BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN.
Bill Gates's schoolmates didn't like him much. He was the guy least likely to succeed, "with the emotional maturity of a six-year-old, who spent all his time in the computer room", according to one Seattle stockbroker. "No one would talk to him because we were all too busy hanging around". Now, Gates doesn't answer the phone when they call. Twenty years out of school, Bill Gates has changed: $7 billion dollars makes a difference. Now, Gates is America's richest man. The computer-obsessed kid turned into, well, a computer-obsessed 37-year-old*. Gates is building a house (a modest 520-million dream home) packed with electronic gadgets, including some that do not exist yet. The house is becoming almost as well known as he is. "It won't be finished for almost three years, so it's probably the most famous house in the world that doesn't exist", he says. It is not meant as a prototype for 21st-centure living. "The only thing that's really special is the idea of being surrounded by extremely high-resolution screens, and a very large image database, where you can call up about a million different images, of which 400.000 are works of art. It's art on demand: show me the Rembrandts, show me the Michelangelo, show me Mount Everest, show me Moscow, show me sail-boats, a sunset, the desert, and immediately you'll see these wonderful pictures on the walls. Just click, click, click". The trouble is, with Gates you're not sure if it's the instant art beautiful landscapes he appreciates or the powerful computer technology that makes them possible. He believes that his company's computer products will change our lives: it is the magic of the machines that drives him. Gates loves computers. At school in 1968 (at the age of 12) he and a friend made $4.200 writing a set of programs to sort out class timetables and his school used it. By the time he was in his senior year at high school, he was a programmer for TRW - one of the biggest aerospace electronics concerns in America. That was the last time he had a boss. The empire he's built up in less than two decades (Microsoft) is the world's largest software company. It's overtaken IBM's profits, even though the "Big Blue"* sells $65-billion-worth of products every year, compared with Microsoft's $2.8 billion. Gates always used to say that he wanted Microsoft to become "the IBM of software". But with the Big Blue losing money and business all over the world he has changed his mind. "It's a very challenging industry", - he says. "We moved the computer from being the centre of the organisation to being a tool for the individual. IBM didn't take part in the change. You can see now how smaller, fast machines have replaced the larger computers. IBM didn't move their skills into software and networking and the other things that are important in this new environment. In the future of the computer industry no company will have the powerful position that IBM had in the past". Ironically, it was IBM that started off the irresistible rise of Microsoft, and Gates's empire. In 1980 IBM was building its first personal computers, and needed a crucial piece of software - an operating system. This is computer code at the lowest level: it tells the disparate collection of chips and processors how to become a computer. It controls all the machine's most basic functions. IBM came to Bill Gates. Gates didn't have an operating system, but he knew where to find one. Microsoft paid $100.000 for it, called it MS-DOS (Microsoft Disc Operating System) Microsoft Seeks Domination Over Society, as its competitors are fond of saying) and sold it to IBM. The attractive part was that the deal didn't stop more sales to other computer companies. So once IBM's PC had set a technical standard, and millions of clones had appeared. MS-DOS could be sold to every other PC maker. Soon MS-DOS, not the PC itself, was the standard everyone depended on. The operating system went some way to fulfilling one of Gates's dreams. Twenty years ago his goal was a computer on every desk and in every home. Is that still desirable? I have a clearly defined vision of what kind of tool a computer can be: it's a tool to help people. We can make it easy enough to use that people want it in their homes. I think we've made very good progress. I'd even say we're half-way to achieving it". MS-DOS worked very well for the computer-literate, but even its best friends wouldn't claim that it was particularly user-friendly. To get a computer into every home. Microsoft would have to make them more accessible. "Windows" was the answer. It was an easily understood way of working √ in which, for example, deleting a file is caused by merely clicking on a picture of a folder with a pointing mouse, and dragging it to a bin on the screen. Pointing to other pictorial icons start the computer was processor, database, or even video. Windows may not be enough to persuade everyone to use a computer. Gates's latest enthusiasm is for pen-based computers, which recognise ordinary handwriting instead of relying on keyboard and mouse. "We're still in the very, very early stages. There are a lot of people working on these machines. We need better hardware and software. It's not an easy problem but I think that in the next few years most personal computers will recognise handwriting. We will create those possibilities". Gates has visions well beyond personal computers, though. "The idea is a product that is quite different from a TV or a PC, but combines both". But as the possibilities advance, the complications begin to multiply. "You're faced with too much choice - any movie, any TV show, you want to look at government services, you want to look up information. You need some kind of graphical user interface there, just to help you find what you want. We've been designing new consumer-type products with Windows applications especially developed for that specific purpose. It's called Modular Windows. The aim isn't really a PC, nor a TV: it's something completely new". This new medium ("hyper TV") could seriously upset the television applecart. "Without question", - agrees Gates, "this computer revolution means big changes for the television networks. They thrived on having a limited number of channels, so that they were commanding huge chunks of the viewing audience. But when the viewer technically has the ability to choose any movie ever made (or any number of channels) it obviously changes the whole TV business fundamentally". Microsoft is also making big changes in itself. Instead of being purely a software company, it is becoming, in Gates's words, "an information company". Microsoft has linked up with picture-led UK book publisher Dorling Kindersley to produce multi-media products combining text, pictures, music, speech and animation √ including "Dinosaurs", a prehistoric tour. Gates expects Microsoft's consumer division, which produces these products, to be the biggest in the company within five years, overtaking the programming business. One day, computers may even be able to write better programs than people. "I'm about the most optimistic person you'll meet", comments Gates, "and even I don't think computers will write programs in the next twenty years. But one day, the nature of what it means to write software will have been automated so much as to change our business drastically". Gates himself no longer writes programs. "The last time I sat down and wrote lines of code was about ten years ago. I spend most of my time with groups which do write programs, going through what's going on; what are the changes in the marketplace; what has the product got to be like?" He has spent twenty years, trying to beat the competition. "There isn't any guarantee, you know, looking forward, and we have to fight over and over to stay ahead. But I'm still enjoying it very much, and if there's any fatigue I sort of ignore it. I'm 37 years old, and it's a very advanced age. You know, I used to work for forty hours straight. I can't do that any more".
