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Source Code: My Beginnings

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  Source Code: My Beginnings Book Review <invalid@invalid.com> - 2025-02-08 03:00 +0000
    Re: Source Code: My Beginnings Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-02-07 23:10 -0500
      Re: Source Code: My Beginnings Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-02-08 01:40 -0500
        Re: Source Code: My Beginnings Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-02-08 07:45 -0500
          Re: Source Code: My Beginnings Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-02-08 17:35 -0500
            Re: Source Code: My Beginnings Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-02-08 19:29 -0500
              Re: Source Code: My Beginnings Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-02-08 23:39 -0500
      Re: Source Code: My Beginnings Stan Brown <the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm> - 2025-02-08 05:03 -0800
        Re: Source Code: My Beginnings Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> - 2025-02-08 10:24 -0500
          Re: Source Code: My Beginnings sticks <wolverine01@charter.net> - 2025-02-09 17:17 -0600
          Re: Source Code: My Beginnings Daniel70 <daniel47@eternal-september.org> - 2025-02-15 21:30 +1100
      Re: Source Code: My Beginnings Chris <ithinkiam@gmail.com> - 2025-02-15 11:10 +0000
    Re: Source Code: My Beginnings Anton Shepelev <anton.txt@gmail.moc> - 2025-02-08 19:32 +0300
    Re: Source Code: My Beginnings MikeS <mikes@is.invalid> - 2025-02-10 21:15 +0000

#16887 — Source Code: My Beginnings

Has anybody bought this book yet?

<https://www.amazon.co.uk/Source-Code-Beginnings-Bill-Gates/dp/0241736676>

Bill Gates is one of the most transformative figures of our age. In 
Source Code he takes us back to his beginnings.

He describes with candour his childhood in Seattle, the centrality of 
family – his close relationship with his card-playing grandmother and 
his demanding but caring parents – his struggles to fit in, his 
rebelliousness, his first deep friendships and the impact of losing his 
closest friend.

We see Gates’s extraordinary mind developing, the restless teenager who 
discovered a love of coding and computing at the dawn of a new era and 
felt that ‘by applying my brain, I could solve even the world’s most 
complex mysteries’. We see the earliest signs of his phenomenal business 
acumen, which led him to drop out of Harvard at the age of 20 to devote 
all his energies to Microsoft, the company he started with his childhood 
friend Paul Allen. He writes about his first involvement with three 
Steves – Jobs, Wozniak and Ballmer – who would play a crucial role in so 
much that followed.

The book ends in the late 1970s when Microsoft, still with only a dozen 
employees, signed its first deal with Apple. The deals would go on and 
Microsoft would grow unimaginably. Yet Gates never forgot his mother’s 
reminder that he was merely a steward of any wealth that he gained. This 
warm and inspiring book, Bill Gates’ origin story, allows readers to 
understand his energy and ambition – and to see how he sets himself in 
the world.

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#16888

On 2/7/2025 10:00 PM, Book Review wrote:
> Has anybody bought this book yet?
> 
> <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Source-Code-Beginnings-Bill-Gates/dp/0241736676>
> 
> Bill Gates is one of the most transformative figures of our age.

   There are probably 10000 people more interesting to me than
Bill Gates. He's very bright, but also arrogantly thinks he's a genius,
offering his unimpressive opinions on all sorts of topics, as though
he's an official wise man.

   He's clearly got a head for business, but exhibited endless greed.
He then turned to philanthropy, ever desperate to be an amazing
person. He tried to take over education and health care in the
process.

   I'm not aware of even one small thing that Bill Gates has ever
done to truly serve others. To his credit, I'm not sure I would
have been more humble and humane if I'd made 1/4 trillion
dollars and had no shortage of people who worshipped me.
Nevertheless, I see absolutely nothing to be impressed by and
certainly not an example for others to follow. I really don't
understand why people so often equate great greed,
competitiveness and wealth with greatness. King of the
hill is a game for children and barbarians.

   I actually find Steve Ballmer more interesting. He's quirky
and seems to truly try to be decent. I once saw an interview
where he said that if not for computers he probably would have
been a siding salesman. I expect it's the same with Gates. In
another time he would have been lucky to be an accountant
or small time lawyer. If he'd been born in a rural, pre-industrial
setting then he probably never would have even been fit to
leave home, being so poorly suited to physical labor. Ballmer
had the humility to admit his good luck.

  So, no, I don't expect to buy Bill's autobiography.

