Bill Gates

William Henry "Bill" Gates III born on October 28, 1955 and raised in Seattle along with his two sisters, he is an American business magnate, philanthropist, investor, computer programmer, and inventor. In 1975, Gates co-founded Microsoft, the world’s largest PC software company, renowned for making software with Paul Allen. That is powerful and innovative while still being user friendly. Microsoft now employs more than 55,000 people in 85 countries. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of chairman, CEO and chief software architect, and was the largest individual shareholder until May 2014. Gates has authored and co-authored several books.

Starting in 1987, Gates was included in the Forbes list of the world's wealthiest people and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2014 excluding a few years after the Financial crisis of 2007–08. Between 2009 and 2014 his wealth more than doubled from $40 billion to more than $82 billion. Between 2013 and 2014 his wealth increased by $15 billion. Gates is currently the richest man in the world.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen turned to a computing company, in exchange for free use of a more powerful computer they searched for bugs in the computers system while also learning new languages. Bill went on to Harvard University and while there teamed up with Paul to write a new version of Basic programming language for the first personnel computer the Altair 8800. The company was impressed with Gates and Allen’s work and licensed the software resulting in Gates and Allen forming the company Microsoft to develop software for other companies. Bill dropped out of Harvard to spend more time on the new business.

 

Their break came when they developed an operating system called MS-DOS for the first IBM personnel computer, and later managed to persuade other manufactures to standardize their systems to run MS-DOS. This standardization started a new computer industry boom throughout the 1980’s as MS-DOS took hold of the market and gained popularity, Microsoft also started developing applications such as word processors.

Microsoft's BASIC was popular with computer hobbyists, but Gates discovered that a pre-market copy had leaked into the community and was being widely copied and distributed. In February 1976, Gates wrote an Open Letter to Hobbyists in the MITS newsletter saying that MITS could not continue to produce, distribute, and maintain high-quality software without payment. This letter was unpopular with many computer hobbyists, but Gates persisted in his belief that software developers should be able to demand payment. Microsoft became independent of MITS in late 1976, and it continued to develop programming language software for various systems. The company moved from Albuquerque to its new home in Bellevue, Washington on January 1, 1979.

Microsoft announced Windows 1.0 in 1983, which promised a graphical user interface GUI better graphics and multitasking. However the final product was not released for another 2 years until 1985, with very few compatible applications Windows did not sell well.

Over the next five years Microsoft released a number of upgraded windows 2.0 versions which added many programs, versatility and features. As Microsoft grew, its share price sky rocketed, and at the age of 31 Bill Gates became the youngest self-made billionaire in American history.

During Microsoft's early years, all employees had broad responsibility for the company's business. Gates oversaw the business details, but continued to write code as well. In the first five years, Gates personally reviewed every line of code the company shipped, and often rewrote parts of it as he saw fit.

Partnership with IBM approached Microsoft in July 1980 regarding its upcoming personal computer, the IBM PC. The computer company first proposed that Microsoft write the BASIC interpreter. When IBM's representatives mentioned that they needed an operating system, Gates referred them to Digital Research (DRI), makers of the widely used CP/M operating system. IBM's discussions with Digital Research went poorly, and they did not reach a licensing agreement. IBM representative Jack Sams mentioned the licensing difficulties during a subsequent meeting with Gates and told him to get an acceptable operating system. A few weeks later, Gates proposed using 86-DOS (QDOS), an operating system similar to CP/M that Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products (SCP) had made for hardware similar to the PC. Microsoft made a deal with SCP to become the exclusive licensing agent, and later the full owner, of 86-DOS. After adapting the operating system for the PC, Microsoft delivered it to IBM as PC DOS in exchange for a one-time fee of $50,000.

Gates did not offer to transfer the copyright on the operating system, because he believed that other hardware vendors would clone IBM's system. They did, and the sales of MS-DOS made Microsoft a major player in the industry. Despite IBM's name on the operating system the press quickly identified Microsoft as being very influential on the new computer. PC Magazine asked if Gates were "the man behind the machine?", and InfoWorld quoted an expert as stating "it's Gates' computer". Gates oversaw Microsoft's company restructuring on June 25, 1981, which re-incorporated the company in Washington state and made Gates President of Microsoft and the Chairman of the Board.

