In June 2011, the foundation will consolidate its operations on a new campus at 500 Fifth Avenue North, across from the Seattle Center, in the heart of the city.

We want the campus to be a place that inspires and creates optimism and hope, and a hub for innovation and gatherings of experts from many fields, perspectives, and countries who are dedicated to improving lives here and around the world.

“Our campus will be built to reflect our values and mission- to reduce iniquity, to promote health and opportunity and to ensure that every person, regardless of his or her life circumstances, can live up to his or her true potential. This work may span the globe, but it will always remain rooted in our home of Seattle and the valleys of the Pacific Northwest ”

William H. Gates Sr., Co-chair

Read more about Gates Foundation’s guiding principles here.

Melinda Gates, Bill Gates and Bill Gates Sr.

“The headquarters will reflect our values and beliefs”- William H. Gates Sr., Co-chair

This video spotlights our new campus near the Seattle Center, where we will move in the spring of 2011. Sustainable design elements, including water- and energy-saving features and over half an acre of green roofs, will help reduce our energy consumption while making the campus a beautiful and welcome addition to the community. The campus will also have a visitor center housing interactive exhibits that showcase the work of our grantees and partners.

“…it will be built sustainably with water and energy saving features throughout”- William H. Gates Sr., Co-chair

“This work may span the globe, but it will always remain rooted in our home of Seattle and the valleys of the Pacific Northwest ”- William H. Gates Sr., Co-chair

ciao

mags

And more recently a BBC article celebrated the upcoming movie:

ciao

mags

Digital Oilfield Virtual Summit, October 18-19th 2011

Though I have moved on from Oil & Gas space to Public Safety, National Security & Defense (PS&NS) space, I joined the virtual summit because the technologies and many of the concepts, the learning and the thought processes used in O&G is cutting edge and hence applicable across Industries, including PS&NS industry. Beyond the content, I was also interested to learn more about how the virtual summit was presented as it is unique to be applied in such a grand scale- especially for an Industry summit. So far, I am extremely impressed with the quality of the summit; great job- I really see a new standard & bench mark in such virtual events.

Lobby:

Quick access to common tools:

Contents stored in a virtual briefcase:

Virtual Auditorium:

Session listing/content:

Discussion board:

Exhibit Hall:

Exhibit Halls:

ciao

mags

You have left behind a great legacy- you have lived well- you will be greatly missed; thank you for your inspiration and for being an amazing human being- God bless!

Oct 5th 2011

Mr. Bill Gates’ statement about Mr. Steve Jobs

Article by Brendan Sasso

NASA unveiled on Wednesday the designs for its latest rocket, the successor to the retired space shuttle.

The rocket, called the Space Launch System (SLS), will rely on a liquid hydrogen and oxygen fuel system, and NASA hopes it will one day take astronauts to Mars.

Its first flight is planned for 2017.

Future Exploration Destinations: An artist’s concept shows the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle and future destinations for human exploration beyond Earth orbit: the moon, an asteroid and Mars.

"This launch system will create good-paying American jobs, ensure continued U.S. leadership in space, and inspire millions around the world," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "President Obama challenged us to be bold and dream big, and that’s exactly what we are doing at NASA. While I was proud to fly on the space shuttle, kids today can now dream of one day walking on Mars."

Artist Concept of SLS launching

Lawmakers praised the announcement, but criticized the administration for taking so long to move forward with its space exploration plans.

“This decision to proceed with development of the Space Launch System is long overdue," said Reps. Ralph Hall (R-Texas), Chairman of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.), Chairman of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee and Frank Wolf (R-Va.), Chairman of the Appropriations’ Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies in a joint statement.

"This Administration’s lack of commitment for human space exploration has frustrated and angered many of us in Congress who are committed to American leadership in space.  The Administration’s obstructionism has already resulted in the unnecessary loss of thousands of American jobs, and served to diminish our Nation’s leadership and stature among space-faring nations."

ciao

mags

Coming soon, we’ll also have Channel 9 coverage of the conference and interviews with Windows engineers. Recordings and slides from the big picture and technical sessions will be available here a day or two after the presentation.

Follow BUILD on Twitter and Facebook to get the latest updates.

ciao

jsmags

Very cool- it tells me lot things, including that I need to build/expand my network pertaining to my current job (based on the coloring)- very insightful!

ciao

mags

Mike Evangelist, former director of product marketing for applications at Apple:

I worked at Apple from 2000 to 2002. I had occasional interaction with Steve as part of my job. But this one event sticks out.

It was early on November 30th, 2001, and I was sitting at my desk in 1 Infinite Loop reading the news. I was stunned when I saw a headline saying the George Harrison had died. As with many others of my generation, his music had been an important part of my life for many years. It really hit me hard. I sat there in a dark contemplative mood for quite awhile, feeling quite alone in my grief. But then I realized I wasn’t alone; many of my colleagues at Apple were Harrison fans, and I was sure they’d also feel the need express some of their feelings at this moment. This gave me an idea…one that took considerable courage on my part: I would suggest to Steve that Apple put some sort of tribute on the home page. Up to this point, all my dealings with Steve had been strictly business, and I was afraid he’d think I was some kind of sentimental looney. But my feelings pushed me forward…I sent Steve this note:

Then I waited nervously.

Several hours passed with no response, so I concluded that he wasn’t interested and sort of put it out of my mind. But that wasn’t the end of it. Later that evening, I’m back at my desk and get a call from Tom McDonald (the Final Cut Pro product manager) who tells me he had just come from a meeting with the web design group and they were all working overtime tonight because of me. "What? What do you mean?" I asked. Turns out that Steve did not think it was a stupid idea, as I feared, but instead had put the web team to work on coming up with something suitable.

