Rating: 
Summary: Good light read
Review: Written just at the brink of the Internet revolution, Bill Gates (Microsoft CEO) predicts what will happen in the future in regards to computers. Gates predicts that computers will become even more prevalent and become more indispensable. Roughly the first quarter of the book is dedicated to computer history and Gates' early computer experiences. Also, Gates writes a synopsis of the start of Microsoft.Much of the book deals with the future of e-commerce and how the consumer will win with more choices. Also chapters are dedicated to the benefits to the economy when technology becomes more infused with daily life. In addition, he predicts that computers will become smarter and be able to learn about the user and response quicker, even guessing ahead of time what a user's request might be. Gates feels that it is important to include computers in school, as children can learn better with them. I felt Gates' predictions were a bit overly optimistic. I also felt that with the coming of this new technology that the end of privacy would result. While Gates does address this issue, I felt that it was treated in a light matter. The book is about 6 years old and his predictions were largely on the money. However, some the products he sees have yet to come to fruition. I didn't I find many of his plans too laughable, but some bordered Orwellian. The audience of the book need not be overly technical to understand the book, only an interest in where computers will take us next is required.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard Drive of IT
Review: I read the first edition of the book a few years ago. It was also translated into Russian in 1997. And now when I'm reading "Business @ Speed of Thought" I take a look into the second edition of "The Road Ahead" and read it again. Considering that this book was written in 1995-96, the predictions he made are quite remarkable in their prophecy. The founder of Microsoft presents his vision for the future in which he sees the digital technologies of the coming years changing the way we buy, work, learn, and communicate. And this man definitely knows the future. "The Road Ahead" is very much primarily an easy-to-read IT textbook. This book tells you what lies ahead in the future for everyday living world of computers. Will everyone in the world have access to computers in our future? Will everyone gain access to the Internet? Will we be able to walk in a store and pick out whatever we want to, and walk out of the store without being a shoplifter? Read this amazing book and find out the answers to these questions and more. It also includes CD-ROM containing the complete text of the book, a dictionary with multimedia hyperlinks and an interview with Bill Gates. It is still extraordinary. This CD-ROM illustrates the future of electronic publishing. I interviewed Bill Gates in 1990 when he visited Moscow for the first time to introduce the very first Microsoft product in Russian language. It was MS-DOS 4.0. Then I wrote several books on MS-DOS and IT for beginners. Bill Gates was worth "only" $2.5 billion in 1990. It is estimated that hundreds million people today have personal computers in their home. Over ninety-five percent of them are operating Windows Operating Systems. Today Microsoft really enjoys the self-made monopoly. Although many people don't like Bill Gates personally because he's so rich, I wish good luck to Microsoft Corp. and the Microsoft team. And at the same time I also wish good luck to all young entrepreneurs who will start their companies and deprive Microsoft of its reins eventually. This is the capitalism, ladies and gentlemen! This is a great system with opportunities for everyone with guts. This is a must have book for anyone pursuing a career in computers, the computer hobbyist and the Mac users, too. Get this book today and have it in your library. I highly recommend it, especially to people new to computers and the digital revolution.
Rating:
Summary: Mein Kampf meets Microsoft
Review: Take someone of absolute vision and let them write a book. You get either of the books in this reviews title.
The first book was about hate, intolerance and the systematic corrections required for the author to have a fully efficient society.
The second book is almost identical in it's outlook, apart from the hate and intolerance.
Gates can see a future where true equality exists, a future where common and tax dollars can be monitored from any place on the globe. Votes registered and incapable of being rigged. Crime is instantenously caught. No disability physical, mental, sociatal or otherwise holds you back.
Utopia. The amazing thing about it is that we are already halfway into that utopia now, only 8 years on.
Mein Kampf was published in 1925, the war ended in 1945.
What will the world be like in 1915?
This book is worth reading -If only to show the underlying reason trapped inside everone. Once logic escapes, it becomes, it governs itself.
Gates is not the inverse of Hitler. But where Hitler was wrong in his beliefs, Gates is not.
He's not absolutley right either though!!!
A truly endearing book, fairly well written with a touch of who Bill G. is. Definetly worth a look!
BTW if you ever get the chance to read 'Bill Gates Super Secret Laptop' a Microspoof, DO!! just remember it was made in 98!!
-Scott
Rating:
Summary: Gates' dreams...
