Brave New World

[Tod Landis <landis@cruzio.com>]

  I heard some coverage of the conference.  Didn't
  get the speaker's name, but one of the attorneys
  involved in this read the two entries for "Gates" from the Funk &
  Wagnall's Encyclopedia, one written before they were
  acquired by Microsoft and the other written after.
  
  Big difference.  Before the acquisition the "Gates"
  entry emphasized his competitiveness; after the
  acquisition:  his "philanthropy"!  What philanthropy?
  (Many of us wonder if he will EVER develop
  a social conscience and make donation for the public
  good)
  
  There are other examples of history rewritten.
  I was at a Microsoft Internet Developers'
  conference where a speaker said that Microsoft was a
  pioneer of GUI development.  Of course, that is a great
  exaggeration.  Xerox PARC and Apple were the
  real pioneers.  Similarly, Microsoft did not pioneer object oriented
  or C++ programming, though MS speakers sometimes
  claim this.  AT&T and Stroustrup get the credit there.  And
  I think Borland had a C++ compiler on the market before
  Microsoft, though I could be wrong.
  
  Tod Landis