In 1990 Microsoft headed by Bill Gates created a new version of Windows called Windows 3.0 with a much improved GUI and features which sold more than 10 million copies, quickly followed by Windows 3.1, 3.11 and workgroups which added networking support. Building on their success Microsoft developed Windows 95 followed by windows 98, 2000, Millennium Edition and The current version Windows XP. Each new windows release has seen Microsoft gain more market share and along with their popular applications such as Office, games etc has seen Bill Gates become the richest man in the world worth an estimated US$46 billion.

Gates also has interests in other business having many investments and positions in company’s including Corbis Corporation, Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Teledesic Corporation. In 1998 Gates gave up his role as CEO to focus on development of new technology and products.

Bill married Melinda French Gates in 1994 and has three children, Jennifer, Rory and Phoebe. Both Bill and Melinda are keen Philanthropist’s starting the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which has committed more than $3.2 billion to global health, $2 billion to improve learning opportunities to low income families, $477 million to community projects and more than $488 million to special projects and annual giving campaigns. 

In 2007 the Los Angeles Times criticized the foundation for investing its assets in companies which have been accused of worsening poverty, polluting heavily, and pharmaceutical companies that do not sell into the developing world. In response to press criticism, the foundation announced a review of its investments to assess social responsibility. It subsequently canceled the review and stood by its policy of investing for maximum return, while using voting rights to influence company practices. The Gates Millennium Scholars program has been criticized by Ernest W. Lefever for its exclusion of Caucasian students. The scholarship program is administered by the United Negro College Fund.

In 1987 Gates was listed as a billionaire in Forbes magazine's 400 Richest People in America issue, just days before his 32nd birthday. As the world's youngest self-made billionaire, he was worth $1.25 billion, over $900 million more than he'd been worth the year before, when he'd debuted on the list.

A fragile country at the mercy of nature

The world is reacting with shock at the huge quake and tsunami that has devastated Japan, but people there have learnt to expect natural disasters.

The first indication was a humming and a rattling.

Hundreds of upturned beer glasses on wooden shelves, shook from side to side, then knocked into each other. Conversation dimmed then stopped completely. Faces looked from one to another across the plates of tempura and sushi.

"Quick," shouted the barman, "turn off the gas."

It was my first experience of a tremor, just a few days after I had gone to live in Japan.

 And it was typical - everyone trying to gauge just how serious this quake was going to be.

When should we get up and try to run outdoors? Or would we have to dive under the tables? Or seek safety under a door frame - which we all knew was the strongest part of the room?

It is no coincidence that tsunami is a Japanese word

After a few seconds the tremor subsided, the conversation picked up, the sushi chef started wielding his heavy knife on the chopping block.

Just a few seconds later, a white subtitle appeared on the TV in the corner - it was on all channels - indicating the size of the quake and the location of the epicentre.

It was not the "big one". But everyone knew that one was coming.

The question was: when?

Tradition held that animals and fish would act strangely ahead of a quake - carp, for example, would jump out of the water.

The Japanese government even sponsored an experiment to monitor carp activity to see if they could be used to predict tremors.

Japanese people live with an ever-present expectation of natural disaster - floods, hurricanes, fires, and most of all earthquakes and the massive waves they can generate.             

Hell on earth?

It is no coincidence that tsunami is a Japanese word.

The native religion, Shinto, is animist - speaking of the divine nature of trees and mountains, of goddesses who emerged from deep clefts in the rocks. The very earth can seem alive.

The islands sit on a massive fault line and the classic image of the country is the perfect volcanic cone of Mount Fuji.

Boiling hot water steams up from cracks in the rocks, exploited for the natural hot springs that are one of the country's great wonders.

Schoolchildren still commemorate the victims of the Kanto earthquake

In the town of Beppu you can see pools of foul-smelling sulphuric waters that emerge from the earth. But the big draw is the dark red pool guarded by statues of ferocious, boggle-eyed deities. It is called Jigoku - Hell.