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#16891

On Fri, 2/7/2025 11:10 PM, Newyana2 wrote:
> On 2/7/2025 10:00 PM, Book Review wrote:
>> Has anybody bought this book yet?
>>
>> <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Source-Code-Beginnings-Bill-Gates/dp/0241736676>
>>
>> Bill Gates is one of the most transformative figures of our age.
> 
>  So, no, I don't expect to buy Bill's autobiography.

Here is an article you'll enjoy. PCWorld tests Recall (in the Insider).

   https://www.pcworld.com/article/2535272/microsoft-recall-windows-ai-tested-hands-on.html

I didn't know it had surfaced again. And it requires a PC with an NPU,
and not a fake NPU either. It suggests three NPUs are now blessed.

    Paul

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#16895

On 2/8/2025 1:40 AM, Paul wrote:
> On Fri, 2/7/2025 11:10 PM, Newyana2 wrote:
>> On 2/7/2025 10:00 PM, Book Review wrote:
>>> Has anybody bought this book yet?
>>>
>>> <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Source-Code-Beginnings-Bill-Gates/dp/0241736676>
>>>
>>> Bill Gates is one of the most transformative figures of our age.
>>
>>   So, no, I don't expect to buy Bill's autobiography.
> 
> Here is an article you'll enjoy. PCWorld tests Recall (in the Insider).
> 
>     https://www.pcworld.com/article/2535272/microsoft-recall-windows-ai-tested-hands-on.html
> 
> I didn't know it had surfaced again. And it requires a PC with an NPU,
> and not a fake NPU either. It suggests three NPUs are now blessed.
> 

   Just in time for those of us on the cusp of elderly dementia.
With Recall we'll no longer need to be able to think coherently.
Now if I can't remember whether the US Dept of Education
still exists under Trump, I can ask Recall, it can refer to pictures
of Twitter posts that were displayed at National Enquirer, which
showed up on News and Interests, which displayed on my screen,
and I'll have my answer. According to SuzieQ25, the Dept of
Ed is a cooked goose, or maybe it's f****d, as TimTimWW2 says.
I don't have to accept just one answer... Very snazzy. The Jetsons
never had this.

    This is the first I've heard of "NPU". I'm surprised the author
didn't explain the acronym, or TOPS.

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#16911

On Sat, 2/8/2025 7:45 AM, Newyana2 wrote:

>    This is the first I've heard of "NPU". I'm surprised the author
> didn't explain the acronym, or TOPS.

The "Neural Processing Unit" does Fused Multiply Add (FMA) for matrix math.
Think of rows and columns of a matrix, being multiplied, then added.

If you can do 10^12 of those FMA per second, that is 1 TOPS.

Intel, in a first generation ("unusable") NPU, put *10000* FMA
on a silicon die. Some FPGAs intended for this sort of work
(inference), have *3000* DSP cores. And similar to the CUDA
cores on a video card, the DSP cores are programmable. The
RTX 5090, has around *26000* cores that can run shader programs.

The game is all about multitudes of fairly simple, reproducible blocks.

But there is also a degree of deception going on here, in that
to have real time performance ("an AI that talks to you"), that
requires hardware that at scale is 100x what is on your desktop.

What you get on the desktop, is something that might be able
to do a DNN or an OpenCL type calculation. These are older techniques
and standards. Maybe the first desktop offerings (like... Recall),
those won't be Large Language Models. They'll be more purpose built
neural networks or static calculation approaches. Maybe if there
is any language model at all, the OCR that Recall does, is
buttressed by grammer checks (it recognizes language better
than it recognizes single letters in isolation). Recall is
using a "very similar" OCR to what is in the W11 SnippingTool
right now (the Text Action button).

On a desktop system, even with some degree of acceleration,
there just isn't the memory bandwidth or facilities for
real time LLM AI answers. You'll be waiting some number of
seconds, before your AI says "Hello! Maya". If you distill the
models down, and use "INT1" math to do the calc, it just
makes the model dumber and more mistake prone. Note that
this is not the counting the letter "R" in strawberry problem,
which is an architectural/approach issue.

I can see your home AI computer, being air gapped and
dedicated to doing Wikipedia-type things. "How do you
mix green paint?" "why don't you drive to the Home
Depot and ask that guy in the paint section?" That's
the kind of help I expect.

   Paul

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#16918

On 2/8/2025 5:35 PM, Paul wrote:

> I can see your home AI computer, being air gapped and
> dedicated to doing Wikipedia-type things. "How do you
> mix green paint?" "why don't you drive to the Home
> Depot and ask that guy in the paint section?" That's
> the kind of help I expect.
> 

   Yet, how does my theoretically local AI know about
Home Depot? That still implies a heck of a database.
Gardening, cooking, medicine.... The number of common
questions that people might ask are vast. "What causes
an earache?" "What spices are in chile powder?"

