Bill Gates stops off in MV Bill Gates stops off in MV (October 08, 2004)

Microsoft founder discusses future of computers

By Julie O'Shea

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates toured the Bay Area last week in a series of special appearances, including one in Mountain View, where he talked about the future of computers and his multibillion-dollar company.

Seated in armchairs in front of about 700 invited guests at the Computer History Museum on Shoreline Boulevard, Gates and Stanford University President John Hennessy discussed many topics, from Spam and the public's growing dependence on e-mail to piracy and spyware technology.

"There is no doubt that Internet use will keep growing," Gates said, adding that a "malicious" person can and will find a way to release viruses into cyberspace. It is up to companies like Microsoft to provide users with the software that prevents such bugs from infecting hard drives, he said.

This is something Microsoft, which has a campus in Mountain View on La Avenida Avenue, is currently researching, Gates said.

"We need software to work on your behalf," he told the crowd that squeezed into the museum last Friday. "Software is your servant.

"You've got to be able to make security guaranteed," Gates continued. "I think most of these security problems are solvable."

Referring to the problems that have plagued the music industry since Napster and MP3 players have made it easier to download tunes for free from the Internet, Gates said this phenomenon isn't "unique to the music industry. Others will experience this, too."

Gates, whose personal fortune is estimated to be near $50 billion, said speech recognition is where the computer industry is headed. It will be, he predicted, the primary way the public communicates with computers in the future.

Computers have come a long way since the mid-'70s, when Gates co-founded Microsoft. Gates told his Mountain View audience that the world is now embarking on a "wireless era." Everyone is connected to the Internet, and e-mail has become a way of life. It's a lifestyle Gates himself knows only too well, although he admitted last week, "I don't happen to do e-mail when I'm vacation."

To all those Internet junkies out there, Gates offered some good news: "Spam has gone down."

The pesky, unwanted ads that clog e-mail accounts around the world have been slashed by 90 percent from last year, Gates said.

The Computer History Museum, just up the street from Microsoft's Silicon Valley headquarters, was the final stop Gates made last Friday. Earlier in the day he spoke to students at UC Berkeley and gave a keynote speech at Community Foundation Silicon Valley's 50th anniversary luncheon.

E-mail Julie O'Shea at joshea@mv-voice.com

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