I had to ask myself this very
question once. You see, we, the
Microsoft Interns, all got to meet
Bill Gates, at a
barbeque at his house on
Puget Sound. It was the subject of many emails... What should we ask
Bill Gates? What should you ask
Microsoft?
Many people tried
dumb things as listed in the node above, and he handled them
superbly, making the asker look dumb. People who
threatened,
accused, etc, different things about the company's
history and
practices, and he defended them
expertly.
One person decided to ask:
"
What are you going to do when StarOffice puts you out of business, since it is free and all?"
He answered that by saying how
Office was a more
developed tool, and that
knowledge workers (
businesses) are willing to pay more for that developed and refined tool. Basically made his
accusations and antics look downright
dumb.
Other famous questions that have been asked at billg's house:*
- Boxer's or Briefs?
- Why does Windows crash so often
- How well do you know Ballmer?
- What was the last thing you coded? (one of mine)
Every year recently, someone asks
Bill something about Pirates of the
Silicon Valley, and everyone he says that
Steve Jobs really isn't that bad, and it made poor
Ballmer look like a
porn-hungry moron.
A good but very outspoken friend of mine wanted to complain that in the
MSN Zone checkers game, when a move was open, you had to take it. He was quickly informed by
Bill and the entire
assembly of people that he was on the erring side. We have harassed him about it to this day.
Keep in mind, all of the
questions were made by
Microsoft employees (at least temporary), with something to lose, so they have all been friendly and social (with a few moronic exceptions). We always found it best to treat the man like a
human being**. He was really nice to put up with the 400+ people who visit there every
summer.
And if you're curious, the man
swears like a sailor.
* Or so I have heard
** No matter how poorly dressed