Re: Is Bill Gates Really Helping Humanity?

From: Scott M. (s-mar_at_nospam.nospam)
Date: 08/08/04 

Date: Sun, 8 Aug 2004 11:45:53 -0400

Take your head out of your ***! Gates has pledged over 50% of his
(personal) net worth to the Gates Foundation. And that foundation has been
heralded by many (on both sides of the technology debate) as being one of
the best run and more efficient philanthropic organizations out there.

Get a hobby that doesn't involve turning good deeds (done by people you know
nothing about) for causes (you also know nothing about) in places (you know
nothing about) and turn them into acts of corporate greed.

"Zip Code" <zip@plus.spam> wrote in message
news:2317154.gYUIZPV2K7@news.west.earthlink.net...
>
> "The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away.", so said Tom
> Waites in his classic rap, "Step Right Up", a paean about come ons and rip
> offs.
>
> Now, we have all explored the fact that the Gate$ Foundation is no more
than
> a front to promote and try to claw onto marketshare for windos by lining
> the pockets of Third World government bureaucrats all in the name of
> helping "children with AIDS".
>
> But, let's pretend that we've been teleported to some alternate universe,
> where everything is on the level, and that money is really helping
children
> with AIDS.
>
> But does it justify the other actions of the Gate$'s, the Ballmers and
> Microsoft? That is, is the net gain a societal good, or a societal bad.
>
> One thing to consider is the proxy war being fought against Linux and Open
> Source by SCO for Microsoft. Let us also consider the egregious and
> piggish acquisition of 'software patents' which are no being used to slow
> the migration to Linux in Munich.
>
> The fight against AIDs and many diseases and problems worldwide are really
> computing problems. The scientists, engineers, social planners etc are
all
> dependent on software for research, budgets, development and so on. The
> scientific community in many parts has already embraced Linux. Certainly,
> applications that require supercomputer clusters, such as genetic
> modelling, would run on Linux...and in the future, based on announcements
> from IBM and the U.S. Government, it seems like more and more
> supercomputing will be Linux clusters.
>
> So, here you have the world, trying to advance and solve the world's
> problems and the worlds mysteries. Here you have Linux, and OSS, which
are
> serving greatly. And much of that service is because these software
> products can evolve freely and grow and change. The 'Openness' lets the
> best minds contribute to the advancement of the software...and that in
turn
> helps to build better medical models and to help defeat AIDS.
>
> Yet, the Gate$ want to put the lock and brakes on this development -- and
> for one reason, and one reason only -- to line their already stuffed
> pockets with even more gold.
>
> So, when Bill Gate$ pays lip service to 'helping' children with AIDS --
but
> then retards the advancement of scientific knowledge and software
> advancement with software 'patents', and spurious lawsuits -- is he not
the
> world's biggist /roadblock/ to curing AIDS and solving the world's
> problems?
>
>