So, late that night, after a couple rounds back and forth with Steve to choose the best photos, the Apple home page became this:

It was one of my proudest moments at Apple: to be part of a company that lets its heart guide its actions. And the company is built that way because of Steve.

Jonathan Berger, Apple intern, via Blogspot:

Steve got to about his 4th question from the audience [at an Apple Town Hall in 2000] and by this point almost every single intern had their hand up. He gestured in my direction but I could tell he was actually looking at an intern in the row right in front of me. I got a bit aggressive and barged ahead with my question anyway before the other intern could begin. Steve smiled a bit in apology to the intern I had just trampled over but let me continue. I was nervous. "Steve, many years ago you left Apple to start Next. But recently you returned to Apple. Why did you come back to Apple?"

[Jobs answered:] "When I was trying to decide whether to come back to Apple or not I struggled. I talked to a lot of people and got a lot of opinions. And then there I was, late one night, struggling with this and I called up a friend of mine at 2am. I said, ‘Should I come back, should I not?’ and the friend replied, ‘Steve, look. I don’t give a fuck about Apple. Just make up your mind,’ and hung up. And it was in that moment that I realized I truly cared about Apple."

Mark Parker, president and CEO of Nike, via Fast Company‘s 30 Second MBA:

We had worked together on a Nike-Apple collaboration called Nike+. So we took what Apple knows and Nike knows, and brought new technology to the market. Anyway, long story short, he said, "Congratulations. It’s great [that you've been named CEO]. You’re going to do a great job." I said, "Well, do you have any advice?"

He said, "No, no, you’re great." Then there was a pause. "Well, I do have some advice," he said. "Nike makes some of the best products in the world–products that you lust after, absolutely beautiful stunning products. But you also make a lot of crap."

He said, "Just get rid of the crappy stuff, and focus on the good stuff." And then I expected a little pause and a laugh. But there was a pause, and no laugh at the end.

 

Vic Gundotra, Google’s VP of Engineering, via Google+:

One Sunday morning, January 6th, 2008 I was attending religious services when my cell phone vibrated. As discreetly as possible, I checked the phone and noticed that my phone said "Caller ID unknown". I choose to ignore…The message left was from Steve Jobs. "Vic, can you call me at home? I have something urgent to discuss" it said.

"So Vic, we have an urgent issue, one that I need addressed right away. I’ve already assigned someone from my team to help you, and I hope you can fix this tomorrow" said Steve. "I’ve been looking at the Google logo on the iPhone and I’m not happy with the icon. The second O in Google doesn’t have the right yellow gradient. It’s just wrong and I’m going to have Greg fix it tomorrow. Is that okay with you?"

Of course this was okay with me. A few minutes later on that Sunday I received an email from Steve with the subject "Icon Ambulance". The email directed me to work with Greg Christie to fix the icon.

Since I was 11 years old and fell in love with an Apple II, I have dozens of stories to tell about Apple products…In the end, when I think about leadership, passion and attention to detail, I think back to the call I received from Steve Jobs on a Sunday morning in January. It was a lesson I’ll never forget. CEOs should care about details. Even shades of yellow. On a Sunday.

Akshay Kothari, co-founder of Pulse:

About a year ago, my co-founder Ankit Gupta and I were graduate students at Stanford watching Steve Jobs’s WWDC keynote in a dorm room. Before releasing the brand new iPhone 4, he mentioned a few apps that he really liked. The first app he mentioned was Pulse, which he called a "wonderful reader if you haven’t seen it.” We were just two regular students who had been working on Pulse for a class project, and suddenly, our guru, our role model, gave us five seconds that we will cherish for the rest of our lives. Besides building the most valuable technology company in the world, Steve Jobs has helped start hundreds of companies by giving them a phenomenal platform. Pulse is one of them, and we’re grateful for his support.

Thanks to Fast Company and the contributors for sharing those great stories.

ciao

mags

Excerpts from the blog:

It’s exciting to have this opportunity to share the improvements we’re making to the file management capabilities of Windows Explorer. Explorer is one of the most venerable parts of Windows with a heritage you can trace back to the “MS-DOS Executive” in Windows 1.0!

MS-DOS Executive in Windows 1.0

Over the years, Explorer and its forerunners have gone through several major iterations:

File Manager in Windows 3.1

Explorer in Windows XP

Explorer in Windows 7

And now- a glimpse at the new Explorer (with the familiar “ribbon” interface):

Explorer in "Windows 8"

And a video preview of the new Explorer:

ciao

mags

With throughput up to 10 times faster than USB 2.0 and improved power management that results in longer battery life, USB 3.0 introduces compelling reasons to improve the world’s most popular PC interface. By 2015, all new PCs are expected to offer USB 3.0 ports, and over 2 billion new "SuperSpeed" USB devices will be sold in that year alone.

One of the important roles Windows plays as part of a broad ecosystem is developing support for new hardware. This is a pretty involved process and so for this post we wanted to take a look at supporting USB 3.0, something we know everyone is anxious to be using because of the improvements it brings. This is also our first video post – we aimed for "engineering" videos and not high production values but I think we make our point (note videos are embedded in HTML5 and available for download). If you’re like me when looking at the video, you might think that those file copy progress indicators are looking a bit dated…stay tuned. This post was authored by Dennis Flanagan, the Director of Program Management for the Devices and Networking group.

–Steven Sinofsky

Video demonstration of USB 3.0 in action within Windows 8:

ciao

mags