Gates farewell tour hits CMU

Bill Gates shared his version of Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin'” with students before telling an… Bill Gates shared his version of Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin'” with students before telling an audience how he was excited to be back at Carnegie Mellon University.

The former CEO of Microsoft delivered a speech to CMU students and faculty yesterday titled “Bill Gates Unplugged: On Software, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Giving Back.” His visit was part of a five-campus farewell tour.

Gates, now a Microsoft chairman, stepped down from his full-time position at the corporation last summer. He believes that Microsoft will continue to revolutionize the software industry, even with him working part-time.

“This is a very global market in terms of innovation and actual use of the technology,” Gates said. “Everywhere in the world it’s making a dramatic difference.”

He noted that there have already been large advancements in technology, such as faster computers, larger storage space, touch screens and 3D video game controllers for the Nintendo Wii.

“I think one of the greatest changes that will take place is the way we interact with software,” said Gates. “For example, TV is on the cusp of a big change.”

He explained that there is no dichotomy between videos on a television set versus on a computer screen because they will eventually be merged together. Today, there are over 1 million users connected to television online with partners such as AT’T.

Users can now also perform Internet searches with speech rather than using a mouse and keyboard.

“This is one of those spots where computer scientists were a little optimistic … we’d say there will be more searches done by speech than text five years from now,” Gates said.

The most important and inexpensive advancements, according to Gates, are those in vision. The newest of these will be Microsoft Surface, set to release this spring for commercial use.

Microsoft Surface – what Gates referred to as an “intelligent mirror” – will be a table computer able to recognize individuals, hand gestures, touches and physical objects.

“You can put a cell phone down, and it will know what it is,” Gates said. “You can play checkers, and it will know, or dice or cards or anything. It is seeing what’s going on.”

There are currently over 1 billion Windows personal computers on desks all over the world. Gates hopes that these computers will soon be in desks with Microsoft Surface.

“That mission of making people in the office way more effective isn’t nearly done,” Gates said, “and software is the thing that will complete that and make those jobs not only more effective, but a lot more interesting as well.”

Microsoft also relies on scientists to help the corporation understand what is necessary for new inventions. Their goal is to make it easier for a scientist to take data from anywhere in the world via computer and apply it to their own ideas.

The human brain has been labeled as the most crucial problem to solve. As a computer, the brain would equal 100,000 billion gigabyte hard discs.

Gates used a high-definition model of a brain segment to show the complexity of creating an elaborate and accurate diagram of the entire brain.

“Here what we really want is a database of all the neuron connections inside the brain, and eventually an understanding of exactly what is being connected,” he said.

Gates also reminisced about Microsoft when it first started, noting that technology such as this was only a dream.

“Software was not important,” he said. “Computers were few in numbers and used only by governments and large companies. People were against them and afraid of them billing you the wrong amount.”

Gates and co-founder Paul Allen started Microsoft with the idea that software would be made into a tool for communication and collaboration.

After working full-time for Microsoft for 17 years, Gates is now a full-time philanthropist for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a charitable organization that he co-founded with his wife. It currently has an endowment of over $37 billion.

A $20 million donation from the foundation has recently funded construction of the Gates Center for Computer Science on the CMU campus.

Aside from working out with Matthew McConaughey and playing Guitar Hero, Gates said he will not have a lot of spare time with the ambitious work of the foundation.

He still, however, says he wants to join U2.