Today was Bill Gates’ last day at Microsoft.  That simple statement of fact is really pretty incredible.  I realize that they are very different in what they did, but I cannot help but think of this as being similar to when Washington left the White House.  One cast off tyranny , bringing freedom to a new nation and was rewarded with the faith of an entire nation so strong that he could have remained in power until his death.  But instead he walked away and voluntarily passed the mantle of freedom to the next generation, an unprecedented act in the modern history of the time.

Gates built an empire out of literally nothing.  Though everyone may have their own criticisms of Microsoft, myself included, if it were not for Gates’ tireless pursuit of technology, such a wide adoption of computing would not have taken place so rapidly.  Regardless, he now sits at the helm of the most powerful software and computing behemoth in the world and rather than spend his days presiding over his realm in the manner of Sumner Redstone, Rupert Murdoch or Warren Buffet, he is casting it off in the pursuit of cures and enlightenment.  He will still have quite a bit of pull over in Redmond and will remain on the Board of Directors, but walking away from the control of an empire is no small feat and should never be taken lightly by the public.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the most wealthy and most promising organization of its kind that this world has ever seen.  Hopefully the Gates family can devote the same relentless energy into this venture as Bill did in his company.  I believe we will see only amazing things in the future from their investment in humanity.  It may seem like I am being dramatic about all of this, but think about it for a moment. Could YOU really walk away from his position?

All in all, g’bye Bill. Thanks for the breakthroughs and the advancements…and I really hope to see more of them in the future.

Notice that Apple says "Hey, we are going to launch the next generation of awesomeness on July 11th." And apparently the editors across the sea heard "Sup Aussies, we are giving you a special release…prepare to get rocked tomorrow." (At first I thought that they even screwed that up since today is the 9th, but I think that across the international date line, it is either today, tonight, tomorrow or yesterday already. I choose not to understand time zones.)

So anyway, the news story was this:

The only explanation I can come up with is the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica threw the entire Australian continent into a time shift placing it a month in the future. Or they are just wrong and forgot to actually read the press release. I wonder how many people will show up to apple stores tomorrow demanding the latest and greatest wonderment designed by the gods.