Local AI won't find that by indexing my file system.

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#16924

On Sat, 2/8/2025 7:29 PM, Newyana2 wrote:
> On 2/8/2025 5:35 PM, Paul wrote:
> 
>> I can see your home AI computer, being air gapped and
>> dedicated to doing Wikipedia-type things. "How do you
>> mix green paint?" "why don't you drive to the Home
>> Depot and ask that guy in the paint section?" That's
>> the kind of help I expect.
>>
> 
>   Yet, how does my theoretically local AI know about
> Home Depot? That still implies a heck of a database.
> Gardening, cooking, medicine.... The number of common
> questions that people might ask are vast. "What causes
> an earache?" "What spices are in chile powder?"
> 
> Local AI won't find that by indexing my file system.

They stole one million books, and made training
data out of them. Does that give you some idea
how serious they are ? They torrented the books.

That's why the training costs are a minimum of a
billion per year. Plus the cases where they actually
pay someone, for the training data.

What your AI won't be, is up to date. If you air gap
the AI, the material will become dated. And yes, there are
fools right now, building web browser controls into
the AI, so it can "dial out". There is a test release
of one of those. That won't be intended for your home
AI to "steal training data". Windows won't be getting
that one. But if the AI has a series of focused web sites
that could have the info (wikipedia), it could, on a
project basis, theoretically look for the information
it needs. The bandwidth on your home Internet, does not
particularly allow the Ai to become "infinitely smart"
some evening while you sleep, and the network cable
is connected. You would need a connection to Internet2
for that to happen (the same network CERN uses).

Maybe if you instructed the AI to write your term paper
for you, it could go look for the necessary cites on the web.
To keep your term paper "fresh and new", even if the
voice of the text is all wrong.

   Paul

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#16896

On Fri, 7 Feb 2025 23:10:02 -0500, Newyana2 wrote:
>    There are probably 10000 people more interesting to me than
> Bill Gates. He's very bright, but also arrogantly thinks he's a genius,
> offering his unimpressive opinions on all sorts of topics, as though
> he's an official wise man.

Well, the bar has moved in recent years. The first 
three that come to mind Zuckerberg, Altman, and above 
all Musk have made themselves much more annoying as 
persons than Gates ever did.

-- 
Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA         
https://BrownMath.com/
Shikata ga nai...

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#16900

On 2/8/2025 8:03 AM, Stan Brown wrote:
> On Fri, 7 Feb 2025 23:10:02 -0500, Newyana2 wrote:
>>     There are probably 10000 people more interesting to me than
>> Bill Gates. He's very bright, but also arrogantly thinks he's a genius,
>> offering his unimpressive opinions on all sorts of topics, as though
>> he's an official wise man.
> 
> Well, the bar has moved in recent years. The first
> three that come to mind Zuckerberg, Altman, and above
> all Musk have made themselves much more annoying as
> persons than Gates ever did.
> 
     Yes. And Bezos. And Tim Cook. Bill Gates seems to have
a functioning conscience, at least relatively speaking.

    I suppose the
big problem is that all of these people virtually fell into power
on a massive scale, like an emperor. Unsocialized, borderline
Aspergers teenagers suddenly became billionaires.

  I once read a story, I think in Wired, where Gates and his then
new girlfriend were interviewed. At some point, BG bragged that
he was arguably more powerful than the president. Melinda
kicked him under the table. That seemed to describe the
situation in a nutshell.

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#16936

On 2/8/2025 9:24 AM, Newyana2 wrote:
> Bill Gates seems to have
> a functioning conscience, at least relatively speaking.

Yeah, he's a great guy

<https://slaynews.com/news/bill-gates-funneled-30-million-through-usaid-records-show/>

-- 
Better Days Ahead!
Darwanism Is Junk Science!!

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#17085

On 9/02/2025 2:24 am, Newyana2 wrote:
> On 2/8/2025 8:03 AM, Stan Brown wrote:
>> On Fri, 7 Feb 2025 23:10:02 -0500, Newyana2 wrote:
>>> There are probably 10000 people more interesting to me than Bill
>>> Gates. He's very bright, but also arrogantly thinks he's a
>>> genius, offering his unimpressive opinions on all sorts of
>>> topics, as though he's an official wise man.
>> 
>> Well, the bar has moved in recent years. The first three that come
>> to mind Zuckerberg, Altman, and above all Musk have made themselves
>> much more annoying as persons than Gates ever did.
>> 
> Yes. And Bezos. And Tim Cook. Bill Gates seems to have a functioning
> conscience, at least relatively speaking.