Review: I bought the book couple of days ago and it didn't take me much time to through. What genuinely surprised me is the number of Mr. Gates' thoughts about the Info Highway that came true: customizable portals, fight for broadband between phone and cable companies, online auctions and etc. I don't recall any other so called "visionaries" and "experts" talking about it in back 1995... Many people don't like Gates because he's so rich, but I think that he and all Microsoft (yes, MS is not Bill Gates alone!) team deserved it for all their hard work and vision. I think that Bill Gates' success is that Microsoft managed to create the world where its products are the most needed ones to allow his company to stay on the top... He and his team deserve full credit for this feat. At the same time I wish good luck to all young entrepreneurs who will start their companies and deprive Microsoft of its reins eventually. This is the capitalism, a great system with opportunities for everyone with guts.
Rating: 
Summary: Worth reading
Review: Definitely worth reading. I'd also, however, suggest that if you really are curious about the early years of computing, you use the internet to check up other opinions of Microsoft's origin. There's two sides to every story... Mr. Gates is is undoubtedly a phenomenal businessman, though not perhaps quite the visionary he perceives himself to be. Would a visionary have to rewrite his book a year after completion? The internet took off - and The Road Ahead received a complete overhaul to reflect the recent developments. More like, The Road Behind. He's also not quite such an innovator - Microsoft purchased "MS-DOS", rather than created it, and incorporated many other people's ideas into Windows (without permission, of course). This isn't just a Microsoft bashing session. I have the greatest respect for them. But, think twice before you believe every word in this book. There is a definite stretching of the truth in places. Having said that, buy it - it's an interesting comparison with other accounts of the dawn of personal computing. No doubt the truth is somewhere in between.
Rating:
Summary: "Not supported"
Review: Mr Gates didn't mention anything about Java running on any platform/machine He didn't mention anything about Linux being free He didn't mention anything "new" about IBM their Lotus Notes products Didn't mention anything "significant" about future changes in graphics and companies like Pixar and Disney He didn't mention anything about Oracle and middleware He didn't mention anything about the POWER of Ebay, Yahoo, Google and Amazon to get you things!! What about AOL?, and what about the fact that he didn't even once mention Netscape, the superior company who revelutionized the Internet with their browser. Don't get me wrong it is a very good book. However somewhat lopsided
I guess I must be on a different road than the one Mr Gates is traveling on.
btw: I happen to be one of the many Microsoft Certified Professionals that invested a significant amount of my own money and time supporting his products.
(10 grand and 12 years) I think this book is as much about what is NOT in the book as opposed to what IS in the book!!
Buy it anyway! (Maybe used - it is some what dated) You will learn something just by being exposed to it.
The concept of The Web as being "self publishing" was an eye opener for me.
My favorite chapter and quote was from Chapter 8 Friction-Free Capitalism. "Our success in the PC world has come from working in partnership with such great companies as Intel, Compaq, HP, DEC, NEC, and dozens of others. Even IBM and Apple, with whom we have occasionally been in competition, have had an immense amount of our cooperation and support. We created a company that was dependent on partners. We bet that somebody other than us would do great chips, somebody other than us would build great PCs, somebody other than us would do great distribution and integration. We took a narrow slice and focused on that. In this new world, we want to work with companies from every industry to help them make the most of the opportunities the information revolution will bring." page 182 Well here are some other technology people and companies you might want to investigate as I am sure they too will have an impact on the direction of the road we will all be traveling: (unless of course, he buys them or squeezes them out)
Doug Humphrey - Founder, Digex ; Chairman and Founder, Cidera
Jonathan Klein - Co-founder and CEO, Getty Images
Tom Stockham - President of Access and Emerging Markets, Ticketmaster Chip Perry - President and CEO - AutoTrader.com, former VP, Los Angeles Times
Jim McCann - Founder, Chairman and CEO - 1-800-FLOWERS
Brooks Fisher - Vice President (Strategic Initiatives), Intuit; former VP, Infoseek
Micheal Rubin - Founder, Chairman and CEO - Global Sports
Robert Covington - Chief Technology Officer and EVP, MerchantWired
Rob Burgess - Chairman and CEO - Macromedia; former SVP, Silicon Graphics
Steven Snyder - founder and chairman - Net Perceptions
Kenneth Cron - CEO, Flipside, Inc; former President of Publishing, CMP Media
Emerick Woods - President and CEO - Vicinity
Glenn Meakem - Founder, Chairman and CEO - FreeMarkets
Ted Meisel - President and CEO - GoTo.com
Nicholas vanDyk- President, Artisan New Media; EVP, Artisan Entertainment
Glenn Meyers- Founder and CEO - Rare Medium Group
Mark Goldstein - President and CEO - K-Mart's BlueLight
Charles Johnson - Founder and CEO - PurchasePro
David Perry- Founder, Chairman and CEO - Ventro
Alan Meckler- Founder, Chairman and CEO - INTMedia Group
Christopher Jenkins - former President, Ziplink; former VP, Arch Communications
Michael Levy -Founder and CEO - CBS Sportsline
John Schwarz - CEO - Reciprocal; former General Manager, IBM Solutions
Chris MacAskill - Founder -FatBrain.com, CEO - MightyWords
Harry Motro - Chairman, MotroVentures, former CEO - Infoseek
Zach Nelson - CEO and President, Mcafee ASaP
Joe Chung - Founder and Chairman, Art Technology Group
Jeet Singh - Founder and CEO, Art Technology Group Royal Farros - Chairman, CEO and Founder, iPrint Inc.
