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Summary: Try to read this book without falling asleep! It's TERRIBLE!
Review: Bill Gates pats himself on the back once again in this dull book. The Road Ahead is clearly an attempt by Bill Gates to make himself look high and mighty. If you like to read about how "great" Bill Gates is, buy this book...you'll like it.Save your money!
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Summary: You might as well have sent me to a hypnotist.
Review: This book was a self-worshipping, ode' to Bill plight. Yes, the book was substantial in it's content on "Bill Gates' future vision of computer technology". I could have used the amount of money, I spent on the book, and went to a hypnotist to be able to say repeatedly, "I worship Bill Gates...I worship Bill Gates"...and so on. Five dollars for a Microsoft advertisement? Not only has Bill Gates got the world paying money for his software...he also has us paying for his advertisements.
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Summary: Powerful, Unstoppable Visionary
Review: Read it, understand it, face it. Gates is to the world-communication architecture what the Romans and Alexander before them were, a novel and grand uniting force. His insight and foresight has now become legend, this is one man with an idea that simply is not going away. Welcome to the 21st century. God Bless you and yours this holiday season Bill.
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Summary: EVERYONE ON EARTH NEEDS TO READ THIS BOOK IMMEDIATELY
Review: As there were 58 reviews when I got here (I may note that the #1 non-fiction best-seller of all-time, "The Road Less Traveled" had only about 11 reviews on its page at the Amazon.com site as of about 2 mo. ago), I trust I'm not doing Mr. Gates the "charity turn" I thought I might be in endorsing his book. But, as you might guess, I don't do it for him -- but for the rest of us. If you are a normal person (the kind the psychotics so prevalent in the computer industry label "newbies" -- as if that's the kind of appellation a genuine genius would choose as your moniker), this book will provide great value for you at this crucial juncture in history -- when getting up to speed with what computers are, can do, and WILL do in the future, is so germane to living a decent life. IT USED TO BE SAID THAT "THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THOSE WHO CAN READ, AND THOSE WHO CANNOT, IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE LIVING AND THE DEAD." While that is likely as true as ever, I would update the axiom to reflect computer literacy. NOT JUST FOR EMPLOYMENT (though, that, too), but FOR YOUR OWN ENJOYMENT of your own life. Mr. Gates has the right to exist, but is completely beside the point, as is every particular person and every particular thing in the computer world. STOP YOUR LIFE AND BUY A MULTIMEDIA COMPUTER TODAY (as inexpensively as possible, of course -- you'll be astonished at how much value you can get [I picked up the $30 hard-cover of Gates' book for $1.00 (because it had been "updated to ver. 2.0," as it were) at a local Waldenbooks, for example] out of many, many things in the computer world) AND PAY NO MIND TO WHO GETS HOW RICH BECAUSE OF IT! They have recently (with the advent of multimedia) become TOO MAGNIFICENT NOT TO OWN. They can do too many things, too superlatively, too cheaply, too quickly, with too much variety, etc. TO IGNORE. Please, wherever you are on the Earth, I implore you: do not delay. You will NEVER regret it for the rest of your life, but conversely will find it a great source of irritation for the rest of your life that you delayed x-days, x-weeks, or x-months (for whatever reason). I could cover the stupendously-written, casual introduction to and exploration of the world of computers by Gates (and/or his 2 co-writers), how concisely yet as completely as necessary the authors cover most of the germane topics of relevance to a general audience (as on-target as all of Microsoft's marketing has proven over the years) -- all the while never "talking down" to the reader, as persons as well-versed on these topics obviously are. (Indeed, Gates and his buddies never address, nor actually indicate any "brain-burning evidence" any of them are "bona-fide American geniuses" [though I believe Gates is a certified "math genius," out of Harvard] -- apart from the persistent clarity of perception and clear and forthright thinking that is in evidence within virtually every sentence.) Lest anyone reading these words think I have any special affection for Gates, his 2 co-authors, or Microsoft -- I promise you, that is far from the case. Indeed, in an industry of well-documented full-blown sociopaths (See: "The Journey is the Reward" and "Accidental Millionaire" re Steve Jobs and the new book about "The Difference Between Larry Ellison and God," as well as many, many other resources out there, including the excellent PBS special: "Revenge of The Nerds" [I believe was the title, as broadcast in serial nationwide about 9 mo. ago]) I believe what explains Gates and his 2 co-authors (Mvyrhold, his Chief Technology Officer, I believe; and I'm sorry to say I don't recall the name of the third man) mammoth success is that they fall into the "least deranged" persons presently extant in the computer industry. (Although, obviously in light of the current DOJ case against Gates and MS going on, there is clear pathology there, nonetheless.) Most important for the general reader to observe, however, is how Gates "runs the numbers" on virtually everything that comes before him -- it seems to lead to very, very, very clear thinking. (Though, once more, I must refer to the "time-honored cleave" between the humanistic "words" persons, and the generally cold, calculating "numbers" persons. See The Unabomber.) Still, the crystal-clear thinking evidenced in this book is a great bonus to the subject matter itself, again just in time for the computer-world this has become at the turn of this century.
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Summary: Just Excellent
Review: Wonderfully writen. Even a lay man with not much information about computing can understand the ideas incorporated in this book.
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Summary: An Excellent Book
Review: Bill Gates shows amazinging foresight and vision, I personally am not a big fan of Microsoft, but, after reading this book I can understand the aggressive nature of Microsoft. While his degree of optimism on some issues like Artificial intelligence are questionable, his acknowledgement of the Law of Averages and Microsoft's succeptibility to it is commendable. All in all, this book is a must read and a must have.
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Summary: Waste of time.
Review: This book is a big waste of time. I picked it up for $5.00 in a bargain bin. Most of it is an advertisment for Microsoft! He didn't even once mention Netscape, the superior company who revelutionized the Internet, making it available to everyone! He also mentioned UNIX only twice in the whole book. UNIX and UNIX clones are far superior to anything Microsoft has ever cooked up, but he's certainly not going to tell people THAT. Get a real OS.END
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Summary: Gates's View on Virtual Reality
Review: Bill Gates certainly understands Information Technology pretty well from a business point of view. But as for fascinating things such as virtual reality in the frontier of IT, he has a lot to learn from other visionaries. The book I am currently reading is, in my opinion, the bible of 21st-century technology. It leads us to see, with strict logical analysis and convincing argument, how virtual reality combined with teleoperation will change the whole foundation of our civilization. If Gates wants to be steps ahead of the rest of the IT industry, he'd better read this book or even invite this author to his mansion. The book I am talking about is titled: "Get Real, A Philosophical Adventure in Virtual Reality," by Philip Zhai.
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Summary: Review of Bill Gates book
Review: I read The Road Ahead by Bill Gates and I think it is the most poorly written and thought out book I have ever read. Gates shows no support for his ideas. Terrible. I don't recommend this book.
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Summary: How the Internet will Be Amazing
Review: As a college student in whom will be majoring in Information Systems Technology, I found this book to be of great help in my future plans. This book tells you what lies ahead in the future for everyday's living world of computers. Will everyone in the world have access to computers in our future? Will everyone gain access to the Internet in the future? 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. This book also has a CD that comes with the book so that those who have diffulculty in reading, or who have vision problems can easily be able to have access to this book. Those who have those problems can put the CD into their player, and then play the CD to hear the book in it's entirety, and hear Bill Gates interview. This is a must have book for anyone pursuing a career in computers, the computer hobbyist and ! you. Get this book today and have it in your library.
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