolution, but that it was a case of what developers wanted to do with the amount of detail and so on that made 1080p if not impossible then impractical. He also apologized for formulating it so poorly the first time around and causing a lot of confusion.

I'd say that dead horse is buried now.

@MikeB

Quote:

if I had the cash I would never start a "Mike Bouma foundation"

You never know. If you had millions upon millions you want a foundation that works in a variety of ways. You own foundation gives you this flexibility of control. In addition if Mike Bouma was world wide reknown name, ala Gates, the advertising of the name itself is something of value to the foundation.

Quote:

for instance my girlfriend's study is amazingly expensive

Bill is not giving the money to Melinda.

Quote:

As Bill Gates has been a if not "the" primary beneficiary of this situation

Look there are CEOs in the world. It's a fact of life. Yes it doesn't excuse the behavior. Companies have their good and bad. Microsoft has been a progressive employer with some of the largest benefits in the market to their employees. Other companies are worse look at the workings of Wal-Mart or Exxon. Had Gould and Ali been able to run a company and the tables were turned I'm highly doubtful we'd see squat from them.

I believe Gates is part of the Zero Net Sum club where various people - head of Sun, Bezos, and others, have agreed that they'd give their monies away before they died.

Do me a favorite find out how much charitable giving Ken Kutaragi has performed.

Last edited by BrianK on 20-Feb-2007 at 09:17 PM.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/GlobalHealth/story?id=1259878
Quote:

Oct. 31, 2005 — The massive scale of the malaria epidemic is so hard to grasp that only far-fetched statistics bring it life. "Globally, the death rate is equal to seven jumbo jets, full of children, crashing every day," is how Malaria Foundation International describes the epidemic on its web site. Or, in more general terms, in a single year, malaria causes at least one million deaths and sickens between 300 to 500 million people — the majority of which live in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Health Organization. Yet, in terms of funding, the mosquito-borne disease receives a scant attention from the world's governments, not-for-profit organizations and companies. For example, malaria receives .3 percent of the world's research and development investments, although its impact on global health exceeds that by at least 10 times, according to the Malaria R&D Alliance.

http://www.forbes.com/business/2005/10/30/malaria-gates-philanthropy-cz_ec_1030malaria.html
Quote:

San Francisco - Bill Gates is going after bugs in a big way--but not the computer kind. Today, the billionaire co-founder of Microsoft and his wife, Melinda, announced that their philanthropic foundation is giving $258.3 million to researchers to help fight the parasites that cause malaria. It is the single biggest donation from a charitable organization to fight malaria ever given. "Deaths from malaria have doubled over the last 20 years," Gates said during a teleconference call. "It's a tragedy that the world has done so little to stop this disease that kills 2,000 African children every day," Gates said.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1186811,00.html
Quote:

But even if millions are saved from malaria, there will be more diseases and more death. The Gateses' most profound influence has been to change expectations. Their belief that every life should have equal value, backed by their $29 billion endowment in the foundation, has injected hope not only into global health but also into their other priorities: public education, public libraries and at-risk families.

Quote:

Says Jimmy Carter: "This is the most important foundation in the world.

@Jorge

Quote:

Well, SONY will maybe come up with something similar, too. If we talk about future.

It sounds like Sony are planning something exactly like that, they have talked about homebrew using both GameOS and Linux. Whatever it is it involves OpenGL and physics libs at least on the GameOS side. What's going to happen on linux is unclear but if OpenGL is involved that'll solve the gfx hardware problem.

_________________
Whyzzat?

@BrianK

Quote:

You never know. If you had millions upon millions you want a foundation that works in a variety of ways. You own foundation gives you this flexibility of control. In addition if Mike Bouma was world wide reknown name, ala Gates, the advertising of the name itself is something of value to the foundation.

A lot of super-rich people have foundations. Bill Gates has so much money he has nothing else to do with it. But the sheer volume of the money means he needs a company of some sort just to organise giving it away.

That said Bill Gates the man is not Microsoft the company.