All Japanese know that at any time the powers of the earth can turn against them.

In 1923, the great Kanto earthquake devastated Tokyo.

Fires raged across a city built of wooden houses, killing an estimated 140,000 people.

Since then the population on the Kanto plain has grown massively in an interconnected series of cities from the mountains down to the sea.

Everyone knows that the pressure between the tectonic plates deep underground will be released sometime.

Everyone prepares. Schools and office workers take part in earthquake drills. And these are dramatic.

The authorities bring along a mock-up of a living room, complete with a sofa and a dining table, with one wall missing so you can see inside.

The whole room is mounted on a machine on a truck and gently the mechanism rocks the room from side to side - simulating the usual tremors that you feel every few days.

Curtains sway and plates slide across tables.

The movement gets stronger and stronger, wilder and wilder. Crockery smashes, the furniture is hurled about furiously.

Just watching, you can feel the panic rising in your stomach. And this is just a mock-up of a moderate quake.

Extraordinary resilience

An ever-present sense of disaster is deeply woven into traditional ways.

Japanese culture has long-prized fragility, impermanence, transience.

The cherry blossom is the most prized of all expressions of nature because it achieves such a brief perfection before falling carelessly.

Samurai - so it was said - gave up their lives with similar carelessness, because their honour was more important.

The earthquake has caused extensive damage to homes and roads

Zen teaching praised the way bamboo's flexibility gave it a special strength.

Subjected to force it sways and bends. It does not snap.

The Japanese traditionally built their houses lightly out of wood and it is said this is so they would sway in an earthquake rather than simply collapse.

The city of Tokyo has shown extraordinary resilience.

In March 1945, a couple of decades after the great earthquake, American B29s dropped incendiary bombs on the city of wooden houses.

The resulting firestorm killed 100,000 people in the course of a single night.

Waiting for the "big one" is a part of Japanese life and the carp, it turns out, are no help. They have no better idea of when a tremor will strike than the rest of us.

Dawood Ibrahim

Dawood Ibrahim’s Urdu: داوود ابراه, birth name was Sheikh Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar. He was born on December 26, 1955 in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, India. He is 59-years-old. Ibrahim is the some of Ibrahim Kaskar, a policeman. His brothers, Anees Ibrahim and Chetan Gaidhane are believed to be his primary aides in his businesses

Ibrahim started his career in Bombay (now Mumbai). He worked for the Karim Lala gang. He moved to Dubai, United Arab Emirates and ran his business there and in India and Pakistan. His business continued to expand throughout the Persian Gulf states. He is the head of the crime organization, D-Company, which does billions of dollars worth of business in drug smuggling, money laundering. He has also dedicated his organization to destabilizing the Indian government through riots, terrorism and civil disobedience.

Ibrahim is widely believed to have been the mastermind behind a series of attacks in Mumbai in March 1993. After those attacks, he fled to Pakistan and is believed to be hiding in Karachi. There are strong suspicions that he is under the protection of the Pakistani government. The Pakistani government denies any knowledge of him being in Pakistan. After the 1993 attacks, Ibrahim lost support of his Hindu gangsters as well as a few muslim gangsters. It also resulted in him being placed on India’s most wanted list. All of this affected his mobility and it’s said that his empire has suffered as a result.

In 2003, the United States Government declared Ibrahim a ‘global terrorist’ because of his close ties with the al-Qaeda terror organization and with Osama bin Laden. The Bush administration imposed sanctions on Ibrahim and lobbied the United Nations to crack down on his operations. The Bush administration has attempted to freeze his assets around the world. This has further restricted his business endeavors.

He is believed to have drug smuggling routes, shared with al-Qaeda, through South Asia, the Middle-East and Africa. He is thought to ship large quantities of narcotics into Western Europe. Its believed he has contact with Osama bin Laden and has been able to travel in the lawless tribal regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban. He has had known connections with the Pakistani terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Toiba since at least 2002.

