(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Business magnate, investor, author and software architect. It certainly brings to light the profile of a man who brought computers on every desktop and in every home. Well, almost! And, as an entrepreneur, he sees his company sustain aggression in sales, innovation and R & D to be at the top. It amazes me to know that he, till very recently the world's richest, plans to donate 95 percent of his fortune to charitable causes rather than leave the bulk to his children. 'Leaving kids massive amounts of money is not a favour to them, he says.
From Harvard dropout to Microsoft billionaire, to globetrotting philanthropist, Bill Gates has led a heck of a life. (Amusingly, even though Gates dropped out of Harvard way back in 1975, he earned an honorary degree from the university, thirty-two years later). And he turned just 63 last Sunday.
Bill Gates was a voracious reader as a child. At the age of 13, he was enrolled at Seattle's exclusive preparatory Lakeside School. A Seattle computer company offered to provide computer time for the students. At a very early age, Bill Gates became entranced with what a computer could do and spent much of his free time working with it. The young teenager in his eighth grade wrote his first computer program in BASIC on a General Electric computer. He then started to leave mathematics classes and began developing interest in programming instead.
Bill Gates graduated from Lakeside in 1973. He scored 1590 out of 1600 on the college SAT test, a definite feat of intellectual achievement that he boasted about when introducing himself to new people.
At Lakeside School Gates met Paul Allen, who was two years his senior. When Gates was 17, he started a company named Traf-O-Data with him. In 1975, the two formed Micro-Soft, a blend of 'micro-computer and 'software (they dropped the hyphen to Microsoft within a year). Gates left Harvard University the same year to fully devote himself to Microsoft. Although the company started out on shaky foot, by 1979 Microsoft was grossing approximately $2.5 million. At the age of 23, Gates placed himself as the head of the company. The rest, they say, is history.
Bill Gates is not just synonymous with wealth and with the way computers have changed our lives. There is much more to the man, seeing how he reduced his involvement with Microsoft to focus on philanthropic endeavours through Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the single largest private institution of its kind in the world.
For a man in search of tangible results, Bill Gates sees the need to contribute, not listlessly, but with a dynamic involvement. In all his work — with the foundation and otherwise — he's focused on what he calls catalytic philanthropy: investments in innovations that will improve life for the poorest. With so much strife and hatred all around, it is such a wonderful feeling to see some wisdom pouring in.
Bill Gates has received numerous awards for philanthropic work. Time magazine named Gates one of the most influential people of the 20th century. The magazine also named Gates and his wife Melinda, along with rock band U2's lead singer,Bono, as the 2005 Persons of the Year.
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Once his school realised Bill Gates' proclivities for coding, they let him write the school's computer program for scheduling students in classes. Gates slyly altered the code for a reason. What was it?
So that he was placed in classes with a 'disproportionate number of interesting girls.
Despite his immense wealth, Gates says his kids will inherit just a fraction of his net worth. How much is it for each kid?
$10 million
Launched by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet in June, 2010, it is a campaign to encourage wealthy people to contribute a majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes. Most of the 184 signatories of the pledge are billionaires, and their pledges total over $365 billion. What is the name?
The Giving Pledge
In the fable-tale of the Hare and the Tortoise, which animal judges the race?
The Fox
What do Prince Felipe de Borbon of Spain, Dr Benjamin Spock (an American paediatrician whose book Baby and Child Care is one of the best-sellers of all time) and the Emperor Nero have in common?
They all competed in the Olympic games. Borbon sailing in 1992; Spock rowing (gold medal in Paris 1924) and Nero chariot racing in 67.
What is ‘Hippop otomonstr- osesquippedaliophobia' a fear of?
Long words
Who uttered his infamous line at a performance in London, on this day in 1963: 'Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And for the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewellery…?
John Lennon
What is 22 for rats, 61 for domestic dogs, 64 for domestic cats, 286 for cows, 365 for donkeys and 430 for giraffe?
Average Gestation periods in days
What are Taikonauts?
Chinese astronauts
Below is the photograph of the device used for measuring a person's shoe size. What is it called?
(Answer next week. Answer to last week's photo-quiz: Julia Roberts)
What's the Good Word?
1. Inchoate: (a) just begun and so not fully formed (b) incoming events (c) inconclusive (d) in agreement with
2. Obduracy: (a) causing sleep (b) oblivious (c) refusing to change (d) acceptance
3. Dol: Unit of (a) distance (b) mass (c) fame (d) pain
4. Canard: (a) rumor (b) male canary (c) collaborate (d) plethora
5. Sanguine: (a) despondent (b) sacrosanct (c) marine (d) optimistic
6. Fez: (a) escape (b) sound of violin (c) type of hat (d) mirage
7. Amphibology: (a) elegy (b) sentence that is grammatically ambiguous (c) study of amphibians (d) study of electric current
8. Gorgonise: (a) Gag (b) disenchanting (c) act like guerillas (d) having a mesmerising effect
9. Snollygoster: (a) a shrewd person (b) cultured (c) transporter (d) humorist
10. Reek : (a) Rough terrain (b) stench (c) arousing (d) full of trials
Answers: 1 (a); 2 (c); 3 (d); 4 (a); 5 (d); 6 (c); 7 (b); 8 (d); 9 (a); 10 (b)
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