Quote:

Do me a favorite find out how much charitable giving Ken Kutaragi has performed.

Why is he relevant?
Bill Gates is a founder of a massive company and got very, very rich from it. He's got a lot of money to give away.

Ken Kutaragi is an engineer, he worked his way up, while he has no doubt a good pay package it's not the same thing at all.

_________________
Whyzzat?

Well, I am not sure what a foundation has to do with MS's business practice. Just one comment on my end. You guys know, that foundations are used to park money pre-tax and gives you a virtual tax cut if you spend it on charity, right ? Money, which IMO should be in the responsibilities of goverments to spend properly. But we don't live in a perfect world...
I would do the same, though. Rather spend the money where it makes sence then paying to much tax.

_________________
AmigaOne XE G3/933/VIA/FM801/R200 (fixed),
G3SE/600/Voodoo3/Sil680/RTL8139/SBLive! (noiseless!)
µA1-MK2/G3/933/R200/CMI8738
XE/G4 (broken 7450/800)

@minator

Sounds interesting. Do you have a link with more information about that somewhere ? (The gameos/linux/gl or whatever SONYs planing thing)

Last edited by Jorge on 21-Feb-2007 at 12:19 AM.

_________________
AmigaOne XE G3/933/VIA/FM801/R200 (fixed),
G3SE/600/Voodoo3/Sil680/RTL8139/SBLive! (noiseless!)
µA1-MK2/G3/933/R200/CMI8738
XE/G4 (broken 7450/800)

@Jorge

They have given out pretty much no information so far, what I mentioned was in an interview a little while ago and that was pretty much it.

_________________
Whyzzat?

@MikeB

I'll be sure to borrow a PS3 from my syster come late March so that I can tell everyone how much more I like Gears of War than Resistance... :)

(Wait, I don't have a sister nor do I really feel any urge to play Gears of War either. Doh.)

@MikeB

Quote:

News reports indicated NPD figures should have become available yesterday, but for some reason there has been a delay, here some rumoured figures floating around, it would be great for the PS3 if they turn out to be correct, I expected January and February 2007 to be slow months due to the software availability gap until the European launch: 1) Wii 430,000-500,000 2) PS3 280.000-300.000 3) X360 220,000-340,000

I'm still waiting for confirmation, but since I'm off to bed and vgcharts seems really overloaded, I thought I'd share what appears to be the numbers for January:

Wii 435,503
PlayStation 2 299,352
Xbox 360 293,774
PlayStation 3 243,554
Nintendo DS 238,869
PlayStation Portable 210,719
Game Boy Advance 179,482
GameCube 33,806
Xbox 833

Number of games which sold more than 100k for each platform:
X360 - 3
PS2 - 2
Wii - 2
DS - 1
GC - 1
PS3 - 1

Xbox 360 LTD: 4,828,307
Wii LTD: 1,515,813
PS3 LTD: 930,810

Hope they're correct :)
If they are: Wii performed as expected although near the low end, 360 performed near peak of what was expected and PS3 performed somewhat below the lowest estimate.

Last edited by Trezzer on 21-Feb-2007 at 02:15 AM.
Last edited by Trezzer on 21-Feb-2007 at 02:12 AM.

@Trezzer

Quote:

Hope they're correct

It appears they are, but just US data.

The Xbox 360 since about a week or two seems to have crossed 9 million (currently 9.28m) units sold worldwide (of which 5.63m in the Americas, 0.36m in Japan and 3.29m in the rest of the world).

The Nintendo Wii is now estimated to have sold around 5 million worldwide, very impressive for such a small timeframe!

The PS3 seems to be doing reasonably well, for North America now at least 780500 + 243554 = 1024054 seems to have been sold already, beating last year's North American XBox 360 sales of roughly 951,500. Actually pretty good considering this is by far the XBox 360's strongest market.

The PS2 is still going strong.

I expect February to be relatively slow thoug, while picking up considerably in March.