Pehong Chen - Founder and CEO, BroadVision
Jeffrey Smith - Founder and CEO, Tumbleweed Communications
Scott Kurnit - CEO and Founder of About Inc.
Bob Young - Founder and Chairman, Red Hat Software
Scott Mednick - Founder, Think New Ideas; former Chairman, Worldwide Exceed
Tom Rogers- President and CEO, Primedia, former President, NBC Cable
Russell Horowitz - Founder and former Chairman, Go2Net Inc. Naveen Jain - Founder and Chairman, InfoSpace
Michael Rosenfelt - Venture Partner, Impact Venture Partners; Founder, Powered, Inc.
Charles Conn - Co-founder and former Chairman, TicketmasterCitySearch.com
Mark Walsh - Chairman, VerticalNet; former SVP, America Online
David Goldberg - Founder and CEO, Launch Media
John Holt - Founder and CEO, The Cobalt Group
(From the book eFront! by Mattew W. Ragas)
Rating:
Summary: Latvia is not North Korea
Review: On page 263 Mr. Gates writes, "If people do gravitate to their own interests and withdraw from the broader world -- if weight lifters communicate only with other weight lifters, and Latvians choose to read only Latvian newspapers -- there is a risk that common experience and values will fall away. Such xenophobia would have the effect of fragmenting societies." By this statement Bill Gates is suggesting that people who get their information about the world from Latvian newspapers will become as narrow in their outlook as people whose only interest is weight lifting. What a misguided low opinion of Latvian newspapers! This opinion -- after about 1990, when Latvia gained its freedom (including freedom of the press) for a second time -- cannot possibly be based on any real knowledge of what is contained in Latvian newspapers. I regularly read the largest Latvian newspaper, Diena (Day), online (anyone can take a look at Diena by just asking Google.com to find Diena for them) and I can assure you that it is broad in scope and caters to all kinds of interests. International news, world cultural events, advances in technology, etc., are well covered. It is true that in Diena you will find more news about Latvia than you would find in the New York Times, but it is also true that the New York Times will have more news about New York City than the Seattle Post Intelligencer. So you can be sure that Latvians who choose to read Latvian newspapers exclusively, as well as those who have no choice because they only know Latvian, are no more likely to be doomed to xenophobia than readers of Finnish, Estonian, or Lithuanian newspapers. Perhaps when Mr. Gates chose Latvia for his example he really was thinking of neighboring Belarus, but maybe his finger slipped on the map. The rest of the book I found very informative. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of the modern world (even though it was written in 1995). For not knowing the difference between a fine Latvian newspaper and a weight lifters' chat room I would like to deduct one-half star, but Amazon.com does not offer that option, so I am rounding down to an even four stars.
Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: After reading this book its easy to understand how Gates became as wealthy and sucessfull as he has. He really saw into the future. Most predictions he made in 1995 about things like internet commerce or car navigation systems have already come to pass. It was very well written, thoughtful and insightful, as opposed to the relentless self promotion I expected from it. Like Henry Ford, Gates believed its much better to sell a ton of products for a small profit than a few for a large profit. He was involved in the democratization of information.
Rating:
Summary: Intelligent, to-the-point intuitiveness
Review: Bill Gates succinctly offers his vision for what's to come. He takes the opportunity to clearly point out where his dreams as a computer revolutionary meet and fall away from his goals running the most powerful technology company ever. The book is set up like a bunch of speeches. This is how Gates said he thought would be his most effective writing style, and it works to minimize unnecessary blather while focusing on key points. Obviously, Gates has a lot of inside information to analyze situations and products upcoming, and the mental skill to back up his predictions, theories, and assessments. Now that the book's been out quite awhile, it makes for a good read to reflect on some things and await what's to come. What sells me on the book is the undeniable level of intelligence coming from a man in charge of most aspects of our digital daily lives.