Notes: · The article was written in 1992. · The "Big Blue" is the nickname of IBM.
Vocabulary: schoolmate - одноклассник least likely - вряд ли вероятно succeed - добиться успеха maturity зрелость hang* around - разг.: бродить obsessed - перен.: помешанный(на) turn into - превратиться в modest - скромный gadget - прибор, приспособление exist - существовать surround - окружать extremely - чрезвычайноhigh-resolution - высокое разрешение screen - экран call up - вызывать image - образ work of art - призведение искусства art on demand - искусство по вызову desert - пустыня click - щелкать, нажимать (на кнопку) trouble - проблема instant - мгновенный appreciate - ценить set (of) - набор senior - старший high school - амер.: старшие классы software - программное обеспечение overtake* - догнать, наверстать profit - выгода, доход tool - оружие, приборreplace - заменить environment - здесь: обстановка irresistible - непреодолимый crucial - критический, решающий level - уровень disparate - разные, отличающиеся друг от друга seek - искать competitor - соперник, конкурент attractive - привлекательный deal - дело, сделка depend (on) - зависеть (от) goal - цель desirable - желательный defined - определенный vision - видение, понимание half-way to achieving (it) - на полпути к достижению computer-literate - разбирающийся в компьютерах claim - утверждать paricularly - особенно user-friendly - легкий для пользования accessible - доступный, достижимый delete - вычеркивать, уничтожать folder - папка merely - просто point - указывать drag - таить, тянуть bin - корзина persuade - убеждать recognise - распознавать handwriting - почерк rely (оn) полагаться (на) keyboard - клавиатура stage - этап vision - видение, понимание beyond - сверх, выше, вне combine - совмещать, объединять advance - здесь: расти complication - затруднение multiply - увеличивать(ся), множиться face - сталкиваться design - разрабатывать consumer - потребитель completely - полностью, целиком upset one's applecart - расстраивать чьи-то планы thrive* - процветать, преуспевать huge - огромный chunk - разг.: кусок, ломоть viewing audience - зрительская аудитория ever made - когда-либо выпущенный obviously - очевидно instead (of) - вместо purely - чисто, только animation - мультипликация drastically - резко, решительно ahead - заранее fatigue - уставший straight - здесь: подряд
Comprehension Check. Answer the following questions:
1. Why did Bill's classmates dislike him? 2. Is his house meant as a prototype for 21st century living? 3. What is an image database? 4. How did Microsoft revolutionise the computer industry? 5. What are the relationship between Bill Gates and IBM. 6. How does the the "Windows" system work? 7. What is "hyper TV"? 8. What impact would the hyper TV system have on the television industry? 9. Will technology like image bases for the home and hyper TV make the world a better place?
Topis to Discuss.
1. Bill Gates and his schoolmates. 2. Gate's mansion (особняк). 3. Gate's empire. 4. Microsoft and IBM. 5. Hyper TV.
Text 3 JACKSON BREAKS HIS 10-YEAR SILENCE TO "SET RECORD STRAIGHT".