Last edited by MikeB on 21-Feb-2007 at 09:54 AM.
Last edited by MikeB on 21-Feb-2007 at 08:08 AM.
Last edited by MikeB on 21-Feb-2007 at 07:37 AM.

MikeB wrote in July 2005:

Quote:

I understand that games developers may not be too fond of the idea of having to learn new ways to write their software. But according to the article at least they do seem to believe that multithreaded software is the way forward.

Quote:

The article mainly talks about Xbox 360 (the Cell should outperform the Xenon significantly). One PS3 Cell unit will include the PPE (PPC) clocked at 3.2 GHz and in addition includes 7 active SPEs also clocked at 3.2 GHz.

Quote:

It will probably take some time before developers manage to get the most out of this platform, as has for example also been the case with the classic Amiga chipsets. The early Amiga games don't compare well to the complex graphics used by for instance game like Elfmania or Lion Heart.

IBM: Cell chip in PS3 underutilized

"IBM and Vivendi Games are teaming up to discuss just how underutilized the Cell Broadband Engine (B.E.)is that currently comes in the PlayStation 3 gaming console.

To address the issue, engineers from IBM and developers from Vivendi Games will gather at Vivendi's High Moon Studios in Carlsbad, Calif., for a two-day "jam session" beginning Wednesday, according to IBM. Software development platform provider RapidMind, also an IBM Cell blade customer, will also take part in the conference. (IBM Cell blades use the same microprocessor as PS3s.)

"This is really targeted toward game developers on what the Cell/B.E. can be in the future for online first-person shooters and advanced role-playing games, and moving the gaming experience closer to Second Life in the online world," said Liang.

The Cell, developed jointly by IBM, Sony and Toshiba, offers fast processing for online multimedia entertainment such as wireless downloads, video chat and interactive TV, according to IBM.

"The Cell/B.E. enables game developers to deliver a richer visual experience--to take a game and make it more like a movie," said Liang. "Whether or not people want that is for them to decide, but the Cell/B.E engine allows you to do that with the real-time response time you need to make that a reality." "

http://news.com.com/2061-10797_3-6160790.html

@jtsiren

Quote:

I'll be sure to borrow a PS3 from my syster come late March so that I can tell everyone how much more I like Gears of War than Resistance... :) (Wait, I don't have a sister nor do I really feel any urge to play Gears of War either. Doh.)

Well people brought up Gears in PS3 discussions, it was used as a ammunition against the PS3. I prefer to have knowledge of what I am discussing.

I think already Motorstorm will be visually and technically more impressive than Gears of War, not bad for a first generation title!

@minator

Quote:

Ken Kutaragi is an engineer, he worked his way up, while he has no doubt a good pay package it's not the same thing at all.

Yes Mr Kutaragi does not come from a wealthy background, he studied hard becoming a straight A+ student. He was very ambitious and worked his way up, I very much respect that. He may have more talent than Bill Gates, as most of Bill's predictions regarding technology during speeches were incorrect. Bill was lucky IBM did not have the insight to develop their own OS (like IBM OS/2) from the start and instead picked a subpar operating system compared to other offerings like QNX.

Microsoft as an employer has a subpar amount of employees compared to the profits they have been making over the years. I think with more competition regarding OSes and 3rd party software, like BeOS (once a Billion dollar company, before Microsoft blocked deals), Webbrowser, Media Players, Office Suites, etc, etc within the tech industry as a whole it may well be that today many more people would have found jobs.

@MikeB

Quote:

Well people brought up Gears in PS3 discussions, it was used as a ammunition against the PS3. I prefer to have knowledge of what I am discussing.

Knowledge is good. Especially in debating when you can use it as ammunition in a "Hey, I played it through, it still sucked, I know what I'm talking about" kind of way. Not that you necessarily did anything of the sort, just an observation.

I wonder how good Gears would have had to have been for you to give it the same respect as Resistance, simply because the latter is on the PS3. Maybe equal, I'm sure you will say so, but I can't help but wonder. I guess the real question is: how much do our biases affect our perception even when we ARE trying to get the real knowledge and try things for ourselves so as to not look one-sided...

