It is a general rule, people of great prominence are more recognized for errors and blunders than by great achievements. This is the case of Bill Gates, who founded Microsoft and built an empire of information, but suffers severe criticism and reviews for games today spoken by him at different times.
Acting only as an executive at Microsoft and Managing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (philanthropic organization that maintains along with his wife), the man behind Windows now sees many of his ideas in 1995 said just now hitting the market - and many other far happen.
Finally, the critics get hard, true, but not without some reason: Gates has struck such gems as "1 GB is too much space to store mail," "spam will disappear" and "640 KB of memory in a personal computer is enough for anybody. "
But he is also considered the most influential person in technology by Forbes, for example, and, believe me, kick hit the mark on new equipment and trends in the computer world. The Tecmundo shown below some of these items - and why Bill Gates still deserve much respect.
The computer-wallet
Gates has never stopped to opine on the Internet. Even so, 1995 is a special year, he released The Road Ahead (The Road Ahead, in the original), a book which is subject to the computer revolution that was going when it consolidated as a means of communication can influence all the daily lives of its users.
Was it, for example, which emerged the concept of the computer the size of a wallet that would fit perfectly into user's pocket. Through this device, you could check email, calendar, weather, general news or search random stuff over the network.
Currently, we are not exactly a miniature computer, but smartphones and tablets take all these (and some more) functions that also apply to PCs point to the Bill.
Long before social networking
The biggest fashion internet today stone was also sung by Gates. Also in The Road Ahead, he says that the connection between people, despite the distance, would become increasingly smaller. All this because of this virtual highway of information.
Through the exchange of messages through this channel, they could make new friends and meet people with whom you had never talked before. And these virtual friendships would be only a first step for these people to meet personally, forming a company connected with each other also in the real world.
This concept can be easily applied to any site of the current relationship, such as Orkut and Facebook. Although not all friendships pass for real life, several links throughout the world were originally built by the network.
The miniature camera
In the 1990s, the streaming video was still in development in computers, with the integration of these devices even without a full popularization. There comes a preview of Microsoft founder who bet on small display devices that would operate online, through cameras attached to computers or other screens.
Thus it would be possible to exchange information with others and get good quality pictures, all for one low price. The result? Shortly thereafter, the world knew the webcam, which today is a cheap and almost indispensable accessory for online communication, being incorporated automatically in almost all current models of notebooks.
New distribution formats
With advancing technology, the model of distribution of some products would be forced to change. In his book, Gates suggests that the labels would store their music on a server in this "information highway". Ironically, those who enjoyed it better in the future was Steve Jobs, iTunes.
In addition, he also bet on a technology that was crawling at the time and only now beginning to gain the proper respect: e-books. For him, the screen and improvements in computing itself, allied with the least weight of portable devices, would be a universal form of digital reading. Tablets and more specific products such as Amazon Kindle, for example, are evidence of that success.
Plus, Gates also warned that this paradise of products could become a hell for the producers if they do not take extreme care. The reason? Piracy could easily take care of this world. And he took.
Integration is key
Some of the guesses were based on the ideology of the company. Support and encourage the use of various file formats, for example, are part of a perfect market compared to Microsoft's digital.
Publishing files on the Internet on extensions that can be read by both Mac and Windows would be ideal, but it was not something common until then. For Gates, it was important to encourage this policy because it would be of great importance in the future.
Today, we have a huge number of applications capable of integrating both systems, strengthening links to two companies that always seemed so distant.
What's ahead?
While some of the forecasts of Bill Gates became a reality ¿and others were a mere dream or science fiction - the businessman is still on hold. After all, some recent forecasts can still become reality (or not) in the coming years.
According to him, being optimistic, in two years the market will be flooded with products touchscreen. In 2008, when the kick was made, some products already had these features, but Gates speaks in popularity.
Tens of millions of people will hear music, take pictures and access the network only with the movement of fingers on the screen. The tablets would be the most popular form of PC sold in the world, more so than laptops or desktops.
Moreover, he still believes the force of Bing, the search engine from Microsoft. Gates gives praise the work of Google, but believes people will be impressed with the work that your company can accomplish in the area.
Finally, on online purchases, which now bite off a large slice of total sales of some stores, it goes away: much more than a trace of Postal code, it will be possible by videoconference throughout the delivery process, from packaging to transport its product.
If some of these predictions will actually materialize or will just join the many mistakes of Bill Gates, only time can tell us. But at least it is not possible to say that the Microsoft founder just wanders in their guesses.
And you believe that the forecasts of Bill Gates may be realized? If not, what the future holds in the area of internet, that not one of the most powerful men in the area of technology was able to guess?
