Bill Gates to be knighted...

amazingtrade

...Microsoft do have some moral policies.

they can afford them...

Reply 42

amazingtrade

Also did you know Microsoft was the best firm to work for in the UK? Richersounds is second. Microsoft do have some moral policies.

Richersounds are great! they give free lollipops :biggrin:

and umbrellas if it's raining!

Reply 43

Alaric

J.S.

Some of this is overlooked as he's wealthy and people look for reasons to hate him. However, he has actually contributed a hell of a lot to charity, welfare and the like. Also, education, including a very generous scholarship program at Cambridge.

Hmmm well quite, my computer lab is called the 'William Gates Building', the foundation donated less than half the money and get it called after him. Think they got a good deal :tongue:

On a more serious note I am impressed by his commitment to philanthropy even if I don't agree entirely with his business practice, or indeed some of the directions he seems intent on taking the computer industry down. He is planning on giving his entire fortune away before he dies is he not?

The NT5.1 kernel is a considerable improvement on the 9x kernels and as such should be welcomed since so many computers run windows. However, I would also like to comment that OS X is a very capable and stable consumer OS too - given the choice I'd choose OS X. There is still some odd aspects about the way they've designed the NT5.1 kernel and it lacks the level of access control by default that I'd really like them emplying. Perhaps this will change with NT6, but somehow I think most people will still run with administrative privileges.

Alaric.

Reply 44

Alaric

me!

Fair enough :biggrin:

Hahaha speaking of building PC's we have PC's at school and the head of IT wants me to help him redo all his network and stuff, even though I'm not doing IT at GCSE...

That seems to sum up the problems of IT in schools nicely...

Reply 45

Alaric

That seems to sum up the problems of IT in schools nicely...

huh? just because I don't do IT doesn't mean I'm not good with computers... :frown:

Reply 46

me!

Richersounds are great! they give free lollipops :biggrin:

and umbrellas if it's raining!

Well I admit I would never have my HIFI system without Richer Sounds but recently I found a lot stuff I have wanted are not in stock. I think they are more suited for lowest end of the market. They are 1 million times better than Dixons though. The main thing I hate about Richers is the sales advice is naff. They just try and sell their own brands, Dixons is even worse for this though.

At least RS are great when taking stuff back unlike Dixons who's policy seems to be you broke it.

Reply 47

amazingtrade

Well I admit I would never have my HIFI system without Richer Sounds but recently I found a lot stuff I have wanted are not in stock. I think they are more suited for lowest end of the market. They are 1 million times better than Dixons though. The main thing I hate about Richers is the sales advice is naff. They just try and sell their own brands, Dixons is even worse for this though.

At least RS are great when taking stuff back unlike Dixons who's policy seems to be you broke it.

I never buy stuff from Dixons I just usually disappear up to London with my dad then appear back home a couple of hours later with some speakers or something :biggrin:

Reply 48

When I was 16 me and my mate used to go into dixons and go and ask the sales man "what chipset does the motherboard have on this pc" they will go "err its packard bell, it has a err pentium thingy, its a very good machine though it can do everything you want on it, if you buy it today we will give you a 3 year warranty package for just £399" at this point we were almost in tears of laughter.

I never buy anything from Dixons either unless I really really have to.

Reply 49

amazingtrade

When I was 16 me and my mate used to go into dixons and go and ask the sales man "what chipset does the motherboard have on this pc" they will go "err its packard bell, it has a err pentium thingy, its a very good machine though it can do everything you want on it, if you buy it today we will give you a 3 year warranty package for just £399" at this point we were almost in tears of laughter.

I never buy anything from Dixons either unless I really really have to.

hehehe lmao and still laughing

Reply 50

Rich

OP

2

me!

huh? just because I don't do IT doesn't mean I'm not good with computers... :frown:

There's a large difference between 'being good with computers' and having the necessary skills to be a competent systems administrator, even just for a school. I might add thought that IT GCSEs have nothing to with that level of competence. IT GCSEs along with IT/Computing A-levels are nothing much more than exercises in textbook reading and memory retention (as are most GCSEs and quite a few A-levels).

Reply 51

rahaydenuk

There's a large difference between 'being good with computers' and having the necessary skills to be a competent systems administrator, even just for a school. I might add thought that IT GCSEs have nothing to with that level of competence. IT GCSEs along with IT/Computing A-levels are nothing much more than exercises in textbook reading and memory retention (as are most GCSEs and quite a few A-levels).

That's why I chose not to do GCSE IT, because I didn't think I'd find it useful. I always like to learn new skills :biggrin:

just because I don't have them now doesn't mean I never will :biggrin:

Reply 52

Alaric

me!

huh? just because I don't do IT doesn't mean I'm not good with computers... :frown:

I was refering to the problems of the teaching, with regard to the fact the teacher requires your help to set up a good system. In my experience IT teachers are largely poor at teaching and have a weak skillset.
That's a sweeping generalisation, but I don't hear any of my compsci comrades wanting to become teachers...

Alaric.

Reply 53

Vienna

12

llama boy

If he'd given back as much as he's raped from this world, he wouldn't be wealthy at all....

hehe, its almost amusing now. let it go you bitter socialist...

Reply 54

RetiredAccount89

18

amazingtrade

He is american so can't be knighthed. He started out by developing BASIC for Commodore and Apple amongst other companies. He then bought DOS from another company (somthhing research) which he renamed MS-DOS. He supplied this to IBM for their Personal Computer and the rest was history.

U sure he worked for apple?
Far as i remember him and steve jobs started microsoft, and steve jobs then quit to make apple
J

Reply 55

Joey_Johns

10

rahaydenuk

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/01/25/ngates25.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/01/25/ixnewstop.html

Well he's more deserving than rugby players anyway...

The rugby players deserve every accolade they get apart from J.Wilkinson, he is vastly overrated but still good. Few on this forum understand how tough a sport it is or even understand it therefore cannot pass judgement the same way I can.

Reply 56

Vienna

12

Joey_Johns

Few on this forum understand how tough a sport it is or even understand it therefore cannot pass judgement the same way I can.

right, er, why not?

Reply 57

Alaric

I was refering to the problems of the teaching, with regard to the fact the teacher requires your help to set up a good system. In my experience IT teachers are largely poor at teaching and have a weak skillset.
That's a sweeping generalisation, but I don't hear any of my compsci comrades wanting to become teachers...

Alaric.

You're right. I was forced to do GCSE Foundation IT because my teacher was crap and couldn't teach higher tear. I kept telling them I would bloody get an A if I could do higher tear but they wouldn't let me. Bastards!

Anyway at college for the hardware and software unit we had to show that we would install RAM, hard drives, processors etc. The stupid tutor started teaching it and nearly broke the motherboard by trying to insert the processer without the ZIF socket arm being lifted up! I stepped in and showed her the correct way, I ended up delivering the entire lecture.

At university thank god most the lecturers seem better though some of the doctor's seem more bothered about their research.

In my experience I.T teachers seem to study Business Information Systems at some crap university such as TVU or Paisley. Ask them to write a simple VB program and they would get stuck.

The reason why many colleges/schools do not have A level computing as an option is because they cannot get teachers to teach the programming and more technical side of things. It is a shame really.

Reply 58

Joey_Johns

10

vienna95

right, er, why not?

Er, your a girl. You wouldnt understand these things.

Reply 59