[Maybe it's because he messed up the whole field ??]
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=955908&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312 Gates Puzzled by Computer Science Apathy Microsoft's Gates Puzzled Why More Students Don't Choose Lucrative Computer Science Field By ELIZABETH M. GILLESPIE The Associated Press REDMOND, Wash. Jul 19, 2005 - Speaking to hundreds of university professors, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates says he's baffled more students don't go into computer science. Gates said Monday that even if young people don't know that salaries and job openings in computer science are on the rise, they're hooked on so much technology cell phones, digital music players, instant messaging, Internet browsing that it's puzzling why more don't want to grow up to be programmers. "It's such a paradox," Gates said. "If you say to a kid, 'Yeah, what are the 10 coolest products you use that your parents are clueless about, that you're good at using,' I don't think they're going to say, 'Oh, you know, it's this new breakfast cereal. And I want to go work in agriculture and invent new cereals or something.' ... I think 10 out of 10 would be things that are software-driven." Gates made his remarks on the first day of the annual Microsoft Research Faculty Summit, which drew nearly 400 computer science professors from 175 schools in 20 countries to the software maker's campus. Sharing the stage with Gates, Maria Klawe, Princeton University's dean of engineering and applied science, said most students she talks to fear that computer science would doom them to isolating workdays fraught with boredom nothing but writing reams of code. Gates said computer scientists need to do a better job of dispelling that myth and conveying that it's an exciting field. "How many fields can you get right out of college and define substantial aspects of a product that's going to go out and over 100 million people are going to use it?" Gates said. "We promise people when they come here to do programming ... they're going to have that opportunity, and yet we can't hire as many people as we'd like." [Actually, it's not necessary to become an M$ employee -- thanks to Gates, any script-kiddy can write a virus that over 100 million people are going to "use"...] Citing statistics from UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute, Klawe said students' interest in computer science fell more than 60 percent from 2000 to 2004, even though salaries have increased and more jobs have opened up. ___________________________________________________________________________ Windows: A 64-bit rewrite of a 32-bit extension and GUI shell to a 16-bit patch to an 8-bit operating system originally coded for a 4-bit micro- processor, sold by a 2-bit company that can't stand one bit of competition. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