Rating:
Summary: The road for my success
Review: The Road Ahead
Cheung Yin Fan (50266271),
City University of Hong Kong,
Department of marketing Description of the book ¡¥The road ahead¡¦ is written by Bill Gates, which includes some life style of Bill Gates and his experience on running ¡¥Microsoft¡¦ company, how to interact with his partner and friends. The most important is how Bill Gates foresees the future trends of information technique and captures the opportunities in order to meet the customer¡¦s requirement. Moreover, I can see how human¡¦s intelligence can create a better life in future and how Bill Gates foresees the customer¡¦s needs in the future. In order to have a better life and work efficiency, human create and innovate the high techniques. From the development of binary 0,1 to graphic personal computer (PC) windows, human keep on innovation to improve and upgrade the quality of PC to improve the life standard in different aspect and meet different customer¡¦s individual needs. Individual With the convenience use of PC, people can use PC to connect with internet. Through the internet, people can communicate with their family and friends, who stay in a long distance, through ICQ, newsgroup and bulletin board in a cheaper and faster way. It can help to enhance the socialization and build a closed relationship with each others. In the entertainment, the online games and video show would be a good entertainment at home. Therefore, people can enjoy their own times at home rather than outside. In the customization, people can do their financial activities through e-banking that time-saving and more efficiency to get the updated financial information. To enhance the personal usage in internet, most websites provide with personal email and album accounts. Education Education would get a huge of benefits in the high technology era. Student can earn through internet, with an example, search information on it, communicates with friends, teacher and parents through web cam, ICQ and email. The most important is that student can learn interactively and get the global information in order to develop their global sense. Business In this decay of high technique innovation, business has been made a big change. Nowadays, most industry use e-business and PC instead of written paper to increase their work efficiency. Due to the rapid growth of PC usage, the new business is created such as Website firm, e-shopping and e-banking. Those new businesses can give customer to shop and do the financial activities more effective and efficiency. Society The widen use of internet can enhance the information exchange so that library and government information are free for citizens. Moreover, the PC can help the government to manage the population problem in a faster way. Learning insight I get a lot of benefit in the book, it is not only the benefit on using PC and internet, but also I can learn what the considerations on running a business are. I believe that there are no company can be a leader forever. To increase the competitive power in the market, keeping innovation would be a critical success factor. First of all, we should keep consider the customers¡¦ needs and competitor¡¦s action. In order to get more new idea, the company better absorb the opinion of employees. The most important is that we should seek an opportunity and have a dream. Just likes Bill Gates, he have a dream to allow everyone to have a PC at home. The dream is a motivation to boost him to keep innovation on his business. Moreover, Bill Gates is so talent to seek an opportunity to learn and develop his business. Also I can learn how to think in positive way. While the development of PC rapidly, most people have a doubt on the benefit of PC. Some people may worry that PC will replace human intelligence. PC will enlarge the relationship gap between human. However, Bill Gates have a positive mind, he think PC would be a good tool for people to work more effective and efficiency. Moreover, PC is created by human, it cannot replace our intelligence, but due to the convenience use of PC, human can upgrade their intelligence and be concerned on the complex question. For my own opinion, PC gives me a lot of benefit of study. I can check email to communicate to my teacher and receive more updated information. Through viewing the websites, I can get another kind of entertainment such as the online movie show. And I always use PC instead of written to paper. At night, I always cheat with my friends through ICQ and so I can have more discussion topic to talk with my friend .Therefore, PC would be a valuable award of human intelligence and one of my necessities. Some parts are good 1. Good content In the book, there are a lot of arguments about the benefit of PC. Through argument can help me to refined and rethink why we need PC. 2. Foresee the future Bill Gates likes to foresee the future trends of the high technique business. I also get a refresh feeling from his insight since his thinking is so innovative. Some parts need to be improved 1. History description should have more pictures Due to the generation gap, I really do not understand what binary command (0,1) is to run the computer. To better understand the development of PC, the editor is better to give some photo on it.
2. Well organization should be done Since the book is about the development of high technique PC, some organization would not flow so smoothly. Therefore, it is better to restructure the story by year or different kinds of events that the readers are easier to follow.
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