MICHAEL JACKSON, the reclusive pop singer whose private life has become the subject of increasingly wild rumours, has come out into the open to set the record straight. No, he has not had his skin bleached; his lightening colour is due to a skin disorder. Yes, he has had "a very little cosmetic surgery. Yes, he has a girlfriend; he is dating the actress Brooke Shields and hopes to get married one day. And he wants his fans to focus on his music rather than his private life. Jackson, 34, talked of his life, personal problems and unhappy childhood to the broadcaster Oprah Winfrey in his first television interview for almost 10 years. During the 90-minute interview shown live from his Neverland ranch at Santa Inez, California, he dismissed some of the more bizarre rumours about him as "garbage". Recent rumours have him taking baths in Evian water and planning a personal expedition to the moon.He is a thoughtful and somewhat sad young man, at his happiest on stage and still haunted by memories of a tormented childhood during which, he said, he cried almost daily. His apparent frankness belied the gossip magazines that depict him as a strange and lonely eccentric with an increasing love to living in a fantasy world. His advisers deny that he agreed to the interview in an attempt to boost his latest album, Dangerous, which is a commercial and critical disappointment, despite selling four million copies. His 1982 album Thriller sold more than 40 million copies. More than 20 million American households are estimated to have watched the interview. Thirty-second commercial ads were sold for 160 thousand pounds, nearly twice the normal sum. Jackson appeared at ease, giggling occasionally at some of the more personal questions and talking animatedly. A report that he slept in an oxygen chamber, he said, was "completely made up", as was a story that he had attempted to buy the bones of the Elephant Man. "I was impressed with the story of the Elephant Man because I can relate to him, but what would I want with some bones?" he said. He appeared upset when asked about reports that he bleached his skin. "There is no such thing as skin bleaching," he said. "I have a skin disorder that destroys the pigmentation of the skin. It is something I can't help. I am a black Amrican and I am proud of my race. I don't want to go into my medical history because it's something that is private." He said he had had plastic surgery on his nose but few other cosmetic operations - "you can't count them on two fingers," he said,"If all the people in Hollywood who had had plastic surgery went on vacation there wouldn't be a person left in town. "I had my nose done but so did a lot of people I know. I have never had my cheek-bones doesn't or my eyes done. But I try not to look in the mirror because I am never happy with what I see." As for his love life, he said "he had a crash" on Diana Ross and was dating Brooks Shields. He appeared shocked when Miss Winfrey asked: "Are you a virgin? "How can you ask me that question?" he giggles. "I'm a gentleman. It is something that's private. Call me old-fashioned, but to me that is very personal." From the age of eight or nine he cried daily from loneliness. "I didn't have any friends when I was little. It was always work, work, work. I remember when we were going to tour South America I ran away and hid because I didn't want to go. I wanted to play. "He grew up in fear of his father, Joseph Jackson, who beat him. "He was very strict, very hard and very stern." he said. "I was very frightened of him. There were times when he came to see me I would get sick." As a teenager, he had so many pimples he refused to look in mirrors. "I washed my face in the dark. I cried every day," he said. His close friend, Elizabeth Taylor, appeared briefly on the programme to declare that he is "the least weird man I've ever known." by John Hiscock Vocabulary. set the record straight - исправлять неверную информацию reclusive - замкнутый wild - дикий rumour - слух bleach - отбеливать, осветлять due to - из-за surgery - операция date - встречаться, ходить на свидания focus - уделять внимание broadcaster - телеведущий live - здесь: прямой эфир dismiss - здесь: отрицать bizarre - странный (потрясающий) garbage - мусор recent - недавний thoughtful - вдумчивый stage - сцена haunt - преследовать(о мыслях) torment - причинять страдания apparent - очевидный frankness - откровенность bely - разг. Опровергнуть gossip - слух depict - описывать lonely - одиноко adviser - советник deny - отрицать attempt - попытка boost - создавать шумиху, рекламировать latest - последний disappointment - разочарование despite - несмотря на household - здесь: семья estimate - оценивать ad(vertisement) - реклама appear - здесь: выглядеть giggle - хихикать occasionally - изредка, время от времени animatedly - оживленно oxygen - кислород chamber - здесь: камера completely - полностью, абсолютно make up - здесь: придумать bone - кость impress - поражать relate (to) - относиться (к) upset - расстроенный detroy - разрушать skin - кожа be proud (of) - годиться count - считать mirror - зеркало have a crash on = have romantic feelings virgin - девственник old-fashioned - старомодный loneliness - одиночество hide* - прятать(ся) grow* up - вырасти fear - страх strict - строгий stern - суровый, неумолимый get sick - заболеть pimple - прищ refuse - отказываться dark - темнота briefly - кратко, вкратце declare - обявить, заявить weird - странный, необычный
Comprehension Check.
Answer the following questions:
1. Who has interviewed M.Jackson? 2. How long has he been keeping away from reporters? 3. Did he bleach his skin? 4. Did he have plastic surgery? 5. What does he want of his funs? 6. How many copies of his latest album have been sold? 7. Did M.Jackson answer all the questions asked to him? 8. Was Michael happy in his childhood? 9. Does he often look in the mirror? 10. Who is he sating with?
Topics to Discuss.
Text 4
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