Do you think the fact that Resistance was on PS3 gave it even the slightest more favorable impression than it would have been on the Xbox 360, simply because you are a outspoken fan of the former?

I know I used to like many games back in the day better simply because they ran on the Amiga. I was more forgiving for Amiga games, I guess - same could probably be said of Apple products these days for me. Fandom kind of makes you that way.

I'll be sure to check Resistance out, no worries. The only reason why I would be biased against it (or PS3) would be this debate here on AW.net, going in I really did not have any biases against PS3. I think now I do, your anti-PR works.

@MikeB

Quote:

Yes Mr Kutaragi does not come from a wealthy background, he studied hard becoming a straight A+ student. He was very ambitious and worked his way up,

Oh my...!

Last edited by jtsiren on 21-Feb-2007 at 09:58 AM.

@jtsiren

Quote:

Do you think the fact that Resistance was on PS3 gave it even the slightest more favorable impression than it would have been on the Xbox 360, simply because you are a outspoken fan of the former?

If Gears was on the PS3 and Resistance on the XBox 360, the conclusions would be about the same. The visuals in Gears are great, probably I would have pointed this out as the game would espcecially look extremely good for a launch title.

Still if I played both to the end I would say Resistance is the better game overall, better story, better weapons, better vehicles, much larger game, bigger online game (less lag, 40 players max), more things happening, more freedom to move around, better bosses, bodies piling up, better main character(s), better AI, better 7.1 Audio, etc.

Last edited by MikeB on 21-Feb-2007 at 10:37 AM.

@minator

Quote:

A lot of super-rich people have foundations. Bill Gates has so much money he has nothing else to do with it. But the sheer volume of the money means he needs a company of some sort just to organise giving it away.

I think Microsoft (and Gates as its leader) have done some very, very questionable things in the past and probably still do. There is a lot to despise in the company.

OTOH, I'm sure we can all agree now that Gates is where he is, he has devoted much more than just his extra money to good causes, he actually spends much more time and effort for these projects (as witnessed by his many public appearances for good causes etc.) than many of us would, even if we could. That is time away from other things in life, so that isn't something anyone has "extra" of.

Does that make right all the nasty things Microsoft has done and Gates is probably responsible for? Like the tactics against Be? Probably not. I think Microsoft and the people there deserved criticism for that and still do.

I'm tempted to go down the road of discussing all the nice stunts Sony has pulled, but I'm sure someone will do with more vigor than myself. I just can't seem to get myself to hate these large companies even when they do deserve it. I own many Microsoft products, but even more Sony products.

Last edited by jtsiren on 21-Feb-2007 at 10:16 AM.
Last edited by jtsiren on 21-Feb-2007 at 10:15 AM.

@jtsiren

Quote:

n I really did not have any biases against PS3. I think now I do, your anti-PR works

Well my main business here is to learn more about the PS3 and the market. I am sure I provided some valuable information in reply to misconceptions (Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD, Blu-Ray drive speeds, HDMI 1.3, etc), what you do with this knowledge or how this effects you depends enirely on yourself. At least you are interested enough to participate in this discussion.

For now just enjoy your XBox 360, maybe after having a hands-on you change your mind.

jtsiren wrote:

Quote:

I sure didn't pay any more for my Xbox 360 experience than the Premium price and for extra controllers which you need to get separately for PS3 too (including the fantastic Microsoft rumbling force-feedback wheel). I do have Live as well, although I haven't really used it since original Xbox (other than tried), my bad for not having enough time for single player gaming either.

Quote:

You can get into true next-gen gaming with Xbox 360 Core at $299. You can, you truly can. You might do well to dish a few tens extra for a memory card or some third-party video cable, but for many families with e.g. kids that might be the extent of the investment, even if us older gamers look in disbelief and go get the Premium ourselves.

The XBox 360 seems like a perfect fit for you, maybe unlike the PS3. The PS3 is a perfect fit for me, but the reasons go beyond game console uses.