Is that "functioning conscience" called Melinda?? ;-P

> I suppose the big problem is that all of these people virtually fell
> into power on a massive scale, like an emperor. Unsocialized,
> borderline Aspergers teenagers suddenly became billionaires.
> 
> I once read a story, I think in Wired, where Gates and his then new
> girlfriend were interviewed. At some point, BG bragged that he was
> arguably more powerful than the president. Melinda kicked him under
> the table. That seemed to describe the situation in a nutshell.
-- 
Daniel70

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#17087

Newyana2 <newyana@invalid.nospam> wrote:
> On 2/7/2025 10:00 PM, Book Review wrote:
>> Has anybody bought this book yet?
>> 
>> <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Source-Code-Beginnings-Bill-Gates/dp/0241736676>
>> 
>> Bill Gates is one of the most transformative figures of our age.
> 
>   There are probably 10000 people more interesting to me than
> Bill Gates. He's very bright, but also arrogantly thinks he's a genius,
> offering his unimpressive opinions on all sorts of topics, as though
> he's an official wise man.

That's the problem with all (tech) billionaires they think they are god's
gift simply because they were lucky by being at the right place, right time
and a privileged background. 

They do not deserve more respect than anyone else and as we're seeing with
Musk are ultimately very dangerous people because of their wealth. 

Being a billionaire is morally and ethically wrong. 

>   He's clearly got a head for business, but exhibited endless greed.
> He then turned to philanthropy, ever desperate to be an amazing
> person. He tried to take over education and health care in the
> process.
> 
>   I'm not aware of even one small thing that Bill Gates has ever
> done to truly serve others. 

The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has done some truly beneficial things
in the developing world. It is arguable whether that money would have been
better given to the WHO instead, however. 

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#16902

Book Review:

> <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Source-Code-Beginnings-Bill-Gates/dp/0241736676>

> Bill Gates is one of the most transformative figures of our age. In 
> Source Code he takes us back to his beginnings.

Whast arrogant a title for an autobigraphy whose subject and author is
not any sort of notable programmer at all at all.

-- 
()  ascii ribbon campaign -- against html e-mail
/\  www.asciiribbon.org   -- against proprietary attachments

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#16958

On 08/02/2025 03:00, Book Review wrote:
> Has anybody bought this book yet?
> 
> <https://www.amazon.co.uk/Source-Code-Beginnings-Bill-Gates/dp/0241736676>
> 
> Bill Gates is one of the most transformative figures of our age. In
> Source Code he takes us back to his beginnings.
> 
> He describes with candour his childhood in Seattle, the centrality of
> family – his close relationship with his card-playing grandmother and
> his demanding but caring parents – his struggles to fit in, his
> rebelliousness, his first deep friendships and the impact of losing his
> closest friend.
> 
> We see Gates’s extraordinary mind developing, the restless teenager who
> discovered a love of coding and computing at the dawn of a new era and
> felt that ‘by applying my brain, I could solve even the world’s most
> complex mysteries’. We see the earliest signs of his phenomenal business
> acumen, which led him to drop out of Harvard at the age of 20 to devote
> all his energies to Microsoft, the company he started with his childhood
> friend Paul Allen. He writes about his first involvement with three
> Steves – Jobs, Wozniak and Ballmer – who would play a crucial role in so
> much that followed.
> 
> The book ends in the late 1970s when Microsoft, still with only a dozen
> employees, signed its first deal with Apple. The deals would go on and
> Microsoft would grow unimaginably. Yet Gates never forgot his mother’s
> reminder that he was merely a steward of any wealth that he gained. This
> warm and inspiring book, Bill Gates’ origin story, allows readers to
> understand his energy and ambition – and to see how he sets himself in
> the world.
> 
> 
I won't be buying this book but unlike other responders I have admired 
Gates for a long time, especially compared with the Tech Bros who 
followed him. In the unlikely event anyone would like an unbiased view 
of his early years I recommend:

Hard Drive - Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire
James Wallace and Jim Erickson
John Wiley & Sons, 1992, Rev Ed 1993

I bought a copy for £1.99 in a charity shop back in 2001 and found it 
fascinating. A key to his early success was rival business execs 
thinking he was just a kid with a gift for programming. He was but they 
failed to realise he was also a brilliant business man until it was too 
late.

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