In addition to being on India’s most wanted list and the United States ‘global terrorist’ list, Ibrahim is wanted by Interpol and is Number 4 on Forbes’ Top 10 Most Dreaded Criminals in the World list for 2008.

Ibrahim is married to Zubeena Zareen (Mehajabeen). His daughter is married to Junaid Miandad, the son of Javed Miandad who is a former Pakistan Cricket Team captain.

Boston: This may not be his only claim to 'fame', but India's most wanted criminal Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar has made it to the Forbes 2010 list of the ‘World's Most Powerful People’. The D-Company kingpin occupies the 63rd spot on the list.

Listing Dawood's 'achievements', Forbes writes, "[He]runs a vast criminal enterprise in India and...is thought to have had a hand in the 2008 terror attacks that killed 174 people in Mumbai."Other "odious men" who have made it to the power list include Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden (ranked 57th) and Joaquín Guzmán (ranked 60th), the "billionaire drug trafficker who heads Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel."Chinese President Hu Jintao aces the powerlist, ahead of US President Barack Obama who is ranked second among 68 most influential people in the world.

Kingpin: "Successful routes established over recent years by Ibrahim's syndicate have been subsequently utilised by bin Laden... In the late 1990s, Ibrahim travelled in Afghanistan under the  protection of the Taleban," the US Treasury list says.

India's top detective agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation, says Ibrahim uses 13 aliases to hide his identity.

The gangster, according to Indian investigators, was born in the western city of Ratnagiri, the son of a police constable.

The CBI says he is 5' 4'' tall and has a "mole on his left eyebrow" and that he is also "involved in extortion, forgery and cheating".Details about Ibrahim's early life are fuzzy and almost impossible to verify - the police says the school-drop out carried out killings for the late Mumbai underworld don Karim Lala in his early years with the mob.

In the 1980's and early 1990's Ibrahim became the kingpin of Mumbai's underworld, straddling a multi-billion dollar vice empire covering prostitution, gambling and drugs.

Investigators say Ibrahim fled Mumbai to Dubai in 1986 to avoid criminal prosecution, but he continued to remain a key figure in the city's underworld.

He also prospered enough to gain a grip over the city's prolific film industry, Bollywood. Ibrahim allegedly began financing a number of films and got some of the industry's leading actors to star in them. "They wouldn't dare refuse an invitation (from Ibrahim)," a friend of the gangster was reported as saying. His Bollywood connections came out in the open when he was seen on television sitting with a number of leading stars and watching international cricket matches in the Gulf city of Sharjah.

'Lavish life'

Grainy videos have surfaced of some Bollywood actors and playback singers entertaining guests at his parties in Dubai. There have been reports of a much-publicised live-in relationship with a starlet.

With many of the Gulf countries having extradition treaties with India and the police hot on his heels after the Mumbai bombings, investigators believe that Ibrahim fled to Pakistan.

The US Treasury list says that since 1992 Ibrahim has been giving money to Islamic militant groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba working against India and financing attacks in India.

In 2001, Pakistani journalist Ghulam Hasnain, researching an article on the gangster, wrote that Ibrahim's life read like a page from The Godfather, Mario Puzo's gangland classic."Ibrahim lives like a king," he wrote of his life in Pakistan shared by his wife, four daughters and son.

"Home is a palatial house spread over 6,000 square yards, boasting a pool, tennis courts, snooker room and a private hi-tech gym."He wears designer clothes, drives top of the line Mercedes' and luxurious four-wheel drives, sports half-a-million rupee Patek Phillipe wristwatch, and showers money on starlets and prostitutes."

Lavish wedding

Ibrahim is reported to have connections with some cricket players in Pakistan - former captain Javed Miandad being one of them.Javed Miandad's son, Junaid, got married to Mahrukh Ibrahim, one of the gangster's daughters, at a lavish ceremony in Dubai last July.But according to journalist Ghulam Hasnain, Ibrahim still missed the good life back home.As one of his associates put it: "Mumbai was Mumbai. There we had everything, here one cannot have the life or the fun we did in India."