Bill Gates Filmriss-PowerBook-Trauma

Für Bill Gates' CES-Keynote hatte man sich Conan O'brien als "Interviewpartner" ausgesucht, um das ganze etwas unterhaltsamer zu gestalten. Einer der Einspieler zeigte dann die beiden bei einer 'wilden Partynacht' in Las Vegas, die damit endet, dass Conan O'Brien filmreißend neben einer Hure aufwacht und Bill Gates neben... naja, siehe Bild eben.
Um nun aber zu den wirklich wichtigen Ereignissen der Keynote zu kommen:

During a demonstration of digital photography with a soon-to-be-released Nikon camera, a Windows Media Center PC froze and wouldn't respond to Gates' pushing of the remote control. Later in the 90-minute presentation, a product manager demonstrated the ostensible user-friendliness of a video game expected to hit retail stores in April, Forza Motor Sport. But instead of configuring a custom-designed race car, the computer monitor displayed the dreaded "blue screen of death" and warned, "out of system memory."

Und wie sahen Bill Gates diesmalige Zukunftsvisionen aus?

Wrapping up: the future. Chips are doubling in speed, storage is doubling in size. We’re releasing our technical limits; software will be more customizeable, and purposeful for new audiences. Grandma’s gonna use a computer in 2005? We’ll see, Bill. We’ll see.

Weitere Eindrücke zu Angelas Bills Keynote finden sich in einem Blog der Wirtschaftswoche (via wirres). Beinahe vergessen: Gates äußerte sich außerdem in einem CNET Interview zum Erfolg des iPod:

They had a hit with the Apple II, they had a hit with the Macintosh, and they have a hit with the iPod, so this is a company that's had three hits, and that's very impressive. There are a lot of companies that don't have three hits. And in the same way that Macintosh helped get people exposed to the graphical user interface, the iPod is doing a great job getting people to think about digital music. In the long run, there will be a lot of people making digital music players, and we think that there will be a very different market share with dozens and dozens of companies. And other than Apple, all those player makers are signing up to work inside the Windows PlaysForSure ecosystem.