Saint William of Redmond?
Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013
71–80 of 171 posts
Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's great propaganda. What are a couple juveniles being abused compared to curing polio?
Yes, yes, I understand. I've been here as long as you have and I know where you're coming from. You do. not. like. Microsoft. https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/comments&q=rbanffy+m... But you're getting yourself into trouble in this argument, because Bill Gates self-evidently hasn't abused any juveniles, but actually is working to cure polio.
I love the way you start your argument with an ad hominem. It's delightful how consistently you mention my public position in an attempt to discredit me.
So, tell me the difference in his money going to companies that abuse juveniles for profit and his money going to companies that try to eradicate polio. He is not eradicating polio himself either - he pays people to do so.
Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hate the man's business practices. Love the man for his philanthropical work. They don't need to cancel out, and you don't need to forgive one to appreciate the other. Michael Vick was put in prison for dog fighting. I absolutely hate him for that. At the same time, I appreciate his talent on the field as a football player. Orson Scott Card is a rampant homophobe. I absolutely hate him for that. Doesn't affect my opi…
> Hate the man's business practices. Love the man for his philanthropical work At the core of this is trust. Bill lost mine at Microsoft's helm - he has shown a borderline sociopath that will stop at nothing and will destroy anyone on his path. To give this much credit to someone with such dark history is appallingly naive.
Everytime a big company implements a feature or rolls out something, they affect companies working in that area.
You can find similar things about almost any company or person, but for some reason the bad things about Microsoft are always amplified.
For example, see how Google squashed Skyhook
http://www.theverge.com/2011/05/12/google-android-skyhook-la...
Aliyun and Acer prevented from launching a phone because of the secret rules of the "Open" Handset Alliance. http://www.zdnet.com/cn/report-google-stops-acer-from-launch...
Apple and the famed 30% cut of even sales from Apps, an example of how they used someone's OSS code in Safari and then banned them from the app store:
http://blog.readability.com/2011/02/an-open-letter-to-apple/
My point is that someone fed a steady diet of bad stories about one company while barely being exposed to good stories ends up not liking them and everyone knows how many tech sites and journalists and news sites like Slashdot and HN's bias in story selection because of the vocal minority who sometimes appear to be on a crusade of ends justifying the means.
Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, yes, I understand. I've been here as long as you have and I know where you're coming from. You do. not. like. Microsoft. https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/comments&q=rbanffy+m... But you're getting yourself into trouble in this argument, because Bill Gates self-evidently hasn't abused any juveniles, but actually is working to cure polio.
I love the way you start your argument with an ad hominem. It's delightful how consistently you mention my public position in an attempt to discredit me. So, tell me the difference in his money going to companies that abuse juveniles for profit and his money going to companies that try to eradicate polio. He is not eradicating polio himself either - he pays people to do so.
For one thing, Richard Henriques doesn't actually invest in "companies that abuse juveniles for profit", but the foundation actually does deliberately work to end polio.
That seems like a pretty relevant distinction to me, but, hey, if we weren't arguing over private prisons, you'd be telling me how evil Coca Cola (another foundation investment) is instead, because the real point here is spelled out in your HN profile.
The Microsoft you dislike still exists, and, worse, has communicated itself spiritually to other tech giants. It is downright weird that you'd focus your attention instead on something that really is exclusively an effort to work on global poverty and disease.
Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013
#75As people in Tech industry we should be very proud of Bill Gates and what he has done with Microsoft and his charity work. A lot of people totally miss the point when they say "hey anybody could do all that if they have enough money". That is simply not true. Charity is not just about throwing money at poor, it is a far more difficult job than say building a company. Working for profit is simpler where clear regulati…
I would be a lot prouder of Bill if he hadn't made his money by breaking the law.
Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hate the man's business practices. Love the man for his philanthropical work. They don't need to cancel out, and you don't need to forgive one to appreciate the other. Michael Vick was put in prison for dog fighting. I absolutely hate him for that. At the same time, I appreciate his talent on the field as a football player. Orson Scott Card is a rampant homophobe. I absolutely hate him for that. Doesn't affect my opi…
> Hate the man's business practices. Love the man for his philanthropical work At the core of this is trust. Bill lost mine at Microsoft's helm - he has shown a borderline sociopath that will stop at nothing and will destroy anyone on his path. To give this much credit to someone with such dark history is appallingly naive.
So what? If he is a sociopath, so what? Are you trying to insinuate he has dark ulterior motives for his charity efforts?
If not, why is his personality worth a damn to the discussion?
Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dude, wtf. How about a private juvenile detention centers ran by a company with a history of child abuse in those prisons? At least more due diligence?
Circulate a petition to end the private prison industry? I will sign it. Come up with a credible plan to fix that public policy problem? I'll donate. Meanwhile: if you're going to manage a forty billion dollar endowment to maximize its impact on global poverty and disease, you're going to be working with large-scale corporate debt and equity. It would be very difficult to maintain diversified exposure to those market…
McDonalds and Coca-Cola could be perfectly explained by your comment.
But surely a for-profit juvenile detention center is a bit of a stretch? And the other private prison the Foundation invested in listed "reductions in crime rates" as one of the risks to its bottom line. Surely common sense (or better-than-common in the case of Gates) would lead you to not invest in a company that literally grows with the crime rate... I find it hard to believe that it was so hard to find viable investments that they had stoop to investing in private prisons.
The Gates Foundation is awesome, but that doesn't mean they don't make mistakes. And hopefully they might consider being slightly stricter in deciding which investments they are morally opposed to if they are currently investing in private prisons.
Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
Circulate a petition to end the private prison industry? I will sign it. Come up with a credible plan to fix that public policy problem? I'll donate. Meanwhile: if you're going to manage a forty billion dollar endowment to maximize its impact on global poverty and disease, you're going to be working with large-scale corporate debt and equity. It would be very difficult to maintain diversified exposure to those market…
McDonalds and Coca-Cola could be perfectly explained by your comment. But surely a for-profit juvenile detention center is a bit of a stretch? And the other private prison the Foundation invested in listed "reductions in crime rates" as one of the risks to its bottom line. Surely common sense (or better-than-common in the case of Gates) would lead you to not invest in a company that literally grows with the crime rat…
I am morally opposed to private prisons and have a very low opinion of juvenile justice in general, but unlike say marriage equality, where I assume most reasonable people are bound to share my beliefs, I do not assume that everyone believes private prisons are evil.
Consider that juvenile abuse is endemic in the entire juvenile justice system, and that (a) a reasonable person might believe that private prison systems are actually more accountable for abuse, since the market can respond to their mismanagement (and because it is far easier to sue a private enterprise than a government agency), and (b) the statistics could conceivably bear this out. I don't know. My problem with private prisons has to do with incentive alignment. But maybe Richard Henriques disagrees with me?
Remember: the Gates Foundation endowment is basically a large private hedge fund that happens to have a charity as its beneficiary rather than a bunch of rich old dudes. The expectation that it be managed differently than any other fund clearly exists, but I'm not sure why that explanation would be valid. There are probably a bunch of universities that hold that private prison stock too.
But here's where we get back to how silly the article is, especially here on this thread: that private prison company is a tiny fraction of the endowment's equity portfolio. It isn't even listed above the fold in the article! The article concerns itself with the suggestion that any support of western consumerist capitalism is hypocrisy on the part of the Gates Foundation. What makes me think that? Because the first page of the article concerns itself with the Foundation's investment in Coke, McD's, BK, Taco Bell, and Pepsi. The article has an unmistakeable and ridiculous thesis.
Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Hate the man's business practices. Love the man for his philanthropical work At the core of this is trust. Bill lost mine at Microsoft's helm - he has shown a borderline sociopath that will stop at nothing and will destroy anyone on his path. To give this much credit to someone with such dark history is appallingly naive.
Everytime a big company implements a feature or rolls out something, they affect companies working in that area. You can find similar things about almost any company or person, but for some reason the bad things about Microsoft are always amplified. For example, see how Google squashed Skyhook http://www.theverge.com/2011/05/12/google-android-skyhook-la... Aliyun and Acer prevented from launching a phone because of t…
It seems you need a history lesson:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stac_Electronics#Microsoft_law...
Re: Good News You Might Have Missed in 2013
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Hate the man's business practices. Love the man for his philanthropical work At the core of this is trust. Bill lost mine at Microsoft's helm - he has shown a borderline sociopath that will stop at nothing and will destroy anyone on his path. To give this much credit to someone with such dark history is appallingly naive.
So what? If he is a sociopath, so what? Are you trying to insinuate he has dark ulterior motives for his charity efforts? If not, why is his personality worth a damn to the discussion?
> Are you trying to insinuate he has dark ulterior motives for his charity efforts?
Dark ulterior motives? No. Being remembered as a philanthropist rather than a robber-baron is quite enough. Hs is doing good, but he is not doing good for the good of others.