A Look Back at The Road Ahead

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2006/02/08/road_ahead_billgates/1.html' target='_blank'>http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2006/02/08/road_ahead_billgates/1.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Love him or loathe him, there's no denying the achievements of William Henry Gates III. You may not agree with Microsoft's business practices but it's questionable that you would be sat here reading this today without the vision and sheer determination of one bespeckled über-geek from Seattle. Gates transformed himself from Harvard drop-out to World's Richest Man within two short decades, witnessing the death of the traditional mainframe and minicomputers and the birth of the Personal Computer (PC)."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/Temporale-20060209-RoadAhead.jpg" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/> <br /><br />This is a really interesting look back at the where Bill thought we would be and where we have actually ended up. I have always wondered if someone would go back and score Bill on his vision. I have never read this book. It was always one of those books that you plan to read - if you get some free time, but there always seems to be a new developer text that I'm pouring over. I think I'll add this to my Amazon wishlist. :D How many of you have read his book, and what are you're thoughts?

[Kris Kumar]

I remember reading the book, being inspired and fascinated by his vision. And not to forget amazed by his plans for his residence in Seattle; rooms and hallways change themes based on the occupant.

I am looking forward to "The Road Ahead - Part II." :) You should put that on your wishlist.

[Mike Temporale]

I checked Amazon, and you can't buy the original book anymore. :( Oh well, that's what you get for waiting 10 years, eh! :lol:

[randalllewis]

The Road Ahead is still on my bookshelf and I have pulled it down a couple of times over the years to skim back through it. Gates did as good a job as any other pundit in forecasting the tech future and his misses were generally because technology moved faster than he envisioned or a market just didn't develop. I loved the discussion of the "wallet pc." While that name is truely a relic of the 90's, the vision was right on the money. The Cingular 2125 sitting on my desk comes pretty darn close to being a "wallet pc" and I'm one who would use a barscode scanning program or some other type of process make electronic payments from my phone. That is the one wallet function still missing.

[gai-jin]

That's one item I've submitted as a feature request for E-wallet. I want it to have a barcode font option built in. That way, I can just type in the number of my library card, or grocery saver card, YMCA card, or anything that uses a barcode, and have it generate the barcode on screen. That way when I go to the library, I can pull up my digital library card and have them scan the barcode, just the same as they would with a paper card.

As it stands now, I have to read the number to them for hand-keying, or in some cases, carry the card around because they can't or won't hand-key the membership number.